Is Your iPhone 13 Turning Pink? Here’s What’s Going on (And How to Fix It)

It would appear that Apple is having another crisis of colour with its latest iPhone models, with some users encountering shades of pink on their screens.

It’s not the first time iPhone users have run into these kinds of colouration problems. Two years ago, a similar issue seemed to plague the iPhone 11, albeit with a strange green tint instead.

Of course, it wasn’t easy being green in those days, but it sounds like pink may just be worse. Not only is this problem still reportedly eluding Apple’s engineers, but it’s often accompanied by other more serious issues, such as sluggish performance and unexpected shutdowns.

By contrast, the green-hued iPhone 11 models seemed to only be plagued by the colour change. If you could stand the sickly green shading, you could otherwise use your iPhone 11 normally.

For those iPhone 13 users now seeing pink, however, the colour may just be the first harbinger of more serious issues to come, which means it’s important to get it dealt with more quickly.

The issue isn’t entirely new, as we’ve been hearing reports of this going back to October, not long after the iPhone 13 went on sale. However, it’s becoming more widespread, and so far, there doesn’t seem to be a fix in sight.

As 9to5Mac points out, Apple Support generally pointed to it being a hardware problem in the past, however it’s more recently acknowledged the possibility of a software bug, but there still doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason as to why it’s happening.

For instance, multiple reports on Reddit range from users having it kick in when trying to use Apple Maps navigation, suggestions of GPU problems, and also issues related to rapid battery drain and the iPhone locking up.

How to Fix a Pink iPhone Screen (For Now)

Sadly, Apple has yet to come out with a more conclusive fix, although it has acknowledged the problem, while also suggesting it’s more prevalent with iPhone models sold in China, for some reason.

If you’re experiencing this issue, however, there are a few things you can try to rectify it until a more permanent solution is available.

1. First off, contact Apple Support right away. Either visit your local Apple Store or Authorized Apple Service Provider (AASP), or call them by phone. It’s important to get this issue onto their radar as soon as possible, and there’s always the chance that a support rep could simply offer to replace your iPhone 13 entirely.
2. Restart your iPhone. Shut it down completely by holding down the Sleep/Wake and Volume Up buttons on either side and then swipe to power off. Give it a few seconds, and then power it back on with the Sleep/Wake button. This reportedly resolves the issue for most people, although it seems it’s only a temporary solution at best.
3. Make sure you’re running the latest version of iOS 15. It’s unclear if iOS 15.2.1 fixes it, but iOS 15.3 is likely just around the corner, and it’s possible that Apple may have addressed it in that version.
4. Delete or Update Problematic Apps. If you notice the pink screen showing up only when you’ve been using certain apps — either while using them or shortly after closing them — then that may be a smoking gun. Check for updates to those apps, and if there are none available, consider deleting those apps outright, and restart your iPhone after doing so just to make sure nothing’s left floating around in memory.
5. Restore your iPhone. If nothing else works, and the problem is becoming annoying enough, you may have to take the brute-force approach of wiping your iPhone completely and restoring it from backup. Or, perhaps even avoiding the backup entirely for a while to see if the problem recurs.
   

Some reports of conversations with Apple support have suggested that the problem could be related to older apps that haven’t been updated or optimized for iOS 15 and the iPhone 13. It’s unclear if that’s entirely true, or even if it is, if those apps are the only culprit. Even so, the blame wouldn’t so much lie with the apps themselves as it would with iOS 15 and the iPhone 13 hardware, which should certainly have mitigations against poorly behaved apps.

So far, there’s no evidence to suggest that Apple knows what’s going on or has a solution in mind. The release notes for the iOS 15.3 release candidate (RC) make no mention of it, but we can certainly hope that perhaps the company has quietly slipped a fix into that update, or at least done something to help address the issue.