Midjourney Ignoring Aspect Ratio: How to Fix

If you are running prompts in Midjourney and receiving standard 1:1 square images despite typing an aspect ratio parameter, you are dealing with a parsing error. When the Midjourney bot fails to understand a parameter, it does not throw an error; instead, it silently ignores the command and falls back to its default model settings.

This behavior is rarely a platform bug. It is almost always caused by auto-formatting quirks on mobile devices, incorrect syntax order, or conflict settings within your user profile. Follow this step-by-step troubleshooting guide to resolve the issue.

1. Disable Smart Punctuation and Fix Em-Dashes

The single most common cause of Midjourney ignoring parameters is the conversion of double hyphens (--) into a single em-dash (—). This occurs automatically on macOS, iOS, and Android devices due to a feature called "Smart Punctuation."

Midjourney's parser requires two distinct, individual hyphens. If your device auto-corrected them, the bot will read your aspect ratio command as part of the text prompt and ignore the instruction.

• How to check: Look closely at your submitted prompt in Discord or the Midjourney web UI. If your parameter looks like —ar 16:9 (one long line) instead of --ar 16:9 (two short dashes), the parser failed.
• How to fix on iOS: Go to Settings > General > Keyboard and toggle off Smart Punctuation.
• How to fix on macOS: Go to System Settings > Keyboard > Edit... (under Input Sources) and disable Use smart quotes and dashes.
• Quick workaround: Copy and paste a valid double hyphen -- from another source, or use the web editor which is less prone to mobile keyboard auto-corrections.

2. Move the Parameter to the Absolute End

Midjourney parses commands chronologically. If you place your aspect ratio parameter in the middle of your text description, or before other parameters, the parser will fail to register it.

• Incorrect: /imagine prompt: --ar 16:9 a cinematic shot of a forest floating island
• Incorrect: /imagine prompt: a cinematic shot of a forest floating island --ar 16:9 --v 6.0 (while some versions handle this, ordering version before aspect ratio is safer).
• Correct: /imagine prompt: a cinematic shot of a forest floating island --v 6.0 --ar 16:9

Ensure that no text, commas, periods, or other punctuation marks exist after your last parameter. The aspect ratio must be the very last element of your input.

3. Correct Your Spacing and Syntax

Midjourney's parser is highly sensitive to spaces. A single missing space or an extra space in the wrong spot will break the parameter.

Ensure your prompt strictly adheres to these rules: 1. Space before the hyphens: There must be a space between the last word of your prompt and the double hyphen. E.g., island --ar (Correct) vs island--ar (Incorrect). 2. No space between hyphens and "ar": Do not type -- ar. It must be written as a continuous block: --ar or --aspect. 3. Space after "ar": There must be a single space between the letters and the numbers. E.g., --ar 16:9 (Correct) vs --ar16:9 (Incorrect). 4. Colon style: Use a single colon (:) with no spaces around it between the width and height integers. E.g., 16:9 (Correct) vs 16 : 9 or 16-9 (Incorrect).

4. Check for Conflicting Presets or Suffixes

If you have configured a default suffix using the /prefer suffix command, Discord may be appending conflicting instructions to the end of your prompt without your active knowledge.

To check and clear this conflict: 1. In your message bar, type /settings and press enter. 2. Review the active settings buttons. If a custom suffix is active, it will be highlighted. 3. To completely clear any hidden suffix, type /prefer suffix in the message box, leave the value field completely blank, and press Enter. This resets your default suffix to empty, allowing your manually typed parameters to take precedence.

5. Format Parameters Correctly in Multi-Prompts

If you are using multi-prompts with double colons (::) to assign weights, the placement of the aspect ratio parameter becomes even more critical.

• Incorrect: /imagine prompt: hot dog::2 --ar 16:9 space ship::1 (The parameter is trapped in the middle of a weighted prompt block).
• Correct: /imagine prompt: hot dog::2 space ship::1 --ar 16:9

Always group all text and weight components first, and append the aspect ratio parameter to the very end of the entire chain.

When to escalate

If you have verified that your syntax uses exact double hyphens, correct spacing, and is placed at the absolute end of the prompt, yet the image still renders in a 1:1 ratio, the Midjourney system may be experiencing a temporary outage or a backend update deployment.

Check the #status channel in the official Midjourney Discord to see if engineers have temporarily disabled custom aspect ratios due to server load. If there is no active outage, navigate to the #member-support or #support-v6 channel in the official server, paste your exact prompt text, and ask a community helper to verify your syntax.