Camera won't take picture or can't start recording video

Question

Level 1

8 points

Camera won't take picture or can't start recording video

Hello, All.

My iPhone 3GS with 4.2 OS often times won't take a picture. (Same problem with previous OS.) I have to press the button maybe 20 times to get a picture. Same with trying to start a video. I just give up after a while.

If the button works, the video or photo shows up in my camera roll just fine, just that the shutter button does not take.

Any hints on what is going wrong?

Home brew custom box, Windows XP Pro

Posted on Jan 21, 2011 11:57 AM

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Answer 1

Ingo2711

Level 9

70,251 points

Jan 21, 2011 12:07 PM in response to Broh.

Welcome to the discussions,
did you try to restore "as new iphone" without using the latest backup and only installing the default apps? If this will make the camera work again, some data in your backup may be damaged or other apps may interfere with the camera app.

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Answer 2

paulcb

Level 6

19,239 points

Jan 21, 2011 12:37 PM in response to Broh.

Try resetting your iPhone by pressing the home and sleep buttons until you see the Apple logo, ignoring the slider. Takes about 5-15 secs of button holding and you won't lose any data or settings.

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Answer 3

Broh. Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 22, 2011 8:13 AM in response to paulcb

I did exactly as you suggested and the phone froze up and acted really funky. So I did a normal power cycle after your maneuver and viola! The camera snapped away click - click - click!!!! Thank you for the help -- as an embedded hardware engineer I wonder what has gone awry with the software.

As I like to say (usually surrounding some goofiness with Windows) "somewhere there is a software engineer responsible for my misery."

Thanks again.

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