Some users have reported that the iPhone 4’s camera app crashes or freezes, either right after it is opened or when the user attempts to take a picture
4 Rs
This problem may be resolved by following the first three of the 4 Rs, as described in our iPhone 4 troubleshooting guide. This list of escalating fixes that can solve a surprisingly large number of iPhone 4 problems. Try solution #1 first; if it’s not successful, try #2; if #2 is not successful, try #3.
Reboot (hard reset). Hold down the sleep/wake and home buttons simultaneously for roughly 15-20 seconds, until the screen powers off then an Apple logo appears, which signifies a reboot. Some problems may require (oddly) that this procedure is performed twice.
Reset all settings. It appears that the reset may restore disengaged hardware components and clear corrupt data that prevents proper operation. Navigate to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings. Note that this will erase stored messages, passwords and other information.
Restore, but not from backup. Ba holdover data from iPhone backups (especially those created for previous iPhone models) can cause various issues. Restoring as a new phone will delete contacts and other data, but may resolve the problem. To do so, connect your iPhone or iPod touch to your computer, click “Restore” in iTunes, then choose “setup as new phone.”
Turn phone off for several minutes
Interestingly, some users have reported that turning their phones off (completely, by holding down the sleep/wake button on top of the phone then sliding it of) for roughly 15 minutes then turning it back on resolves this issue.
Obsessed with tech since the early arrival of A/UX on Apple, Sudz (SK) is responsible for the editorial direction of AppleToolBox. He is based out of Los Angeles, CA.
Sudz specializes in covering all things macOS, having reviewed dozens of OS X and macOS developments over the years.
In a former life, Sudz worked helping Fortune 100 companies with their technology and business transformation aspirations.
Iphone 4s camera is actually great. Its picture quality is also awesome. I am personally using iPhone 4s and I am very happy with that but recently I got problem with iPhone camera. Sometimes when I open its camera, it hangs my iPhone device and showing me pure black screen. If you have same problem then you should look at http://howmobile.net/apple-iphone/2853-solution-camera-issues-iphone.html. Hope you would like the solution. As it’s very easy to understand & implement. Hope the solutions work for your Iphone 4s camera trouble.
Thanks
yup, tried it all,it wrked for aawhile (after several day) then still my camera captures a pic, open the pic then it freezes (hang). so frustrating,. reboot again then,,, freeze,,, reboot,,… ahhhh,.
Thanks so much, it’s been driving me crazy for a couple of weeks as I couldn’t get the camera to work. I tried nos. 1 and 3 first and neither worked, but no. 2 (reset) did work.
Had iPhone 4 for 1/2 years. Worked fine until flash stayed on last wkend and couldnt receive or call out without not hearing the person… on vacation..closest apple store over hr away..,wasted most of day going there. Couldn’t fix it. Gave me another phone. Version 5.1 .now yesterday. Hope it wasn’t a refurbished one. Camera shutter doesn’t work. And wont open. I am not wasting my vacation driving up again. Will have to wait til I get hope, and no pictures. Very disappointed in product now
The Reset all settings method is worked for me. But there is a few steps, that you should check to get this to work.
First make sure, this is because software problem not hardware, you can check if this a soft or hard problem by using other camera apps (using instagram) to check if it work.
If the camera work in other apps. Then the reset all setting will do fine.
If not working in other camera apps. You should go to apple. You waste your time by reset, hard reset, turn camera on 10minute,etc.
I agree with Babian, I used to have 4, have dine #3, problem still happened. Now I have 4s, just have it for 1 month, freeze 4x already!!! I never had this problem with 3s, is it our responsibility to fix the phone?
hi guys, im in China and im having the same problem. I know if i reset it ill lose my data but what about if i reboot? i would just try it but i dont want to lose all my music and vids otherwise the flight home will be even more unbearable.
The camera froze within 1st month. It’s a new iPhone 4. Resetting didn’t help.
I’ll visit the apple store to check out the hardware issue, but what an inconvenience. How much do you have to pay for the features to work?
