January 20, 2023

What to Do If Your iPhone Camera Breaks

Reading Time: 4 minutes

A broken iPhone camera doesn’t need to stay that way, but the fix can be tricky.

The camera is one of the iPhone’s best features. It takes great photos, and shoots some of the best video on any smartphone. That’s why, when my iPhone’s camera broke, I was pretty bummed, yet hopefully the Apple Store could fix me right up. Unfortunately, breaking your iPhone camera isn’t like breaking the screen, and the fix likely isn’t as simple as you’d think.

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Not all broken iPhone cameras are the same

In my case, I was working with two broken cameras on my iPhone 12 Pro Max, both requiring different solutions.

The first issue came when my iPhone flew out of my pocket and slammed into concrete, instantly cracking my wide angle lens (the default 1x zoom camera). Lucky for me, the crack didn’t affect photos and videos unless there was a bright, intense light source directly above me, which usually only happened on particularly sunny days or when in a room with a strong light in the ceiling. These circumstances are rare enough that I decided to live with the broken glass, assuming that if it ever started to bother me me, I could take it to Apple to get it repaired. (Wrong, but more on that in a bit).

My camera troubles only continued from there. Sometime later, I opened the Camera app to take a photo to find it completely glitched out. Confused, I checked the Settings app and encountered an alert that made no sense to me:

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To my knowledge, this ‘feature’ exists to lock up your iPhone’s camera if iOS detects a ‘non-genuine’ Apple part in the device. The only problem is, this iPhone has never been cracked open, let alone had its camera replaced.

I initially assumed this issue was somehow related to the previously cracked camera, though that incident happened roughly a year or so before this glitch occurred. But my cracked wide camera was still perfectly fine, and still took pictures as well as it ever had. The camera that didn’t work was actually my 2.5x telephoto lens. Despite zero physical damage on the outside, iOS no longer recognized this lens as legit. Since the alert, the camera app defaults to 2x digital zoom on the wide camera; if I tap the zoom icon, it tries to switch to 2.5x zoom, fails, then reverts back to 1x zoom.

I can’t even use the ultra-wide angle lens in the stock Camera app anymore. To take ultra-wide shots, I need to resort to a third-party camera app. But even apps like Halide or FiLMiC Pro can’t access the telephoto lens. For all intents and purposes, it’s just dead.

Fixing iPhone camera issues requires different steps

At this point, my iPhone’s cameras were screwed up enough to demand action. People with similar issues on Reddit and Apple Support forums confirmed I wasn’t alone, and that other iPhones with no repair history have lost camera access due to this alert.

I made an appointment at my local Apple Store to see what I could do about it. Here’s the gist of what happened:

For a camera that goes belly-up with no physical damage, say in the event of an Unknown Part error, a simple camera replacement is the fix. Apple will do it for you for $200 (for the 12 Pro Max, at least), but you can buy the parts and repair it yourself for less. If you go through Apple’s official ‘Self Service Repair Store,’ or buy the parts and tools from iFixit, you can save about $50. Of course, if you’re still under warranty, Apple should take care of the issue for no charge.

My Apple rep then pointed to my cracked lens. If I wanted that repaired, he said I’d have to swap out the whole phone for a new one…which is, you know, not ideal. I didn’t understand: Why wouldn’t a camera replacement fix a cracked camera lens? Turns out, the camera module doesn’t include the glass that covers each lens. You can completely replace the two or three cameras on the back of your camera without touching the glass itself. If I decided to go for the $200 replacement, Apple would return my iPhone to me with the same cracked glass as before, but with a working telephoto camera.

Why resort to an entire device swap instead of replacing a tiny piece of glass? Why indeed. Apple isn’t clear about it, but I can wager a guess. Replacing broken glass on an iPhone camera is a messy business. It’s not designed to come out smoothly, especially once broken. You need to break it further, and remove it piece by piece, all the while taking great care not to drop any glass bits or allow dust to get into the exposed lens. I assume Apple just doesn’t want to deal with the complications, and so lets you decide between living with the damage or paying to swap out the phone out for a new one.

And that swap can be pricey. If you have AppleCare+, a device swap is $99. If you don’t, it depends on your iPhone. Judging by Apple’s ‘Other Damage’ estimator, it would cost $599 to swap my iPhone 12 Pro Max for a new 12 Pro Max. That cost can go as high as $699 for an iPhone 14 Pro Max. Yikes.

How to fix a shattered iPhone camera yourself

So, what are your options if you don’t want to pay $600 for the same phone you already have? The first (and most recommended step) is to take your iPhone to a third-party repair shop that operates outside of Apple’s strict and stringent rules. See if they’re game to take on the glass replacement, and what they’ll charge to do so. The parts themselves aren’t too expensive (an iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max camera lens kit is $9 on Amazon, as you can see here).

And like any iPhone repair, you could do this one yourself. The parts are cheap and it doesn’t take much technical know-how—you really just need to be careful with the glass around the camera itself. You can see the general steps involved in this iPhone 11 Pro Max walkthrough here.

The more broken the lens is from the start, the easier the repair will be. But if the lens is only cracked, it’s definitely more complicated. Check out this JerryRigEverything video where he works on a cracked iPhone 7 camera: He applies heat to the glass, then removes each broken shard, bit by bit. It’s a tricky, tedious process. If you want to go this route, know what you’re getting into first.

Reference: https://lifehacker.com/what-to-do-if-your-iphone-camera-breaks-1850007047

Ref: lifehacker

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