Camera app crashing on my iPhone 16 Pro Max

Hi,

Have you tried completely reinstalling the iOS software via the Mac or PC? This helped me and I can take photos again.

However, the app crashes here and there, especially if you try to access the camera with another app. Then restarting the iPhone helps.

Please also note that you should make a backup before and that functions, e.g. for banking apps, have to be set up again after the backup has been installed.

Once again, I am very sorry I upgraded to the iPhone 16 Pro Max. I had an iPhone 14 Pro Max. It was flawless no problems. Great pictures but no I wanted this one. I usually jump every two phones to update to the newest product. They shouldn’t call us the iPhone they should call it the Y iPhone why I spent so much money to upgrade LOL

Summary - As per Apple Support ... Do a clean install from recovery mode of iOS 18.0.1 from your Mac or PC and set it up as new iPhone. DO NOT RESTORE FROM BACKUP.

Raj Khurana, do not recommend this. People will waste hours and hours on this. It is a software problem and will be fixed soon.

I am going to return mine as well. In the meantime, I’ve bought a new one in the faint hope that a different device from a different batch will not suffer from this problem. I will update folks when I find out the hard way.

vinz169 wrote:

Got an update? Still having issues wih my ip16pm 512gb

@vinz169, always good to mention which update you have used. We have no idea whether you have updated to the official release 8.0.1 or a beta release.

My iPhone 16 Pro was behaving the same way and I made an appointment at my local Apple Store. The tech scanned my phone for any hardware issues and found none. He then suggested that when I setup my new phone from my old iPhone 12 Pro backup, the system files from that phone weren’t playing nicely with the new phone. He suggested that we restore the phone to the factory settings and then install all of my apps manually and setup the phone from scratch. Sounds like a pain but everything saved to iCloud (Photos, Passwords, Mail, etc.)transferred flawlessly. I can happily say that it worked and now the camera works perfectly! I hope that this helps!

How has the issue been since? restoring without a backup seems so intimidating! when you say "reinstall everything from scratch" how does that work with calendar, messages, notes, etc? all in the cloud? I'm having the same issue but I'm so hesitant to restart from scratch

Uhm, it’s not like it’s not well known that iOS 18.1 drops on October 28. You don’t have to be an alleged ex-Apple employee to know that. After spending $1400 for a new phone I’m not going to sit around and deal with this for another 2 weeks. iOS 18.01 was supposed to fix the camera issue, so pardon me if I have little faith that 18.1 will, which is supposed to be mainly the first set of Apple Intelligence features, plus whatever bug fixes Apples finally decides to throw in there as well.

I have tried everything on the iPhone 16 pro 256 gb, but have experienced persistent crashes and overheating when using the camera. After wasting some 2 weeks and more hours than I care to count talking with Apple staff who are not fully up to speed on the subject I have now have concluded that only a new device (might) be the answer.

I cannot afford to be without a phone. I regretted sending in my 12 pro for trade in the day I did it....

After a 2 week wait I have managed to get my old iPhone 12 pro back from Apple trade in system ( it took a lot of work to get it back) and have happily restored data to that. At least it works!

I have a relative who has the identical 16 pro model to me and he has no problems with his so I am gambling that a new device might be the solution.

Apple have confirmed that my 16 pro "came from a faulty batch". So I wonder how big that batch is?

Looking forward to receiving a replacement 16pro from Apple and lets see if that suffers the same problem. I was not satisfied to wait for a software fix if other devices did not suffer this problem.

I feel that persisting with a faulty device is a hostage to fortune, and would prefer a new device without the problem.

Individually Apple staff are good people but overall this is shoddy performance by Apple. My respect for the company is very damaged. Far too 'corporate and *** watching' by half. It's a big thumbs down from a very long term Apple customer.

I will update when I get the replacement 16 pro.

If that is faulty too I will return and maybe get a iphone 15 and save the money.

I am also having the same issue. Nothing has resolved issue, hard wipe, reset cache, new phone setup, it still randomly crashes, battery drain, gets burning hot. This causes a significant problem as most of my job is taking pictures on my phone…

Got this today from Apple Support:

"Currently it’s being actively investigated by our Engineering Team to determine the best solution. There’s no timeframe as of yet, since this is still under investigation, but the solution may come in a form of update or a troubleshooting step.  Your case is open here and you can follow up with us anytime and we’d be glad to let you know of any updates about this issue and given solutions. So we just have to wait for now.  But our Engineering team is working on this."

I’ve been experiencing a frustrating issue with my iPhone 16 Pro Max, which I pre-ordered and was among the first to receive. After setting it up with an iCloud restore from my iPhone 15 Pro Max—which had worked perfectly for a year—I encountered problems just a day or two into using the new phone. The camera began crashing, and the only solution was to restart the device.

Despite speaking with multiple Apple Support technicians and supervisors, collecting logs, and allowing them to remotely access my phone, no solution was found. They recommended waiting for the next iOS update. Unfortunately, when iOS 18.01 was released, the issue worsened. Frustrated, I requested a replacement phone within my 30-day return window. However, the new device exhibited the same problem after just one day of use.

After researching online, I discovered a recommended solution: resetting all settings. This option does not result in data loss, although it does remove Apple Pay cards from your Wallet, as well as location settings for all apps and some preferences. As of now, about 36 hours later, it seems to be working.

There are a number of clues in this thread that will help you get around the issue possibly without going through what I went through. When the actual answer is posted, it is immediately deleted, so I can't say more. None of them seem to completely fix all the issues for everyone, but they can reduce the severity. I waited about two weeks for a replacement phone and then set it up as new, taking many hours to do what should have been automatic. After all this effort and 5 days of use now, the 16 Pro Max still feels less stable (jittery, halting animations, slow opening apps, occasionally less responsive touchscreen) than my old 15 Pro Max and I wish I had not upgraded. However, I can open the camera app without crashing, make phone calls without audio issues, and I have not experienced the 1% power bug or apps regularly crashing. It's sad that this is the level of quality acceptable now.

Ended up going to the Apple store, and they tech mentioned to me that so far the only solution that he knows would work was to reset the phone, and start from scratch. That was 5 days ago and so far the issue hasn't reappear. if you are planning to reset your phone and start from scratch, make sure you have a backup of your photos and text messages. I had issues with restoring text messages, thankfully I still had my old iPhone, sync up the Messages and downloaded them to the new phone. I hope this helps someone out there. Good luck.

Disabling "Macro Control" seems to have solved the issue for me