Been having the same camera problem since last OS4 update. Never had a problem with 3G or 3GS, (other than the bullsh*t apple announcement that OS4 would work fine on 3G, NOT!). Am on my 2nd iPhone4, the 1st one wouldnt even boot, requiring 8 hrs. on phone with tech support and finally ponying up 600.00 for them to have the pleasure of sending me a new one. Now have the camera problem with this one. I use a camera quite a bit, but I’ve learned now not to rely on the iPhone 4 to give me consistent results, beit making a call or taking a pic. Long story short, I don’t need to post/share all my sh*t with every tom-dick-and harry, so I now carry a small digital camera that WORKS when I need it to work. No longer a fan of Apple phones, some great features but not worth all the headaches between it and iTunes. As soon as contract is up, hello Verizon and hello Droid OS. Damn sure can’t be any worse…
Step #1 worked Thanks! my Camera app on my iphone 4 for Verizon was opening but all the buttons for flash or review or to take a picture were all frozen. Turning the phone off for a few seconds rebooted it and now it works!
I installed the new update and now, my iPhone 4’s camera won’t load. It goes to the shutter screen and the pictures of the little camera and video camera in the bottom right flicker and then, my screen goes black and the Apple logo comes up. After, the refresh worm pops up before it crashes and goes into sleep mode. That was Day 1.
Day 2 consisted of every app crashing as soon as I loaded it. I found this post and nothing worked, so I called Apple. The nearest Apple store is an hour and a half away from me, so I’m not wanting to waste my gas and time to drive down there to get a replacement on a FLAW by Apple. Apple will send me a replacement phone and will put a hold on my credit card for $600!!! for a week until they receive yours back. I’m so aggravated with Apple and my iPhone right now and I’ve only had it for two months. The biggest joke ever, thanks for ruining my phone with your horrible update and for doing nothing to those you’ve screwed over.
I have the latest version of the ipod touch and i got it less than a month ago and about 4 days ago the shutter would freeze and i restarted it the first time it happened then two days later it did it again and I tried what i did before and it didn’t work so i am hoping restoring it works.
People if you are having this issue with the camera simply take the phone to an Apple Store and they will exchange your phone for another one. It’s still under the one year warranty and it’s a manufacturing error. If you don’t have a store close by call Apple Support they will be able to help you and will mail you a replacement phone.
Hi I brought my iphone4 november 2010 the camera was fine up until December then it froze on me have tried everything but still frozen aaargh so frustrating…….
I suffered this for only a few hours after taking a video in my house and receiving a photo file..
All i did was navigate to ;
/var/mobile/media/DCIM
(must be jailbroken – i then used ifile from cydia to navigate there..)
and deleted the video i recoreded, along with the photo i received, and a number of large video/photo files (after backing up!), then rebooted my phone and it works again.
hopefully you’ll get it working, too. [email protected]
My new iPhone 4 had two working cameras for two weeks. Then
neither would operate. Tried many tricks including “restore to
factory settings” but nothing worked. Finally, turned it off and
left it off overnight then turned it on. That did it! Although, I’m
obviously wary that it could reoccur at any time.
My iphone 4 about 3 months old does the same thing. Starts
up camera click and then freezes. This was happening since a week.
Today it stopped working and went dead. I revived it with the
toggle switch and hard reset and when it came the camera problems
was resolved (!) I think that Apple should have more info regarding
the issues on their website. But it is not common. so I guess they
are not bothered!
I got 2 new iphone 4’s last week and from day 1 mine it is
randomly shutting down all the time doesnt matter if im using it or
not its sooooo frustrating , even worse i gave the 2nd one to my
son today for xmas and within 2 hrs of use the camera has frozen
with the shutter closed ive tried all of the above and nothing
works they r both going back when xmas holidays r over NOT
IMPRESSED
I bought my iphone 4 a couple of days ago. after I switched it off and on it didn’t go to normal mode. It just shows the “apple” icon on the center of the screen with black background with all the keys non-functional??????????????
would you mind help me fix this.
