[Q] Both cameras not working - Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Bought an S4 last week. Everything looked good, I tested the sound, vibrate, gps etc and it all checked out. However, stupid me didn't check the camera (I know I know).
So the whole phone seems to run fine, but the camera (front and back) can't be accessed by stock or 3rd party applications. (Usually "warning Camera Failed" or something similar). I've factory reset, cleared cache and everything. I even installed the nandroid backup from a working phone, but the camera gives the same issue.
Because it's both cameras I thought it had to be software, but after all the resets and cache clears I'm starting to lean toward hardware.
Can someone give me an idea where to start? Would it be camera connectors or motherboard? Is there a sensor that may be causing this? I'd like to get an idea before I start gutting my phone.
Thanks.

Try this if it works for you?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xha0lztrny7923s/Restart_Camera.apk?dl=0
If this does not help, clear RAM with a ram cleaner and try starting the app again?
If that does not help either..flash stock rom via oding
If that does not help..turn the phone off..charge till 100%..turn the phone on..clear the ram..and start camera..
Sent from my GT-I9500 using XDA Free mobile app

Had this same issue a while back. What solved it for me was to re-flash the stock firmware. I too tried a nandroid backup, it didn't work but the flash did.

Turns out it was software related.
I installed a few stock firmwares that didn't fix anything. I didn't want to wait the 2 hours to download for free from Sammobile.com, but eventually i bit the bullet and got the appropriate (latest) version of my phone. After the reboot it was solved.
Granted, I tried many different firmwares, and some had the same name as the official firmware that i downloaded from sammobile but it did the trick.
Thanks for the pointers

Related

[Q] [q] Camera failed i9500 - revisited (help)

May I have your attention please.
Greeting to all who may be concerned or able to fix camera failed issue on Samsung Galaxy S4 i9500 !!!
I know that there are other threads with similar topic, but I think we should recindle this issue as serious problem.
The story goes:
I bought slightly used S4 i9500 phone with no guarantee. It worked fine, was taking pictures and all. Splendid.
It was on some stock firmware. Some german version I think.
Then crappy and useles bloatware began to bother me. Just mountains of really crappy and uselles meaningless bloatware.
I wanted to remove that horses*it apps and therefore I rooted the phone flashing adam kernel and cofface cwm.
One lovely day i tried to take photo, camera opened with black window and showed camera failed notification with persistancy.
i flashed some newer stock firmware, it opened and was taking pictures till i tried some camera modes (action or something) and it froze with pink screen.
After that event, nothing was helpfull to fix this problem.
1. I flashed countles stock roms, nearly all available custom roms, new and old (think over 20 flashes).
2. Prior to flashing I did: Wiping dalvik, system, data, cache, preload, or full wipe, hard resets, wiping sdcard and external card.
3. Tried also nand erase (it took some time to revive phone afterwards).
4. Tried solutions like clear camera cache and data.
5. Tried turning off phone, taking battery out for some time, with full recharge,
6. Tried non stock camera apps. (e.g. camera fx, camera mx..)
7. Tried removing camera app by deleting it with titanium backup, or with root exploer - then installing it back to system apps with root explorer.
8. Tried switching sd cards- 8gb, 16, 32, 64 gb, no card, and tried settings without saving pics to sd card but internal storage.
9. Tried turning off gps, and location services
10. Tried limiting processes to 4 only.
11. Tried flashing with odin, or via cwm cofface or philz.
12. I opened phone with screwdriver to check for posible visible faults or something - all ok.
13. Flashed official firmware claimed to solve camera problems.
Maybe something more i did?- i cant remember, if i do i will notify about it.
And I ordered camera module from internet, will try to replace it - we will se what happens.
In the meantime, if someone, some wise one, genious or ordinary person, knows how to fix this persisting problem PLEASE HELP!
You will help me, and help others that have this problem.
Samsung officials, if you somehow should read this, take this into consideration. There are many eyes upon you. Provide solution for this.
Any one - SOS
FIXED IT.
Since no one cared enough to even try to help me with this problem I will not post the solution !
Said enough.
duxerica said:
FIXED IT.
Since no one cared enough to even try to help me with this problem I will not post the solution !
Said enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too like you tried everything and found nothing. Camera takes forever to open. Hope you decide to share the solution.Knowledge should be shared.Don't be bitter about it.I'm sure if someone had a solution they would have posted it.
cheers.
duxerica said:
FIXED IT.
Since no one cared enough to even try to help me with this problem I will not post the solution !
Said enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Likewise, some people may have missed your post or nothing good to add, still I too would like to know what finally worked as I tried most of what you did.
Bests
M
If you have message "Camera failed"...
First of all try this: Open Camera app from the "Application manager" and do "Clear data", then restart the phone.
Second: Do a Factory reset (of course save your data!).
Third: Reinstall Android OS.
If this not help you, you have a hardware problem. You need to change the camera.
-------------------
Video tutorial:
http://youtu.be/3nzetqisty0

