On Thursday, Apple released iOS 16.5 to the public with new wallpaper options, updates to Apple News, and more. As it turns out, this update also breaks compatibility with Apple Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter Extension for iPhone and iPad users.
This dongle connects to your iPhone or iPad via Lightning and has a built-in USB-A port that you can use to connect a myriad of accessories to your iPhone or iPad. There is also a built-in Lightning port for charging your iPhone or iPad. According to users who rely on this accessory, iOS 16.5 breaks compatibility with these two ports.
in posts in Apple Support ForumsAnd redditand the Mac rumors forumsUsers say that the Lightning and USB-A ports on this accessory became useless after updating to iOS 16.5. The Lightning port does not pass power to charge iPhone and iPad. Connecting an accessory to the adapter via USB-A causes an error message that the adapter requires too much power to operate.
While Apple classifies this as a “camera adapter accessory,” iPhone and iPad users actually rely on it to connect a range of USB-A products to their devices. This includes things like Ethernet adapters, digital audio adapters, and more.
One affected user explains:
iPhone 13 Pro Max here is facing the same problem. I’ve been using the official Apple Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter for months now to send Apple Music losslessly to the DAC, and it worked flawlessly and charged my phone at the same time. As soon as I updated to iOS 16.5 this morning, the adapter not only doesn’t connect to the DAC at all, it also doesn’t charge my phone. When I test connecting an iPad with an earlier version of the OS, it connects and charges just fine.
This must be an issue in iOS 16.5, and I hope it gets fixed quickly – very bad look at an official Apple accessory becoming inoperable through a gradual iOS update.
Apple Support was unable to assist affected customers. The problem is likely to be software related, since it is related to the iOS 16.5 version. This means that Apple will likely release iOS 16.5.1 sometime in the near future to fix compatibility with the Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter accessory.