Apple has made a small but notable update to address an extremely common frustration: the iPhone flashlight getting turned off when you accidentally swiped into the Camera from the Lock Screen. The newest iOS update has introduced a setting that can end those accidental camera launches, enabling the flashlight to remain on when you want it most.
Why Does the Flashlight Keep Turning Off?
On iPhone, using the Camera app can seize control of the LED, and that will immediately shut off your flashlight. That’s great for photography, but lousy when you’re stumbling in the dark with groceries in a baggie or peeking under a sink to figure something out, not to mention navigating an outage. A misplaced thumb swipe on the Lock Screen has been all it’s ever taken to kill the light off for years, and support threads are full of users complaining about fumbling in the dark because the camera launched without them wanting it to.
What’s New in iOS 26.1 to Prevent Lock Screen Swipes
Apple’s update introduces a special option to prevent the Lock Screen from invoking that swipe-to-camera action. The tweaks were first spotted by Apple-focused site 9to5Mac, and seem to show up in the Settings menu under Camera. If enabled, a leftward swipe will no longer open the Camera app; it’s very easy to accidentally turn off the flashlight doing this.
It’s also, crucially, a careful fix. It doesn’t push the Camera app back about four pages away; it just disables using a swipe to quickly access it. You can still access the camera from other places (say, by swiping up to launch it from the Home Screen), but you’ll no longer be pocket-dialing into your phone’s shutter; and that has to count as a big win.
How to Enable the New Safeguard to Stop Lock Screen Swipes
To enable the protection, go to Settings > Camera and turn off Lock Screen Swipe to Open Camera.
- If you still want fast photo access, either long-press on the Lock Screen camera button or open Camera in Control Center.
- Another tip for iPhone 15 Pro users: Set the Action Button to Flashlight. You get a hardware control you can depend on to turn the light back on immediately if you ever do switch contexts, and it’s easier to fumble at with gloves or when moving quickly under pressure.
Going forward, swiping left on the Lock Screen will not automatically open the Camera, so you won’t accidentally swipe it away when turning on your flashlight.
The downside to quick Camera access on the Lock Screen
There’s a compromise here. Turning off the swipe is going to make it take a beat longer to get your camera up in that in-the-moment moment (watching a kid walk or trying not to join my kids in spinning around way too much). But for a lot of folks, the gain in flashlight reliability is worth an extra tap or two from time to time when they go to open the camera. It’s an old-fashioned Apple quality-of-life tweak: change nothing for users who enjoy the old behavior, but provide a point-and-click off switch for users wanting to move away from it.
A Quick Fix With Everyday Repercussions
This is not a headline-level feature, like a new camera sensor or a revamped Control Center, but it goes directly at an everyday source of irritation that has propagated from one iOS iteration to the next.
The flashlight on the iPhone is among the most-utilized utilities — frequently launched from a pocket or single hand. Aiding in this are reduced accidental shutoffs, which only serve to make day-to-day usability — and even accessibility and safety in darker times — so much better.
It’s also part of a larger trend in which Apple has been tweaking Lock Screen interactions to avoid unwanted touches, from mandating long presses on shortcuts to providing more toggles for tap-to-wake and pocket activations. Handing that control back to users on the camera swipe is in keeping with that trend, and it enables the flashlight to do what it was designed to do — stay on longer than your screen saver until you say otherwise.
If you’ve ever found yourself unexpectedly stumbling through the dark with no working flashlight on your iPhone, this low-key update is the kind of touch you’ll appreciate right away. It’s easy, it’s optional, and it keeps the light where it should be.
