iphone 5 camera spots

i know what it is: its glass in your camera. its reflective, so it looks that way. i had the same problem and took it to my phone company and they looked at it. i still havent gotten it fixed

So guys, still no news on this area? A week ago one of my friends also started to notice the exact same purple lines/dots on his pictures. It seems, this is another serious manufacturing defect that a lot of iPhone 5 owners are experiencing... At least Apple admitted the power button failure and they initiated a repair program, but this issue still persists... 😟 And because it is a problem of the lens itself, the only solution is to swap the entire camera lens, which is even more expensive than the ribbon cable (which causes the power button failure). Do you think there is any chance that Apple starts a recall/repair program for this one too? I'm not keeping my hopes up... It's quite sad that I cannot really use my iPhone 5 as a decent camera anymore. I can't just subsequently remove this glitch from all of the photos I ever take...

Hi MrBYU,

I talked about this earlier in this thread and I had the same problem. But I'm pretty good with my hands and so what I did was purchase a replacement camera lens and I fixed it myself! The new lens was only about $15 or so and so it turned out to be a very cheap fix and about an hour of my time to do the replacement. I was able to find a youtube video showing step by step how to replace it and so I followed that to a T and it worked perfectly the first time, no problems and now I am back to using the camera almost daily. So if you think you can fix it yourself, I would recomment trying it. Just make sure you follow the step by step instructions and buy the camera lens off of amazon, that's where I got mine, and also buy the tools that you need that's specific for iDevices and with a little bit of patience, you'll have your phone working perfectly again and for a mere few bucks!

I was just wondering, when you said that you replaced the lens. Did you mean the lens that's attached to the body or the actual camera? I can't seem to find a lens from Amazon, could you please point me to the right direction. My wife's iPhone 5 has the dark spot on every photo she takes. I would like to fix it myself. thanks in advance!

Hey what's up,

So I don't know if you saw my previous reply to your questions but not long after I replied, I received an email from Apple Support Communities Staff saying that they removed my response to you due to it "containing questionable advice." lol Wow, really!? How ridiculous! Not only was my advice sound and direct, but it was proven to work by a very clear tutorial that is easy to follow and one that I followed myself and successfully fixed on my first try.

So, Apple Support Communities Staff decided to remove my response to you and said that I should "Check that your answer works on your own computer before you post your Submission." Well, that's funny, coz I CLEARLY said that I fixed my own phone while watching the tutorial, therefore, the basis for my post removal was very much unfounded.

I'm sure the real reason that my response was removed is because I am showing you and others how to fix this purple spot issue for a very cheap price which obviously is not something that Apple is going to like people being able to do because if everyone starts fixing their own iPhones, then that means that people aren't going to pay the multi $100 price for a new replacement which means that my response is potentially taking away money from the company. But of course they are not going to say that in their "Post Removal Notification" to me lol

At any rate, I'm not surprise that my post was removed for the reasons outlined above. It's a business and that's just in Apple's best interest for me to not show people how to fix the problem so I'm not really too mad about it because I understand where they are coming from with not wanting me to post details on how to fix the problem.

I guess you could contact me privately if you want me to explain it again. Take care everyone and no hard feelings, Apple Support Communities Staff, I completely understand where you're coming from. It's all good.

Hey Peter,

Thank you soooo much for your reply!!!

I did see your previous reply, it was actually on my email. I bought the camera and tools from the link that the video provided. I received them today and just got done replacing the camera on my wife's iphone 5. The difference is night and day! The new camera fixed the problem of dark spots on her photos. I spent $37 to fix the phone by myself, a very significant saving compare to getting a new phone. She's impressed that I was able to fix it, I did it while she was cooking dinner and got done before she did. Thank you so much for the tutorial that provided and for replying to my previous post.

Best regards!

Awesome, I'm glad you were able to do what I did! Good job and I'm glad I could help by pointing you in the right direction!

Purple spots all over each pic. Iphone 5 is 5 months out of warranty. Gave the Genius thing a try. No help, offered 270 for a new phone replacement. Actually ,after the Genius takes the phone in the back behind the stainless steel wall and taking it apart and blowing air inside, the spots are still there and huge splotches are now visible. The air can probably had some moisture and sprayed right on the camera. the Geniuses made it worse. Pretty funny. So, since there are many documented cases I think it is sad that a good phone like the 5 is now toast over a major feature. Time to move on to a more quality product. Bummer. Come on, Apple make this right for us. I want to stay but I cant unless the phone lasts 5 years.

I may try the camera fix. Pretty straight forward it seems.

