iPhone "Photos" app show black thumbnails of images in cameraroll (4.0.1)

I had the same problem, the only solution seems to be importing the pictures from your camera roll to your computer, delete them on the phone, and sync them back again using the photo sync function in iTunes. Photos taken after the update are displaying normal as before in 4.0
And we're not alone with this "feature" 😉

Message was edited by: Ingo2711

Same problem here. Just upgraded from iOS4 to iOS4.0.1, and all the pictures I took on iOS4 have black thumbnails -- pictures taken under OS2 and OS3 are fine, as are those I take with iOS4.0.1.

I first learned this technique when upgrading my iPhone 3G to iOS4:

1) Connect your iPhone to your computer
2) Run iPhone Explorer on your computer (install it if you don't already have it)
3) Backup (copy to a folder on your computer) and then delete the following files:
/DCIM/.MISC/Info.plist
/PhotoData/Photos.sqlite
/PhotoData/PhotosAux.sqlite
4) Unplug your iPhone, launch Camera Roll app and wait as it rebuilds the database.

The thumbnails that were showing as black on my iPhone look perfect now.

thanks for the tip, it worked perfectly.

Thanks for this info.... I've been pulling my hair for days now trying to find a fix for this and the steps you mentioned below worked a treat! Thanks again!

my dear apple people, why not fix the bug instead of us your valued clients going thru all this trouble?

Thanks a lot! It worked perfectly with an iPod touch 2G (no cam) updated to 4.0.2
Actually, there was a "reluctant" photo still showing black thumbnail. Renamed and worked properly.

iPhone explorer keeps crashing when I try to do anything. also do not show file /DCIM/.MISC/Imfo.plist

Any other suggestions? Thanks

genius! worked perfectly for me...while turning me onto iPhone Explorer. awesome. thanks!

I followed Spirographer's instructions and it ended up working perfectly. I should mention that after backing up and deleting those three files using iPhone Explorer, unplugging the phone and then launching the camera roll, it appeared that nothing had changed -- I still had the black thumbnails, and it didn't attempt to rebuild the photo library. But a hard boot seemed to finish the job, and when I again launched the camera roll after that the photo library rebuilt with no more black thumbnails. Thanks Spirographer!

Thanks bro, it works perfectly!

OMG Thank you so much for posting this solution! Worked like a charm 😀

This fix worked perfectly! Thank you for turning me on to iPhone Explorer. It worked great. My photo library rebuilt itself after I restarted my phone. Thanks again.

SUCCESS! thanks a bunch - same thing that happened to Lcran happened to me.

i am running iTunes 10 and the screen shots of the iPhone Explorer didn't look like the program i installed but i was able to delete the necessary files and hard reboot and my iPod touch rebuilt the library and now all of my thumbnails are actual thumbnails. THANKS Spriographer!!!

I did not have this happen under iOS 4.0.1, but it came up with iOS update 4.1.

It only blacks out the exiting thumbnails and only in the Camera Roll, not the rest of the pictures in my libraries and albums. New pictures taken with the camera show up properly with the a new thumbnail, but the rest remain black.

Will try the suggested solution.

EDIT: WORKED ON 4.1 UPDATE