Apple's Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter Not Working With iOS 16.5

[Wizec]

Regression testing is expensive and exceptionally time consuming if you try to get every cell in the supported matrix. So, shortcuts are taken.

Bug and feature development planning often makes selective tests based on what else “could” be affected by the new code, and you’re probably lucky if they even do that much planning and testing.

More and more it seems that unit tests are all that happens, and maybe a targeted feature test, but only the basics. No integration or user story tests.

 

[raythompsontn]

There is no software by any company in the history of mankind without bugs. If you have an example, I'm interested.

OK. I once wrote a program while in the USAF that consisted of two machine language program cards (Hollerith) for a IBM 1401 computer. The software ran flawlessly for several years with no bugs.

Yes, it was a long time ago, on old ancient equipment. Your time limit was "the history of mankind". I guess my code qualifies.

 

[minik]

Is this a joke? lol.

I don’t have time anymore to read
Up on Apple updates.

Also not to mention all the memes and misinformation out there online makes my head cloudy.

I literally just yesterday purchased the aforementioned camera 3 Apple adapter in the main thread. My iPhone is at 16.4.1 (a) so I won’t be updating.

Why was I making a joke? My job includes deploying Apple’s devices. Fresh out of the box, I like to connect them to wired network for MDM enrollment and grabbing updates. That’s where this adapter + USB Ethernet adapter come in.

 

[goonie4life9]

Not to worry, everyone, for Apple Support has officially confirmed this is not an issue. Apple Support is not aware of any issue. If there was an issue, Apple Support would know about it before any customer, because Apple Support talks to millions of customers a minute. Now, to troubleshoot, you’ll first need to restart your device. If that doesn’t resolve the issue, you’ll need to force reboot your device. If the issue persists, you’ll need to Reset Network Settings. If the issue is still occurring, you’ll need to do a full reinstallation of iOS, using a computer. Once the reinstallation is complete, you’ll need to set-up your device as new. If the issue persists, Apple will need to collect logs, for the RTA to Engineering. Engineering will reply in 48 hr that this is a known issue, keep your device up to date, and no further support will be provided for this issue.

See, now isn’t that solution so much easier than Apple testing their hardware together? After all, there is no way Apple could test every possible customer set-up, so it’s better to let customers tell them when issues arise!

 

[JippaLippa]

On one hand this is insane...
On the other hand a USB-C iPhone cannot come soon enough.

 

[Naraxus]

Somebody, anybody, just try and defend Craig & his merry band of idiots.

As usual, it's just one ****-up after another. I long for the days when Apple's products & software just worked.

Alas.....

 

[makitango]

Because it's software. Software by its' very nature has bugs. There is no software by any company in the history of mankind without bugs. If you have an example, I'm interested.

Really just depends on how complex the software is, and how much resources you spend on QA. If we‘re not talking about exploits, software bug fixes are actually possible up to a point when there are no more bugs, just needs some people checking the code. There are enough version control systems available which are designed to prevent such issues. It just needs code to be verified and validated. You don't to that by not looking at the code, and you don't do that by letting just one person look at it, or two, and have their head full with other projects so they can't give a good judgment on it. If that is the case and your software is full of bugs, you need to hire more people. Instead, Apple is halting that because short-term shareholder happiness seems to be more important.
If we‘re talking about exploits, the software itself is usually not to be blamed because then we‘re adding code to it for what the parent software (for a browser, it would be the browser engine, for a browser engine, it would be the OS, for macOS, it would be Unix, etc.) is lacking.

Everyone who has written some sort of actual code knows that to be true. It‘s possible to write clean and flawless code. We don‘t even need machines for that.

 

[hagar]

It's so frustrating that they don't push the new security fix out as a Rapid Security Response. Now, unless the fleet of users I manage holds off on updating for days/weeks, all of our iPads will be vulnerable.

If they released the fixes as RSR it could still have made these dongles unusable. The deployment method doesn’t necessarily avoid the bug.

 

[yabeweb]

From It just works™. to It no longer works™.

 

[dwaite]

Tested on my iPhone 14 Pro Max, and it worked after downloading firmware update.

I was met with the message, “Downloading accessory firmware. Your accessory will not function until the download completes.”

Interestingly, it also needed to download a firmware update on my iPhone 12 Pro. It feels as if it’s re-installing a driver on the iPhone itself instead of updating the actual firmware in the Lightning Digital A/V adapter.

The digital AV adapter is a different beast altogether from the camera connector kit. It has a miniature ARM computer, running Darwin, which receives a MPEG stream from the device and decodes it to send out over HDMI.

The odd thing is that it is relatively ancient hardware at this point, I wouldn't expect it to be upgradable for new codecs or VRR (just like it can't support 4k). Firmware updates should be few and far between.

I’m now wondering if this update broke this auto-download firmware update (driver update) mechanism for the Lighting to USB 3 Camera Adapter.

It sounds like it is a power management issue with the camera adapter, and it may be an issue with specific permutations (e.g. a particular iPad model, and a USB device needing more than 2.5W)

 

[gluckett]

The only good thing to come out of this is that I didn't realize my A/V adapter needed a firmware update. 🤦‍♂️

 

[Wildkraut]

I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a bug introduced by a dev having ChatGPT generate some code.

