iPhone 15 image retention not a hardware issue, but a software bug, and it's fixed in iOS 17.1

Since the iPhone 15 launched, you can't have missed the controversy around the screen and reports of 'burn-in' - or more accurately image retention - with some models.

2

This has been a pretty worrying episode as the provided pics from those suffering the gremlin in question have showed some quite nasty looking image retention indeed.

Amidst theories that this was a hardware problem, and a fault in the OLED screen, it turns out that it's an issue that can be fixed on the software front.

As MacRumors reports, Apple has an iOS 17.1 update inbound, and this addresses a problem that "may cause display image persistence" going by the release notes.

We're told that the software bug effectively mimicked image retention.

As you might imagine, this has left people scratching their heads as to exactly how image retention can be the result of a software flaw. The prevailing theory online seems to be that the remedy pertains to tweaking compensation cycles which may not have been functioning properly.

As MacRumors further observes, while most image retention complaints were coming from those with iPhone 15 models, there were also some with earlier iPhones who were affected by the issue (iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro). That does make sense in terms of this being a software issue, of course.

It's worth noting that we've seen a few reports of affected users who've upgraded to the beta of iOS 17.1 and no longer experience this image retention, so it looks like the software fix does work - thankfully. And it should put this whole episode to bed.

Apple is expected to release the finished version of iOS 17.1 next week, so for those with screen issues, the cure is seemingly not far away.