Camera won't save pictures in camera roll

If the hard reset (holding sleep and Home until boot screen) didn't work, then you unfortunately may have no other option that to do a full restore and yes since when you do a full restore you should always choose "Restore as new iPhone" when trying to correct bugs...You will loose SMS and unsaved sync data...

No way around this though unless you choose not to restore as new iPhone...but using the other option of restore from backup just places that corrupted data from the OS that is causing your bug right back on the device and thus is pointless...

Once you'd synced your contacts, email, calendar, photo/videos and notes in iTunes really there is nothing you will loose except SMS...and that is not a big price to pay for a fixed device.

This should fix it. It's a bug.


The iPhone OS 3.0 Camera Roll is running out of film for some iPhone users. A handful of photographers on Apple's discussion board are reporting that pictures taken with the iPhone camera and screen captures are disappearing from the iPhone's onboard photo library.
The bug, according to these reports, occurs when the photo names generated by the iPhone reach IMG_10000.xxx or higher, where the xxx represents either a JPG for photos, PNG for screen snapshots, or MOV for videos. Once you've reached this 10,000 mark milestone in your iPhone photography career, the Mobile Photos app no longer displays additional media files. Luckily, however, the photos are still there--they simply don't display on the phone.
Some users found help using the Phoneview utility from Ecamm on their Macs--the free demo version worked long enough to uncover the missing photos. PC users may be able to find their shots via iPhone Browser.
(Credit: David Martin)
Hopefully, Apple will fix this error in the 3.1 beta currently being tested by developers. In the meantime, a simple work-around, posted by "Douglas" on Apple iPhone School, seems to be the best alternative:
Sync your iPhone in iTunes making, sure that the backup completes and that you sync all your photos when prompted and--this is important--manually using one of the utilities above.
Using the same utility, delete all folders on your iPhone inside the DCIM folder that are named xxxAPPLE, where the XXX is the number 100-999.
Take an example photo with the camera and check to see if it shows up in the camera roll.
Repeat the delete step above.
Restart your iPhone by pressing and holding Home plus Sleep/Wake until the Apple Logo appears then release both buttons.
This resolves the problem by resetting the number of pictures to its initial state--far below the 10,000 milestone that caused the problem in the first place.

I only had 382 pictures when I could no longer take pictures. I tried all of the things people have suggested except for restoring the OS from a backup without success.

I was able to work around the bug by taking a screen-shot; just press the front button and while holding it, tap the power button. After I did that, I was able to take pictures again.

Treeplant's suggestion worked for me. (THANK YOU!!) I have an iPhone 3G (bought in March 09) and was up to the 1600's in number of photos taken. Suddenly over the weekend my photos stopped appearing in the camera roll. Although the screen before that (if accessed through "photos") would show 16XX pictures, the total amount taken with my phone, the camera roll itself - whether accessed through photos, the camera function, or any other of 3 different camera apps - would not display the new photos and would list the last photo taken as "15xx out of 15xx." It was intensely frustrating.

I backed up all photos onto my computer through the PC/Camera Wizard and followed the instructions I found here in the post by MM80, http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9991059 but unfortunately it didn't work for me.

I'm on a PC, so I downloaded the iPhone Browser program and followed treeplant's instructions, since I wanted to try something else before doing a regular restore or an interrupted restore, as I've read elsewhere.

Deleting the 100-999 folders worked like a charm (at least for now) and seems to work with the camera proper and all camera apps.

Thank you! Just wanted to post what has and hasn't worked for me, since I take photos all the time and often show them to people on my phone or email them to friends. I also take screenshots all the time for everything, from creating new wallpapers, to quickly emailing contact info cross-platform as images, or saving a list of directions in a quick reference format that eliminates having to keep opening Maps, and works when in a rural area without internet access or on an underground train. Thus this bug was extremely distressing, as it temporarily killed the functionality for some of the main things I do with my iPhone.

I definitely recommend trying the iPhone Browser method before resorting to a restore for any PC users out there.

p.s. One quick note - I don't know if there is any way to get these pictures back into the camera roll proper; I also fear that the only way would be through a restore that would restore the original problem. I'm going to go with putting the ones I want back on my phone into a separate folder, so I'll at least have them available on the phone. If you really wanted them back in the camera roll, you could maybe take a screen shot of it to get it back into the camera roll. Not sure if that will affect the overall resolution/quality, but it might be a temporary workaround for a few if you really want to get them back into the camera roll instead of a separate folder.

Message was edited by: glttrktty

Message was edited by: glttrktty

Hi treeplant & glttrktty, Thanks for adding your solution!

