iPhone Camera Roll Corruption

The other day I started the Photos app on my iPhone, went to the Camera Roll folder and got a big scare. I could see the last three photos I had taken, but the previous two hundred and some all showed black. First I thought I had lost the pictures, but when I touched on the black area a picture would come up, so I knew they were there, just not showing on the thumbnail view. I restarted the app, them restarted the phone, took more pictures, sync’d the phone, and nothing would change. Finally, I found a solution I want to share with you.

First, you will need to
download iPhone Explorer, from Macroplant, a free application that allows you to browse the internals of your iPhone. The link provided is for the Windows version, but there is also a Mac version available.

Next, connect your iPhone to your PC (or Mac) and allow it to sync with iTunes. Start the iPhone Explorer and navigate to the Media/PhotoData folder in the iPhone, and select the following three files:

• Photos.sqlite
• PhotosAux.sqlite
• com.apple.photos.caches_metadata.plist

After selecting the files as seen on the screenshot above, right click with your mouse on the selection and click on Delete Selected.

Now turn off your iPhone and then turn it on again. Start the Photos app and you will see a message that says “Updating Library”. Not to worry, you haven’t lost your pictures, the photo library is just rebuilding and in a few moments (depending on how many photos you have) all your photos will be showing again in all their glory.