Your iPhone screen is supposed to be colorful and vibrant, but what if it suddenly turns black and white without any reason? Fortunately, in most cases, the issue can be attributed to misconfigured settings or a temporary glitch rather than a hardware malfunction. In this guide, we have listed all the possible ways to fix the issue. But before we delve into the solutions, let’s first explore why this problem occurs in the first place.
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Why Is My iPhone Screen Black and White
‌A common reason why your iPhone screen may appear black and white is if you have accidentally enabled color filters or zoom filters in the accessibility settings. That said, this problem can also arise if your iPhone has experienced physical or liquid damage.
Aside from the above, temporary software glitches or a buggy iOS build could also contribute to this problem.
Now that you are familiar with the typical causes behind this issue, let’s delve into some effective solutions to resolve it.
1. Turn Off Color Filters
The first thing you need to do is review the accessibility settings on your iPhone and make sure color filters are turned off. Here are the steps for the same.
1. Open the Settings app, tap on Accessibility, and select Display & Text Size.
2. Tap on Color Filters and disable the toggle in the following menu.
2. Disable Zoom Filter
Using color filters isn’t the only way to enable grayscale on your iPhone. You need to ensure that the grayscale option isn’t enabled in the zoom filter menu on your iPhone. Here’s how to do it.
1. Open the Settings app and navigate to Accessibility > Zoom.
2. Tap on Zoom Filter and select the None option.
3. Turn Off Accessibility Shortcuts
iOS also gives you the option to set up accessibility shortcuts on your iPhone. This essentially allows you to trigger specific accessibility features by pressing the side button three times consecutively. If you have set up your iPhone to enable grayscale through this accessibility shortcut, the screen may turn black and white repeatedly.
To avoid this, use these steps to turn off the accessibility shortcut on your iPhone.
1. Open the Settings app and navigate to Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut.
2. Clear the checkmarks next to the actions to disable them.
4. Check for Physical or Liquid Damage
A number of users on the Apple forum and Reddit reported having this problem following physical or water damage to their iPhones. If you have recently dropped your iPhone or if it has been exposed to moisture or rain, it could get stuck in black and white mode. In that case, your best option is to visit the nearest Apple store and have your iPhone checked.
5. Restart Your iPhone
Although restarting your iPhone may seem like a cliché, it is standard advice for a good reason. There’s a chance that your iPhone screen is black and white due to a temporary iOS glitch. If that’s the case, restarting your iPhone should help.
For iPhone X or newer models, press and hold the Sleep/Wake button along with one of the volume buttons, and then use the slider to power off your iPhone. On older iPhone models, press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the slider appears, then use it to shut down your iPhone.
After your iPhone turns off, press and hold the Sleep/Wake button to turn it back on and check if the issue is still there.
6. Install iOS Updates
Software updates can also go wrong at times. If the issue in question is caused by a bug within iOS, updating your iPhone should help.
To check for pending updates, open the Settings app and tap on General. Tap on Software Update to check for pending updates and install them.
7. Reset All Settings
If you are here, it’s safe to assume that the above tips haven’t worked for you. In that case, your last option is to reset all the settings on your iPhone and start over.
1. Open the Settings app. Scroll down to tap on General and select Transfer or Reset iPhone from the following menu.
2. Tap on Reset and select Reset All Settings from the resulting menu.
Bring Back the Colors
Using an iPhone that is stuck in black and white is far from ideal, especially when engaging with multimedia content. Unless it is a hardware-related problem, applying the above tips should solve the problem and restore your iPhone’s ability to display colors.
