Hi,
Im excited to own the new iPhone 11 Pro but after a few weeks of ownership, one of the 3 camera lenses has shattered out. The phone has never dropped or mishandled, just simply normal use in my pocket. I just wanted to make the Apple community aware that the Camera glass is very weak! Buy a case that covers and will well protect the cameras. Ive attached a picture of my phones broken camera lens.
iPhone 11 Pro Max
This happened to me this summer... the top camera lens cracked. I called Apple and they were useless, they told me they can’t replace such a small part and the only solution was to replace the whole handset in exchange of £700 (i don’t have apple care).
Of course I said no because this is ridiculous, I didn’t want a new phone I just wanted a new glass camera lens cap which is tiny and shouldn’t be that hard to replace.
In the meantime I stick tape to my camera to prevent dust and damage to the inner lens. I finally found a repair shop that had this tiny part in stock and was willing to replace it for me. Can you guess how much it cost me?
£50 😂
Not ideal but better than not being to use my camera at all. Also my phone was already out of warranty and because it was bought in the US no insurance company other than apple care wanted to insure my phone to begin with. This is just my bad luck...
Now I have a Spigen tempered glass camera protection, it doesn’t look as nice as when it’s without but at least it protects from this stupid thing happening again.
I noticed the fragility of the lenses right away at Apple Store on the display phones, as well as the screens.
All of them scuffed and with damage. Screens with scratches as well.
If you buy this phone, make sure to put a case, screen protector and lens protects right away like I did, if you don't want to lose more money.
The worst design ever for an iPhone.
You can go out to Amazon, where I've seen options for lens protection on the new phones. Here's a link which shows several options. As to their effectiveness or whether they will effect image quality, I don't know --> https://www.amazon.com/s?k=iphone+11+lens+protectors&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
Oh, yes you should definitely avoid darker lenses or lenses which significantly affect the light transmission.
One thing though; anything put on top / in front of the lenses cover will affect the light transmission. The idea is to minimise these losses as well as any potential parasitic reflections and refractions as these will affect the image quality... Tricky challenge.
I was one of the first to post here and have been very disappointed Apple has not seen this yet. As the moderators have said, this community is not monitored by Apple. I went back tot eh Apple store that offered to replace my phone for $99 with Apple care. The store manager request that I leave feedback on my recent purchase here
https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html
That site is directly monitored my Apple and I believe if we all do it, they will see this as an issue and offer us a solution. Please join me by submitting our feedback.
It was not a great idea buying your iPhone in a country other than the one you live. iPhone warranty is NOT international and Apple may deny warranty service where you live. Instead, they very likely will tell you to take the phone to the country you purchased it.
Same, 11 pro never dropped and in rubber case from day one, one camera lent hase a hairline crack all accross and shatters where the glass meet the chrome ring. Went at Genius bar thay said they can’t fix it and can’t exchange it couse they can’t determine how that happened, my only option would be to spend 500 something dollars for a refurbished phone that potentially would have the same defect anytime soon! very disappointing!
Either pay £600 or otherwise, some replacement lens covers are available aftermarket over the internet. A good phone workshop can do the job with a heat gun / hair dryer to remove the shattered saphir crystal, clean up and replace it.
I think it’s a cheap quality glass used on a very expensive phone. The edge will start breaking off and eventually the glass will give way and crack. It’s a matter of time for mine to become like that.
Telling Apple to do anything in this forum, won't get you anything. This is a user to user only forum and Apple isn't here, isn't participating and isn't reading your post.
You need to take this up with Apple directly.
Same happened to me. I took a couple pictures, put phone in my pocket and pulled it out a couple minutes later and glass was cracked. I was sitting at a table waiting for my sons next basketball game, not walking around or doing anything physical at all. Maybe pressure from pants pocket is enough to flex case and shatter glass? Seems crazy but I am certain there was no impact. I have had many iPhones and my field work gets them
abused and I have never had an issue before. I don’t understand why there isn’t a simple glass replacement available from apple. The lens is just glued in from the outside, not exactly a difficult repair. I put a replacement lens in for now but can tell the lens quality isn’t the same, photos are just ever so slightly out of focus.
