Repairing Nikon D3100 Autofocus

Written By: Lasse Lorenzen
  • Comments: 23
Repairing Nikon D3100 Autofocus

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

2

Time Required

15 minutes

Introduction

I had a problem with my autofocus, and i could not find the answer. Therefore i investigated further and found out what to do. This i have wrote in this guide.

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    • The problem is that the autofocus can not adjust correctly. There can be more than one solution.

    • 1. Try forcing the lens to rotate a fraction of a inch. This will sometimes help the problem. Or simply move the switch from M to A on the lens.

    • 2. Try to switching to a single of the 11 auto focus points. Then try if there are specific points that are the problem.

    • This is done by selecting in the menu of your camera to the points. Then focusing on a single object with a background far away. Try focusing on the object then on the background. If this is possible the autofocus point is fine.

    • 3. If all auto focus points are fine, try updating the firmware or cleaning the sensors inside the camera behind the mirror. If a one or more points are out of order, also try cleaning the sensors behind the mirror.

    • 4. Detatch the lens from the camera, by applying pressure on the release button and twisting the lens so it can be released. See picture

    • 5. Set the camera selection wheel to manual (M), see picture

    • 6. Turn the camera on, and start the liveView format. This will flip op the mirror inside the camera.

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    • Take a dry can blower. Or if in lack, use an empty plastic bottle, without moisture inside, and use it to blow on the autofocus sensors.

    • They are located at the bottom under the mirror. NOTE Do not blow with your mouth, small amount of moisture will hit the CCD also located here.

    • Turn the camera off

    • Reattach the lens. Push the lens, white point to white point and turn the lens in place.

    • This worked for me, hope it also helped you ;)

    I want to focus with my D3300 but it doesn't want to.And it's making an annoying sound.I don't know what to do

    cojocarumihairares -

    Hi you :)

    The sounds indicate that the autofocus motor is the problem. You can test this by changing the objective and see if the sound disappears you located the problem.

    Lasse Lorenzen -

    Hi,

    I'm having issues with my 3100 focusing. I've tried everything you've suggested and my camera still won't focus. But now my lens won't come off my camera...

    brittneymikula -

    Hi BrittneyMikula

    Sorry to hear that you got problems with your camera, I did not hear about this problem before, but the problem may lie in a protective feature of the camera. So my suggestion is that you try to pull out the battery. wait a minute and reinstall it. Then try turning the camera on and off a couple of times, see if it can take pictures, also in manual focus mode. Then lastly turn the camera of again and try removing the lens.

    An other problem could be that something mechanical is stuck in the opening function, here you could try to gently jittle the lens in its socket and see if the lens will come off.

    Last advice of cause is to take it to an authorized repair shop.

    If you find a solution please make feedback

    Best regards

    Lasse

    Lasse Lorenzen -

Conclusion

Hope you could use this information

Author

Lasse Lorenzen

Member since: 19/02/13

866 Reputation

19 comments

wow! good tip, AF appeared broken on my D3100, detach and reattach lens did fix it !!

coleman corrigan -

My camera fell on the concrete floor 2 times within 10min..thanks to my little devil..the autofocus wasn't working. I was hopeless and thought of contacting nikon service center and the I searched for some repair tips and came across this page..wow. ...it worked for me as well..thank you so much..you saved me a few good bucks for sure..more than that I'm having a trip after a week and wasn't hopeful to get it back..but I'm a happy man now and I'm noy mad at my little angel now :)

Mithlesh Shrivas -

Hi Mithles Shrivas

Happy to know that it worked :) I know the problem with the small ones, have 3 my self :)

have a nice day :)

Lasse Lorenzen -

Yes!! Thank you so much. The center point of our autofocus wasn't working, and I was worried that the camera would need expensive repair. This did the trick instantly. You just made my day!

Tom Hallman -

My manual focus does not even work? I guess I have to have it repaired? It just stopped working one day.

Kolby -

Hi Kolby

Sorry to hear that you focus does not work. But as far as i know that focus is integrated in the objective. So if you can not even focus manually you should look for the problem here. Perhaps try to change the objective to be sure that the problem is located here on the objective?

The focus is a mechanical part of the objective that changes the focal point of the lens, if you can turn the focus without any change you should narrow your search to this area :)

Hope this helped you a little, and if you find that it is the objective that is broken you can always order a new one. Then you also have the change to upgrade or change the specifications. When i broke my Kit lens i got the Tamron 18-200 mm F3.5-6.3 Di II VC objektiv, to get a bit more zoom and playing room :)

Best regards

Lasse

Lasse Lorenzen -

Thank you so much for this. I love my camera and would am learning very slowly with it and this has really helped me .

