What causes the black screen in camera after iOS 16 update?

I have an iPhone XR which demonstrated the "black screen" rear camera (but the front camera still worked). First I had the rear camera replaced at a local independent repair house. That fixed the camera but only for a day. Then I updated from IOS 16 to 17 last night and did not test the rear camera again until today. To my horror, the rear camera had gone back to the "black screen" rear camera. I tried some of the solutions in this thread. Nothing worked until I did a "force restart" by pressing/releasing the side buttons of the phone as described in Force restart iPhone - Apple Support. At the moment the rear camera is functioning again!

1. Press and quickly release the volume up button.
2. Press and quickly release the volume down button.
3. Press and hold the side button.
4. When the Apple logo appears, release the side button.

Following recommendations of first restarting and if that doesn’t work factory reset. After multiple restart and resets I gave it another try. Reset followed by restart and front camera was restored. That’s my experience keep trying it might work for you.

To get camera back i went to camera in settings and set option to compatibility.

I had this issue with iPad 5th gen. Did a reset of all settings and it started working again. No data was deleted. Hope this helps

Don’t know if this will work for anyone else but was having the same problem on iPad 6th gen. Camera worked for FaceTime but not for the camera app. After updating to iOS 17 the problem still persisted. I power cycled and went back to the camera app, still showing black screen, held down the camera rotation icons for a few seconds (to switch from front to back camera) and suddenly started working. I hope someone else gets lucky too!

I just turned my phone off for 10 minutes and restarted it - it worked!

Omg thank u so much increasing magnification to 0.5 worked nothing else did. I tried soft reset checking settings software update all the usual stuff it was so frustrating. Thank you thank u❤️❤️

Make that “ most compatible “ under format

Hello Dorden122,

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities!

We would want to recommend basic troubleshooting of the camera on your iPhone first to rule out issues with the camera. Take a look at this article: If the camera or flash on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch isn't working - Apple Support

1. Remove any case, accessory, or film that might block the camera or flash or that places a magnet near the camera.
2. Test the camera by trying to take a photo
3. Restart your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. 
4. Test the camera again by taking a photo. If your device has a front and rear camera, check if one or both isn’t working. To switch cameras, tap the rotate button .

If there is no change and you are still seeing a black screen in the camera, contact Apple Support directly for more specific assistance.

Take care!

This works. Take the camera to 1x zoom and then tap the 1.0x on the screen to take it to 0.5 zoom. Camera instantly starts working. It isn’t fixed. It comes up black again after you close and reopen but do the same thing each time and it’ll work and take photos. Work around for apple’s sorry lack of support on this.

Try zooming out that’s the only thing that worked for me 😭

I found a solution guys!!

For me when fiddling with the magnifying, once I can get it to 0.5x the back camera turns on. (Tap the magnifying number while on the back camera) Is a bit fiddly but it works. I’d guess apple thru software shuts off the back camera if it detects some hardware issue. (My phone is a bit beaten so I wouldn’t be surprised but curious if you guys have good condition phone that have this issue or are like me and have potentially water or fall damage like me) it’s more of an work around to apples software than a solution but it somehow bypasses whatever the iPhone is trying to do. Maybe a camera expert knows about if changing magnifying changes some detectors because that would probably be the issue. (I have ios15.6.1) Anyways God bless, have faith in whatever god has for your path and I hope it work

Guys I literally have the same issue it’s been happening ever since I updated to the iOS 17.2 (I have an xs) like my ig back camera works but it’s zoomed in so I tried zooming in my actual camera app to 2x and it started working I think it only works if you use zoom camera idk but Apple should seriously fix this it’s getting annoying..

I just got this after the 17.2.1 update on an XS Max. The user's suggestion of holding down the switch camera button for a few seconds got the front camera working, so thanks for that suggestion!

My torch does not work anymore either.

I tried seeing if other apps were able to use the camera and Adobe Scan had a notification that said "Unable to access the camera." All other apps just show the black camera screen.

This is definitely the most frustrating glitch that Apple has had (after putting up with others that have come and gone over the years). I need my phone camera for work, and given the wide array of Apple devices and iOS's that this has affected, and potentially could affect, I'm going to have to make the switch to Android.

try using "ios system repair" app which you can download it in your pc. then click common ios issues and download that file, make standart fix and it will be fixed.