iPhone 12 Pro Max Camera Freezing/Black

Really sorry to disappoint you but there is no fix that I’m aware off and have spent multiple hours with the Apple support online and even have sent the phone for mail in repair - they were not able to fix it for me (they didn’t even identify it as an issue) and they just said that everything is “okay” as far as technician managed to see and this is how it is supposed to be. Obviously after spending 5 minutes with the phone they didn’t replicate the issue and deemed the phone OK. At long last managed to convince them that it’s not the way it should be and they FINALLY agreed to make a massive exception (sounded as if I should be eternally in Apple’s debt because they have agreed to exchange it) and send me a new device so now I’m going through that.

If you have bought it from Apple 10 days ago I urge you to contact them ASAP and request an exchange because they have said me multiple times that if I have asked for a new phone within 14 days from the delivery date I would have gotten that with no questions asked more or less but now because I have waited more than two weeks to ask for a replacement they are no longer this flexible and had to make an exception rather than just replace it. Action in the UK...

good luck!

I have a brand new iPhone 12 pro max that did the same. Called apple yesterday. Spent the WHOLE day on the phone. Hardware OK. Soft reset - no help. Hard reset to back up and erase all data on phone. Fortunately did not send the old phone back (past experience -lost $210!). Restore - now works, but lost a ton of data. What a mess for a new release.

I don't know about in the UK, but where I live, in Canada, with Apple Care Plus you are entitled to an express replacement, meaning that they send you a new device, and then you send them your current one (at Apple's expense). As long as they receive your device within 10 days, it costs you nothing.

This might sound crazy, but if you are experiencing crashes when using your camera, it might be related to how frequently you change your wallpaper. I'm not kidding!

Check out this discussion thread explaining what others experiencing this problem have found:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ios-14-frequent-camera-crash-problem-cause-found-but-no-fix-related-to-wallpapers.2268929/

I foud the solution here: Apparently if we change several times the wallpaper, this problem appears. So the solution is to stop changing wallpapers all the time.

I had a shorcut that automatically changed the wallpaper every time I opened whatsapp. Once I stopped it, the problem has been solved.

[Link Edited by Moderator]

I finally got a new iPhone! No problems!! I updated and reloaded from iCloud then from a computer ..then as new nothing worked. I had called apple 4 times .. they finally listened. Good luck..

*POSSIBLE FIX*

After so many research, testing, talking with other people on macrumors forum we may found a fix for this issue. It seems to be connected with changing wallpapers, if you are changing your wallpaper too many times per day It causes camera to crash. Try to restart your device and DO NOT CHANGE your wallpaper for the next days. This should fix the issue for you.

Now i am 100% sure IT IS A SOFTWARE PROBLEM. At work i am using my old Iphone Xs. Today while painting a boat (i am working in marina) i was listening some music on my Airpods. I decided to take some pictures of progress in painting so i did, when taking photos i observed that camera works very laggy and i thought „on wait, same symptoms as on my new 12) so i decided to switch to video mode (that usually kills my camera app in 12) and guess what? MY CAMERA CRASHED, screen went black displaying only swipe bar at the bottom. My phone glitched so much that even my bluetooth went off, music stopped playing and i had do reconnect my Airpods. I have never had any problems with my Xs in past 2 years. I am sure that this is something with ios 14.

Finally! Spent a whole day again on the phone. Now, I was supposed to upgrade via iTunes. Clearly the phone was not performing correctly and the Apple agent was getting frustrated - he was getting paid - I wasn't. Suggested I take the phone to an Apple store. I reminded him that the same thought had struck me on !!/14/2020 when I first used and noted the problem. We are supposed to stay indoors. Anyway - made the18 mile journey. No reason why they did not just mail me a new one. Went over all the same testing again - even though I had the case number. Then told me to leave the phone for 2 hours. Came back - guess what - needed a new phone. Camera was not working. Ultrawide lens, perhaps. My back up did not work well.....but finally....NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!

I’m in Canada and I had a similar experience. Three conversations with Apple Support in total. A full reset through iTunes and setting up the phone as new was the last thing they suggested after the second conversation. Said that they were 99% positive that would do the trick.

Things were fine for about 5 days then the camera started crashing again. I had been inquiring about a replacement since the first conversation, but I was willing to try every other solution they suggested first. In the third conversation it was clear that they were totally stumped and agreed to send a replacement without much fuss. I’m now waiting for the replacement to arrive. If there’s no problem with the new device I’ll know for sure that it was hardware related all along. If it happens again, we’ll know that it is something to do with software.

I have a standard Iphone 12 and old Xs. Camera crashes every day or two on 12, only restart helps. Also noticed simmilar issue on my old Xs, i have never had problems with camera in 2 years of using this phone. I think it is a ios 14 problem.

I've been dealing with the camera crashing on my 12 Pro Max for over a month now. After a few days or maybe a week of functioning fine, suddenly any attempt to use the camera, sometimes just opening the app, will cause a crash. Only fix is to restart the phone, and then it's fine again for a few days.

Been in contact with Apple Support twice already. Every time their diagnostics say that every thing is fine. I've tried full resets through iTunes twice, once restoring from a backup and once setting up as new. Both times the crashes started again in a matter of days.

I had this same issue on my iPhone 12 mini. The camera would just freeze every few seconds and wouldn't let me take a picture, or the viewfinder would just remain black. Never had this problem with any other iPhone myself, and I had the iPhone 11 and XR before this. I tried force closing the app, tried rebooting the phone to factory settings, and it would fix it for a few days, and then it would start acting up again. Only affected the back cameras and only in the Apple Camera app, the selfie worked fine and if I opened another app that used the cameras, it worked fine. I ended up sending my 12 mini back because I was thinking it was a hardware issue, but it does seem more like a software bug so I'm hoping this is fixed soon. I've already ordered a new 12 mini and I don't want to keep having this issue.

The only fix that I’ve found is to hard boot the phone. This sucks.