I have the same trouble, but to be more specific, my video function worked just fine. Only when I chose camera function my camera app just closed. But, luckily, all seems to be resolved with just the step one. Thanks for the help.
i bought iphone 4 last week ago…i satisfied with diz stuff…unfortunately i got same problem with back camera…its shutter freeze since day one…i’ve tried 4Rs…it work for a while then the problem come back…can i get replacement seller from apple?
i purchased the iphone 4 on release day June 2010 and the camera has been intermitantly freezing since day one. It sems to be when i am in video mode or when i flip to forward facing camera. Initially turning the phone off and on fixed it so i never returned the phone but now 4 months on nothing works with the camera; soft reset, hard reset, turning off for 15 minutes ITS STILL FROZEN as if the shutter is opening but can’t???
I thought iphone 4 is the best phone ever in this world, but after this camera shutter that wont open, I think it’s the worst and most complicated phone ever! Can I just turn my iphone off for hours then turn it on? What the hell is actually happening?
absolutely pathetic… i have tried the “4 R’s” and nothing how can apple even consider allowing this phone to be on the market when they n]knew this was an issue.. What are my options now???????
Hello I bought 4 days ago iphone4 and I have the freezing shutter problem. A friend of mine that has the same problem fixed it but it is very risky. He opened the phone and realize that the cable of the camera was not right . In Greece we haven’t DOA for apple product so he took the shot . It’s a hardware problem
yup, tried it all,it wrked for aawhile then still my camera captures a pic, open the pic then it freezes (hang). so frustrating,. reboot again then,,, freeze,,, reboot,,… ahhhh,.
Hi
i buy my iphone 4 abut 2 months ago.
my iphone 4 camera is frozen .
i (Reboot) & (Reset all settings), (Restore, but not from backup)& (Turn phone off for several minutes) but still camera is frozen.
can you help me please?
Hi,
thanks! your first step, on the first try, did it for now and –since I’m on vacation and sometimes it’s the camera at hand, even when it should be a “real camera”, I’m pleased to have it back!
s
Iphone 4s camera is actually great. Its picture quality is also awesome. I am personally using iPhone 4s and I am very happy with that but recently I got problem with iPhone camera. Sometimes when I open its camera, it hangs my iPhone device and showing me pure black screen. If you have same problem then you should look at http://howmobile.net/apple-iphone/2853-solution-camera-issues-iphone.html. Hope you would like the solution. As it’s very easy to understand & implement. Hope the solutions work for your Iphone 4s camera trouble.
Thanks
yup, tried it all,it wrked for aawhile (after several day) then still my camera captures a pic, open the pic then it freezes (hang). so frustrating,. reboot again then,,, freeze,,, reboot,,… ahhhh,.
what to do?
Apple are cnuts. They sell sh*t and there is never any solid fixes, or if there is its “follow this 26 step guide to rebooting your phone…”. Fcuk off.
Apple sells and there is never any solid fixes or if there is its “follow this 26 step guide to rebooting your phone…”.
Thanks so much, it’s been driving me crazy for a couple of weeks as I couldn’t get the camera to work. I tried nos. 1 and 3 first and neither worked, but no. 2 (reset) did work.
The hard reboot didn’t work but turning it off for fifteen minutes did work!
Thanks! The 1st reset worked!
Had iPhone 4 for 1/2 years. Worked fine until flash stayed on last wkend and couldnt receive or call out without not hearing the person… on vacation..closest apple store over hr away..,wasted most of day going there. Couldn’t fix it. Gave me another phone. Version 5.1 .now yesterday. Hope it wasn’t a refurbished one. Camera shutter doesn’t work. And wont open. I am not wasting my vacation driving up again. Will have to wait til I get hope, and no pictures. Very disappointed in product now
After following all the steps i finally made it, and its working perfectly. thanks Friend
The Reset all settings method is worked for me. But there is a few steps, that you should check to get this to work.
First make sure, this is because software problem not hardware, you can check if this a soft or hard problem by using other camera apps (using instagram) to check if it work.
If the camera work in other apps. Then the reset all setting will do fine.
If not working in other camera apps. You should go to apple. You waste your time by reset, hard reset, turn camera on 10minute,etc.
I agree with Babian, I used to have 4, have dine #3, problem still happened. Now I have 4s, just have it for 1 month, freeze 4x already!!! I never had this problem with 3s, is it our responsibility to fix the phone?
Step 1 & 2 not working. Just step 3 left then… is this my problem, to fix the phone to work?