ChatGPT wouldn’t be that stupid. 😆

 

[iamdavidray]

I use this adapter for my DAC/Mic input thank goodness it wasn’t affected since my setup doesn’t require power. 😅

 

[BKDad]

Regression testing is expensive and exceptionally time consuming if you try to get every cell in the supported matrix. So, shortcuts are taken.

Bug and feature development planning often makes selective tests based on what else “could” be affected by the new code, and you’re probably lucky if they even do that much planning and testing.

More and more it seems that unit tests are all that happens, and maybe a targeted feature test, but only the basics. No integration or user story tests.

And... generally, people don't like to do it as their job. It's hardly glamorous, prestigious. cutting edge, or any of that. It's like fixing bugs in that regard. Who wants to do that? Do you get awards or bonuses for that? Promotions? Become famous?

The irony of it all is that when a company like Apple gets larger, it's almost always because of previous success and lots of products in the field. So, the need for regression testing becomes greater all the time. But, very few companies actually want to invest their larger profits into that sort of activity.

 

[Robert.Walter]

I have the same problem with the USBC male out to USBC + USBA + HDMI female in multiport adaptor.

Plugged it into my USBC mac charger and no power out thru USBA to charge my apple watch.

 

[George Dawes]

As long as they concentrate on important stuff like new emoji's I'm sure everything will turn out ok

 

[dlopan]

OK. I once wrote a program while in the USAF that consisted of two machine language program cards (Hollerith) for a IBM 1401 computer. The software ran flawlessly for several years with no bugs.

Yes, it was a long time ago, on old ancient equipment. Your time limit was "the history of mankind". I guess my code qualifies.

I remember a friend of mine who worked with me on a IBM 360/65 wrote a assembly program that locked it up while running nightly programs. Management was really ticked off. Bad stuff happens a lot these days because of how complicated everything is.

 

[Beancamel]

mine prompted me to update the camera adapter. Seems to be working fine on both my adpaters

 

[Wildkraut]

Tell us, Mr Kraut, who is your go to SW company for "just works" software? (genuinely curious)

Well, once it was Apple, good that they ditched the “just works” slogan long time ago, at least they saw it coming.

Just like they recently ditched the iPhone and privacy campaigns, I’m sure you now know why!

 

[makitango]

Well, once it was Apple, good that they ditched the “just works” slogan long time ago, at least they saw it coming.

Just like they recently ditched the iPhone and privacy campaigns, I’m sure you now know why!

Yeah, just like Google can no longer work with „Don‘t be evil“, same can be said about Apple‘s former flair.
The privacy campaigns are a huge joke, especially given the timing with the Siri fun stories, the child porn scanning, the geotracking and uploading coordinates and what else not.
With the China iCloud and around 1500 apps deleted in China‘s name when India came second with just 14, I don‘t know how much more you can try to lure unsuspecting citizens into false beliefs that they are safe and private.
People are actually put in grave danger with all that misleading marketing and there are entities here who can‘t clap Richie Rich enough on the shoulder.

 

[RogueWarrior65]

These damn things never worked properly anyway. "This device uses too much power" got replaced with "This device is incompatible" which eventually got replaced with... well... nothing.

 

[mrow]

Believe it or not, these Apple adapters have ARM chips in them running a mini version of iOS going back over a decade.

 

[GAMER87365]

Guys. I updated to iOS 16.5 the day it came out and I used the USB 3 Camera Adaptor just yesterday.
It worked fine.
Obviously this issue is not affecting all users then.
If you are affected, update to iOS 16.6 Dev Beta 1 to see if the issue is fixed in there .

 

[HDFan]

just needs some people checking the code. There are enough version control systems available which are designed to prevent such issues. It just needs code to be verified and validated.

Code paths are unpredictable based on base hardware, external hardware, network, etc. You can't find all bugs by just looking at the code, particularly when you have a code base that is likely millions of lines and may dependent on modules written by another group. Often bugs need reproducible test cases to point a developer in the right direction. The really hard bugs are those which are intermittent and not easily reproducible.

As an example I have a case now in development where a folder in iCloud can't be moved to an external drive. Had to provide tons of diagnostic reports to help them determine where in the code it is failing. You can catch some bugs by just looking at code if you are lucky but that is definitely not always the case.

Another example. Had an issue with an anti-virus program frequently mentioned on this site. It took us maybe 3 months going back and forth to get them enough information so they could identify where the problem was in their code. Took another maybe 6 months for the fix to show up in an actual release since it evidently required a substantial code rewrite.

 

[Lazyass0]

I have two phones one is on 16.5 and another one 16.4.1, Apple Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter MK0W2AM/A (Model A1619), Startech USB to gigabit ethernet.

- On both phones it says that there is no enough power for Startech if I don't feed power into adapter - That's OK
- Both phones are charging (Startech connected or not)
- 16.5 phone offers me update for adapter, and I think this could be problem if you update it. If I press Later, adapter is still charging phone and Startech still working.
- on 16.5 without updating adapter I can normally use Startech with Apple adapter as on 16.4.1 ... Maybe other's with problem could report which FW version of adapter you have ?

Could be that Update of Adapter messes up and without update adapter still works ....

Edit:
I attached also FW info from Settings-General-About-Apple USB Camera Adapter page. My FW before update is 1.0.1

Here are screenshots: