Tips on DALL-E prompts to stop it deviating from instructions - Seeding bugs

ChatGPT
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I have noticed lately, not sure if it was happening a week ago, but it seems no matter how many times you tell it not to deviate from the prompt or even previous prompt, and try and give a new instruction to build a scene or character, its as if it doesn’t listen and just randomly does what it wants.

For example, if I wanted to build a simple portrait of a character wearing a mens’ grey hooded zip top, blue round glasses and gloves, with one hand reaching to hold his glasses.

I give the prompts one by one and after each i say ‘say true to the prompt, or previous prompt - do not deviate’ it MAY listen once, sometimes not at all… then if I do not keep saying these things, it will change the hooded top to a different type of hooded top, it will change the glasses to a different style of glasses or it may remove the gloves… so you end up going round and round in circles, sorting out one aspect, but then having to correct the previous aspect and getting no where. its so infuriating!!!

It looks like this is some sort of technical error as even using the SAME seed with a copied prompt is giving different results each time you generate it. When this should give you identical results because its a same seed and prompt with no changes. This is a problem.

Anyone got any prompt tips so this doesn’t happen? I even added custom instructions in my account area to tell it to stay true t prompts and not deviate but it still does!!! UGH!!!

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I have the same question.

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I have the same question.

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Yeah, I totally get how frustrating that is. It feels like you fix one thing and something else randomly changes.

What’s happening isn’t usually a technical error, image models regenerate the whole image each time. They don’t “lock” previous details unless you’re using an edit/inpaint tool. So when you adjust one element, it can unintentionally shift others too.

Also, using the same seed doesn’t always guarantee identical results across sessions. Small backend updates or hidden parameters can introduce variation, even if your prompt is the same.

A couple things that help:

  • Put all key details in one clear, structured prompt instead of building step-by-step.
  • Be very explicit: “grey zip-up hoodie (not pullover), blue round glasses, wearing gloves, right hand touching glasses.”
  • Use negative prompts if supported (e.g., “no bare hands, no different glasses style”).
  • If possible, use editing tools to modify just one area instead of regenerating the whole image.

If you want to share your exact prompt, happy to help tighten it up.