My iPhone's camera is not working correctly and it looks blurred

Hi Dogcow-Moof, this is exactly the problem. Some qr codes are too small and there is no possibility to read them.

Some bar codes are not perfectly printed, so we need to go closer, but in this situation, camera goes out of focus.

When the developer choose "rear-camera", OS need to toogle automaticaly to macro lenses when needed.

That's just it, there aren't QR codes that are too small to read; I just used Code Reader to read one of the smallest codes I could find at 3/8" square; perhaps you can point me to smaller ones.

The camera doesn't go out of focus, in fact it gets in sharper focus as you move away.

That isn't true; the phone can properly scan codes of quite minuscule size, it doesn't need to fill or even come close to filling the scan area of an app.

For example, I can scan a QR code just 5/16" square from 6" away with my 14 Pro Max (both using Apple's Code Scanner as well as the third-party Scandit app.)

So I wonder if apple is aware of this problem, clearly many people are commenting on this issue.

i was photographing a wedding and the guests wanted my contact info. I had them scan a digital business card. In one group of people all of phones read the QRL code, except one person.

They had a brand new iPhone 14!!!

Come on Apple ! At this point my upgrade from 12 pro to 14pro, not worth it.

They were likely not scanning the card properly.

I've never found a QR code an iPhone 14 family phone won't read if you don't try to do something like hold it too close to the phone to try and fill the "box" with the code.

This changed on the iPhone 14 with a recent software update. When I got my iPhone 14, I could import all my Google Authenticator codes by scanning the QR code from the screen of an iPhone 8 without a problem. I added two more codes to the iPhone 8, and now I want to export them to the iPhone 14 by scanning the bar code on the iPhone 8, and the image on the iPhone 14 is all blurry, cannot scan it.

This is a software issue affecting the camera on the iPhone 14, is not the apps scanning bar codes.

Dogcow-Moof, you seem to dismiss everyone's complaints about the inability to scan barcodes and QR codes. I raised this issue late last year when I changed from iPhone 11 to iPhone 14 Pro Max. I called the third-party vendor of the barcode scanner developer, and he said Apple needs to fix it. Now I see you state that the 3rd party vendors need to fix their end. To this day, I cannot scan bar codes affixed on many of our company assets with my current phone 14 Pro Max. We rely on a couple of individuals with an older Android phone that works perfectly. I regret switching to the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

The problem is not the camera app scanning barcodes, but apps that use the camera to scan bar codes.

One example: Google Authenticator. When you use the app to scan a barcode, in my case transferring my Google Authenticator accounts from an iPhone 8 to the iPhone 14, the iPhone 14 could not scan the Google Authenticator's produced bar code on the iPhone 8, because it was blurry on the iPhone 14.

Which third-party apps fail for you?

I've yet to find one, including Amazon, King Sooners (Kroger), Scandit (of course) and Walmart (Walmart Pay).

Remember, don't fill the code "box," back the camera up until the code you want to scan is in focus.

OK, try an asset tracking app: AssetTiger.

We have 18 out of 31 individuals who cannot scan the AssetTiger-generated barcodes with their iPhone 14 Pro Max due to blurriness. The remaining individuals can read as before since they have older phones, iPhone 11, and some Android phones. If numerous users claim iPhone 14 Pro Max blurriness, your dismissive response is not welcome. We should let an Apple Professional provide a solution, not avoid the problem.

Let's see, Asset Tigers labels (over 1000) barcodes previously could be scanned with all of our company phones (iPhone 11 and Android) late last year. Some have received upgraded iPhone 14 Pro Max and cannot scan using the same Asset Tiger application. Also, others have repeatedly reported that they are having scanning issues with the iPhone 14 Pro Max scanning barcodes, and your only response is that we are doing it wrong or that the app we are using is the problem. If you have no issues, let an Apple expert address these issues for the rest of us, and don't speak for Apple.

The issue is that it doesnt actual focus.

Ive had this issue for a while now and finally decided to see that I could do fix it so its interesting to see that it looks like it hasn't been solved and some are saying ... "There's nothing to fix." There clearly is. Most 3rd party pass will not scan QR or barcodes because it doesnt focus. Sometimes Im back to manual focus by pulling the device away far enough ... but most of the time then the code is too small to actually scan. Huge pain in the butt.

It happens with me on several apps like:

Amazon Alexa (scanning a device)

Google Authenticator

Blink Cameras.

It does focus, but it will not focus if you try to hold your device too close to the code.

If you hold your device far enough away from the code for the camera to focus, the code will be read instantly.

The code in no way needs to fill the "box" apps draw to put the code into, merely a small fraction of it.

Can confirm. Same issue with all pro 3-camera models. It's not only about QR, there are a lot of KYC apps that require to scan documents and ID-cards. These apps rely on the standard API of the phone to take a picture and the iphone is always giving them access to the main camera. These are not specialized camera apps. They don't have a custom library with raw access to the camera, they use the OS's public API which reports a single camera, not 3 separate ones. The app does not know how many lenses there are, it sees only 1 camera (probably the selfy camera in addition). Apple needs to provide automatic switching to macro mode when camera is accessed by the API, so apps that need it should not rewrite everything from scratch just to add some non-essential feature. Apparently this problem is quite old and probably won't be addressed anytime soon, meaning end-clients will struggle and suffer..

Again, though, most apps that need to scan QR or bar codes do the right thing when the code is in focus no matter how small the image may seem to you.

The problem is when people try and fill the "box" on the app with the code, holding the phone at a distance at which it cannot focus.