Can Magnets Damage Your iPhone Camera? Here's What Apple Says

Getting your electronics near magnets can be scary. After all, if magnets can pull on other metallic objects, you might expect them to damage the internal components of your smartphone as well. We saw this with tech of the past, where getting a magnet near your old TV distorted the image or completely wiping your hard drive data by magnetism. Fortunately, most modern consumer devices are very resistant to small, everyday magnets, and can function fine even with a magnet directly affecting them.

Apple has a support page addressing the effect of magnetic accessories on your iPhone camera. The page only states that getting a strong magnet near the phone's camera can temporarily lead to the OIS (optical image stabilization) and closed-loop AF (autofocus) malfunctioning. This can cause photos taken to come out blurry or unfocused, but only with a magnet near the camera. 

The page mentions nothing about any negative long-term effects on your iPhone camera from having a magnet nearby. Even more promising, the support page is archived, which means Apple doesn't update it anymore, suggesting that this isn't a big issue. Even if your camera isn't working properly with a magnet nearby, removing the magnet and waiting for a bit will return it to normal. It's important to note that it's certainly possible for a strong enough magnet to permanently damage your phone, but this isn't likely with smaller magnets, such as those found inside MagSafe accessories that you use every day.

Apple does a lot of engineering to let you take professional photos with your iPhone camera, including an upcoming addition that will revolutionize your iPhone camera with a custom image sensor. One of the best features of the iPhone's camera that already exists in current phones is OIS, which adjusts your camera lens or sensor to counteract any sudden movements or shakiness when you're taking a picture or recording a video. Unlike digital stabilization, OIS uses magnets inside the phone to physically change the position of the lens or sensor in real-time according to how you move your phone.

Similarly, Apple uses a technology called closed-loop AF that uses magnets to calculate forces that the camera is being subjected to, such as gravity and vibrations, and it adjusts the focus in accordance with those calculations. Since both OIS and closed-loop AF use magnets, external magnetic fields more powerful than those used for MagSafe accessories can potentially interfere with the camera's performance, stopping it from working as intended. This is generally only a temporary issue, however, as both functions return to normal once they escape the magnetic field.