Q: iPhone 5 camera not working after ios 7 update

Fabio, great find. This was the fix, haven't had issues with camera app crashing since I followed your instructions.

It would appear to be something related to restriction preferences or a conflict in those apps after the latest update. Resetting them exactly like you said seems to correct this.

Fabio, Jason. Glad this worked for you, but it's still not fixed the problem on my iPhone 5. Grrr.

Dear Jason. Did you try to install the iOS 7 in SDU mode(a full install in oposite an update of iOS 7) before the restrictions procedure? I follow this path(without restoring my backup)and  it worked for me.

Fabio, Greetings!

I followed your instructions and it didn't work. Can you please give me specific procedure in order to fix my camera?  Thank you.

Hi Andrea,

After restart your iPhone in SDU mode, install the iOS 7.0.3 and don't restore de backup from iTunes or iCloud. After that, follow this instructions:

1. If restrictions are enable(if not, do it!), go to Settings>general>restrictions  and turn off the Camera(it will also disable the FaceTime!)
2. Turn off the iPhone
3. Turn on the iPhone
4. Go to Settings>General>Restrictions and turn on the Camera

After that you can launch the Camera App and  the application will work without problems.

Good Luck!

As my iPhone 5 is still under warranty but I live far away from an Apple Store, I called Apple, and, on october 28 UPS came to pickup the iPhone, on november 4 they delivered it with the camera working, but in the report they said they couldn't replicate the issue so they sended it back.

I've tried every trick posted here with no results and they most have done something, I don't know what, but they fixed it...

Hey everyone, I got my iPhone 5 the first day they were out last year, making me out of warranty when iOS 7 came and my camera stopped working.

Waited an hour and a half at the Apple Store to be told that I would have to pay $270 for a new phone, as many of you have.

I read through this thread and saw msteinruck's post on page 10 about how they got a replacement out of warranty so I followed what they did.

Called Apple, told them my problem, asked for a Senior Advisor, talked nice, explained the issue again, got told there's nothing they can really do, then mentioned how someone on this thread got a replacement.

After saying that, I was put on hold for a couple minutes (which was fine), and now I got one time exception to get a replacement!

Wooooooo!

Hello guys, an update from me and my touchscreen-hangs-since-camera-gone-awkwardness:

Fabios trick helped me, too!

At first, when i enabled the camera restriction, the screen stopped working for good. Waiting and reboots didn't help. Then i went to DFU mode to turn it off (since you cant do that normally without sliding). After turning it on again, the camera was disabled and my touchscreen would work like new!

Enabling the camera again however brought the problem back, so to get my camera back i did a restore and fiddled with this setting some more and now im back to normal. So there is hope for me, if apple does fix the bug but only prevents it from hapening, not reversing the cam failure.

I would have went to my local apple store, but they have no reservations left for over a week - so i guess they have much work on their hands with Mavericks and iOS7. Not every customer has a buggy device, and those who just need to get shown around and taught about new features tend to take rather long. But still, this may be an indication. I would not be surprised if replacement phones were running scarce.

Fabio - heads up, this fixed my issue for a few days, then came back again.

This is the only sure fire way I have to recover the camera after a crash like this.

Absolutely software. There is NO WAY this is hardware.

thanks for your advice but after 3 attempts it doesn t work on mine. still no camera.

any other suggestions?

can I return to ios6?

So my camera is working again! Some combination of messing with all the camera settings, flash settings, backlighting, backing up all photos to laptop and removing from camera, many complete restarts, several complete backups to cloud, and really not sure what else - but both cameras are working again!! My suggestion is DON'T Pay the $ for a new iphone. Do all the things that are suggested in this thread and give it a few days...your camera will probably come back like mine did. Anyone else have this same experience??

I have the same issue with my 5c. Tried to folllow yours suggestions but still have the same camera problem...

But I didnt do this "restart in SDU mode" ...since I dont how to do this...

Just want to add myself to list of those with this same problem to hopefully draw more attention from Apple.

Anyways, I have an iPhone 5 - 16GB and I realized today that my rear facing camera is no longer working, I just get a black screen.  Or if I start in the front-facing FaceTime camera (that I can occassionally get to work after pressing the flip button and closing and opening the app etc.) and then try to switch the app freezes on the blurred transition image. 

I've tried just about everything on this forum, the screen brightness, a soft reset (power & home buttons), a full reset to factory settings via iTunes, turning off the camera via restrictions, and no luck.

I also feel strongly that this must be a software issue tied back to an iOS 7 update as I take very good physical care of my phone (no notable drops to speak of - granted hardware can sometimes just break) and am not a huge app user outside of a few core apps none of which have camera functionality.  So only change to my phone that I can trace back to recently is the iOS 7.0.3 update.

I'm out of warranty as I got my phone the day it was released last Fall.  I have an appointment at the Genius Bar tomorrow and will be very dissappointed if I am given the hardware excuse and asked to pay $270.  Hopefully it won't come to that.  Quite frustrating.  

I have tried all the tips on this thread, and many of them worked at first, now nothing works my camera and flashlight are dead.

I am back to square one, too. Camera dead, Flashlight dead. I can get them to work again, but then the touch stops working again. And that is understandably worse.