Rear camera stopped working after upgrade to iOS 9

BRIEF SUMMARY: I had this problem with my iPhone 5 and I solved it by having the camera/flash unit replaced for $65 at a repair shop

LONGER VERSION: I updated my iPhone 5 to iOS9 several weeks ago. After a few weeks of normal use, I experienced the same problem described by others in this thread (rear camera and flashlight stopped working). I read all posts in this thread, and many others, looking for solutions. I tried everything in this thread, and from other sites (including all sorts of button-press and restart combinations; different types of restores; physically pressing on the rear camera, etc.). None of these things worked.

I went to a local repair shop (I googled "iPhone repair" in my city; there is no apple store near me). The repair shop replaced the rear camera and the flash (apparently they come as a unit). It cost $65 plus tax, and the repair took a few hours. The technician speculated that a short that was affecting both the camera and the flash. Everything is working perfectly now. The technician changed only the camera and flash hardware, not the software.

My assessment: I think my camera/flash unit broke, and that the upgrade to iOS 9 was coincidental.

With $65 spent, my phone is back to normal. Considering that I've owned my iPhone 5 for three years, and taken a huge number of photos, I suppose it shouldn't be disappointing that it would need replacement.

Clearly some people on this post have a different problem, because restoring the phone fixed the problem. If you have this problem, and if the solutions presented in this thread don't work for you, perhaps you need to have the camera/flash unit replaced in your phone. I speculate that this problem is NOT related to a software upgrade; it is coincidental that some of us have had this problem after a software upgrade, and many of us experienced the same coincidence because of the large number of iPhones on Earth.

TTurning low power mode on and off then restarting the phone fixed it. I allowed the low power mode to be on for 30 secs before turning it off again.

THe camera and flashlight are working.

I have an iPhone 5s and had that problem this morning. I held in my power and home button, waited until it powered off about 30 seconds and turned it back on. My camera works now. Hope you get this resolved!

I did the complete device wipe from General>Reset>Erase all content & Settings , I then started the phone up as a brand new iPhone and now everything is working again (phone, App Store (which was also missing) etc.)

I haven't done a recovery from backup as of yet. Just trying to reload my apps and photos manually. All seems to be fully functional at this point. Not an enjoyable process, but I'm pleased to have the phone functioning the way it should again.

Correction to my previous post: I did the complete device wipe from General>Reset>Erase all content & Settings , I then started the phone up as a brand new iPhone and now everything is working again (CAMERA, App Store (which was also missing) etc.)

I haven't done a recovery from backup as of yet. Just trying to reload my apps and photos manually. All seems to be fully functional at this point. Not an enjoyable process, but I'm pleased to have the phone functioning the way it should again.

At least we now know 100% that this is not a "hardware" issue (as previously reported from the Genius Bar).

It is definitely issue with software where flashlight app is badly impacted after software update (ios 9.0.1). Since flashlight app and rear camera app is associated, rear camera will not up until flash is on or in working state. I did try following which worked me for few days:

1. Close front and rear camera with your fingers and gently press camera and flash light side of your phone.

2. Keep both the cameras covered by your fingers and try to restart your phone. (Hard restart i.e. Lock button + home button). Please make sure all apps should be closed.

3. Once phone up, try to start flash light through control center wizard. You can find flash light works.

4. Now let flashlight keep remain on and start camera app.

5. Switch to rear and front camera and gently remove your fingers from camera lens.

6. You can find rear camera works in this state.

I have iPhone 5 and I've experienced exactly the same 'hardware' issue. I am writing to share my experience an explain how i manage to fix it. Thank everyone for the good explanations. My camera stopped working - black screen, in an hour the flash stopped working too, showing it's overheated and needs to cool down.

What i did:

1. Restarting several times - no effect.

2. Recovery mode then back up with iTunes - no effect.

3. Toggling low power mode then restart - no effect.

4. Switching front and back camera for like 20-30 times then turn the phone off for 15 mins and then turned it on again.

Now my camera is working again, the flashlight too.

Hi everybody!

I had the same issue. I upgraded to IOS 9 and after 3 weeks my iphone 5 rear camera stopped working. Same story as everybody...black screen and led overheating warning message. I tried everything: reset ( home button + power button), energy saving mode on/off, pushing on the camera and even a factory reset but unfortunately nothing worked. Since my iPhone is out of warranty i bought a rear camera module on internet (6 Euro) and replaced by myself. I just finished the work, turned the device on and now it's working perfectly again. Apparently was an hardware failure even if i was very sceptical about that...(probably mama apple decided to burn the camera with ios 9! 😝). Jokes apart wish everybody a good evening and hope this helped.

Greetings from Florence.

Federico

Hi guys, I have been stalking this forum for awhile hoping for a fix, tried everything, and finally found what I think is THE solution. I had the same rear camera issue, with the 'cool down' message, after updating to iOS9. Total garbage how Apple has treated this issue.

Anyway, took my phone to an Apple store and was told they won't look at it because the screen had been repaired by an unauthorized retailer. Here is the fix:

Have someone open up your phone and disconnect and reconnect the camera. Turn the phone off, and the camera should work when you turn the phone back on.

I went back to my unauthorized retailer, and asked them to disconnect and reconnect the camera as suggested on here. They opened the phone, took out the camera, and put a new one in. It still didn't work, lending support to the idea that this is NOT a hardware issue. After putting the old camera back in, they told me there was nothing I could do.

However, when I turned the phone off and on again it worked. I think something in the update messes up the camera, and it needs to be 'restarted' by unplugging it and reconnecting it. When the phone starts up again the connection is back up again, and all is well. Be advised that if you take your phone to a non-Apple store to do this, your warrantly will be voided by Apple.

