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

I had this problem on my iPhone 4S. The camera was stuck at extrememly close focus. The "tap" option would temporarily fix the problem, but it would quickly recur. I took the phone to the Genius Bar, and they thought it was a software problem. When they couldn't fix the software, they just installed a new camera. It took about 20 minutes, and it was covered under warranty. The camera has worked fine ever since.

Hi everyone,

I bought my iphone 4 from a technophobe who had never used the camera (or the phone really) so it was out of warranty. I tried flicking, slamming it on the table etc etc to no avail (scary thing to do). I had noticed that the lens looked a bit ....odd, but I thought it might just have been the way it was. I managed to get the cover off and found a clear square sticker stuck on the inside of the case over the camera hole, removed and !volia perfect pictures. 🙂. So before belting your phone about flicking and banging, make sure you check!
Good luck

I just discovered that my iPhone 4 will not focus today when trying to "scan" in some checks to cash with my bank. I looked through my photo stream and discovered that the autofocus stopped working in May of 2011. Objects at armslength or closer are in focus before May 2011 and out of focus after that.

All this time I just thought the iPhone 4 camera was very poor quality, but it is pretty much this lack of focus that has given me problems.

I took the phone in to the Apple Store today. After wiping the phone and reinstalling the firmware, the camera was still unable to focus as confirmed by the technician by holding the phone about a foot away from a Macbook Pro keyboard (the keys look blurry). She quoted me $60 for a new camera or $150 for a new iPhone 4, since the warranty expired about a year ago.

I saw today that you can get rear camera parts on eBay for less than $10 and follow the iFixit guide for replacing the rear camera, though I am reluctant to pull the trigger because of uncertainty about whether these replacement parts will provide full functionality.

What I really hate about apple is that they dont even care to give us an answer. I feel that they dont really give a **** about our problems. I mean , they dont even bother to give us an answer about this problem that many of us experince!

I've got the same problem - camera out of focus, and it really *****!

I agree that the iPhone cameras often do not focus, usally in low light or when the camera lens is dirty.

The other thing is that 'touch focus' is a tricky thing and is not as accurate as some might think, camera often cannot estimate the thing that you are trying to focus on and hence takes blurred photos.

I've been using 4S since release and have managed to comeup with some ways to tackle these kind of focus issues:

1) as I said check your lens for dirt smudges or any stuff that may be affecting focusing.

2) iPhone is not a good cameraphone for low light conditions and will not focus as the camera has no LED for assitsting focus, and the flash also doesn't assist in focusing it just lightens up the scene.

3) if unable to focus on an object try focusing something else on a same distance then take the picture of the object you want.

4) some times touch focus just doesnt work for you, if you move the camera or shake it for a while the app will try to focus on centre which helps in a lot of situations.

eg. 'often' when trying to take a photo of a full moon ,when you tap on the moon the screen goes in blur, but if you tap around the moon it focuses on the moon for some reason, i've noticed this a lot.

there maybe more ways to reslove this issue too, i tried to help 😀

Apple got our money - thats all they care about. This is beyond pathetic and really insulting to us loyal iPhone BUYERS, that apple hasn't cared to fix what appears to be a TWO YEAR long problem with their rear facing camera (i base this on the two years of user postings on this Apple support site). I just bought this iPhone a month ago. The camera stopped working within a week! All blurry photos. Some users have posted saying to smack the back of the phone to fix this hardware issue. Are you kidding? How lame and primitive. So now I have to actually bring a camera with me now because my iPhone 4 camera is useless - wow how efficient is that? How innovative! I had an iPhone 3 for two years. It was a workhorse - zero issues. Apple quality has plummeted. I'm told by EVERYONE that they cant understand me when I call on the new iPhone. Its choppy and low volume. I will NEVER buy another iPhone again!! The name of my next phone will start with the letter S. :)

Same issue here, and in quite sure this started happening immediately after the iOS 6 update. Thanks for nothing.

I just upgraded this iPhone 4 (not s) to IOS 6.0 and it fixed the focus problem. Go figure.

I, too, have the problem of blurry images on the front-facing camera that began suddenly. Rear-facing focus (taking a picture of myself) is fine. I saw that a replacement lens can be ordered for a few bucks. I decided to clean the lens to see if that is what I need. I removed the back of the iphone 4 by removing the two special pentalobe screws on either side of the docking connection. A pentalobe screwdriver can be ordered inexpensively off of ebay or amazon. After removing the two screws, the back slides up and off--very easy. The camera lens is part of the back of the phone. I tried to clean both sides of the lens with no improvement, but noticed that the camera will work without the back attached. Without the back (and the lens) in place, the images were clear and in focus for short and long range shots, indicating that the lens is the issue and there is likely nothing else wrong with the phone. I'll post a followup after I get the replacement lens.

I just tried the table thing but it didn't do anything. I swapped between photo and video that's worked for me so far.

Never mind still doing it.

I also had the pleasure to recieve this autofocus problem. Although my Telephone is still in warrenty. I can't miss my phone for 6 weeks. I have seen third party fixers which charge 45 bucks for the Camera replacements and it should be done in 3 days. What flabbergasts me the most is that "Apple" has not send any response about this problem. to bad there isn't a genius bar around here.

I did notice some co-workers of mine got it working with the tap method though.

anyone else had the problem fixed on any other method?

I replaced my power button a few weeks back and just noticed yesterday that my camera wasn't focusing as well!

I took the back off and noticed that the camera focused fine without the back cover on just like you, masterdiver6. In my case, the issue was that the little square foam/gasket piece surrounding the lens [on the camera itself, not the back cover] had been shifted down when I previously put the phone back together so the foam was actually pressing on the inner black part of the lens assembly. This part moves a tiny bit back and forth during focusing.

So my problem was that the gasket piece was pressing on the lens assembly and keeping it from floating freely which resulted in loss of focus ability. Note, I could only see that the gasket was pressing on the lens once I had taken the back cover off

Hope this helps some.

Will

Had the same problem with the cam on my 4s. Tried everything from flicking to etc. finally removed the back cleaned it and everything works fine again

I know violence isn't the answer, but I found that after my camera became blurry I Banged it on my grandmothers antique glass ashtray a few times and it seemed to clear up the problem. Just saying...