My camera doesn’t seem to work anymore after updating to IOS 26.1. It turns dark immediately I open the camera App. It’s impossible to take pictures with both front and back camera.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: camera glitch after updating IOS 26.1
iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 26
If the camera does not work even after a restart, it may indicate a hardware issue.
In my case, however, restarting the device or changing the system language temporarily restored the camera, but the issue reappeared after a few hours or a few days. When launching the Camera app, the preview appears briefly, becomes blurred (similar to the transition during lens switching), and then freezes after a few seconds.
Even after erasing the device and restoring from a backup, the problem reoccurred a few days later. Over time, the frequency of the issue gradually increased, which made it seem like something abnormal was progressing.
After that, I reset all settings and used the device with default settings only, and the problem has not recurred for over a week.
I have not yet identified which specific setting was responsible, but the non-default camera-related settings I previously used were:
• Video resolution set to 4K
• ProRAW controls enabled
• All “Preserve Settings” options enabled
• Liquid Glass disabled via Accessibility settings
Do any of you experiencing similar issues have these settings in common?
Have you updated to iOS 26.3 released over a week ago? Have you had Apple diagnostics on your device performed? If so, what are the results?
Your phone doesn’t need a repair.. mine is doing the SAME exact thing since updating it to 26.1! It’s so annoying! My camera will open and if it loads from a black screen at all-it freezes after 2 seconds of it being opened. Hopefully they fix this fast!
Exact same issues since updating to 26.1. Tried several things to fix it but all only fix it for a while and then the same issue reoccurs.
Symptom: screen turns greyish or black when opening Camera or any other app using the camera.
Have tried:
1 hard reset (voluptuous, volume down, holding right button till appte logo appears)
2 Reset iPhone (settings - general) which involves reconfiguring Face ID, Apple Pay, all accessibility settings erc
3 turned off the camera setting Lock screen swipe to open camera
I have an iPhone 12. Really wondering what else I can do. So many people face these issues since iOS 26.1.
About time that Apple provides a fix!!
or does anyone still have some tip?
Updating to 26.2 did not fix the issue for me. The camera worked for a day or so and then again the same issue reoccurred: the screen turns greyish/black making it impossible to take picture and brewing all apps that use the camera.
I had reset all settings, put all camera settings back to defaults and now am clueless what to do to fix this.
i now regularly restart my iPhone (volume up, volume down and hold side button till apple logo appears) to get it working again for a while.
Pretty fed up with this issue. Any new clues from anyone?
Like many things in life, reality lies somewhere in the middle. Some iPhone owners have broken/defective cameras. Some iPhone owners have a software issue. Whether it was caused by the update, a prior incident that finally manifested itself or just a coincidence, owners are upset. If the hardware is defective, no update is going to fix defective hardware.
How do you determine hardware is defective? Apple and some authorized service providers can diagnose most hardware failures. However, it’s not able to 100% of the time. That leaves the alternative of getting the defective module replaced, but at an expense if device is out of warranty. The other option is wait for an update. Screaming and writing juvenile comments doesn’t get the issue resolved and faster. The update will come out when Apple’s engineers feel it’s ready and resolves the issues they’ve been able to diagnose and find a solution.
I’ve been an Apple user since the early 1990’s. In the mid 2000’s I went to work for Apple and then retired some years later. I’ve seen hundreds if not thousands of bug updates during that time. In my experience, if the third or fourth update doesn’t resolve the issue, it’s a hardware failure. You may disagree, and that’s your prerogative. Wait for iOS 27 if it makes you happy.
The choice comes down to having a working camera or not. Either fix it and start taking pictures or wait. If you’ve got another camera or older iPhone, wait. If you don't have another camera, weigh out losing all the memories (photos) while you wait for a fix that may never come. So, is waiting a month or more worth the cost of the repair or are the photos lost of equal or greater value. No one here can answer for you.
I wish you luck and a happy new year.
Still waiting for Apple to fix this issue!!
I have an iPhone 16 Pro and ever since I updated to version 26.2.1, I find that the camera app regularly freezes, the camera screen goes blurry/black, and it won’t let me take photos or videos until I do a force restart to temporarily fix the issue… that is until it happens once again. So frustrating that this still hasn’t been fixed!
a 3rd party app blackmagic and it works.
I have a very similar problem, though for me it is not necessarily consistant. So far, when I use the camera app, everything is fine and it will be for a few hours/days, though every other app (snapchat, instagram, files, etc.) cannot access the camera; the screen is simply completely back for both the front and back cameras. What has worked has been to simply restart my phone and after that it'd be alright, however it is quite annoying especially when doing things like document scans, video calls, etc. Hope they fix this with an update soon!
Baunddoc - does your camera still work? Asking as for most (all?) in this thread the issue seems to reoccur even after a reset of all settings. A phone restart only fixes it for a while and then the camera fails again. Also upgrading to IOS 26.2 did not fix it for me.
iphonewontring wrote:
Apple ran the software hardware test three times on my phone all past. Best Buy had a camera test that they did and showed the Camera failed when they put in the other app it worked. It’s attributed to iOS 26. there was never an issue prior to the update which proves it’s an iOS issue not a hardware issue.
If iOS caused the camera to fail, it would cause it to fail for everyone, but it didn't. And this forum would be flooded with people complaing, yet it's not. And the tech press would be posting articles about such a failure, but they're not. iOS didn't cause your camera to fail.
It would depend on what phone model you have. Software updates affect each phone version differently. That comes directly from a software engineer who writes software for a major defense contractor i use to work with.
I also know people with an iPhone on iOS 26.1 that don’t have the camera issue. Yet am just saying that quite some folks do have the issue post the 26.1 update as indicated by several posts, articles and YouTube videos around this. And the folks reporting this have all kinds of iPhones; 13, 14, 16, 17. Ruling out that this would be some hardware issue that all of sudden surfaced for all those impacted.
This cannot be ignored and Apple should take this seriously.
Previous time I got it checked the guy did a hard restart and the problem then is that it seems solved. Yet couple hours or day later or so the issue reoccurs. Totally frustrating. As mentioned earlier even reset of all settings did not help. And I read the same in other posts.
I went thru a complete reset and that did nothing at the apple store. It's a software issue. they tried saying it was hardware but we proved that not to be the case as the video work just not the camera. Apple has major software issue on it's products. My watch told me yesterday i had a sleep apnea while the watch was on my nightstand and not on my wrist. LOL
yes - that's when the issue occured. Camera not working like it was - no macro, no .5 setting, no zoom, facetime camera doesn't work either, cannot do selfies/reverse camera - which means no video calls either.
I guess after seeing the FAQ’s I have the same camera problem as others after the 26.1 update. I also can’t organize my photos . After the update I only have the pictures that I have taken in the past few weeks , nothing else. I seem to have lost over 4600 images.I also can’t go from my photo app to my iCloud or drop box to get them back. I am very displeased right now. Rebooting doesn’t help and I am not even going to do the reset.
iPhone camera not working after iOS 26 update