Hope this helps!

- Mike

PRoblem Solved! I tried many things to make my rear camera work again, but i failed using software activities. I was wondering that the last thing i did not check is the hardware, so it is maybe a big possible its a hardware issue. All i did was to think of how can i be able to pay a cheap price for repairing hardware, since i already told the technician the problem possible option on how to repair it, instead of replacing the camera. I told them to try to re attach the camera's flex to the board. they tried it, and after that they put it back in the camera and there you go. It works! I'm 99% sure it works. Just find an apple technician to instruct them to only re attach the camera. (Pull it off then put it back in) dont replace, unless your camera is damage cause of dropping the unit. Since it was not then do the previous instruction i wrote in this reply. I know this will help a lot of people who tried to seek answer to this matter., i can't use my camera since i updated to ios9. In my country here in Philippines i only paid php300 or 6.36 dollars. you can pay cheap if you are vigilant. : )

Summary: Solution found - hardware issue

Introduction: Hi i've been following this thread for the longest time as i myself have encountered this issue around a week after updating to iOS9 around early November.

I tried all the suggested steps, hard reset, restore to factory settings, toggle battery saver mode - and even tried squeezing over the camera as suggested.

As many others have identified the symptoms- black rear camera screen, yellow alert icon at the top left; when tapped on says flash needs to cool down..; and a non functioning greyed-out flashlight from the swipe up panel.

Alas i decided to give opening it up a try.

Disclaimer: Be warned- will void your warranty if done outside of apple's supervision- only proceed if you are out of the 2 year period- if not do send it back to them

Procedure:

I'll keep it brief and non-technical as i myself have close to zero training on operating on smartphones.

If you've ever seen a teardown, you'll know that once the bottom 2 penta-screws (neologism most probably) are removed, you will 1st have to remove a ribbon on the inferior (lower) part of the phone.

The screen swivels open with an attachment at the superior (top) part of the phone, with a further 3 ribbons supposedly attached snugly.

Findings:

One of the 3 ribbons was either loosely detached/attached- and simply put i believe the ribbon belonging to the camera module was loose.

I basically took all 3 ribbons off, reattached them and piece the screen back in to place (not forgetting the last ribbon i.e the one at the inferior pole of the phone)

End Result:

The camera, both rear and front facing- worked the charm, as did the flash. Meddling around pessimistically with it the past day- still no signs of return of those dreaded symptoms.

Discussion:

I was initially sold into the idea that this was definitely a software issue, as many have pointed out that it only happened after updating to iOS 9.

However, after scouring through many other threads, i noticed this "flash cooling down- blank rear camera" problem seemed to affect a lot of other people whenever they upgraded to a newer operating system.

I theorise that it could be because we always try to find a triggering event to put lay blame onto an adverse outcome.

I noticed also that many here encountering this problem were well past their 2 year mark, or were approaching it- which lends to the conspiracy that Apple would try to kill our phones through the software updates and so on. Though admittedly, some of you here reported the problem even with uber new 6ers of 6Sers.

Screws become loose, and connectors dislodge across all appliances smart or otherwise, over time.

Could this be software related? Maybe. I think someone mentioned this earlier- sorry i can't remember who

Could it be possible that the newer software was made to be a little more sensitive/insensitive to the loose connectors, such that my previously hanging-by-a-thread 2nd ribbon was detectable before the update, but the newer iOS was less forgiving towards loose connections?

Conclusion:

Again be reminded that the root cause is hardware in origin, which is best fixed by the guys at Apple.

I cannot guarantee that this will work for you, but i sure am glad that it did for mine

Went to the Apple store today, bad board, they replaced the phone. They had tried to change the camera, and then both the front and rear camera quit working. I had tried the camera and the torch to make sure both were working. He told me the board that runs the rear camera and torch are one in the same. I had told them it wasn't working, but I guess didn't type it in. He said, if you would have told us that first, we would have swapped the phone immediately, as the board controls both.

Main camera failed for no apparent reason. I tried several suggestions listed here and finally tried turning low power button on and off as mentioned a few time here. It worked. I have iPhone 6 with 9.0.2. I turned the low power ON for 30 sec then OFF and then reboot phone. I hope this helps.

Update. The procedure described above worked for about a week and then the rear stopped working. Also, I have iPhone 5 not 6 as originally indicated. After considering the numerous suggesting posted here and of course trading in my phone, I decided to try and replace the camera, as reported here. I did it myself, cost about $10 and 2 hours time - but not for the novice. It has now been a month and everything is working find. Nevertheless, because of the timing with upgrading the OS and initial failure of the camera, I still blame apple for this. Consequently this will be my second and last investment in anything apple. I hope this helps.

Hi Guys

I've tried every possible solution (For the iphone 5) mentioned by many users and so far it hasn't help through the updates as well. The hard reset, toggling low power, installing 3rd party apps, restoring from itunes never helped.

Finally, after losing my patience on waiting for updates( from ios9 to ios 9.2.1) I decided to go to a service center and get my camera module replaced. The camera has started to work again along with the flashlight.

The troubleshooting and camera replacement costs me around 50USD (Available online for around 9USD).

I hope this will help you all. Good luck.

I had the same issue..what happen was when I open camera its just black screen..front cam works..then i tried to use the flash it says phone is heating..wait to cool down..what I did was I dismantle the mobile using video guide..then check the ribbon point of camera is properly attached to the motherboard and found it was not properly attached. so i pulled it out and re attached..then it works fine for me..but make sure to be careful when you dismantle the mobile and removing the ribbon clips might damage to your mobile..also please don't do it if you have valid warranty with you..