Camera Photos Won’t Save to iPhone? Here’s a Fix
by Jody Mitoma on May 13, 2008 at 1:28 pm
iPhone Atlas has recently posted a story in regards to a fix for those who have been having issues saving images via the iPhone’s built in Camera application. It is being said that there are a select few of you out there who go to save an image right after taking a photograph, and can’t seem to find it within the Camera Roll application.
Below you will find the complete guide:
Restore your iPhone using iTunes, but do not restore custom settings data from the computer-stored backup after the restore process is complete. Do not set up as a new iPhone, and do not restore from backup — just disconnect the iPhone when prompted to make this choice. Note that you’ll temporarily lose text messages, notes, call history, contact favorites, sound settings, widget settings, etc with this method,.
Try taking a photo — it should properly save to the device.
Connect your iPhone again, and in iTunes, restore your personal information from the backup when prompted.
Also, an iPhone Atlas reader by the name of bhdude76 stated that you can also try the following:
Or you can ssh into your iPhone and issue a command.
Navigate to var/mobile/Media and issue this command.
chown -R mobile DCIMNo need for restoring or backups or anything.
Hopefully it doesn’t get to the point where any of you have to follow this guide, though.
(Source: iPhone Atlas)
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Posted in Tutorials & Help
June 11th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Thanks. Disconnecting after restore worked like a champ. Much appreciated.
MM
July 20th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
The same problem happens, but its very funny, only when i turn off the sound of the phone, i can’t save pictures, then i turn on the sound, and the first picture i take doesn’t save, but the next are saved
August 7th, 2008 at 3:09 am
I think I may have found what “triggers” this. I noticed that my last successfully saved image on my iPhone was IMG_0999.JPG.
I’m guessing that the bug in the iPhone is that the photo counter doesn’t handle image numbers greater than 999.
After the restore procedure described here, I’m guessing the image number goes back to 0001, but that the problem will reappear 998 images from now.
October 13th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Thanks you soo much bhdude76 for the command line, I just restored my phone 2 days ago and didnt want to do it again, thank god for SSHing.
Thanks again!
October 24th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
There’s also another way to fix this:
If you have a finder-app on your phone you may navigate to the folder that stores the images(DCIM). Inside this folder there is a hidden folder called .MISC and inside this folder there’s a file called info.plist. This is the file that determines the filenames given to the photos and by deleting the whole .MISC folder you may solve your problem.
The system will generate a new folder upon next image taken and name this IMG_0001.JPG
NB! I didn’t have any images in the folder when I did this and do not know the consequences if you do have any.
I’m no expert, but this wotked for me:)
October 25th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Hi!
I just wanna say it seems I’ve solved the problem.
I’ve entered in WinSCP to the directory that contains the photos (in 2.1),
which is: var/mobile/Media/DCIM,
and change the whole folder’s permission to 777.
Didn’t have a problem ever since.
November 10th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
I deleted the .MISC folder like Bard told and now it works just fine. Thanks!
December 17th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I deleted everything in the DCIM folder .. and it fixed it.
Thanx.
December 18th, 2008 at 6:04 am
I followed “Navigate to var/mobile/Media and issue this command.
chown – R mobile DCIM” and it worked but CORRECTION the proper command is as followed:
chown -R mobile DCIM
Note the there is no spacing between – and R
December 19th, 2008 at 6:50 am
If you have “ssh” installed, log in and simply delete the .misc folder.
acording to this solution a few details:
/private/var/mobile/Media/DCIM
# pwd
/private/var/mobile/Media/DCIM
# ls -lR
total 0
drwx—— 2 mobile wheel 136 Sep 3 20:59 .MISC
drwx—— 2 mobile wheel 136 Jun 17 01:55 .MISC-old
drwx—— 2 mobile wheel 68 Sep 4 19:41 100APPLE
drwx—— 2 mobile wheel 68 Jun 19 20:11 101APPLE
./.MISC:
total 16
-rw-r–r– 1 mobile wheel 258 Sep 7 14:14 Info.plist
-rw-r–r– 1 mobile wheel 2822 Sep 3 20:59 PosterImage.jpg
./.MISC-old:
total 16
-rw-r–r– 1 mobile wheel 318 Jun 21 08:50 Info.plist
-rw-r–r– 1 mobile wheel 1016 Jun 17 01:55 PosterImage.jpg
./100APPLE:
./101APPLE:
# mv .MISC .MISC-old2
# cat .MISC-old/Info.plist
LastFileGroupNumber-100
1011
LastFileGroupNumber-101
665
# cat .MISC-old2/Info.plist
LastFileGroupNumber-100
1021
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Same happen to me, i went to var/mobile/Media/ and deleted DCIM folder. Workout just fine.
Regards!
December 26th, 2008 at 12:47 am
Deleating .MISC folder works great.. so the solution is 2 mins away.. thanks a lot people..
December 26th, 2008 at 8:22 am
hey .MISC file will still be back after I take a picture… I’ve tried so many stuff. Not working! And how do you guys change the permission thingy..?
January 12th, 2009 at 5:58 am
Hello all together,
I’ve had the same problem, my iphone camera (FW 2.2) doesn’t save the taken pictures.
The very easy solution i found in my already installed SBSetting App:
Tap on More > Extras > Fix User Dir Permission
(Same solution also available in Boss Pref!)
Be happy & enjoy beautiful live!
January 15th, 2009 at 8:19 am
thank you Michael. simple solution. great. it got it fixed
January 16th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
I tried several ways and they did not work, but erasing everything in DCIM sub folders (MISC and 100apple) like Harry D said above helped me solve the problem.
February 1st, 2009 at 9:20 pm
My iPhone stopped saving photos after I manually wnt in with SSH and deleted them all. I had trouble seeing/saving them to my PC becasue when I hit 1000 photos it created a new folder for them called 101APPLE and the old ones where in 100APPLE. XP tried to show photos from both folders at once, which created some duplicate name problems. Anyway, after manually copying all the photos and then deleting them, I couldn’t take more photos. It didn’t save them. This is how I solved it:
In the DCIM directory, you got a folder called .MISC adn inside that, a file called Info.plist
It should look like this if you don’t have any photos at all, and want to be able to save new ones
LastFileGroupNumber-100
1
before, mine had
LastFileGroupNumber-100
1000
LastFileGroupNumber-101
448
You can also delete the 101APPLE directory if it’s empty. Hope this helps anybody that stumbles upon this post in the future.
February 1st, 2009 at 9:22 pm
owner of this blog, disregard this message, but my previously posted one contained some characters that doesn’t seem to be visible.
here it is again with spaces, might work…
LastFileGroupNumber-100
1
February 1st, 2009 at 9:24 pm
doh didn’t work either.. lesser then and greater then characters..
html filter..
<key>LastFileGroupNumber-100</key>
<integer>1</integer>
February 11th, 2009 at 5:26 am
I suggest you follow what bhdude76 and wats talked about it really works and it takes less than 20 seconds to fix..
I can not over emphasize how easy it works…
Just
“Navigate to var/mobile/Media and issue this command.
chown -R mobile DCIM
Note the there is no spacing between – and R
once again thanks guys
February 13th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Knowledge is power and also a cost saving tool for the future. Read my sig for more info on getting faster more efficient and targetted search results with one simple step.
February 14th, 2009 at 4:55 am
WOW!! Thanks
I just used iFunBox and navigated to
/private/var/mobile/Media/DCIM
and deleted everything inside that DCIM folder, REBOOTED and it worked like a charm
thank you
February 19th, 2009 at 5:41 am
heyyyyyy …
the RIGHT SOLUTION IS the one with the command
thank for the one who suggested it
GOOD LORD you guys are just fantastic
February 23rd, 2009 at 3:13 am
Thanks
your solution worked, however i wasnt to charmed about
my contacts being deleted, so make sure you jock down
those numbers before restoring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 1st, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Thanks, the SSH worked like a CHARM!!!!
saved me the pain of resetting the phone!
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:16 pm
after installing a couple of apps like snapture and cycorder….i could not delete any pictures that i would take.
Now i removed both of the those apps and now any picture i take with the original iphone camera app does not save the save or delete the old pictures i had.
Would any of this info. above help? Any kind of info. would be highly appreciated.
thanks
March 5th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Easiest way: if you have finder enable show hidden files, navigate to ~/Media/DCIM (/var/mobile/Media/DCIM)
Select the DCIM folder so it’s highlighted and press modify at the bottom of the screen
Select all read write and exec buttons (that aren’t already selected)
Press done at the bottom of the screen
Open the DCIM folder and do the same thing with the two folders inside it.
