Need help fixing weird filter glitches in Face App

Apps
1

I’m using Face App and some of the filters are glitching badly, stretching faces or misaligning features. I’ve tried reinstalling the app and clearing cache, but nothing fixes it. Is this a known bug, or is there a setting or workaround I’m missing to make the filters work properly again?

2

Seen this a few times with FaceApp. It is not only you.

Stuff to try that sometimes fixes the warping / misaligned eyes and mouth:

  1. Check your source photos

    • Avoid super low‑res pics.
    • Face should be straight or only slightly turned.
    • No heavy shadows, sunglasses, masks, hair across the face.
    • Avoid group photos, crop to a single face first.

  2. Turn off “Automatic face detect” for tests

    • On some builds it picks the wrong face box.
    • Manually confirm the face if it lets you.
    • If it shows the white outline in the wrong place, the filter will glitch.

  3. Test offline vs online

    • FaceApp sends some stuff to their servers.
    • Try on Wi‑Fi and on mobile data.
    • If filters behave better on one connection, it is a server‑side issue, not your phone.

  4. Try different filters as a check

    • Use a simple filter like “HDR” or “Impression” first.
    • If those are fine, but age / gender / smile are broken, the face mesh is off.
    • That points to detection problems, not general app corruption.

  5. Phone settings that mess with it

    • Disable “beauty” filters from your camera app when taking the photo.
    • Close other heavy apps so RAM is not tight.
    • Make sure battery saver mode is off while testing.

  6. Full reset, but deeper than reinstall

    • Uninstall FaceApp.
    • Go to /DCIM/FaceApp or /Pictures/FaceApp and delete any leftover FaceApp folders.
    • Reboot the phone.
    • Reinstall, log in fresh, test with a brand new photo.

  7. Check app version

    • A few versions in 2024 had bug reports about face stretching on certain Android builds.
    • If you are on Android, check Play Store reviews from the last week, see if others mention it.
    • If you sideloaded an APK, grab the current one from Play Store or App Store instead.

  8. Two user‑side tricks that help a lot

    • Slightly zoom in on your face when taking the picture so it fills most of the frame.
    • Keep your head away from the edge of the image. The AI mesh fails more often if your chin or hair is cut close to the border.

If nothing fixes it and other users on the same version report glitches too, it is a known bug for that build. In that case the only “fix” is to:

  • Roll back to an older version with an APK mirror on Android, or
  • Wait for an update and send them logs.

You already tried reinstall and cache, so I would focus on: clean photo, no obstructions, updated version, and checking if other people with your phone model report the same thing in recent reviews.

3

This is a known thing with FaceApp from time to time, you’re not crazy and your phone is probably fine.

@viajeroceleste already covered the photo / detection side really well, so I’ll skip repeating that and hit the other angles people usually miss:

  1. Check if it’s only certain “smart” filters
    If the simple color / style filters (Hollywood, HDR, etc) look normal but anything that actually reshapes your face (age, gender swap, smiles, etc) turns into body horror, that usually means their current face-mesh model is borked for your device / OS combo. That’s not something you can fix on your end with cache wipes.

  2. Known device / OS quirks
    Recent Android + certain GPU drivers have caused visual artifacts in a few AI apps. If you just updated Android or your system graphics drivers (or got a big OneUI / MIUI / whatever update), the timing is suspicious.
    Quick check:

    • Try the same photo on a different phone or tablet with the same FaceApp account.
    • If it’s fine there, it’s a device-specific issue on your main phone.
    • If it’s broken on both, it’s probably a bad app build or server-side change.

  3. Disable any weird system graphics / scaling stuff
    On Android:

    • Developer options → disable “Force GPU rendering,” “Disable HW overlays,” etc if you had them tweaked.
    • Settings → Display → change screen resolution or refresh rate, then re-open FaceApp.
      I’ve seen some apps freak out when the system is doing aggressive scaling. It’s rare, but worth 2 minutes to test.

  4. Check if your photos are being pre-processed by something else
    Some gallery / cloud apps silently “optimize” or compress images. If you’re pulling photos from:

    • Google Photos in “storage saver” quality
    • Any AI-beauty or filter camera app
      try taking a fresh photo with the stock camera, don’t edit it at all, then open it in FaceApp directly from local storage. If the glitches mostly happen with imported / edited pics and not fresh local ones, that’s your clue.

  5. Region / server weirdness
    Because FaceApp does some work on their servers, there have been cases where people in specific regions got a broken model pushed for a bit. You already tried different networks, but also:

    • Log out and use the app without signing in, if possible, and test a filter.
    • Or temporarily use a VPN to another region and see if the same filter behaves differently.
      If it magically works on a VPN, congrats, it’s 100% their side.

  6. Double-check for in-app “Quality” or “Experimental” toggles
    Depending on version, they sometimes hide a “Better quality” / “Beta filters” switch in Settings or in specific filters. Turn OFF any “beta / experimental / high quality / early access” type option, restart the app, and retest. The early-access stuff is exactly where the face-stretch nightmares tend to live.

  7. Honest answer on “is there a setting to fix this?”
    Besides face selection / detection and maybe turning off experimental options, there isn’t some magic slider to stop the glitching. Once the model guesses your face shape wrong, the filter is going to look cursed no matter what. The only reliable “fix” then is:

    • Use a slightly different pose / lighting so detection locks in better, or
    • Wait for the devs to patch that model for your build, or
    • Temporarily install an older version (Android) where you know it worked, if you’re comfortable sideloading.

  8. How to tell if it’s a real bug vs just “bad photo”

    • Take 5 totally different photos of yourself: straight face, slight smile, different rooms, no glasses, etc.
    • Run the same filter on all 5.
    • If 4 or 5 of them warp in a similar, repeatable way (like eyes pulled up and out, mouth drifting sideways), that’s very likely a bug / model issue, not just one unlucky shot.

If you want to be proactive, grab:

  • Your device model
  • OS version
  • FaceApp version
  • Two or three example photos where it breaks consistently

Then send that through their in-app “Support / Help” option. When they actually have that combo, they often silently fix it in the next release. Until then, there’s no hidden local setting you’ve missed that magically solves the stretching once it’s happening systematically.