Need an idiot out with GPS issues

I never had to use my GPS til now and found out it cant lock on to any GPS sat. Ive had no other issuses with this phone
This is all the things ive done. I've enable TMO AWS since day one. I'm a TMO user that was a given.
My phone had the old orginal baseband, i think its MDC, then i upgraded to MDL and now i'm on the new NB1.
Ive bounced around all KK roms and even some older roms i still had saved. Nothing can get a GPS lock. I'm leaning now towards something physical, but Google now works and they can trianglulate via cell towers.
Ive 99% sure ive enable all GPS items. Location settings are on high accuracy.
Ive been using GPS status apps to help get a better location and nothing seems to be working.
Does playing around with Kernals help? I never installed one before or played with any of those. I need GPS to be working now so if i cant figure it out soon, i might just jump ship to the nexus/s5/iphone
bump up. Anyone have suggestions?
ive tried many different roms, Touchwiz and not touch. All diffrent basebands. I dont know what kernal work with what roms so ive been avoiding that
A kernel is not going to help. Have you gone back to stock rom and still have the issue? It sounds more like it's a hardware issue. Like the gps antenna is not working.
sadly i'm thinking the same thing. It looks like a cheap part but no idea on taking it apart just yet.
I always thought a kernal acted like a driver for computers,
turtle* said:
sadly i'm thinking the same thing. It looks like a cheap part but no idea on taking it apart just yet.
I always thought a kernal acted like a driver for computers,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The kernel is the boot image and in essence it interprets between the software and hardware. If you've flashed other roms you've flashed a kernel each time.
jd1639 said:
The kernel is the boot image and in essence it interprets between the software and hardware. If you've flashed other roms you've flashed a kernel each time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ah, understood. I thought it was like the baseband where i had to manual change it.
Does anyone know where the GPS antenna is located at? Is it a part i can swap out or attached the main board. I just pulled apart the phone looking for obvious parts not being connected and everything looked good.
Ebay listings GPS antenna as the 3g blue cable that runs down the side of the battery. I dont think thats the GPS antenna but it does cost a small amount but i dont think that will help.
before you tear it apart try what jd suggested and odin back to stock. you may want to backup and format your internal and ext sdcards also. they can harbor old junk that may effect new roms.
also, are you wiping all including system before flashing and on your phone and some roms i believe you have to odin a modem.bin file as part of flashing. am not familiar with that stuff as i am i337 and never used odin. "yet"
not sure if any of it will help--but--
good luck
Might need more info on what our suggesting.
I'm wiping data and the option under data in clockworksmod.
I don't have anything important, everything is cloud.
Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk
I think he is suggesting that first you get the STOCK MDL Odin package and flash it. Then wipe all data, dalvich cache, and internal sdcard (remove your external sdcard before hand). Then power it up and IMMEDIATELY turn OFF WiFi, you do NOT want it to try to update on its own. Now check GPS and see if it works.
If it does work now (the FIRST LOCK can take a bit of time) Then again use casual+motochopper to root and install twrp. Then flash a good ROM. Once that is done you can check GPS again and make sure it works, it may take a bit since it will be the first lock again (I always had trouble with MK2 modem for some reason. All the rest worked perfectly).
Or just make sure you have the ROM you want to run on a external sdcard. Then remove it for safe keeping. Now go into twrp/clockworkmod and wipe data factory reset/ cache/ dalvich cache/ and sdcard. Power off the phone after it is done and reinsert your external sdcard. Do not boot up but go directly to where you have the ROM at on your external sdcard CIA twrp/clockworkmod and flash the ROM. This will give you a perfectly clean slate. Now once it is done and booted up let it sit without touching it for at least 5 minutes. Then check GPS. If it works you are good to go. Then download any of your apps from the play store (not from titanium backup in case some system setting are being reinstalled with something). Once you have your apps back check GPS again to make sure one of them hasn't caused an issue with your GPS. If all is still good use titanium backup to recover your DATA ONLY for the installed apps.
Sent From My Spiderman,Ironman,Red,Dark Blue,Green, GreyedOut BadAss Themed I337
I have no idea why
I had the same problem, and I just fixed it too.. I don't know if this will cause the problem but here it goes.
I found this solution from the forum, but forgot where..
1) I installed the rom (AOSP) I wanted and checked if gps worked (but didnt work, checked with GPS Status)
2) Went to recovery, nandroid the Rom
3) Clean install to Rom that GPS worked (TW Rom) and again checked if gps worked (and worked, also checked with GPS Status)
4) While leaving the GPS toggle on, went into recovery, and without wiping anything, restored the AOSP rom
5) booted checked GPS Status and I was able to see the satellites..
I have no idea right now if this will cause any trouble.. but at least gps works in aosp..
I'll update again if I face any problems
Good luck
Its working now. Not 100% sure what the problem was but that's for everyone with the suggestions.
I flashed about 15-20 different Roms from touchwiz to aosp and miui thing.
Opened the phone up and looked for basic things not connected.
Removed my case and wireless charger insert.
Did the MDB Odin flash. With stock ROM. It didn't still didn't work.
Finally gave up and flashed back old GE ROM. And all of a sudden it works.
I think the Odin wipe and SD card wipe had a big role but not sure. Either way it works now. Might not be the fastest connection to GPS as it takes a few moments now but it works. I'm normally locked on to 13/21 SATs out there in a matter of 2-3 mins.
Now that it works I'm a little weary of trying MDL
Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk

