If the Top of Your iPhone Screen Looks Blurry, This May Be the Cause

Some frustrated iPhone users have noticed issues with blurriness at the top of their phone screens, either on the lock screen or the home screen, beginning in September 2025.

There are a few reasons this may be happening, one of which is a new feature, and another of which could be a bug from the most recent iOS rollout, 26.1.

If there's not a hardware issue with the screen or the device, the glitch can likely be solved by troubleshooting at home. Here's what you can try.

You may have inadvertently activated the "blur" feature while setting up your lock screen or home screen, per WikiHow. This often happens if you're using the same photo for the lock screen and the home screen. To fix this, "long-press" on the lock screen and then select "customize." Select "home screen" and tap "blur" to un-blur the screen.

If the home screen is still blurry after this, you can try using a higher resolution photo or one of Apple's wallpaper options.

This could be due to a software glitch or power-saving mode issues. You can try toggling the phone's light and dark modes as well as accessibility settings like "reduce motion," "increase contrast," and "bold text," which will sometimes resolve the issue.

One iPhone user said that adjusting their screen brightness solved the issue.

Some iPhone owners have found that pulling down the notification "shade" will fix the issue, at least temporarily.

If these things do not resolve the issue, try restarting your phone. Some users recommend cleaning the phone camera and installing software updates if a restart doesn't do the trick.

Finally, as a last resort, you can try factory-resetting the phone, and of course, getting in contact with Apple support to investigate the issue further and check for any hardware problems.

Thankfully, iPhone users can look forward to iOS 26.2 coming out somewhere around Dec. 10–15, 2025. If the blur is being caused by a software bug, the update will hopefully nip it in the bud.

On a Reddit post about the blur issue, iPhone users expressed their frustration about iOS updates presenting more problems than answers. "It’s just so sad how buggy iOS has gotten and how every update fixes one bug only to introduce another that’s somehow even more annoying than the last. I’m tired, boss," wrote @President_Connor_Roy.

Someone added, "Shouldn't have let the auto-update through."

A commenter who tried the beta version of iOS 26.2 wrote, "Same and doesn't seem to be fixed in 26.2 beta. Genuinely driving me crazy."

Others commiserated that restarting their phones solved the issue temporarily, but that it popped up again a few hours or days later. Let's hope that the coming iPhone update resolves the problem for good.