iPhone 14 Pro afflicted by ‘slow-opening Camera app’

There’s apparently a fix on the way for the iPhone 14 Pro camera shake bug, but it seems that’s not the only issue with the new iPhone camera that users are encountering.

Where the issue with camera shake seems to relate to third-party camera apps, like Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok, this issue is affecting Apple’s own camera app in the iPhone 14 Pro and 4 Pro Max.

Multiple owners of the new iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max models have complained of a delay when opening the Camera app. In an apparent software problem that Apple has yet to acknowledge or address, commenters on a MacRumors forum thread report that it regularly takes four or five seconds for the Camera to open.

“I got the 14 Pro Max yesterday and straight away I noticed the Camera app is really slow to load,” writes one. “It takes ages to activate.”

Others explain that this fault applies in quite a narrow range of situations. It seems to affect the first-party Camera app only, with camera functions in third-party apps unaffected. One commenter notes that it affects the rear cameras but not the front one, and doesn’t seem to happen if Camera is set to video mode. And the delay only applies if Camera has been running previously; if the app or the phone are restarted, opening is instant.

“When restarting the phone and starting the Camera app the camera turns on immediately,” writes a commenter. “After closing and opening the Camera app it always takes 4-5 seconds for the camera to turn on.”

But while restarting the device provides short-term relief, it doesn’t permanently fix the issue. The next time you open the Camera app without restarting app or phone beforehand, it will again require five seconds to start up.

Aside from a force-restart, users also report that updating to iOS 16.0.1 doesn’t correct the problem, which suggests Apple either isn’t aware of it or didn’t know about it in time to include a patch in that update.

This is an embarrassing setback for Apple, which made a push this year to encourage customers to buy the more expensive Pro models and has already faced reports of a separate camera bug that caused a “shake” on third-party camera apps on the iPhone 14 Pro. A fix for that problem will reportedly go out next week; we would imagine that Apple will also aim to solve this issue as soon as possible.
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