LG G2 Cannot connect to camera

Had this phone for about 1 week now. Everything been fine until today. I tried to take a few pictures, but I couldn't. Received an a pop up with "Cannot connect to camera" I'm not sure what's causing this issue, I cleared the data/cache on it and still occurs. Is there any solution to this issue?
Thank you.
I have exactly the same situation.. But it's weird - ported LGCamera works without errors, other apps (market or aosp based) throw error. Sometime clear app data help, but only sometimes..
It could be hardware problem?
I've had this happen when I was on an older CM11 nightly.I did have to preform a clean install to fix the problem.
xxxrichievxxx said:
I've had this happen when I was on an older CM11 nightly.I did have to preform a clean install to fix the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
18/03? It didn't helped.. I was testing old and newest ROMs - same situation I think it could be some hardware problem - currently I have version from Singapore build at 02/2014
EDIT#1
Weird.. I will go back to stock - test, then install custom ROM.. Something go wrong - when I'm using ported LGCamera.apk in CM/Slim/PA it's working, other camera apps - don't..
I guess I found out the issue of why it was being caused. I also have a Nexus 5 and both had the APP Flashlight by Go Launcher. Seems to me when I downloaded and used it couple of times it caused my camera not to work on both phone. Uninstalled it and now it's working fine with now issues. I'm not sure if you guys also have a flashlight app, but maybe you can give it a try.
I got a replacement g2 from my insuarance and from the box mine done the same thing i tried every app i could find one day i flashed a diffrent rom and was bored. Clicked on my cam and it worked went back to my stock backup for my updatez and it wouldnt connect found out its was a software isse broken software from the factory i put a new stock rooted rom on and good as new. Mine was down. For about a month whrn i notticex what was wrong i thouvht i had a hardware failure but it wasnt there is always a chance of a bad cam but also some app like certain flashlights do take over your hardware if uve rooted and the phone is new goback stock unroot and have swapped
I'm on stock KK right now = 0 problems, so I think it's not hardware. LG camera and other apps always working fine.
Now I will go back to AOSP and test apps again
zg85 said:
I'm on stock KK right now = 0 problems, so I think it's not hardware. LG camera and other apps always working fine.
Now I will go back to AOSP and test apps again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
Did you go back to aosp ? Is the camera ok now ?
Thanks
Here's a thought. After a new rom anybody feel there is a dial pad code to bridge the connection gap.
help, question
TheMadScientist420 said:
I got a replacement g2 from my insuarance and from the box mine done the same thing i tried every app i could find one day i flashed a diffrent rom and was bored. Clicked on my cam and it worked went back to my stock backup for my updatez and it wouldnt connect found out its was a software isse broken software from the factory i put a new stock rooted rom on and good as new. Mine was down. For about a month whrn i notticex what was wrong i thouvht i had a hardware failure but it wasnt there is always a chance of a bad cam but also some app like certain flashlights do take over your hardware if uve rooted and the phone is new goback stock unroot and have swapped
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hardware if uve rooted and the phone is new goback stock unroot and have swapped[/QUOTE]
hey, i also got a replacement phone via assurant insurance. can u dumb it down, what exactly did you do to get the camera working back again?... ROM?... i dont really have any apps for the camera, only whatsapp...
ill be waiting for your answer, thanks
THANKS,I got the same problem and after I deleted the Go Flashlight the camera worked again!
Same issue. Go flashlight solved thanks to this thread.
Having similar issue. Flashed a new bootstack and camera stopped working. Factory reset, fresh install tot, then kdz, then cloudy g3. Camera still force closes and other camera apps can't connect. I can take one picture after a fresh install (which I did three times flashing from tot...).
Camera not working
reeper250 said:
Having similar issue. Flashed a new bootstack and camera stopped working. Factory reset, fresh install tot, then kdz, then cloudy g3. Camera still force closes and other camera apps can't connect. I can take one picture after a fresh install (which I did three times flashing from tot...).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi i have also the same problem.. have you any solution ??
umair_hashmi said:
hi i have also the same problem.. have you any solution ??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing worked. Just gave away the phone and bought an LG G3

