iPhone XS Back Camera Black

[Zange366]

I’ve been a long time lurker and now with something to post, I hope to receive some help with an issue I am facing with my phone's camera. I appreciate any assistance or advice, thank you!


iPhone XS 256GB

Since this fall the back camera displays as black. I have done a factory settings reset and full reset, neither yielding results. For a while, if I did a hard restart two or three times it would come back for an hour or so but that is no longer the case.

I would think that it is a hardware issue but the front camera is buggy as well. Other apps will not recognize either camera, but if I go in to the camera app and flip to the front camera, the front camera becomes functional on all apps. Many apps, which normally default to the back camera, will then default to the front camera somehow acknowledging that the back camera is not functioning.

I have taken my phone to the genius bar on two different occasions but both times it would start working again after the multiple hard resets while I was waiting. Diagnostics also came back as fine. Since then however no amount of restarts fixes the camera, as if the issue is degenerative. The employees had no advice other than a shrug and suggesting a replacement for the back camera without much confidence that it would resolve the issue.


What should my next steps be? Do you think it is a hardware or software issue?

 

[BugeyeSTI]

When you say reset, do you mean restarting the phone or do you mean using the reset settings function on the phone? If it’s either of those, my suggestion is to do a full restore using iTunes and setup as new without using your backup. If the camera still doesn’t function I’d say it’s definitely a hardware issue

 

[Zange366]

When you say reset, do you mean restarting the phone or do you mean using the reset settings function on the phone? If it’s either of those, my suggestion is to do a full restore using iTunes and setup as new without using your backup. If the camera still doesn’t function I’d say it’s definitely a hardware issue

I used the reset options on the phone, do not have a computer currently. Thank you for the advice. I guess I will need to try and take it in again.