That’s it…try out your camera and if it still doesn’t work then I don’t know…worked for me.
March 6th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
[...] risolto ! Ecco il link dove leggere come risolverlo: Camera Photos Won’t Save to iPhone? Here’s a Fix | Touch Podium __________________ dr. Maurizio Fabiani http://www.flickr.com/people/mfabiani [...]
March 20th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
delete whole DCIM works =)
May 11th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
i did what michael suggested. going into sbsettings Tap on More > Extras > Fix User Dir Permission. worked perfectly
May 12th, 2009 at 12:05 am
I´ve just went via ssh trough winscp and set DCIM folder permissions to 0777 and fixed the problem
May 27th, 2009 at 1:22 am
the solution for me to ssh my iPhone and run the command
chmod -R 777 /private/var/mobile/Media/DCIM
After executing this command you’ll see that the DCIM directory has rwx rights for all
users,groups etc. The problem in my case was the non existence of wright (w) for the DCIM folder therefore the application couldn’t save the images in this folder.
So,before starting reseting and reinstalling the firmware etc just make sure that you have all the permissions set to this directory
Cheers
June 21st, 2009 at 12:14 am
I had a problem where I restored after a jailbreak, and nothing on no images on my iPhone would save. Not camera, not screen capture, nothing. I assume it was because I downloaded snapture, since I heard of other people having the same problem.
A quick fix I found is: using a program like “iFunBox” go into the iPhone folders, find the DCIM folder, rename it to something else that won’t overwrite the other folders(mine was “DCM”), then create a new folder called “DCIM” and in THAT folder create another called “100APPLE”
This worked fine for me, maybe it will help someone else too.
Please note that I resorted to this method because I couldn’t do anything to the original 100APPLE folder.
Hope this helps, good luck.
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:58 am
I´d like to ssh into my iPhone but I see that ssh is only executed over an Macintosh (in other words from Apple company) If I restore my iPhone then I have to update it to version 3.0 which I also can´t do because I don´t have the ATT sim card – just my regular sim card
any help people?
June 27th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Apostolis_ee method was the one that worked for me, none of the others did, including creating anew DCIM folder…
thanks it was getting frustrating
July 9th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Simple fix for those withOUT jailbreak.
1. Buy Phoneview – useful for a LOT of things actually, like backing up SMS, etc.
2. Open iphone,
3. Click on Settings
4. Select “Open Entire Disk”
5. Find MISC folder on file tree
6. Highlight and delete
7. Done!
No restore, no fuss. ALL THANKS TO GUYS ON THIS FORUM!
July 9th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
the simplest program for deleting the DCIM folder on iPhone , really for Noobz
here´s a site with that program
http://www.brothersoft.com/iphonebrowser-190579.html
iPhoneBroswer
July 28th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Worked like a charm! Thanks!
August 2nd, 2009 at 8:54 am
lo que tienen que hacer es eliminar todo los archivos y carpedas dentro de DCIM, SI TIENES FOTOS SE BORRrán pero de ahí en adelante funcionará perfectamente
August 6th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
I am really confused. I do not understand any of this. I am only 12 years old and my iPhone is not letting me save any photos I have taken. Can someone please instruct these directions in a simpler way?
August 6th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Hello again… i was wondering… whats “var/mobile/Media/ “
August 15th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
I just want to ask. whers the DCIM folder????
August 18th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
H O W D O Y O U F I X A N O N – J A I L B R O K E N I P H O N E ? ? ? ?
P L E A S E H E L P ! ! ! !
T H A N K S . . . .
August 18th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
H O W … D O… Y O U… F I X… A …N O N – J A I L B R O K E N … I P H O N E ? ? ? ?
P L E A S E H E L P ! ! ! !
T H A N K S . . . .
August 18th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
^^^^i also have a non-jailbroken iphone. and i am having the same issue trying to save photos. unfortunately i am only 14 and dont understand any of this. ALSO-my ipod music will only play one song off my library then my ipod quits after that one song is over. any advice of where i could go to find a resolution?
August 20th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
THIS IS SO BUGGING ME
i did exactly what the first instructions were. i restored my phone, unplugged it when i should have and then repluggled it in and put my backup on it. BUT THE PROBLEM REMAINS.
i don’t understand any of this var/media/ etc and i dont know how to get installer.app or to jailbreak my iphone..
serious need of help
or link me to a site that will help me do this stuff and make it worrrrrk?! PLEASE.
