Q: Rear camera stopped working after upgrade to iOS 9

Here is my story, 6S plus 64 gig T Mobile Carrier, phone a month old. Updated to 9.1, camera was working, albeit sometimes I had to switch from rear to front camera then back again. Rear camera and torch quit working at the same time. Tried resetting the phone, the rear camera come on, focused, locked up and then went black. Tried the low power on off toggle then restart the phone, nothing. Torch and Rear camera still not working. Tried toggling the low power off and on hard reboot (power and home button same time) and the torch started working. Repeated a second time, now both rear camera and torch are working.

Same problem...updated phone to IOS 9.1 and after about 3 weeks rear  camera and flashlight no longer work. I've tried everything mentioned in previous posts other than disconnecting and reconnecting camera. Nothing has worked. So frustrating!

Hi, I've been recently getting this error when I restored my Iphone 4s, I forgot the passcode so restoring was my only option, but my camera still worked on ios 9, just that you HAVE to update to restore your phone, so I got ios 9.1, THEN I got the camera issue, I restored again and no luck, but it seems that it really isnt a hardware problem because after the restore, i did opened the camera app once randomly, and it worked, the rear camera works, BUT it stopped again :/
My guess is that this is an issue with the update. Although users here seem to have ios 9 . I have 9.1 . Maybe when ios 9.2 comes out or another update, apple will fix it, but this isn't a hardware problem.

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

Updated my iPhone 5 to iOS 9.1 and the rear camera stopped working: I only get a black screen. Took the phone to an Apple store today. A Genius ran the diagnostics and this showed there wasn't a hardware problem: rear camera was responding fine. They suggested a full restore would provide the fix though I advised I'd already tried to no avail. Full restore failed to solve the problem. A senior Genius then said it was a hardware problem despite the diagnostic results! Clear to me that there is something in 9.1 affecting iPhone 5s - mine is one of the first batch that had battery problems but don't know if there's a correlation here...

Hi,

I also have this issue. Whilst I was on chat to someone from Apple and I was messing around with the phone, I put in airplane mode for a few minutes and when took it back off the camera was working again.

Could someone else try this is simple measure to just see if may help?

Replaced my camera and flash it seems the new iOS refuses to read the previous Apple hardware .

For those who think they haves escape the apple rip off I bought my wife a iPhone 6 from T-Mobile carrier and what a freaking coincidence !! once the update to iOS 9.1/9 .0 was done the camera was no where to be found . Now I have to send the phone back pay 175$ outta my pocket (insurance replacement) to receive a new one ,hopefully one with a working camera . I hear all your guys troubles I myself am so bummed out. I used to love apple dude      I can't turn my back but I'm really reconsidering throwing money away trying to fix these unnecessary bugs.

<Edited by Host>

I hear ya!  I powered down my iPhone 6 Plus, had my hubby open it up, disconnect the camera cable & reconnect it.  Sure enuff, that fixed the problem, and my camera has been working flawlessly ever since!  It's just a suggestion; I know that opening the phone up voids the warranty, but I use my camera for everything!   Also seems like since I updated the iOS, my phone freezes here & there.  I have to let it go to "sleep" then wake it up, and the freezing problem is solved...for a little bit.      Good luck to you!

My iPhone 5 rear camera stopped working after I upgraded to iOs  9.0 tool

I have spoken to support several times and just went into the store to meet with a Genius Bar representative. Although he was very nice, in the end I was told that I'd have to pay to replace my phone. He said that when a new iOs is installed, it does a kind of "MRI scan" on the device to find problems and brings them to light. Uhhh. I don't buy it. It was working FINE with iOs 8.

I have been a loyal Apple customer for over 23 years (with my first Mac SE) and I'm so incredibly disappointed.

I have decided to go camera-less for now and keep the phone that Apple's updating software has broken.

This is obviously a software issue and I can't help but feel it was intentionally created to make users upgrade to the new iPhone 6.

So disappointed.

I, too, had this problem with my iPhone 6 Plus (which was only a few months old), after updating.  My hubby watched a YouTube videeo, powered off the phone & proceeded to open it up (yes, it voids the warranty, but after a month or so, I couldn't go without my camera any longer).  He then Simply disconnected the camera ribbon & reconnected it.  This solved the problem, and my camera & torch have worked flawlessly ever since.  Hope this helps, and good luck to u!

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.

i found a post on the net to fix it. Go to settings/ General/ reset. reset all settings. this fixed it for me. hope this helps

I tried pretty much everything: resets (almost all types, changing the back camera itself to a brand new one, reconnecting the ribbon, turning it off for the night, playing with different settings (airplane mode, etc) - pretty much everything that was suggested in this thread, and nothing worked. The iOS 9.2 i've been waiting for desperately didn't fix it neither. So disappointed with Apple...

The iPhone 5.

After the upgrade stopped working rear camera and flashlight.

Bought for $ 40 a broken Iphone, I removed the camera and set in my iphone.

After power  on iphone ,  rear camera and the flashlight are now working perfectly.

I think that the reason was not ios9, but unreliable  cameras in one party.

Same with my phone

http://iphone.stackxchange.xyz/rear-camera-stopped-working-after-upgrade-to-ios- 9-gcf5gm