Step # 1 worked for me like a champ!! thanks very much!!
hi guys, im in China and im having the same problem. I know if i reset it ill lose my data but what about if i reboot? i would just try it but i dont want to lose all my music and vids otherwise the flight home will be even more unbearable.
Step 2 works for me thx !
The camera froze within 1st month. It’s a new iPhone 4. Resetting didn’t help.
I’ll visit the apple store to check out the hardware issue, but what an inconvenience. How much do you have to pay for the features to work?
Been having the same camera problem since last OS4 update. Never had a problem with 3G or 3GS, (other than the bullsh*t apple announcement that OS4 would work fine on 3G, NOT!). Am on my 2nd iPhone4, the 1st one wouldnt even boot, requiring 8 hrs. on phone with tech support and finally ponying up 600.00 for them to have the pleasure of sending me a new one. Now have the camera problem with this one. I use a camera quite a bit, but I’ve learned now not to rely on the iPhone 4 to give me consistent results, beit making a call or taking a pic. Long story short, I don’t need to post/share all my sh*t with every tom-dick-and harry, so I now carry a small digital camera that WORKS when I need it to work. No longer a fan of Apple phones, some great features but not worth all the headaches between it and iTunes. As soon as contract is up, hello Verizon and hello Droid OS. Damn sure can’t be any worse…
Step #1 worked Thanks! my Camera app on my iphone 4 for Verizon was opening but all the buttons for flash or review or to take a picture were all frozen. Turning the phone off for a few seconds rebooted it and now it works!
I installed the new update and now, my iPhone 4’s camera won’t load. It goes to the shutter screen and the pictures of the little camera and video camera in the bottom right flicker and then, my screen goes black and the Apple logo comes up. After, the refresh worm pops up before it crashes and goes into sleep mode. That was Day 1.
Day 2 consisted of every app crashing as soon as I loaded it. I found this post and nothing worked, so I called Apple. The nearest Apple store is an hour and a half away from me, so I’m not wanting to waste my gas and time to drive down there to get a replacement on a FLAW by Apple. Apple will send me a replacement phone and will put a hold on my credit card for $600!!! for a week until they receive yours back. I’m so aggravated with Apple and my iPhone right now and I’ve only had it for two months. The biggest joke ever, thanks for ruining my phone with your horrible update and for doing nothing to those you’ve screwed over.
Evo, here I come.
Yay it finally worked i was stuck with this problem and really frustrated
Thanks
I restored it. I erased all of it’s data. Then I reset the settings and it fixed it. Thank you! Just hope it doesn’t do it anymore. Fingers crossed.
I have the latest version of the ipod touch and i got it less than a month ago and about 4 days ago the shutter would freeze and i restarted it the first time it happened then two days later it did it again and I tried what i did before and it didn’t work so i am hoping restoring it works.
Re-seat the cable, sometimes it can come lose, its literally a plug that if you have dropped your phone pops out.
Find someone with steady hands and tech know how and get the cable re-seated..
just turn off the iphone4 for 1 hour and turn it on
complete shut down and then on
it worked beautifully with me
People if you are having this issue with the camera simply take the phone to an Apple Store and they will exchange your phone for another one. It’s still under the one year warranty and it’s a manufacturing error. If you don’t have a store close by call Apple Support they will be able to help you and will mail you a replacement phone.
Hi I brought my iphone4 november 2010 the camera was fine up until December then it froze on me have tried everything but still frozen aaargh so frustrating…….
Hi All,
** FIX ** (for me anyway)
I suffered this for only a few hours after taking a video in my house and receiving a photo file..
All i did was navigate to ;
/var/mobile/media/DCIM
(must be jailbroken – i then used ifile from cydia to navigate there..)
and deleted the video i recoreded, along with the photo i received, and a number of large video/photo files (after backing up!), then rebooted my phone and it works again.
hopefully you’ll get it working, too.
[email protected]
My new iPhone 4 had two working cameras for two weeks. Then
neither would operate. Tried many tricks including “restore to
factory settings” but nothing worked. Finally, turned it off and
left it off overnight then turned it on. That did it! Although, I’m
obviously wary that it could reoccur at any time.
Step 2 – Reset all settings did the trick for me just now-
thanks
did the STEP 2 will delete all the application of your IPHONE 4S for example games and programs???