September 15th, 2009 at 7:44 am
I had an app called photofunia added … Problem occurred with photos saving to camera roll after adding this app have just removed it … Problem solved
October 27th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
no forget all that if you have cydia just install swop camera roll and klick app then you can swop between the broken one and swop camera roll one and all apps work with the new camera roll and if you want to hide photo then swop to the broken one and know one will ever know cheers
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:02 am
downloaded trial copy of TouchDrive navigated to var/mobile/Media/DCIM and deleted all folders inside it
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:23 am
I was think Microsoft was bugy but Apple is bugy tío
November 19th, 2009 at 3:58 am
Deleting everything in the DCIM folder worked. Thanks!
November 30th, 2009 at 1:03 am
this is a little off topic, however the SSH command worked like a charm, the only problem I am having now is that I recently restored my camera roll from a previous backup and the photos are all out of order.. anyone know how to get them back into chronological order through a SSH command? thanks email me at : “itsabid@aol.com” thanks
November 30th, 2009 at 1:04 am
this is a little off topic, however the SSH command worked like a charm, the only problem I am having now is that I recently restored my camera roll from a previous backup and the photos are all out of order.. anyone know how to get them back into chronological order through a SSH command? thanks email me at : “itsabid@aol.com” thanks
December 8th, 2009 at 6:38 am
chown -R mobile DCIM worked like a champ!!!!
Thanks man!
December 14th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Iphone 3gs, NOT JB: be careful whatever you do if you have photos on your phone. I tried the free trial PHONEVIEW web app recommended further above, found the DCIM folder, but the tip above said find the MISC file (which there are several inside the DCIM folder). Inside some of those .MISC folders were a ton of pics. I had 944 pics in Camera Roll, but after deleting 2 or 3 .MISC folders, it now says I have 156 pics, so I wiped out my pics.
There must be a real & safe solution for us dummies that doesn’t make you buy a $20 third party app… Apple really stinks sometimes for not making easy fixes available for these ongoing big problems that a lot of people are having.
December 14th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
PS: Deleting everything in the DCIM folder WILL DELETE all your pics.
December 31st, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Can someone help me with this? I’m only a teen so I don’t get all this “SSHing” stuff etc and I don’t have any photos at all on my camera roll, but whenever I take a picture and go to it, it’ll freeze for a second, take me back to my homescreen and it won’t save at all! Thanks
April 1st, 2010 at 5:51 am
Hey Bard , thanks for the info . It totally worked on my iphone …..
April 16th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
thanks a lot , deleted DCIM and it works pretty well….
April 20th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
http://www.submitapps.com/gizmos/iphone-4g-to-be-dubbed-the-iphone-hd/
May 5th, 2010 at 6:36 pm
My iPhone takes videos and pics, let’s me view them once then they are ‘invisible’….it shows 654 pics/vids in my picture roll but the auto number counter says 659 meaning the last 5 I took are hidden. What is going on??? I really need to view those 5 pics and vidds and can’t go through a process to FIX anything if it’s just going to delete my things. They are important and irreplaceable…can someone please help me??
May 16th, 2010 at 1:21 am
bhdude76’s tip worked PERFECT after loosing the storage folder (Spirit 1st bug which is solved now)
Winscp –> go to correct folder (Not the one in PRIVATE !!) and copy- run the command above from WATS post
Humble we are for these great solutions !!
July 13th, 2010 at 11:41 pm
Thanks Mike Ola!
The method below worked like a charm with just the Demo version of Phoneview. I just did it on my 3GS on July 13, 2010
I lost no photos.
I would only add that after step 4 below- you find the MISC folder in the DCIM folder. On my phone it was first folder in the DCIM folder. I highlighted MISC folder, deleted it, unlpugged my phone and oila- photos and video all save as normal.
I am SO happy! : )
“Simple fix for those withOUT jailbreak.
1. Buy Phoneview – useful for a LOT of things actually, like backing up SMS, etc.
2. Open iphone,
3. Click on Settings
4. Select “Open Entire Disk”
5. Find MISC folder on file tree
6. Highlight and delete
7. Done!
No restore, no fuss. ALL THANKS TO GUYS ON THIS FORUM!”