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iPhone 12 Crash/Freezing, Pink Glitch/Artifacts, Static

Bluetoot-

Bluetoot-

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 16, 2020
413
576
This evening, I was watching a video on my phone, and it bugged out in a way I’ve never seen before.

The phone suddenly froze and displayed some pink artifacts on the screen and made a short static-like noise. The phone remained this way for about 15 seconds. After that, it restarted itself.

This has only happened once (this evening). Apple iMessage support chat of course was no help. The diagnostic said the display is fine (it’s not the display but whoever is on the other end is really good at sticking to their script).

I’ve attached a photo. It’s not my own; found on Google. But it looked almost exactly like this. Anyone else ever see this before?

I sincerely hope I don’t have to deal with Apple Support again. They are a freaking nightmare.
 

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Wow, it looks like someone took a pink marker to it. Do you live close enough to an Apple Store to make a Genius Bar appointment?
 
This is my first time seeing this. At first glance, it looks like a screen problem. Did you recently dropped your phone or something?

If not, have you tried to factory reset your iPhone? Factory reset should rule out if this is an OS issue, otherwise, your screen might be damaged.

Edit: Try doing a restart first. Lol. I forgot.
 
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duanepatrick said:
This is my first time seeing this. At first glance, it looks like a screen problem. Did you recently dropped your phone or something?

If not, have you tried to factory reset your iPhone? Factory reset should rule out if this is an OS issue, otherwise, your screen might be damaged.

Edit: Try doing a restart first. Lol. I forgot.
Click to expand...
The display was replaced about a month or two ago for the green tint issue.

However, I’m hesitant to say it’s the display. I’m not sure why the phone would freeze and emit a sound.

Wow, it looks like someone took a pink marker to it. Do you live close enough to an Apple Store to make a Genius Bar appointment?
Click to expand...

Apple Store is very close but I have a bad reputation there, it seems. I got the same advisor for two different issues and both times he gave me the run-around. Pretty sure they think I’m a grifter or something. (“AirPods exhibiting the whooshing sound in ANC? There’s no way I could possibly test that except by flicking through my iPad!” “Display has green tint in the dark? Well, not according to this iPad!”)
 
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That happens in computers sometimes too. Usually coming from a hardware failure or glitch such as the graphics card. Stop by an apple store sometime. I bet they tell you everything’s alright though. It probably won’t be able to be replicated. Or an issue found unless it happens again. In front of an apple person. It could have been just a freak glitch or an underlying hardware issue. Is my guess.

It could very well be a pinched screen cable as well. It honestly could be a few different things.
 
Bluetoot- said:
This evening, I was watching a video on my phone, and it bugged out in a way I’ve never seen before.

The phone suddenly froze and displayed some pink artifacts on the screen and made a short static-like noise. The phone remained this way for about 15 seconds. After that, it restarted itself.

This has only happened once (this evening). Apple iMessage support chat of course was no help. The diagnostic said the display is fine (it’s not the display but whoever is on the other end is really good at sticking to their script).

I’ve attached a photo. It’s not my own; found on Google. But it looked almost exactly like this. Anyone else ever see this before?

I sincerely hope I don’t have to deal with Apple Support again. They are a freaking nightmare.
Click to expand...
Yo bro, did you ever fix this? I'm currently having the same problem and have tried reinstalling IOS, factory resetting etc but it's still happening. I assume its a hardware issue?
 
Just came here to say I've been experiencing the EXACT same issue with my iPhone SE (2020) after upgrading to iOS 16. Upgrading to iOS 16.0.2 didn't solve the problem either. I'm inclined to think that this is a software rather than a hardware issue given that it only started happening since I installed iOS 16 and I've never seen this behaviour before then. For me, some apps are affected more than others - such as the Home app when I scroll up and down through my smart devices or on the new customisable lock screen - intermittent pink glitches and occasional pauses. XBox mobile app is badly affected too - yet if I fire up some Apple Arcade games, they play absolutely fine without any issues.

I've tried soft and hard resets, recovery mode reinstalls, DFU mode reinstalls - but no luck with any of them - unfortunately iOS 15.x is no longer signed by Apple so I can't go back to those versions (at least not via official means, i.e. iTunes) - I wish I'd taken a local backup via iTunes before upgrading although this is the first time I've had such issues, at least then I'd be able to roll everything back - normally I just do the regular iCloud backup before upgrading but that doesn't backup iOS, just my app configuration, data and photos.

From what I can see, the issue doesn't seem to be widespread, but in some respects it's reassuring to see that I'm not the only one.

I've attached a photo (sorry its a little blurry) but you get the idea...

vlcsnap-2022-09-17-20h49m15s159.png
 
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Hoodwinkedfool said:
Registered to say it just happened to me. On an iPhone 12 Pro Max and iOS 16. It went distorted with pink and restarted.
Click to expand...
I've seen a few different posts were people have said it caused their phone to restart - it's never gone quite that far for me - just temporary pauses where the screen becomes unresponsive before continuing. In my case it started happening immediately after I installed iOS 16 - I was looking forward to trying out the new customisable lock screen - as soon as I went to tweak it for the first time thats when I started to witness this behaviour - I was kinda hoping this would be a more widespread problem that lots of people were reporting and that Apple had identified an issue to be addressed in the next release but it would appear that the numbers of people affected by this is relatively few - at least not a large enough volume to result in lots of articles on tech websites discussing the problem.

Is this the first time you've experienced this and do you recall what you were doing on the phone at the time it occurred?
 
