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iPhone 16 Pro Max Front Camera Blurriness

My sister and I recently upgraded from the iPhone 11 to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and we have both noticed a drastic difference in the front camera quality. Whether it be on Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, or even the Camera app that comes on every iPhone, the front camera sucks. As soon as you use the camera, it’s super blurry, and the quality is terrible. If you stay still, it will clear up, but if you move around, it gets blurry again. It’s extremely aggravating because I’ve tried messing around with the camera settings, and nothing helps. Is anyone else having a similar issue?


iPhone 16 Pro Max, iOS 18

Posted on Oct 5, 2024 7:23 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 8, 2024 9:19 PM

Me too!! Also upgraded to 16 Pro from an 11 and my front camera will not focus on Snapchat. It’s driving me insane.

36 replies

Dec 26, 2024 12:09 PM in response to Jeff Donald

Hi,


I believe the issue of blurry photos taken by the front facing camera is caused by the following setting:


Settings > Camera > Portraits in Photo Mode


The description in this setting states: “Automatically capture depth information if a person, dog or cat is prominent in the frame in Photo mode so you can apply Portrait effects later.”


When this is enabled, you will see a portrait icon on the top left of each photo and have the possibility to retrospectively turn on portrait mode on your photos. However I believe even though this feature works well with the back camera, it’s causing problems for the front facing camera focus.


Photos were out of focus and blurry for me, but look fine now after disabling it so whoever is facing this issue please give this a go - hope it helps!


The iPhone 16 is a great piece of tech and I believe this is an iOS issue that’s causing this problem, I hope it gets fixed soon and I hope you all don’t get too frustrated over your new (and arguably the most expensive) devices because of this.

Nov 25, 2024 8:34 AM in response to allifromia

Can you post an image from the front facing camera? I’ve an iPhone 16 Pro Max and its cameras are fine.


There’s an old saying in the camera/photo business; “if there’s no photos it never happened.”


I posted requests for photos dozens of times to help with the issue. If you’re not willing to post photos, it’s pointless contributing here. The issue can’t be properly diagnosed without examples.


Apple Support Community is a public discussion forum for fellow Apple users to assist each other and share tips and solutions. Apple hosts the community, but is not a participant and will never read your comment. If you would like to leave feedback for Apple please use the link below.


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Nov 29, 2024 2:40 PM in response to iFinder

There’s an old saying among photographers. Show me the photos or it never happened. Post examples or this is pure speculation.


My best guest is people’s frustration needs to be with the third party apps that aren’t updating the apps to take advantage of the better iPhone front facing camera.


The picture I posted was taken 30 minutes ago, in a dark restaurant while I was sitting at the bar watching football. There’s nothing wrong with the image (other than the subject).

Dec 15, 2024 6:05 AM in response to shiannawill

It’s the Snapchat app, not your camera. Make sure you’re using the latest version of Snapchat.


Snapchat has updated their app 8 times in the last month and 3 times in just the last week. All the updates list bug fixes. What does that tell you about the quality of their app?


If the issue persists after updating please contact Snapchat support for assistance.

Jan 11, 2025 4:24 AM in response to Apobangpo13

Me too!!! At the beginning of December I "upgraded" from iPhone 15 to iPhone 16 Pro.

Initially I thought I had a defective model, so I went to the Apple Store (Carosello, Italy) to do some comparison tests: thanks to the helpfulness of the staff, I was able to take several photos with the devices present in the showroom, also trying different software settings, and the result was shocking: all the iPhone 16 Pros have the same very low image quality.

Nov 29, 2024 4:34 PM in response to moneymary

Please read the thread you posted in. The issue is Instagram needs to update their app.


You can do a test yourself. Shot a live video using the native Apple Camera app. Then shoot the same scene/selfie with the Instagram Live app. Then share the links to the videos.


There’s an old saying among photographers. Show me the photos or it never happened. Post examples or this is pure speculation.



iPhone 16 Pro Max Front Camera Blurriness

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