[Q] [solved] GPS Not Working After Cyanogen Mod Install

Hi All,
I just got a new used Samsung Galaxy S4 on Sprint and brought it over to Ting (way, way, way cheaper). I got everything working with the stock ROM, including GPS, but I wanted to install Cyanogenmod, so I rooted it, flashed TWRP 7.8, and flashed the latest Cyanogenmod (snapshot M12), with Gapps, and a zip file with the Ting data XML files to get 3G and LTE working.
Everything seemed to work great, but then while driving I noticed that the GPS just did not get a lock. After trying for an hour, it still had nothing. I installed GPS Status and saw that it had no satellites. Clearing the GPS cache and re-downloading data with that app did not solve the problem. I tried GPS Doctor without success and the GPS fix equally without success.
I rebooted, then factory reset, then erased everything and flashed the latest CM nightly, all with no success.
I found some similar problems online at these places:
http://myblog-online.co.uk/2013/12/the-continuing-saga-of-my-galaxy-s4-custom-roms/
http://forum.cyanogenmod.org/topic/98811-gps-not-working-23rd-nightly/
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2172670
These are all old and none gave me anything that useful. Is it a GPS radio issue? Is there anything I can do?
I also just found this page: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Known_Issues_page_for_d2lte, but it is for the S3, not sure what to make of it.
I made a nandroid backup of my stock rom, but then I copied it to my computer, and when I copied it back again it didn't work. TWRP failed to restore with the error "No partition selected for restore".
My plan now is to flash the stock rom with odin, confirm that GPS works there, and then try again, but this is becoming a huge time sink and I have a lot of other things to do.
Does anyone have any ideas how I can fix this? I am pretty sure it isn't a hardware issue.
MikeDacre said:
Hi All,
I just got a new used Samsung Galaxy S4 on Sprint and brought it over to Ting (way, way, way cheaper). I got everything working with the stock ROM, including GPS, but I wanted to install Cyanogenmod, so I rooted it, flashed TWRP 7.8, and flashed the latest Cyanogenmod (snapshot M12), with Gapps, and a zip file with the Ting data XML files to get 3G and LTE working.
Everything seemed to work great, but then while driving I noticed that the GPS just did not get a lock. After trying for an hour, it still had nothing. I installed GPS Status and saw that it had no satellites. Clearing the GPS cache and re-downloading data with that app did not solve the problem. I tried GPS Doctor without success and the GPS fix equally without success.
I rebooted, then factory reset, then erased everything and flashed the latest CM nightly, all with no success.
I found some similar problems online at these places:
http://myblog-online.co.uk/2013/12/the-continuing-saga-of-my-galaxy-s4-custom-roms/
http://forum.cyanogenmod.org/topic/98811-gps-not-working-23rd-nightly/
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2172670
These are all old and none gave me anything that useful. Is it a GPS radio issue? Is there anything I can do?
I also just found this page: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Known_Issues_page_for_d2lte, but it is for the S3, not sure what to make of it.
I made a nandroid backup of my stock rom, but then I copied it to my computer, and when I copied it back again it didn't work. TWRP failed to restore with the error "No partition selected for restore".
My plan now is to flash the stock rom with odin, confirm that GPS works there, and then try again, but this is becoming a huge time sink and I have a lot of other things to do.
Does anyone have any ideas how I can fix this? I am pretty sure it isn't a hardware issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's is pretty much what you have to do. Its go back to stock and get a lock there in maps. When you have a lock just go back to recovery and flash your custom ROM of choice. That is pretty much the only fix.
Sent from my GT-I9505G using XDA Free mobile app
ROMANTiC KiD said:
That's is pretty much what you have to do. Its go back to stock and get a lock there in maps. When you have a lock just go back to recovery and flash your custom ROM of choice. That is pretty much the only fix.
Sent from my GT-I9505G using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks ROMANTiC KiD,
Good to know that I am heading down the right path before I spend a lot of time on this.
Should I not erase everything when I flash the custom ROM? I am pretty sure last time I used TWRP advanced erase to clear everything on the phone before installing. Should I just do a regular factory reset in TWRP to install CM in order to keep GPS functionality?
Thanks!
MikeDacre said:
Thanks ROMANTiC KiD,
Good to know that I am heading down the right path before I spend a lot of time on this.
Should I not erase everything when I flash the custom ROM? I am pretty sure last time I used TWRP advanced erase to clear everything on the phone before installing. Should I just do a regular factory reset in TWRP to install CM in order to keep GPS functionality?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes sir you can factory reset in twrp just remember to back up your files first! And you should still retain GPS lock.
Sent from my GT-I9505G using XDA Free mobile app
ROMANTiC KiD said:
Yes sir you can factory reset in twrp just remember to back up your files first! And you should still retain GPS lock.
Sent from my GT-I9505G using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the confirmation. I did exactly that and I can confirm that it did indeed work.
Thanks so much for the help.
Hi all,
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I am having this issue and the stock firmware flash isn't solving the issue. It is all very odd because it doesn't actually retain any kind of lock after flashing. I'm following instruction on here, but after locking gps on stock, then going to CM I cannot get a fix. It either had a massive radius on Maps, or it just locks to my home or work location.
Since trying much more I have managed to get the occasional satellite lock via GPS Locker, but even then as soon as I move from either my house or work, it can't find anything to lock onto and just defaults to a static location.
Is there anything you would recommend? I have 2 Samsung GS4's and they both exhibit the same problem. I have also tried this on an S4 Mini, but that retained lock just fine. I'm really confused as to what to actually try. If you could recommend anything I'd be very grateful.
Again, I'm sorry to res an old thread, but no one has been replying to the one I started for this issue :/
Your problem may be that there is some new issue with the newer firmware. I had success by first flashing the *old* firmware (you can download it from my dropbox here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/o3f3ynyezyy4yw9/L720VPUFNAE_L720SPTFNAE_L720VPUFNAE_HOME.tar.md5?dl=0) and then upgrading to the second to last firmware update for the GS4: which gives you Android 5 but without fixing the MMS bug.
After that I flash TWRP with Odin, and then do a full erase in TWRP followed by flashing the latest CM. That series of steps works for me every time, although I found that large changes to my physical location (e.g. flying to England from California) cause it to break again. I actually had to sit in a cafe in an English airport with my laptop out flashing my phone back to stock just so that I could use Google maps to get to my mother's house. It was pretty ridiculous. Because of that and other issues, I now just use stock. I hate it, but I do it anyway. Good luck.

