How to restore an iPhone’s missing camera app

Jun 19, 2009 11:02 GMT  ·  By

Ever since the iPhone and iPod touch were originally released, nearly all categories of people have embraced them. Enterprises now use the devices as handy tools for exchanging emails, viewing and editing files on the go, solving various problems with the hundreds of utility apps available for both iPhone and iPod touch, etc. However, in the enterprise, iPhones may not behave all that natural in the hands of the users.

This happens because some companies need their staff to focus on what they have to do, or simply because of security reasons. It is the case of the “missing camera application,” which Apple describes in a Support piece as an occurrence that can be reversed. If you are in this situation, continue reading the following lines, but act carefully, so you don’t upset your boss.

“If your iPhone is missing the Camera application, it was likely disabled by your site administrator for security reasons,” Apple says. “This article explains how to enable it again.”

Indeed, users can get back pretty much every feature that has been disabled by an administrator, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they must. As such, they must check and see whether they’re allowed to do so or not.

“If your iPhone has a configuration profile installed, it may contain a restriction to disallow use of the camera,” the company explains. “Deleting the configuration profile will restore use of the camera. Note however that some configuration files can be deleted only by a site administrator using iPhone Configuration Utility. Also note that deleting the configuration profile may cause other settings to be lost, depending on what the configuration profile contains,” Apple warns.

Another scenario involves the use of an Exchange account, which, naturally, uses an Exchange Server. The administrator of this server may disable your iPhone’s camera app, again, for security reasons. “[...] Your Exchange Server administrator may have configured your account with a policy to disallow use of the camera,” are Apple’s exact words. “This policy will remain in effect until you delete the Exchange account from the iPhone,” the Mac maker pinpoints.

“This is true even if your Exchange Server administrator later relaxes the policy to allow use of the camera—the iPhone will not recognize the policy change,” the Support document continues to outline. According to Apple, you will need to delete the Exchange account from the iPhone in order to regain use of your camera app.

“Note however that if the Exchange account was created by a configuration profile, it may not be possible to delete it, because some configuration profiles can be deleted only by site administrators using iPhone Configuration Utility,” the company behind the Mac OS concludes.

Speaking of which, Apple has just updated the iPhone Configuration Utility to version 2.0.