Samantha -

Hi, I purchased my camera in 2012 and purchased my Nikon 300 mm lens in 2014.

It hasn’t been dropped as far as i am aware so not sure what is happening with it but just out of the blue it would not focus or take a picture through the view finder.

If I try to do this, sometimes I hear it trying to do something or other times it does nothing (depends on the day to be honest) but regardless , it won't let me push the button down to take the picture. If I put it in manual setting it will allow me to push the button down.

if I push the AF-L button and hold it down, it will take a picture whilst in the automatic setting but I cannot hear the camera trying to automatically focus still.

I have a standard 55mm lens which seems to be working ok so don’t think it is my camera.

Any suggestions or do I need to buy a new 300 mm lens?

Jackie -

Hi Jackie

I seems like it is the lens that is the problem. Since you got the standard lense to work. One other thing that you can do is take a look at the connection. This i also a problem I have experienced. There are the metal dots on the lens connection and corresponding connectors on the camera house. Make sure these are clean and free of any dirt or grease. A bad connection can create problems with the autofocus.

If this does not work you can also try to rotate the lens slightly back and forth to see if the connectors is a bit misaligned.

Hope this helps you :)

Lasse Lorenzen -

My auto focus is the only thing not working, it will take picture in lv, but will be blurry. I tried this and it did not work, any suggestions, It has not been dropped, or damaged in other ways, I am pretty careful. Thanks

eventer79 -

Hi Eventer

Sorry to hear that you have a problem. There are a few things that you can try to locate the problem. First of all you have to be sure that you have your auto focus setting set to AF(auto focus) and not MF (Manual focus). Next try if you can change the focus manually on your lense.

After this you can look at the connection between camera and lense, just as decribed above from April 6. 2017.

If there is still a problem you try to borrow or if you have another lense you can try this. If this work you eliminated your camera house as a problem, and have to find the problem with your lense.

hope this helps :)

Lasse Lorenzen -

hi guys

i have a D800 and i changed the board on it as the usb board was broken

now it doesn't autofocus properly

only on live view but this is not good to me

any sugestions ?

i am going in holiday in 2 day so any responsemuch appreciated

thx

Justin Tiseanu -

Hi Justin

Sorry to hear about your camera. This problem was that the auto-focus did not work due to dust or other impurities on the CCD sensor. I am not sure if it is the same problem. The D3100 does not have that many autofocus points and when i found the problem i could get it to focus if i selected some specific points. Your D800 has a lot more focus points so i assume that there should be a lot more dirt on the sensor for the focus to stop working. But it worth a try. Remember to check all other settings ;-)

Lasse Lorenzen -

great tip. Worked for me on a Nikon 18-200mm lens. The lens motor was having trouble focusing.

I had gotten an estimate of $200 from a repair place but decided to live with it for the time being. In googling a way to fix it, I found this tutorial.

A couple of puffs on the sensor and all is good. I've seen a similar trick work with charging ports on phones. Blow away the bit of dust and get a clean connection. Thanks for posting!!

patjmccarthy -

Hi, my autofocus is not working. When i turn the button from M to A, i just can't capture a photo. The lens is not focusing nor adjusting. I think it is locked. How can I fix this? T_T

Lei Kim -

Hi Lei Kim

As seen above there is some things that you can do to try and fix your lens. You can try de-mounting and reattaching the lense to your camera. This will test if the connection from the camera to the lens is functional, also to can try to clean the connection to improve the connection. If this still does not work you can try making the focus point a single point and moving it around in your viewfinder if the focus works with one or some of the points you can try to make this guide.

Hope it works

/Lasse

Lasse Lorenzen -

Hello, I have a lens which doesn’t have the button on the side to switch from AF-MF, I saw on tutorials where to go and change it on the camera. Mine stays on MF with the lens and it won’t let me change it. However when I put the other lens on then it says AF and lets me click on it to change from AF-MF. What do I do?? Please help you can email me on jayspictography@gmail.com

Jalene -

Will this work with the D3200 as well ?

gomezstevevincent -

Hi gomezstevevincent :)

I do not own a D3200, but it is an upgrade of the same model. Therefore i think it will work just the same.

If you try it out and it works could you comment i here so others have the answer?

I wish you luck with your repair :)

/Lasse

Lasse Lorenzen -