iPhone 13 Pro camera not focusing on subject but on background

That’s what I get too. I can tap on the screen but it won’t focus, so I’ll move in/out slightly but then it switches lenses and I have to reframe and try and get it to focus. It’s annoying and a waste of time when the subject is stationary - but it eliminates almost any chance I have of getting a decent image if the subject and setting isn’t static.

Exactly! It’s not like it just switches lenses and then you can carry on - it goes back and forth, reframes the whole thing, checks out a bunch of different things to focus on, resists AF lock or drops out and goes to focus on something else. Feel like telling it to ‘just stop - pick a lens and stick with it and I’ll work around it’.

So I might have a tip for the 3sec to 0sec thing. If you go to Settings > Camera > Preserve Settings then make sure Night Mode is on. When you go back to your camera you’ll have to spin it back to 0sec from the 3sec/Auto, but then on the camera will preserve that 0sec setting and you won’t have to do it every time. You can still access/adjust it the same way if you want a longer exposure, but turning on Preserve Setting for it means that whatever you leave it at will be where it is the next time you open your camera.

Yes! You worded that better than I did, thank you.

And yes - I haven’t noticed an improvement with the update. Someone wrote about a rumour that Apple was going to add the option to turn off macro switching as part of an update by the end of the year so I still have my fingers crossed.

Three lenses, cinematic mode, the styles you can choose…yet something as simple as turning off automatically switching to macro was left out. Leave the auto macro feature there - some people must find it useful, but including an option to turn it off seems like a no brainer… Better yet and what I’m hoping for (hoping it’s why the fix is taking so long), is both the option to turn off auto switching and the option to choose to use macro. I’m usually pretty aware of when I’m trying to take a macro shot so give me access to that lens only and let me sort out and decide what is/isn’t in focus. If someone wants the camera to be fully automatic cool, and if someone is trying for a certain shot or effect then they can control it. Not like someone is going to choose the macro lens, screw up where they wanted focus or not realize what was/wasn’t in focus, and be able to blame Apple - user error. I want the chance to make user errors.

I’ve done that but I’m still having the focusing issue.

Plus, there are times when I’m trying to take a macro shot and turning auto switching off means I can’t. Maybe I’m missing something obvious, but with it off my camera acts as if macro isn’t possible - I cannot get close to the subject and have it in focus.

My camera on a tripod, Auto Switching for the macro lens on, and the macro lens will ‘appear’ - and will toggle itself between macro and the regular lens depending on something (no idea because on a tripod with still life there should be very few factors to trigger that). If I turn Auto Switching off, I lose any ability to take a macro shot and have to back up and take a snapshot or use zoom. I’m not sure what I might be missing or what other setting to play with to have the option of using a macro lens without it switching.

Stopping the regular lens from switching to macro is really good, but I want to use the macro lens without it switching to the regular lens. Have you found a way to do that?

Hi - no, I haven’t found a solution. I did a factory reset in the very beginning but none since. That was before the latest update so maybe it would be worth trying it again…?

The closest I’ve come to a solution is giving it more time to focus before clicking the shutter and keeping as still as I can (beyond what I’ve had to with other iPhones or dslrs etc), and then taking multiple photos of the same thing (especially if it’s not full sun/all lights on bright or if what I want in focus isn’t the biggest, most central, highest contrast object or there is a lot of pattern or edges - a lot of objects at different distances). I end up checking the photos after I take them and zooming in to see if what I want in focus is, and if not I try again.

Honestly though, I’m not taking many pictures. I used to take 100 photos a day (leftover habit from a mindfulness exercise I was doing), and they wouldn’t all be great but anything out of focus was because of movement or lighting. I can’t recall every feeling like the camera wasn’t doing what I wanted it to automatically or what I asked it to if I touched on a different focal point. I have a phone because I have to - it’s nice enough to be able to go online or check my email wherever I am, but 90% of my usage was the camera and music. Not a lot of enjoyment in using it to take pictures so I don’t reach for it unless I have to. I keep my phones forever and who knows what phones will be like in 5-6 years, so I’m no loss to any phone company but it’s gotten me away from using or relying on my phone.

That sucks. Special occasion or event stuff can’t be reshot - and it’s almost worse when the photos are blurry vs forgetting a camera and not having any. Wish I had a suggestion but from how my camera’s been working a concert would have everything that causes it problems - not perfect lighting, movement, and a lot of edges/patterns - lots of things that it could think was the focal point. I’ve stopped taking as many photos as I used to, to the point where I’ve caught myself thinking ‘that would be a cool photo’ when I have my phone in my hand. I dig out my old point and shoot the other day - want to make sure I’ve got batteries and it’s working before the holidays so I have a stress free way to get some good photos. Wish I had a tip or suggestion to pass along - fingers crossed Apple’s able to sort it out and a fix comes out in the next update.