IPHONE 4, iOS 4
I was having the shutter problem on the 4G and both cameras freezing up
I am on O2 in the UK - they said take it to the Apple Store
Took it to the AppleStore, great guys who helped out - the camera unit was not faulty, appears mine is one of the motherboard type issues
As Applecare warranty expired 3 montsh ago, £119 for a refurb replacement, ie £119 to fix the broken camera
O2 will not do anything except offer a repair of existing at the same price
For a well documented issue this is pretty poor resolution
I have gone full Mac the last 2 years - ipod, desktop, iphone. I love the products but this iphone is trouble.
Unhappy that a product with well known and documented defects as captured in this post is not being proactively managed by either Apple or the carriers that sell the product.
Its a great product, but forking out £500 plus for one and it goes bust after 14 months slightly tarnishes the company golden halo. I will advise future adoptees to think twice whereas before I was an evangelist.
I had the same problem on my new 4S, I tried to do all the things (I think) I found in this post but nothing worked.
Maybe I found something interesting that solved this problem for me. My "Hot Spot" feature in my iphone didnt worked as well and I had to ask my mobile carrier (Orange IL) to open this feature in their system.
After a few hours I tried to take a picture and surprisingly the camera works fine and didnt stuck till than.
Hope this works for you.
I believe I have found the definitive solution. Apple certainly must know about it because I'm sure they fix the returned devices.
I have successfully fixed this maddening problem on two separate 4th Generation 32GB IPod Touches.
Apparently, it is a hardware/firmware problem which involves some strange compatibility BETWEEN the TWO cameras.
You need to find a compatible pair of cameras and the problem will resolve.
The last IPod with this problem had a defective front camera which showed what looked like dirt specks. After I replaced that camera, the frozen shutter/back camera problem started. The new front camera worked fine. I changed the back camera and that did not fix the problem. I then put in a different front camera in and the problem resolved.
It certainly helps if you have a few cameras to chose from. 😉
This is a follow up on my previous post of 1/14/2012 about the camera issue:
I just finished successfully fixing my 3rd IPod with the shutter/camera issue.
The solution is the same: Find 2 compatible cameras. It doesn't matter which one doesn't work (unless there is physical damage to one), although it's usually the front camera.
The most recent repair scenario:
I hope this can put this horribly annoying issue to rest. Resets; etc may give some temporary relief, but usually the problem rears its ugly head again. The problem is hardware related to the extent it matters which two cameras are installed. Perhaps it has something to do with the current draw of each. Some slight differences may cause the system to lock out the camera.
ANOTHER FOLLOW UP REPORT:
I just repaired my 4th IPT 4th gen with the frozen shutter problem. The solution was the same. It was tougher this time and I almost started to doubt my solution. It just took more combination tries. I have 4 sets of cameras to work with (4 front and 4 back). It took about 6 combination tries until I hit a pair that were compatable and then: All camera functions working.
Hey, Apple techs: Don't you have anything to say? This has been a long standing problem and the "official" word seems to be "no solution". Obviously, there is.
Camera worked fine from OS 4.01 to OS 4.3.3. Upgraded to OS 5.01 and then the camera stopped working. There is no way to "officially" downgrade the IOS so now I am stuck with a faulty camera. This has to be software/firmware issue. Do I really have to change the camera myself and keep my fingers crossed? Seriously Apple. THis is pretty lame.
UPDATE ONE FIX: I was having the same problem as everyone else and THIS FIXED MINE!
check to make sure that Restrictions are not turned on by tapping Settings > General > Restrictions. If they are, set Allow Camera to ON or tap Disable Restrictions (in iPhone 2.1 software or later). I hope this can help several of you. Please let me know if this fix helps anyone else.
Message was edited by: dbaz (brand new iPhone 4 w/latest operating system)
basically same thing as a.n.p.j. stated, however, restrictions were just reset to original.
THANKS DBAZ This fixed my phone as well. Who thought something so simple. I took my phone to Verizon and the Apple store and no one could figure this out. My camera iris was not opening on any camera, looked at restrictions as suggested and yeah, mine is now work. Amazing that Apple and Verizon couldn't figure it out.
Todd
I agree. Do we know if this isse is being looked at for some future release..
Daniel
My camera wasn't working at all. When I clicked on the app nothing would happen. I read to power down the phone by holding down the off button at the tip of the phone. Wait for the red bar to appear. Wait a couple seconds then turn the phone on again. This fixed my problem! 😀
someone posted to close down all your apps .. by holding down the home button twice, hold down a app for a while till they wiggle then close all of the ones you can, go to setting, general & restart your phone. once I restarted my phone my camera still wasn't working but I decided to delete a few of my pictures bcz this problem occurred after I had download a few pictures. After erasing a few photos I found that my camera then decided to work! :)
Same problem here on 1 year old Iphone 4. Camera doesn't work!
AppleCare and Genius Bar cannot solve the problem. They tried with reboot and replace the back camera but without any result. It is an hardware problem due to motherboard (this what Apple told me) .
They proposed to exchange my phone with a second hand one, not free of course! Must pay a 250$.
This is Apple.....
Thanks! I have been all over the board and posted for help because my camera just stopped working. I knew it wasn't hardware because I could take pics with other apps. It stopped working just when I took a photo with too much flash back. So I deleted those photos and voila! It works again! There must be some hardware/software thing going on because mine was definitely not the camera hardware. I think that the flash must be the problem.
Camera also not working for me. Shutter not opening and my iPhone is six months out of warranty with no AppleCare. Clearly a hardware issue as a complete restore (without using a backup) didn't fix it and other camera using apps couldn't use the camera either. As suggested above I looked at replacing the camera unit myself but decided I wasn't confident enough to do that. Online repairers whom you send the iPhone off to wanted £30-40 and would have the phone for several days. In the end I went into the Apple Store Birmingham to discuss with a genius and knowing the flat £120ish out of warranty cost stated on the website. It turns out that individual repairs cost far less, and are dependent on the problem. To replace the camera unit was £45 and the turnaround time was half an hour. I was pretty impressed with the service, but wonder why Apple don't state their menu of repair charges on the website as it'd help people out.
CAMERA not working on new iPHONE4.
