Camera will not save pictures to phone after snapping photo

THANK you, thank you, thank YOU!!!! This worked for me! I have been without the camera for longer than two months now, and I can't thank you enough! I will not be deleting all of the photos anymore, and I'm holding my breath to see how long this lasts... but for now, I am soooooo happy!

I consider this to be the best fix for the glitch, but I am hoping Apple wises up and fixes it so we, the consumers, don't have to.

This solution worked for me too! Thanks SO much! This is a huge relief. I'm guessing this is a software glitch that Apple will resolve with an upcoming software update. I posted about my experiences using this solution tonight to my blog:

http://www.speedofcreativity.org/?p=2702

I had the same problem crop up today for the first time. I haven't fixed it yet, since I am a little leery of how involved all the fixes are (like deleting a file, restoring, etc., or even having to keep one photo on the camera roll at all times). But I noticed something that might help Apple figure out what is going on, assuming it is not a coincidence:

Last night, before this problem cropped up, I transferred the pictures from the iPhone to my PC in my usual manner: plugging the iPhone into the computer without starting iTunes at all, and allowing the Windows utility to transfer the photos. I said "yes" to letting it delete all the photos from the camera (iPhone). What I noticed was that the photos, which are automatically numbered, were out of order in the folder for that day. Then I realized the reason: the images had passed 999 images, and the photo named IMG_0999.jpg was followed by IMG_0001.jpg instead of 1000. (I noticed because this caused the photos to be out of order in the folder, which was organized by file name.) I don't know how this relates to the bug, but I saw that it appears to relate to picture numbering, so this seems too coincidental to be a coincidence, if you catch my drift.

Same problem, like hundreds of people.
Considering the price we are paying for this pretty little thing, I can't accept that saving pictures on the phone does not work anymore.

(and I don't want to be obliged to backup the phone, trashing one file on the computer and erase+sync the phone, what is this???)

This issue has to be solved by Apple URGENTLY!

I agree 100%.

I did do the fix that involves deleting the file, erasing from the iPhone controls, restoring from the backup, and re-syncing the entire content of music, etc., and it seems to have worked (for now). The only weird thing is that my mail account (which is gmail) loaded tons of old emails from my gmail account, many from before I even had an iPhone, into the iPhone inbox. I had to delete them all manually (I only keep a few read emails in the inbox for reference and delete the rest, since I have them on gmail anyway.)

Hopefully the next upgrade of the software will fix the camera bug. I am still running 1.1.3 because I decided to skip the 1.1.4 upgrade as I find it to be a hassle to do it (partly because I have a dial-up connection, partly because it requires a new complete sync, and partly because the upgrades sometimes introduce new problems of their own).

Had the problem...tried method 2...now all is well...good work...thx.

Okay.....I know this is unbelievably redundant, but I need clarification. This same thing happened to my phone, but I absolutely NEED to retrieve those pictures that didn't show up. Did they actually save to the phone, or did it just not work at all?

Which (if any) of the methods will get them back?

Also, I tried to find that one file on my mac, and I couldn't actually find the 'Mobile Sync' folder on the computer. But this isn't MY computer, and so maybe doesn't have any of iPhone files on it, which is why the folder (and thus, the file) isn't there?

I'm sorry if I seem like a luddite--I'm just terrified that these are gone for good.

I really hate to break it to you, but I was in the same exact situation you are when I first came to this discussion, and the answer is no, you cannot recover those pictures, your iPhone simply didn't save them.

Really, if one day a competing phone comes along with an equivalent industrial design and overall user interface experience, but a more stable OS (try using Safari while listening to the iPod, expect an inexplicable and virtually unreproducible crash every few minutes), then Apple will be in trouble.

mega-bug from Apple
This procedure worked great. I have taken thousands of photos for 8 months and have done nothing differently and suddenly got this problem. I have been deleting all photos after iPhoto sync and never had this problem before. Is there no public bug# (with URL) for this issue?

I didn't even bother filing a bug, I'm sure it's already been identified, but if you can just imagine the scene right now in Cupertino: June 9, iPhone 2.0 launch = 24x7 coding, so we can't really expect them to release an interim version to fix this or other "old" bugs, they're focused on the next step, that's the way the business goes, even if they have a crippling and critical bug.

Have you seen the latest iPhone ripoffs from LG and Samsung? They're stepping on Apple's toes, so priorities are priorities.

OK I just spent countless hours researching and re-syncing my phone to fix this problem after reading all this solutions (none from Apple). I am not sure which solution or combination of solutions worked... but it looks like I have to do it one more time and then never click "delete originals" when syncing new photos.

Since I send several photos a week to my flickr account, this is going to get very annoying very quickly.

If I wanted this kind of hassle, I would go back to my Palm Treo! Come one Apple -- Fix this on, please!

Thank u soooo much jkeegan! May God Bless you. I had been missing using my Camera for weeks!

I was having the exact same problem and i'm def not very computer literate so finding that backed up file and deleting it, that seemed to work for EVERYONE else, wasn't working for me. I called the apple support line and Neil was most helpful. we synced my contacts into outlook (or windows or yahoo.. depending on what you have) and then restored my phone. after it restarted instead of backing it up, i used it as a new phone THEN synced my contacts, photos, ringtones, and music. VOILA! it worked! i lost txt msgs and i have to set up my email again but at least its working! Hurray for Neil!!! 🙂

Hey, I would like to thank you very much for your post. It saved all my precious notes and data i really needed. Glad there are alternate methods to wiping your iPhone. Pheeeeyew

Message was edited by: JohnnyK1990

I have had the same problem with my iPhone. I am glad to see I have company. What was said is exactly true. If you always keep at least one picture on the phone you are ok. I had to reset my phone erasing everything and then take one picture, then sinch and put everything back on the phone and it then worked. If I were to delete that one picture it would no longer work. It is as if the phone loses the ability to initiate a camera roll file, but if it already has one picture it is fine. This is a good work around but I hope Apple fixes it in the 2.0 update. It is obviously an iPhone software bug.