Why Your Smartphone Photos Have Dots (and How to Fix It)
Today’s smartphones take better photos and videos than the dedicated digital cameras of the past , but they’re not without flaws. On Reddit, some smartphone users are reporting that their photos are suffering from a recurring problem – strange spots (or dots) scattered across every image. No matter what they do, they cannot make the drops disappear. But there is a reason why they appear, and a way to fix it (although it may not be cheap).
beware of drops
This happened to me and my iPhone 11 Pro. I opened the box, set up my phone, and took my first shot with the latest triple camera system at the time, expecting to be impressed. And I was, except for a strange, faint blur hanging around the middle of the photo. I tried again – same thing. Then he carefully looked into the viewfinder, and, of course, with the right background, one could also see a noticeable dot there.
This Redditor on r/iPhone was also in a worse position than me. Their photo looks more like chicken pox:
But whether it’s one dot or many, the problem becomes even more unusual, as it usually only affects one of the cameras. Redditor had a problem with their ultra wide camera and I had a problem with the wide lens. If you switch to any other camera, the dots will disappear ( assuming iOS actually switches the camera and not just crops the affected lens ).
Your first impulse may be to clear the affected lens. Since it’s sometimes hard to tell which lens is which, you might want to clean them all just in case. Alas, the points remain, no matter how much you rub. This is because the problem is not on the outside of your lens, but on the inside.
What’s going on here is that dust has somehow gotten into the camera. In my case, this clearly happened during production, but in other cases, this debris may have infiltrated over time. This can be quite a problem, as it means that the seals around the camera that normally keep out dust and debris are damaged or broken. It’s not about opening the phone, cleaning the sensor, and minding your own business: if the seals don’t work, you’re only setting yourself up for more dust in the future.
In this case, it is best to send the phone in for repair, whether it is iPhone or Android. Regarding my issue, since the iPhone was brand new, Apple did a full replacement of the device with no questions asked. However, this is not always necessary – they can replace the camera module itself, which will be much cheaper than replacing the phone with a device that is not under warranty.
Of course, it is worth trying to clean the cameras first. You might be lucky and the problems go away as soon as you wipe the lenses – a fix that will cost you exactly $0.