Apple to Fix Camera Glitch Affecting iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro

Apple is planning to release a fix for an iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro camera bug that causes black boxes to appear in photos. CNN Underscored's Henry Casey discovered the issue in an iPhone Air review when snapping photos at a concert.

iphone air silver
He said that one out of every 10 images taken with the ‌iPhone Air‌ or the ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ had "small blacked-out portions, including boxes and parts of white squiggles" that showed up from the LED board at the event.

Apple told Casey that it's an issue that can occur in "very rare cases when an LED light display is extremely bright and shining directly into the camera." Apple has a fix, and plans to release it in an upcoming software update.

Apple did not provide a timeline on when the software update might be released, but the new models are set to launch on Friday, September 19.

Related Roundups: iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone Air
Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

Aston Martin CarPlay Ultra Screen

Apple's CarPlay Ultra to Expand to These Vehicle Brands Later This Year

Sunday February 1, 2026 10:08 am PST by
Last year, Apple launched CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. Nearly nine months later, CarPlay Ultra is still limited to Aston Martin's latest luxury vehicles, but that should change fairly soon. In May 2025, Apple said many other vehicle brands planned to offer CarPlay Ultra, including Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis. In his Powe...
Apple Logo Black

Apple Just Made Its Second-Biggest Acquisition Ever After Beats

Thursday January 29, 2026 10:07 am PST by
Apple today confirmed to Reuters that it has acquired Q.ai, an Israeli startup that is working on artificial intelligence technology for audio. Apple paid close to $2 billion for Q.ai, according to sources cited by the Financial Times. That would make this Apple's second-biggest acquisition ever, after it paid $3 billion for the popular headphone and audio brand Beats in 2014. Q.ai has...
Apple Logo Black

Apple's Next Launch is 'Imminent'

Sunday February 1, 2026 12:31 pm PST by
The calendar has turned to February, and a new report indicates that Apple's next product launch is "imminent," in the form of new MacBook Pro models. "All signs point to an imminent launch of next-generation MacBook Pros that retain the current form factor but deliver faster chips," Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said on Sunday. "I'm told the new models — code-named J714 and J716 — are slated...
14 inch MacBook Pro Keyboard

Apple Changes How You Order a Mac

Saturday January 31, 2026 10:51 am PST by
Apple recently updated its online store with a new ordering process for Macs, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. There used to be a handful of standard configurations available for each Mac, but now you must configure a Mac entirely from scratch on a feature-by-feature basis. In other words, ordering a new Mac now works much like ordering an...
Apple MacBook Pro M4 hero

New MacBook Pros Reportedly Launching Alongside macOS 26.3

Sunday February 1, 2026 5:42 am PST by
Apple is planning to launch new MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips alongside macOS 26.3, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. "Apple's faster MacBook Pros are planned for the macOS 26.3 release cycle," wrote Gurman, in his Power On newsletter today. "I'm told the new models — code-named J714 and J716 — are slated for the macOS 26.3 software cycle, which runs from...

Top Rated Comments

zenmacx Avatar
20 weeks ago
It remains a curiosity how with all the resources this company has, that issues like this escape quality control.
Score: 40 Votes (Like | Disagree)
aries81 Avatar
20 weeks ago

Especially from a concert of all things; as much as I hate it, probably the thing you see most at any live event nowadays.
actually glad to see this happening.

PUT YOUR EFFING PHONES AWAY AT CONCERTS
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BGrifter Avatar
20 weeks ago
oh sure, the Air and the Pro get squiggles and boxes while the base iPhone 17 is out in the cold.

Apple always trying to price ladder me up to the squigglier phone.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ctcwired Avatar
20 weeks ago
This appears to be a similar glitch to what some RED cameras used to do in their HDRx mode, when combining multiple shutter exposures into a single image for better dynamic range.

I'm guessing the lines are from some kind of sharpening algorithm that got scaled or timed incorrectly, and the black spot is a failed merge of different exposure in that spot. Concerts can be quite flashy and cause things like shutter speed to change rapidly, so I'm guessing something in the pipeline lagged a bit too much.



Attachment Image
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
relaxedpanda Avatar
20 weeks ago
If only the majority of Apple’s QA teams were not previous Apple Retail employees……………….
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Love-hate ? relationship Avatar
20 weeks ago
what the hell. how does this pass qc
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)