iPhone 12 mini Camera Freezing/Black? Fix

Your iPhone 12 mini camera may be freezing due to solvable issues.

It truly is a nuisance to deal with a freezing iPhone 12 mini camera. And to think you own the latest iPhone—it’s supposed to have high-quality camera, right?

Sadly, even the native camera app on your iPhone 12 mini is not immune to hang-ups and slip-ups.

Now, before you leave a scathing review on Apple’s App Store, take a second and breathe. Freezing cameras are often manageable and don’t need expert help—unless bad becomes worse.

In this post, we listed down the likely culprits behind a freezing iPhone 12 mini camera and how to fix them.

When you’re equipped with the best iPhone, like the iPhone 12 mini, it becomes pretty much everything for you, including the best camera. After all, you know what they say — the best camera is the one that’s with you. Our iPhone is perfect for capturing those special occasions to spontaneous moments and even other fun things like food pics or other objects.

However, as great as the iPhone 12 mini is, it’s not perfect, and glitches do come up now and then, such as the black screen in the Camera app. This is especially annoying since the moment may have already passed, and you can’t capture it again — it has definitely happened to me a few times. If you’ve made sure that it wasn’t anything covering the lens (hey, it happens), then here’s how to fix the iPhone 12 mini camera freezing issue or black screen in the Camera app viewfinder.

What to do if iPhone 12 mini camera freeze

First off, it would be better to get to the root of the problem, trying to figure out the reasons why the iPhone 12 mini camera app stops working or freezing out of the blue.

Why does iPhone 12 mini Camera Freeze?

There is no definitive answer to why the camera app on iPhone 12 mini freezes randomly. But, there are some possible reasons that cause the stock camera app on an iPhone to stop working. From what I can tell based on my personal experience, it’s the occasional software glitches that cause the problem.

Besides, you shouldn’t rule out the possibility of bugs preventing the camera app from working normally. Let’s look into each aspect and try to troubleshoot the ill-functioning camera app on your iPhone 12 mini. It’s worth pointing out that most of these tricks also work in resolving the camera app not working issue on iPad. So, it doesn’t matter if you are facing camera problems on your iPhone 12 mini or iPad Pro, check out these tips to fix the problem.

1. Force Quit the Camera App and Relaunch It

On some occasions, you can fix the iPhone 12 mini camera freezing problem by force quitting the camera app and relaunching it. While Apple’s motto is “it just works,” sometimes it doesn’t. Apple isn’t perfect, so its operating systems certainly aren’t immune to errors now and then — sometimes they aren’t properly loaded up when launched. In this case, you should try force quitting out of the Camera app and relaunch it. This is how the black screen in the Camera app issue usually resolves for me.

To force Quit Camera App on iPhone 12 mini: Swipe up from the bottom and then hold along the middle of the screen. Then, swipe up on the app card to close the camera app.

When too many apps remain open in the background, it tends to create problems and slow down your iPhone over time. So, I would also recommend you to force quit all open apps on your iPhone. Now, launch the Camera app on Your iPhone 12 mini once again to see if it has started to work as expected.

2. Switch between the front and rear cameras

Sometimes, the black screen in the Camera app on iPhone 12 minican be resolved by just switching between the rear and front-facing selfie camera. The black screen could be caused by the app not loading properly, and each time you switch cameras, it forces the app to load again, so this could help. Another suggestion is to see if a third-party camera or video app works, such as Instagram or Snapchat.

3. Restart Your iPhone

If the other steps so far have not alleviated the problem of the iPhone 12 mini Camera freezing or black screen in the Camera app, you should try rebooting your iPhone. A good reboot of the hardware fixes a myriad of iPhone 12 mini problems and could be what your phone needs. After all, a reboot refreshes the device’s memory and clears caches.

To restart your iPhone 12 mini: Press and hold the volume button and side button at once. Then, drag the “power off” slider to shut down your iPhone. Now, wait for some time and then hold down the side button to reboot your device. This should hopefully fix iPhone 12 mini camera lag, freezing, and other similar issues.

4. Hard Reset Your iPhone

Whenever my iPhone faces a common issue, I usually go for a hard reset to iron out random software bugs, and it doesn’t disappoint me on most occasions. Given the high reliability, I’m going to count on it to resolve the iPhone 12 mini camera freezing problem as well.

To hard reset iPhone 12 mini: Press and quickly release the volume up button. Then, press and quickly release the volume down button. After that, hold down the side button until the screen goes black and the Apple logo shows up.

5. Reset All Settings

If The above methods fails, and you still see a black screen in the Camera app on iPhone 12 mini, you may need to try resetting your iPhone back to factory settings.

Go to Settings app on your iOS device-> General -> Reset -> Reset All Settings. Now, iOS may also ask you to enter your Screen Time passcode if you have set it up. Finally, hit the “Reset All Settings” button to finish.

6. Declutter Your iPhone

While decluttering the iPhone may not seem to be a surefire solution to fixing the iPhone 12 mini camera freezing or Black screen issue, it is related some way or the other. We all know how abnormally and sluggish a cluttered device feels. If a device does not have enough free space, it will face several issues, including overheating, crashing, battery draining, freezing, and the dreaded black screen of death. So, do not think that you are shooting in the dark with this one!

Before you wipe the redundant data, go to the Settings app -> General -> iPhone Storage. Now, iOS will present a breakdown of how the storage has been used on the iPhone. Besides, you will also be able to check how much storage each app consumes. It will not only help you nab the storage-hogging culprits but also give you a fair perspective about what you need to clean up.

7. Update Software on Your iPhone

If none of the tricks mentioned above help resolve the camera freezing on your iPhone 12 mini, you may be running an older version of iOS. Mybe you are experiencing glitches and bugs that may be patched in newer versions of the OS. It’s important to keep your hardware up-to-date with the latest versions of iOS. Not only do new versions of iOS patch previous issues, but they also make your device more secure and less vulnerable to security exploits.

Navigate to the Settings app on your iPhone -> General -> Software Update. Next, download and install the latest version of iOS on your iPhone. This could be helpful in solving the camera freezing, black screen, or other issues on your iPhone 12 mini.

8. Restore Your iPhone As New

If default factory settings did not work, the next step would be to erase all data and reset the phone — start with a clean slate, basically.

However, this is last resort steps and should only be used when everything else has failed. If you end up having to erase all of your data and resetting the phone, then make sure that you have backed up your iPhone first. Once you have backed up your device, open iTunes on your Mac running macOS Mojave or earlier or PC running Windows.

Do note that you will need to launch Finder on your Mac running macOS Catalina or later. Next, select your device and then click on Restore iPhone. After that, follow the on-screen instructions to restore your Device and fix the iPhone 12 mini camera freezing issue.

Note:

You can also restore your device without a computer. Head over to Settings app -> General -> Reset -> Erase All Content and Settings. After that, set up your device again. Along the way, restore your iPhone from an iCloud backup.

8. Contact Apple Support

If you have tried everything in this guide and still have the iPhone 12 mini camera freezing or black screen in the Camera app problem, then it may be an issue with your hardware. The only way to fix that is to contact Apple Support or take it to an authorized repair center to see what they can do.

iPhone 12 mini Camera Freezing/Black? Problem solved

That’s it! I guess the camera app has started to lbehave normally on your iPhone 12 mini again.
Questions?

Are you still having issues with the black screen in the Camera app on iPhone 12 mini? Or do you have another fix for the problem that we didn’t include here? Let us know in the comments!