Look for both treeplant & glttrktty's replies here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2115535

I'm back to IMG_0001.jpg !!!!!! Woo Hoo!

PC Browser page:
http://code.google.com/p/iphonebrowser/


Good Luck everyone!

ps.

I Agree with everyone who suggested that we file/bombard the Support Form at Apple.com. I'm going to do this after I post this reply.

These "so-called apple geniuses" are usually oblivious to rare problems like this, as I mentioned in my first post.

My experience with a genius (emphasis on lower case "g") quoted from my first post...
"So, I spoke to 1 Sales Assoc./genius and she didn't know anything about it [our camera roll problem]. In fact she even went as far as to say (with pure confidence) it's not a real issue and that since it's just a problem found by users on "a forum" it's not an official problem. ("

Best Wishes to all my fellow iPhone Photogs who reached The 10K Landmark!

Cheers to the next 10K!

MM80

We should not have to resort to finding "loopholes" for something to work properly! I have swapped my phone once already and I am having the same issue with this replacement from Apple!! Come on! It's evident that this is a known issue and to this point nothing has been done! Come on guys! Let's realize that we don't have to find a way to fix this issue by us having to change something! We payed good money for our devices, now let's get it fixed! NOW!! I am tired of doing restores and losing my info and having to HAVE $700 reserved on my credit card to get another faulty replacement!

Message was edited by: Mando60

Message was edited by: Mando60

null

Thanks for your posts. However I still have a problem. I am a PC User and going through Browser option. I see the folders 100-999 under the DCIM. They are now all empty since the pictures have been deleted. Any recent pictures were in the 110APPLE folder. Seems that all new picture that are taken go into this folder. For testing I took one picture after removing all and the picture was IMG_10140.jpg. This file has been deleted since. When I try to remove (delete) the folder I get the message "100APPLE could not be deleted. The device has either stopped responding or has been disconnected". It's connected and should be responding since I can access the content of the folders - take a picture and then delete. Is there any folder properties that may need to be changes in order to delete the folders?

Thank you, deleting the folders in the DCIM folder worked for me.

Thank you Treeplant - I just got my 3GS in July and now being August found myself with this same problem. I have a PC and I followed the instructions with ease, so glad I'm apart of these discussion boards because without them it appears Apple isn't going to help. I definately agree, I'm tired of having to find my own fix arounds to use my IPhone - APPLE DO SOMETHING!!!

Message was edited by: hcoile3575

This worked for me (3G) for the pix taken by the phone, but NOT for the PNGs captured by the screen-cap method. They still show up starting at 10000+, and do not appear in the roll. They are still there, of course (thankfully!), but I can only see them using PhoneView. Apparently the screen capture method is using some other internal counter. Any ideas where that might be?????????

Hi All. I had the same problem.... My pics reached the 10000 mark and no longer appear in my camera roll. I didn't try treeplant's idea yet mostly because I'm frustrated and want APPLE TO SAY SOMETHING! What do you think the time frame for fixing the bug is? I love taking photos and imagine I'll hit that 10K mark again soon! Is there any other way other than this Phoneview technique?Thanks!
BD

Please some guidance here for those who had used iPhoneBrowser (for PC) and tried the method suggested before. Right now I'm on a borrowed PC, so I can't sync anything. Just downloaded iPhoneBrowser and finally have seen the DCIM folder on my iPhone. Before anything, I backed up the 700+ photos from my camera roll (just those, I couldn't view the other photos that were synced from my mac long ago).

My question is: should I delete all contents of the DCIM folder, or just the .MISC, or just the 100-999Apple folders? Can I be sure these folders don't contain any of the photos synced with my mac, just the Camera Roll photos? I should mention it again, my mac was stolen and my iPhone is the only backup I have of the other photos. I wouldn't want to try anything that jeopardizes the other "rolls" of photos!

Thanks.
JJ

So, I did the Phoneview thing and I can see my pics again! Yay! BUT, I cannot see screenshots. My camera roll says I have 7 photos in the album view of Photos but when I choose Camera Roll only my 2 photos taken with the camera are there.

Anyone else having this problem? Since this is short, I will be cross posting in the other thread. Sorry. :o)

Sandy,

I'm having the same problem. Did the Phoneview thing and can see photos I take, but not screenshots.

This inability to see screenshots disables a key feature from the productivity app "Done" from chillix.net. That app take a screenshot of a to-do list to use as wallpaper on the main screen. I'll send them an e-mail about this.

Rick

My bug report is submitted under the title, "BUG: Can't view pictures, can't e-mail pictures with an iPhone."