John Graham-Cumming had the front and back cameras on an iPhone 13 Pro stopped working (in the camera app the image was black) and they were repaired using only a household appliance.
I was planning to get them replaced but to do that I’d need to replace the screen (because it has a crack in it) and it turned out to be €€€ so I figured I’d soldier on with a phone with a broken camera. Oddly, the flashlight still worked and FaceID.
But, hey, in the past I’d retrieved 1TB of data using woodworking tools and this camera problem looked like yet another small connection fault to me. And connection faults like this shout “cool the thing down” to me, so I figured it was worth a try cooling the phone down (a lot). To be fair, I don’t have a case on my phone have dropped it a few times.
Apple says the iPhone can be stored at -20C switched off and a quick check of the freezer showed it was at -18C. So, one switched off iPhone in a ziplock bag and fifteen minutes later the phone had working cameras again.
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