iPhone Camera Not Working? My Solution
Recently, my Apple Iphone‘s camera stopped working with an issue that looked like this: when I went to the camera roll to view any picture I’d taken, it appeared that the image had not been saved except for a small gray outline where the picture thumbnail would normally live (I’ve enhanced the gray outline in the thumbnail to the right). When I touched the small gray-outlined box, the program would appear to crash and return to the home position.
But – good news. After a couple of days of attempting to find a solution, victory was mine. For those running into problems with the camera on their iPhone, here’s what I did to fix it.
The Fix
I was running iPhone firmware 1.1.4. I regularly sync the iPhone and noticed the camera stopped working when I upgraded from 1.1.3 to 1.1.4.
At first, I tried to “Restore” to my previous iPhone settings which means I would sync to the settings I had saved earlier in the day. I was dubious that this would work, but I went through with it and waited for the phone to re-copy all the settings including 7 gigabytes of music. As I suspected, it did not work.
My next option involved “Restore”-ing to my October 2007 settings and software. I wasn’t going to do that.. I might as well as “Restore” as a new phone which would have meant a lot of work to get my iPhone back to the state it’s currently in. Bookmarks, contacts, text conversations all would have been lost.
Then, after hunting through many posts on the web and in the Apple Support Discussion on the Apple website, I found this post:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1183455&tstart=0
The response by “jkeegan” was the key:
“One file, which for me was named f1b43d3b3ecf259a3626c13a8b0cebd8ba513117.mdbackup, seemed to talk about image numbers for photos <snip>
So, I disconnected my iPhone from the dock, and then tried deleting that file from the actual Backup directory that iTunes looks at.. I reset the iPhone according to option #2 (Settings->General->Reset->Erase All Content and Settings).”
That did the trick.. Delete the file located here:
C:\Documents and Settings\yourcomputer\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
f1b43d3b3ecf259a3626c13a8b0cebd8ba513117.mdbackup
Then, reset the phone to your last settings. Actually.. just before you re-set but after you delete the file above, try the camera – that might be all you need to do, but I did the re-set anyway.
Hopefully, this will help you fix your camera and avoid resetting the iPhone as a new phone. Good luck.
28 Responses to “iPhone Camera Not Working? My Solution”
Thanks for posting this. I had the same problem and this fixed it – much appreciated.
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By Jeremiah on Apr 17, 2008
Hi There, just to say I just this second used the fix that Olemono suggested, and it worked on my UK O2 phone. Thank you so much, my child like wonder is restored!
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By Rools on Jun 5, 2008
seems apple should just fix the software. $400+ seems reasonable to expect.
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By jen on Jul 3, 2008
well, just use BossPrefs->More->Fix user dir permission. It’s the easy & working solution tried with iPhone 16GB 2.1
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By upman on Nov 11, 2008
ok so my problem is a bit different!
when i touch the camera it kinda opens it but when it goes into the camera (which the camera is closed and then it should open)it just won’t open, and after like 3 seconds first it goes white and then it restarts my iphone on it’s own~
any solutions?
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Paula Reply:
January 9th, 2011 at 5:53 pm
I have the same problem….help!!!! I click on camera, it takes a little while to open, and it opens for a second and closes going back to the main screen!!!
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By pari on May 14, 2009
thanks for the post. it actually works.
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By skipper on May 18, 2009
Hello i have a question. My iphone fell at one point and now i am not able to use the camera as it shows green images,like it was possessed. The earpiece is also confused, foe me to talk without using the speaker phone i have to plug something to the earpiece or just talk using the speakerphone. Any ideas?
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By sa on Sep 27, 2009
My camera, as well as, text message is not working, i tried resetting still did no work. camera is not opening.
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By Levi on Jan 4, 2010
i have iphone my phone camera when i open it opens but the main problem when i take any image from my phone its come in pink colour why its come in a pink colour can u tell me any settings. and it is showing no service
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By sagar on Jan 21, 2010
hi i am bilal my iphone is 2g its camra is showing the pice red and not working well
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By bilal on Apr 6, 2010
if i follow the above instructions, and hit – “erase all” under my iphone settings, will it erase all of my photos, notes, contacts, etc?..
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By mm on Apr 27, 2010
but how do i know which file to delete ?
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By Ashish on May 25, 2010
Hi there, my trouble is that my camera don’t finishing after I want to take a picture. It’s stucks for a long time, so I must stop’it after I push the home botten.
I hope someone can tell me a solution.
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By Mrhot on Jun 5, 2010
I have the same problem as Pari May 14TH 2009 posted.
Clicking the camera Icon brings in the camera lens screen but the lens won’t open. After 1 or 2 seconds a white screen appears like as if a flash just went on, the phone goes off and after 2 seconds the apple sign appears and the screen shows the slide-open home screen.
i HAVE TRIED TO RESTORE IT AND IT GOT RESTORED FINE BUT THE CAMERA STILL DOES THE SAME.
ANY SOLUTION PLEASE.
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By Shawn on Jul 13, 2010
My problem is a bit different, I use the camera on the front and it automatically flips it, please help
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By Rachel on Sep 24, 2010
hey guys,
i solved this problem but disabling the camera in restrictions mode. Then shutting down my phone. Starting up my phone and then enabling my camera in restrictions. So far its working .yah!
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jime Reply:
February 12th, 2011 at 3:57 am
thanks it’s working so far!!!!
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Steve Reply:
February 25th, 2011 at 3:52 pm
Me too, thanks!
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Kat Reply:
November 14th, 2011 at 2:56 pm
Thank you so much! That solved the problem.
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By james on Oct 12, 2010
i have a problem where when you click on the camera it says updating library then goes to the homescreen has anyone figured how to fix this
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By Hutty on Dec 7, 2010
i have a problem where when i click on the camera the screen just goes dark then after sometime it writes camera on standby
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By joel on Jan 7, 2011
camera is not working shuter is not open
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By Sunayana on Feb 14, 2011
i used my camers on my iphone 3G on the weekend now the shutters on the camera will not open
i have done all the restarts you can imagen & the downloads on itunes but i still cant operate the camera
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By tony barrett on Apr 19, 2011
my problem is bit different, when i go in the camera application it showes the shutter closed it never opens i tried all possible things it still doesnt work.. can any1 help me in this..??
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By pavan on Jul 25, 2011
Thanks a lot,
one cam started working and one wont think its hardware problem.
at least i can record and capture
thanks a lot
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By jeetesh on Aug 11, 2011
my iphone camera was working till last nite but when i got up early and tried 2 snap pic ,,it dint opn,,plz help me yar..
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By jack on Sep 17, 2011