If you’re having trouble getting your Apple Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter to work with your phone or tablet after the latest update, you’re not alone. iOS 16.5 and iPadOS 16.5 rolled out on Thursday with additional wallpaper options, a new Sports tab for Apple News and more — while also apparently breaking compatibility with this popular Apple accessory.
The dongle connects to an iPhone or iPad through the charging port and comes with a USB-A port for hooking up a camera, microphone or other USB-powered accessory to your Apple phone or tablet. It also has a built-in Lightning port so you can simultaneously charge your device.
As spotted by MacRumors, Apple users across Reddit and the Apple Support Community forums are running into issues where, after the latest update, the adapter no longer powers devices connected to either of these ports. When plugging an accessory into the USB-A port, an error message reportedly pops up claiming the adapter requires too much power to operate.
Apple bills this dongle, which retails for $39, as an adapter specifically for cameras. But iPhone and iPad users rely on it for connecting a range of USB-powered products to their Apple devices, from digital audio converters to Ethernet adapters.
When can we expect a fix?
The underlying cause remains unclear. Signs point to it being a software bug just given how soon reports of the issue began popping up following the release of iOS 16.5. Apple’s likely to add a patch in a future iOS version.
That could still be many weeks if not months away. The first betas of iOS 16.6 and iPadOS 16.6 went out to developers on Friday, according to MacRumors. It’s possible Apple could release an iOS 16.5.1 update in the meantime to fix compatibility sooner than that.
iOS 16.5 was a relatively minor update overall, though it did tackle some bugs with Spotlight becoming unresponsive and Screen Time settings syncing across devices. Apple’s been rolling out updates to iOS 16 since last fall, and the biggest additions came early on.
We’re likely to see what major changes Apple has planned for iOS in just a few weeks at Apple’s WWDC 2023 keynote. There, the company is expected to announce iOS 17 and debut its long-rumored Apple AR/VR headset among other announcements.