IDoAllMyOwnStunts said:
I've seen a few different posts were people have said it caused their phone to restart - it's never gone quite that far for me - just temporary pauses where the screen becomes unresponsive before continuing. In my case it started happening immediately after I installed iOS 16 - I was looking forward to trying out the new customisable lock screen - as soon as I went to tweak it for the first time thats when I started to witness this behaviour - I was kinda hoping this would be a more widespread problem that lots of people were reporting and that Apple had identified an issue to be addressed in the next release but it would appear that the numbers of people affected by this is relatively few - at least not a large enough volume to result in lots of articles on tech websites discussing the problem.

Is this the first time you've experienced this and do you recall what you were doing on the phone at the time it occurred?
Click to expand...
I was just browsing Twitter and clicked on some link and that’s when it all went pink and distorted. My first thought was to try and take a screenshot, even though of course that wouldn’t work, but it started to reset before I could.
 
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Hoodwinkedfool said:
I was just browsing Twitter and clicked on some link and that’s when it all went pink and distorted. My first thought was to try and take a screenshot, even though of course that wouldn’t work, but it started to reset before I could.
Click to expand...
Yeah - I tried to enable screen recording on mine before going back into one of my affected apps and the phone completely hung on me - had to do a force restart - tried this multiple times with the same end result - and taking photos directly on the device was largely unsuccessful with none (or very little) of the pink artefacts being captured in the image.

My phone hasn't been dropped (or had anything else dropped on it) - I generally take pretty good care of it, so I feel (or at least hope) its not a hardware issue - as I said earlier, this issue started occurring for me as soon as I booted iOS 16 for the firs time - but is seems that some people have been experiencing very similar symptoms before iOS 16 was released - the OP post was back in Sep 2021.
 
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I experienced the pink pixel patterns phenomenon with 2 different 12 Pro phones. After I sent back the first one to apple a few days after I received it, because of constant crashes and pink (and sometimes other colours) pixels, I received a replacement refurbished 12 pro, which does not crash, but shows the pink pixels at least once a day. Preferably when using the photos, messages or findmy apps, but also in the settings. Seems to be quite rare, since I haven't seen much info on it apart from here... Happened instantly after upgrading to iOS16. I would have skipped the iOS16 Upgrade, but was forced to do so during setup. Why on earth do they do this?
 
Legit just happened to me on my iPhone 12 ... i was reading manga on some website so i thought it was the website giving me some sort of virus and I freaked out. Turns out that's not the cause though (thank god). anyway read chainsaw man
 
This just happened to me while on tiktok! I updated my phone recently, could that possibly be it?
 
any updates on this issue. i am facing the same issue. it started showing pink pixel pattern after installing a game recently. the app is frozen completely with pink pattern. and after exiting the app i seen the pattern randomly flashing for a brief second and disapearing in other apps also. if it is a software issue i will be fine but if it is a hardware issue i will be done.
 
Hello all! Long time. My solution was to switch to an Android device lol. I was fed up with the iPhone 12 and the myriad issues I had with it.

I have recently bought a 14 Pro Max which is a vastly superior device. No display issues thus far.
 
iPhone 12 64GB
Model: MGEF3LL/A
iOS 16.0

This just happened to me while watching a video. It made a 1-2 second static sound, while the screen dimmed and some purple squares appeared on the screen. It stayed frozen like this for about 5 seconds before restarting.

The phone has been dropped once in its lifetime. Never any exposure to water. Never had the need to replace any parts or any kind of maintenance.

The issue is reminiscent of a GPU failure that I've experienced on PCs before. I really hope that is not the case and that this was just a one time occurrence.

It appears iOS 16.4.1 is available so maybe I'll update tonight and hope that resolves it.
 
The same exact thing happened to me on June 16th, 2023. Iphone 12 Pro. I was on Facetime with a friend and clicked on the Safari app. It made a loud static sound for a few seconds and turned into square-looking shapes in purple and then shut off.

No damage to the phone, has always had a case and screen protector.
 
Bluetoot- said:
This evening, I was watching a video on my phone, and it bugged out in a way I’ve never seen before.

The phone suddenly froze and displayed some pink artifacts on the screen and made a short static-like noise. The phone remained this way for about 15 seconds. After that, it restarted itself.

This has only happened once (this evening). Apple iMessage support chat of course was no help. The diagnostic said the display is fine (it’s not the display but whoever is on the other end is really good at sticking to their script).

I’ve attached a photo. It’s not my own; found on Google. But it looked almost exactly like this. Anyone else ever see this before?

I sincerely hope I don’t have to deal with Apple Support again. They are a freaking nightmare.
Click to expand...
dude this was happened to me like 30 minutes before. the situation is when my iphone12 is plugged lightning charge(20watt) and im playing games as i always do it(charging while gaming) and suddenly my screen freezed and at some part on my screen appear purple screen and i hear crack noise from the lightning port(the situation is, im using bluetooth headset) and when im swiping up(go to home) the phone not responding at all, and then i quickly press the power button and the phone finally do some action, the phone died as i press the power button and then i pressed it again it start to restart and my phone work normally again, it can still hear sound from both speaker, still can do camera and true tone like nothing happened. i do personally think its the matter of charging that makes like short circuit and something sh8t fired up inside the phone, but idk the real cause of this problem.. but at least my phone after that disaster happened is still doing fine, thank god
 
happened to me. After I took it to the apple, they replaced the screen and it didnt fix the issue.Turns there was an issue with the graphics output on the motherboard.
 
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