How to fix Blue Streaks in iPhone 16 Pro night Photos

Some owners aren’t testing under proper conditions. Try the experiment again with your partners iPhone and do it in a very dark room and hold the lenses against a solid surface.

I had several students come to me with the issue and had photos similar to yours. When we tested in an actual darkroom, blue streaks were gone on all but 1 iPhone. I don’t think the issue is as widespread as being reported on YouTube etc. I think a lot of what we’re seeing is just improper testing. It’s worth a try at least.

My iphone 16 that I received on Sept 20 had this blue stripe problem, and had it replaced by apple store!

This was one of the photos that I've got when doing the test (Lay phone on a black table and make the camera app take a photo at long exposure and in this case, it is a 10s photo. This is the meta data of this photo : Apple iPhone 16 Pro

ƒ/1.78

10s

6.765mm

ISO6400

Have you updated to 18.2? This resolved the issue for most users.

It is 100% not fixed in iOS 18.3.1. I test it by placing the phone camera facing down on a thick blanket, on a table where it won't move at all, setting the exposure to max (so it enables the 30 second exposure), wrapping the thick blanket around the top half of the phone, turning the lights off in the room, and then taking the shot. I still get prominent blue lines on all the photos. If I leave the exposure to auto, it will set itself to 10 seconds, and the image is perfectly dark. It only happens with the long 30-second exposure. iPhone 16 Pro.

It was fixed with an update, 18.2 I think. Take your camera into a darkroom and put a beach towel over the door. Take your shot. I do it in the art center’s darkroom. When a student says their iPhone does it I do the same thing. Here’s my last shot I did.

Not the guy who originally discovered it and publicized it. Here’s his update from about 4 months ago.

[Edited by Moderator]

The mods edited my link. Search Shayne Mostyn on YouTube and his video titled “Did iOS 18.2 really fix this” . . . And you can watch his video and tests.

If you’re updated, then either your testing is flawed or your camera is really defective and needs to go back to Apple.

Unfortunately for some of us, it wasn’t. I pre-ordered the 16 pro max and then found out about the issue from Shayne, did the test, found the blue lines. Sent it in for a replacement, although Apple gaslighted me the whole time saying it was normal and not an issue, thankfully they did agree to send a new one in though. The new one worked great, no blue noise at all when doing the same test repeatedly. 18.2 update comes around and I had a feeling the issue might return… and it did, except now instead of blue lines it’s purple-blue noise now. Ironically this update was designed to fix the noise issue, all it did for me was create the noise issue in my phone which was working perfectly right before the update. I did the tests right before and right after updating so I would have proof. They’re about to send me another one. Very, very disappointed in Apple, I switched over to Apple from Samsung and I paid a lot for this phone, got the 1TB model… The worst part was the gaslighting, telling us it’s normal and not an issue. And the inconsistency, sometimes the tech people will concede that yes this is a real issue, and other times they will be dismissive and try to gaslight you into thinking it’s normal. I’ve heard both from these tech guys several times now. And now they’re charging me a $30 fee to have the SECOND replacement shipped out because of THEIR manufacturing mistakes. I am going to ask them to waive the fee so hopefully they will. Just the lack of class with this company is sad..

This is happening to my new iPhone 16pro max as well I have had it sent in and fixed 3 times now and now apple is saying it happing because of the case on the phone

I had blue dots in my 30 second exposures. The Apple store returned my phone, and I paid extra for a larger 1 Tb phone to keep a natural colored bezel. The new phone is worse with blue streaks instead of dots. This is not “normal” timed exposures.

Hi, and you’re addressing/responding to me why? Words are cheap. The expression in photography is if there’s no photos, it never happened. Please post some examples displaying the issue you’re describing, with basic EXIF data, like this screenshot.

This is off my iPad, your iPhone will have the info at the bottom of the screenshot but let’s see your settings. Thank you for your participation.

Before the update I hadn't this problem. After 18.2 update, that blue haze appeared to night photos

I also have this issue. Took mine into the Apple Store and they tried to tell me it was normal and was light bleed.

still not sure how you get light bleed when you take a photo with the phone completely wrapped up.

You are not the first person i have seen complaining of this issue either.

Not normal, I saw a few people complaining about the same issue on another forum.

I did the test myself with 30secs exposure time and the photo comes out pitch black (no blue artefacts, no hot pixels).

Yes, I have this issue. Mine is getting worse. It started with blue stripes but now the whole photo is blue in low light photo. So frustrating because I use my camera for personal and work. I see a lot of people having this issue and would hope Apple would fix this problem!!!!!!!

What I find strange about this is if I leave the camera on auto-shutter in night mode (5 seconds) this issue doesn’t happen at all. The photo is jet black. Only if I adjust it for 30 seconds then I see all the blue lines. I’d think even at 5 seconds there would be some blue, and makes me wonder if the 30 second exposure could be fixed in software?