Can't get front camera to work! (logcat now enclosed)

Ever since I made the jump from Beanstalk to 4.4.4+ roms, my front-facing camera hasn't worked.
I flashed to SlimKat (7.0 and 7.8 weekly) and had no front-facing camera and data issues. I flashed a new modem and Kernel but to no avail.
I then had issues with sound (not having any) and reverted back to beanstalk and flashed MF9 back onto it. I was told that I "messed up [my] modem / LTE drivers and bootloader," and to "google it"... Didn't find much.
I then gave up and decided to move over to Alucard CM12 and eventually just vanilla CM12 , but none of them would work!
I even flashed every single modem from here and it did nothing.
Today I got really frustrated and flashed the entire stock firmwares of MF9, MDC, and MDL. and when those didn't work, I allowed auto-update to do its thing and update to the latest firmware as some people were saying this worked (I don't even care about KNOX anymore), but it didn't help.
And yes, I've tried all the tricks like wipe cache, clear camera app data, etc.
PLEASE HELP x__x
I just used this guide to manually unplug and re-plug my front-facing camera module... Cleared app data and did factory reset, and still not working... The camera module itself looks fine (so does the ribbon cable... I could buy a new camera module and test it out, but I'm still pretty sure this is a software issue somehow.
I just rooted my phone via TWRP and my logcat for the issue is attached.
I would be very greatful for any and all help, as I'm getting married and going on my honeymoon in less than 2 weeks and want to take lots of pictures without snatching my wife's phone from her.

Categories

Resources