Q: My iphone 4 camera won't focus when taking a picture?

Well then you can do it manually by tapping on the area that you would like the camera to focus on!

But if you want the iphone to do a general one, try brining your camera close to an object so that it goes out of focus, and then point the camera at the object you initially wanted to take a picture of, and see if this works for you.

so even tap to focus doesn't work for you?

Mine does the same thing - the camera on the front of the phone works and focuses just fine, however the back camera will only take a clear picture if you're like 6 inches or less away from the target.  The tap to focus feature doesn't do anything for it.  It's been blurry from day 1 and there are no visible foreign objects that would be obstructing the lense's ability to focus either.

I had the same issue just now. No matter what I did, the camera would not focus. Killed Camera.app from the background tasks, restarted the phone...nothing.

Someone on IRC suggested that I tap on the actual camera lens on the back of the phone a few times to "unstuck" the lens motor. Sure enough, a few taps later, the focus motor seems to be working just fine!

I am experiencing exactly the same problem.

The front camera is fine, the back camera won't focus, even when close to the object.

When i tap to focus, the highlighted square just flashes and then disappears, as if it is trying to focus but can't.

I have tried tapping the lens too (although not very hard!) as well as a reset and neither has helped.

This happens in both the native camera app and in other apps using the camera as well.

Any other ideas for a fix?

I had the same focusing issues. I did what Lucas did and it worked. Actually, I tapped the lens first that did not work and then I gently hit the back of my phone and it worked. Thank you Lucas! Spanking works!!!

Same issues. Tapping it did not work for me

Same exact issue here. Tapping did not work.  Front camera works great but not the back camera.

me too had same problem tapping not working and didn't focus

Same problem with my 4S 5.1 software.

The focus area won't goes GREEN.

I have the same after update to iOS 5.01, before that mine was 4.33 camera have no problem with focus at all

Apple must take a look this issue, and fixed this urgently

Please help us

Don't know if the Apple people are even listening.....

There is a focusing problem with your your iphones.... Really really disappointed with apple support team.

It is as if they are intentionally Ignoring us.

Apple we need a **** solution to this problem...we didn't payed such money for crappie.

I bought an iphones just because of its 720p video feature....

Help us out

I also have a similar problem, started this morning. I tried different camera apps and they all cannot focus. I've tapped the camera but it did not help. I guess I'll set up a genius meeting.