[Update: Fixed] iPhone 12 series issue where Apple logo flashes at startup reported by many, Apple allegedly aware & working on a fix

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…

Original story (published on February 17, 2021) follows:

There has been a slew of recent reports about the latest iPhone 12 models behaving erratically during startup. The devices’ boot-up screen, which contains an Apple logo, flashes when booting up.

Now, the Apple iPhone 12 series hasn’t exactly been shy of issues, both software and hardware ones, ever since its launch back in October last year, so much so that we have dedicated an entire section to them.

Whenever I re-start my iPhone 12 Pro, the white Apple logo will appear VERY briefly (less than a second) then the screen goes completely dark for 3-4 seconds. Then the Apple logo reappears and the phone re-starts normally. Is this a new normal process, or is there possibly a hardware or software problem with my phone? I’ve never experienced this before having been an iPhone owner for 10+ years.
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iPhone 12 Pro weird boot up. Apple logo flashes. Is this normal or a problem?
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As apparent from the above complaints, users report that upon a startup or even a reboot, the Apple logo in the splash screen flashes for a second following which all goes black. The logo then reappears towards the end of the boot-up to reveal the lockscreen.

And while most of the reports may have originated from iPhone 12 Pro/Pro Max models, there are several complaints from the iPhone 12 as well. This implies that the entire lineup is affected, possibly even the iPhone 12 mini.

Further, many users suspected the issue to be hardware-related initially. However, upon a deeper insight, it was found that the problem is limited to a particular batch of iPhone 12s that shipped with iOS 14.3 out-of-the-box.

Now, people may wonder if the latest iOS 14.4 helped with the issue, but the bad news is that nothing has changed as complaints have only continued flowing in.

Nevertheless, the good news is that Apple is aware of the flashing Apple logo at startup issue on the iPhone 12 series, and is already working on a fix.

Or to be more precise, the fix has already been merged into the iOS 14.5 beta builds. This is clear from several beta testers that have observed that the issue vanished immediately after updating to the latest beta.

Confirmed. The flashing logo on forced restart is fixed. I just installed 14.5 beta. The first thing I did after install was to do a force restart – all fixed.
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Thus, if the issue has been too bothersome, then you would want to hop onto the beta bandwagon.

As already mentioned, the only workaround available as of now is updating to iOS 14.5 beta. For instructions regarding this, head over to this official support article.

However, if you do not wish to stay on iOS 14.5 beta, then you will be pleased to know that the fix sticks even after reverting back to iOS 14.4. For directions on how to go back to iOS stable from beta, head here.

That said, it is important to highlight here that the issue is nothing to be alarmed about. It is software related and should vanish automatically with the upcoming iOS 14.5 stable update without requiring any user intervention.

Hence, going through the tedious process of updating to beta and then back to stable is simply not recommended.

06:23 pm (IST): iOS 14.5 seems to have resolved the flashing Apple logo issue on the iPhone 12 series. If you are still facing it, then you might want to check manually for updates.

I had the same problem, all good now with the latest 14.5 update.
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