After iOS 18.5, the AVFoundation AVCaptureSessionInterruptionReason.videoDeviceNotAvailableWithMultipleForegroundApps error has caused a significant increase in camera black screen issues.

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Issue: After iOS 18.5 release, our app is experiencing a significant increase in AVCaptureSessionInterruptionReason.videoDeviceNotAvailableWithMultipleForegroundApps errors.

Details:

Our camera-related code has not been updated recently.However, we've observed that the error rate has significantly increased starting from May 2025. The error rate has risen from approximately 0.02% (2 in 10,000 users) to 0.1% (1 in 1,000 users). This represents a 5x increase in error occurrence.
The frequency has increased noticeably since iOS 18.5
This is affecting our app's camera functionality and user experience

Questions:

Are there any known changes in iOS 18.5 regarding camera access management?
What are the recommended best practices to handle this interruption reason?
Are there any API changes we should be aware of?

Best,

Shay

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leizh007 OP

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We are experiencing the same issue on our side. Recently, we’ve seen a noticeable increase in user reports where the camera goes black, and the logs show AVCaptureSessionInterruptionReason.videoDeviceNotAvailableWithMultipleForegroundApps. This started happening much more frequently after iOS 18.5.

We’ve already submitted feedback to Apple about this over a week ago, but unfortunately haven’t received any response yet.

Has anyone found any effective workaround or has any insight on whether there were camera-related changes in iOS 18.5? Would appreciate any suggestions or shared experiences on how to handle or avoid this issue.

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