Hi Mark,

Don't give up on your phone just yet! It is a great product and I have an iPhone 5 as well and it was worth the time to fix my camera lens with the same issue. You can purchase a new replacement camera lens for about $20 and fix it yourself like I did. Took me less than an hour and it works perfectly and I'm shooting pictures every day again with no purple spots!

And people are probably wondering WHY this happens to their phone. Why are there purple spots in my camera lens and why are other people having the same problem and WHY isn't Apple fixing it for everyone? Well, I'll tell you why they aren't fixing it for people....it's because the purple spots are not a problem with the actual hardware but rather they are a product of HUMAN ERROR, namely, those of us who own the phones. It's OUR fault that the purple spots are there in the first place and I'll tell you why....

What the purple spots are is in fact actual small pieces of dust that have been lodged inside the very delicate lens of the camera. The dust pieces are not on the outside of the lends, otherwise we'd be able to simply open up the phone and blow some air inside the lens area or use a cotten swab to wipe the lens clean, and that would be that. But no, that doesn't work with the purple spots because what has happened is that some very small dust particles have gotten lodged INSIDE the actual lens, in between the lens and the actual camera sensor. So there's basically no way to blow those pieces of dust out and the only way to fix it is to replace the entire lens unit, which can be purchased for about $20.

Now, WHY or HOW are dust particles getting stuck INSIDE the lens?? It's due to the owners of the phones DROPPING them or bumping them really hard into something. I can almost guarantee you that if we all never dropped our phone, even on the carpet or on some other soft material, then we would never have this purple splotch problem in our photos. By dropping your phone, it causes a shockwave of motion throughout your entire phone and when that hard "hit" reaches your little delicate camera lens, any small particles that might be lingering on the very edge of the lens or just on the edge of where the lens connects to the camera sensor, that "hit" from dropping it is what causes the dust to be thrust into the lens, thus causing purple spots when we shoot photos.

I guarantee you that every single person who has this purple spot problem has dropped their phone at least ONCE, whether it be on the hard ground or on some softer surface like on a carpet, rug, or even on a couch. If it hit hard enough, it is what causes the dust to be propelled through the small cracks between the lens and the camera sensor, thus causing the irrepairable problem of purple spots.

I know I have dropped my phone a handful of times and that's what caused the dust to get lodged into that area. So, yeah, it's HUMAN ERROR that causes this problem and it's not a hardware problem and that's exactly why Apple doesn't see fit to fix it for all of us. Why should they? If we all would have never dropped our phones, then we'd not be here in this forum talking about purple spots on our photos 🙂

i have same problem too. what must i do.

Aaron, read the posts that I wrote above, they detail what you need to do which is basically buy a new replacement camera and install it yourself by watching a how-to video on youtube.

Sorry I think you made a mistake. You should have contacted Apple support via the phone. Apple stores are usually not that helpful when it comes to issues like this.

CLEANED OUT DUST FROM INSIDE LENS IPHONE 5, NO MORE DARK SPOTS

I've had 3 dark spots on my inner lens too for 3 months and I take lots of pictures and it was bugging me. After I researched here and saw that a lot of people had the same problem and I saw your video I knew there was a way to fix it. But first I went to the apple genius bar this morning to make sure and they agreed it was dust inside, He said a replacement iphone for me would be $269.00 since I was out of warranty. ***? Im sure I will upgrade to the next iPhone when it comes out later this year or get a iPhone 5s. But for now happy again with my iPhone 5.

But on the way home i happen to find a store called Digital Clinic in Torrance ,CA that opened my iphone and cleaned the lens for $25.00. ALL GOOD NOW! THANKS AGAIN TO THIS FORUM.

CLEANED OUT DUST FROM INSIDE LENS IPHONE 5, NO MORE DARK SPOTS

I've had 3 dark spots on my inner lens too for 3 months and I take lots of pictures and it was bugging me. After I researched here and saw that a lot of people had the same problem and I saw your video I knew there was a way to fix it. But first I went to the apple genius bar this morning to make sure and they agreed it was dust inside, He said a replacement iphone for me would be $269.00 since I was out of warranty. ***? Im sure I will upgrade to the next iPhone when it comes out later this year or get a iPhone 5s. But for now happy again with my iPhone 5.

But on the way home i happen to find a store called Digital Clinic in Torrance ,CA that opened my iphone and cleaned the lens for $25.00. ALL GOOD NOW! THANKS AGAIN TO THIS FORUM.

I had the same spot on my camera. Took it to Apple tonight where they looked at it and said "you'll probably need a new one". They did try to see if it was dust and blow it out, but it wasnt. The phone was under a year old, so they just swapped it out for a new one. Had an 8 o'clock appointment and was out of there by 8:20.