My iphone 4 about 3 months old does the same thing. Starts
up camera click and then freezes. This was happening since a week.
Today it stopped working and went dead. I revived it with the
toggle switch and hard reset and when it came the camera problems
was resolved (!) I think that Apple should have more info regarding
the issues on their website. But it is not common. so I guess they
are not bothered!
I bought an iphone 4 and i don’t have any problem in my
iphone 4 i think the new iphone 4 doesn’t have any problem
I got 2 new iphone 4’s last week and from day 1 mine it is
randomly shutting down all the time doesnt matter if im using it or
not its sooooo frustrating , even worse i gave the 2nd one to my
son today for xmas and within 2 hrs of use the camera has frozen
with the shutter closed ive tried all of the above and nothing
works they r both going back when xmas holidays r over NOT
IMPRESSED
I bought my iphone 4 a couple of days ago. after I switched it off and on it didn’t go to normal mode. It just shows the “apple” icon on the center of the screen with black background with all the keys non-functional??????????????
would you mind help me fix this.
I have the same trouble, but to be more specific, my video function worked just fine. Only when I chose camera function my camera app just closed. But, luckily, all seems to be resolved with just the step one. Thanks for the help.
I had the exaxt same problem. Just fixed it. Heres how I did it:
1. Export all your photos to a PC.
2. SSH into the iphone. (Must be jailbroken and openssh installed. There are lots of articles on the net about this of you are not sure).
3. Browse to /var/mobile/media/DCIM
4. Delete everything (Hope you backed up in step 1. If not copy and paste it here now)
5. Go into the phone and hit photos (camera roll)
6. Hit the bottom left corner button.
7. Select all of your photos and hit delete.
******Problem solved in my case*****
Hope this helps
i bought iphone 4 last week ago…i satisfied with diz stuff…unfortunately i got same problem with back camera…its shutter freeze since day one…i’ve tried 4Rs…it work for a while then the problem come back…can i get replacement seller from apple?
i purchased the iphone 4 on release day June 2010 and the camera has been intermitantly freezing since day one. It sems to be when i am in video mode or when i flip to forward facing camera. Initially turning the phone off and on fixed it so i never returned the phone but now 4 months on nothing works with the camera; soft reset, hard reset, turning off for 15 minutes ITS STILL FROZEN as if the shutter is opening but can’t???
Double-tapping the home key and closing the camera app seems to fix this for me temporarily and it is much faster than rebooting.
the reset worked for me, thanks lots
I thought iphone 4 is the best phone ever in this world, but after this camera shutter that wont open, I think it’s the worst and most complicated phone ever! Can I just turn my iphone off for hours then turn it on? What the hell is actually happening?
absolutely pathetic… i have tried the “4 R’s” and nothing how can apple even consider allowing this phone to be on the market when they n]knew this was an issue.. What are my options now???????
Apple products CAN be very annoying. My phone just shuts off when I take a video for more than 20 seconds.
I got the ipod touch 4thgen and also got the shutter freezing problem… tried everything… can I bring it back and get my money back?
Hello I bought 4 days ago iphone4 and I have the freezing shutter problem. A friend of mine that has the same problem fixed it but it is very risky. He opened the phone and realize that the cable of the camera was not right . In Greece we haven’t DOA for apple product so he took the shot . It’s a hardware problem
These seem to work for a while, but then the issue comes back. I am afraid that when I go to take an important picture, it will not be working!
yup, tried it all,it wrked for aawhile then still my camera captures a pic, open the pic then it freezes (hang). so frustrating,. reboot again then,,, freeze,,, reboot,,… ahhhh,.
what to do?
Hi
i buy my iphone 4 abut 2 months ago.
my iphone 4 camera is frozen .
i (Reboot) & (Reset all settings), (Restore, but not from backup)& (Turn phone off for several minutes) but still camera is frozen.
can you help me please?
Hi,
thanks! your first step, on the first try, did it for now and –since I’m on vacation and sometimes it’s the camera at hand, even when it should be a “real camera”, I’m pleased to have it back!
s
It worked for me as well. First time using first suggestion. Happy happy happy !!!!