I have just had a series of extremely frustrating interactions with Apple support over the last 1.5+ hrs about a similar problem with my iPhone 11. One of the lenses shattered last week without any apparent cause. I happened to glance over at it while I was having a conversation with someone and saw streaks across the lens. My immediate reaction was "How in the world could I have scratched this lens and only this lens with another one just millimeters away?" Turns out it wasn't scratched... it was shattered. There is not a single scratch, scuff or dent on the lens bezel, the adjacent lens / beset, or the LED light. I keep the phone in a rubber case with a strong screen protector and had not dropped the phone or mishandled it in anyway. Even if I had dropped it, I would probably have a better chance of winning the lottery tomorrow than dropping this phone in just such a way (and just the right amount of pressure) that the actual camera underneath is not damaged, only one lens shatters AND nothing else receives even the smallest scratch or ding. -- Like yours, mine is still under warranty. HOWEVER, since it is my business phone, I also bought AppleCare with it as an insurance policy. It turns out that AppleCare doesn't add that much value in this case as you've only paid for the privilege of being able to pay ADDITIONAL $$ over and above the cost of AppleCare to have (what is clearly a manufacturing / design defect) repaired within what would normally be considered reasonable expectations.
It is extremely disappointing to have wasted multiple hours of my day trying to resolve this simple issue but still come up empty handed. I've invested ridiculous amounts money recently and over the years in Apple products. I did that happily because I never really experienced a lot of problems with their products and, IF I did, it was always a relatively quick / simple / reasonable resolution process that I'd leave feeling positive and "whole". That has certainly not been the case today or anytime over about the last 1-2 years.
This has also happened to me. I was sleep and when I woke up the camera was broken. No, I did not fall asleep on top of it. No, I did not drop it. No, I don’t have any kids. I stay by myself so no one messed with it while I was sleep. My phone sits and charges on a nightstand by my bed. This is a huge problem. I have insurance (Asurion) through my phone provider (AT&T) and they want me to pay $250 for a new phone. That’s absolutely crazy!
The Apple folks you are hoping to reach are not on this forum. I know this because at a certain level, we get to interact with Apple on an internal forum and we understand how this forum works. This forum is hosted by Apple for USERS to help other USERS. If you as a user have a technical question about your phone, we users may be able to offer you technical guidance. If you have a complaint about your phone we can't help you. And the audience you're hoping to reach with a complaint isn't here.
Apple will NEVER respond to you on this forum. You can go through all 20 pages of this very thread and you'll not see a single response from Apple. Just from people who are upset about the lens breaking.
If you want to discuss your issue with Apple, you can use the Contact Support button at the top of this Page. You can call Apple or you can schedule an appointment at your Apple Store Genius Bar. That's how you get Apple's attention.
And no, I don't work for Apple. I'm just the messenger explaining how this forum is operated and for whom it is operated.
Thats for clarifying. As I said I have contacted Apple, and been to a Genius Bar, one I have been going to for over decade, know some of the employee's well. They said they heard customers complaining that the lens cracked for no apparent reason also but Apple was sitting on their hands, like the battery issue a few years ago they recently settled on, no need to do anything if you can tamp down the issue. That's how corporate culture works in the US, I'm a small business owner and treat my clients with dignity and respect because I want to, I'm corporate....not a corporation. I will continue to answer questions on this thread and decry Apple's product even if to no avail to me, but so others will learn.
yep. this was extremely disappointing when I bought this phone. have literally never experienced my phone CAMERA breaking and it’s absolutely absurd that the whole phone needs to be replaced for a simple fix. if you can’t afford to get the crack fixed this is what will eventually happen from repeated use...
ive kept a strong otter box case on it the whole time and nothing else has cracked except camera #1. now the glass is completely gone despite me trying to salvage it by taping it. I bought this phone for the camera and now every time I take a video the lens makes a weird crackling noise and I cant use 2x without it being blurry despite the fact it’s not supposed to be using camera #1 which broke. extremely disappointed in apple for this. they’re so much better than ignoring an issue like this.
iPhone 11 Pro Camera Lens Cracking
