Camera app crashing on my iPhone 16 Pro Max

based on what some others have mentioned, I’ve turned off Macro and Sound Recognition and I haven’t had a crash since. Also, battery life is much, much better. As a reminder I’m on a 16Pro Max.

Trumpss wrote:

Same problem here, 16 Pro Max 1TB.

It also randomly stops recording, sometimes without playing a sound.

It also will sometimes start recording and then immediately stop recording. No errors, no rhyme or reason, restart doesn't fix it. It will just randomly start working again.

This phone has been the biggest disappointment apple has sold me to date.

So, you've updated your iPhone to iOS 18.1, released today, which many people in this thread who were testing the software said it completely solved the problem? Or you just want to join the chorus of complaints?

My new iPhone 16 pro 512 also has the same problem. Today, I went to the shop, and he asked me to back up, reset the phone, and try it without the data, and if it works, then I can restore it. He also suspects the bug is in the back-up rather than a hardware problem.

Seeing all the comments here, I think this is a serious software issue!

Someone on here said a week or two ago that turning off the sound recognition helped. I was on 18.0.1 and turned it off (I had it listening for cats) and since then, did not notice any crashes. I used the camera a ton over the weekend; lots of video as well as photos. I did do a hedging-my-bets reboot on the Friday morning, but no issues over three intense days. Monday I updated to 18.1 and since then (touch wood) no issues; although I've not been using it as much either.

Potentially SOLVED

I was having the same problem after getting my new out-of-the-box 16 Max Pro 512g, although my wife was not (same phone, also new). Bug was present with the 18.0.1 update, but after updating to iOS 18.1 the bug seems to be fixed for now. Just did this update which comes with a phone restart so who knows, the bug may come back, but wanted to let you all know.

Dogcow-Moof wrote:

The vast majority of people have never seen this issue, so it seems it is an issue with your phone.

Take it in to be examined:

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

I've had a 16 Pro Max since launch day and have taken hundreds of photos along with video, and have never had this happen.

We have iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max and both arrived on Launch Day and neither has had any camera shutdown issues and like you, we've taken hundreds of photos and lots of videos, with zero issues at all.

Changing “macro control” didn’t fix the issue for me. I finally rebuilt from scratch. Phone actually does seem to be more responsive and no camera crashes yet.

pat.dox wrote:

My camera is finally working !!

it was a magnetic interference on iPhone camera caused by the magnet on the back of my cover

What iOS version are you on?

Were it software, every 16 PM would do it, and they don't.

Make an appointment to have your phone examined.

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

PeteD1957 wrote:

I am experiencing the same issue with a host of other issues. My touchscreen freezes where I can't get anything to work. I have to restart my iPhone at least seven times a day because the voice to text stops working. And the battery life is worse than my iPhone 15 Pro Max that I had for a year. This is disappointing. I've had every model of iPhone since the first one came out.

You are still within the exchange/return window. If you are truly having as many issues as you suggest and have tried working with Apple directly to diagnose and determine the best solution (replacement for example) then it would be in your best interest to utilize the return option. If you have not contacted Apple directly for help or visited your nearest Apple Store or authorized repair facility then you need to do so before the window closes if you fear the issue isn’t something that will be addressed via a future iOS update (or you don’t feel comfortable waiting an unknown amount of time for an update to possibly address it).

Please report this to the Apple Customer Service. I experience the same on my 16 Pro. When I first called a week ago they weren’t aware of the problem as it hadn’t been reported much yet. A few days later the agent had more reports and we spent about 2 hours performing several actions and gathering log files. He told me his colleagues were doing the same to get as much data as possible, as they apparently didn’t have a clue yet what causes this.

Ridiculous as it may be that we are doing the QA for them, please report it. The bigger and widespread as the issue proves to be, the sooner we will get a fix for this.

I have no further issues and would update here if anything pops up. You just reset, keep your e-sim(s), then after restart don’t pick another device to restore and just log into your iTunes account. This allows you to restore messages, photos etc. Then you have to manually redownload all your apps. That’s it! Took me <2 hours this morning - I’m on a 1Gbps connection here, so able to download everything pretty quick.

I finally bit the bullet and suffered through entirely erasing everything on my iPhone (except the eSim) and treating the phone as a new user in the process of bringing iOS up. Then restoring the most valuable apps I used to use. I spent 4 hours on it. I did NOT restore anything from back-up (but a lot of content/passwords/etc came right back from iCloud.)

No signs of trouble yet and...phone is far more responsive.

So why the problem with the back-up/restore? Doesn't Apple check content as it's backed up to make sure it's not corrupted? And check it again during the restore? If they don't, they could be replicating a lot of nasty code too...

What's up with that?

I feel like people are not reading this thread fully. Try turning off reduce motion, which fixed it for my wife. I never had it on and I never had this problem. Reboot daily in the morning. Don't rebuild from scratch or you will waste a lot of time. Wait for 18.1.

Someone on here suggested turning off Macro, i did that and no crashes since.