Help N4 camera pics/flash issues

[dinosaur1]

Why does the N4's camera freeze up once in a while? Sometimes I take it out and just want to take a simple pic, but it doesn't want to take a shot. I have to hard boot the phone in order for the camera to work.

Last night I used my N4 to take pics at night. Instead of taking a picture the camera flash turned on and stayed on until i went to the home screen. At that point the flash turned off, but it still wouldn't take a picture.

 

[lunatic59]

As far as I know that is not a widespread issue. Assuming it's not a hardware problem, you might need to do a factory reset. Did you update to 4.2.1 JOP40D?

 

[dinosaur1]

As far as I know that is not a widespread issue. Assuming it's not a hardware problem, you might need to do a factory reset. Did you update to 4.2.1 JOP40D?

Yes I have 4.2.1. Is it normal for the flash to come on and off each time I press the screen while trying to focus?

 

[lunatic59]

Yes I have 4.2.1. Is it normal for the flash to come on and off each time I press the screen while trying to focus?

Yep, that's so there's enough light for the camera to focus before is actually takes the shot, but if you turn the flash off, then it doesn't do it.

 

[dinosaur1]

Yep, that's so there's enough light for the camera to focus before is actually takes the shot, but if you turn the flash off, then it doesn't do it.

OK, but what would cause the phone to restart while doing this ?

 

[lunatic59]

OK, but what would cause the phone to restart while doing this ?

Either a software glitch or a hardware fault. Try a different camera app and see if it does the same thing.

 

[dinosaur1]

Either a software glitch or a hardware fault. Try a different camera app and see if it does the same thing.

Any recommended app out there?

 

[lunatic59]

I've always liked Vignette.

 

[dinosaur1]

I've always liked Vignette.

Looks like it is a widespread problem. Many reporting it here.

Issue 40996 - android - Nexus 4 - Camera App Stops Taking Photos (4.2.1) - Android - An Open Handset Alliance Project - Google Project Hosting

 

[dinosaur1]

Any others?

 

[lunatic59]

I don't take a lot of pictures so I really can't tell you which would be the best to try. I wouldn't call 4 people reporting it a "widespread" problem, but it does appear to be an issue. Since setting the camera from still to video and then back seems to fix it -- at least temporarily -- then I'd have to think it's a software issue.

 

[dinosaur1]

I don't take a lot of pictures so I really can't tell you which would be the best to try. I wouldn't call 4 people reporting it a "widespread" problem, but it does appear to be an issue. Since setting the camera from still to video and then back seems to fix it -- at least temporarily -- then I'd have to think it's a software issue.

What scares me is how many haven't reported it yet. Plus many shipments are just starting to arrive.

 

[lunatic59]

It hasn't happened to me. While I may have only taken 50 or so pictures so far, it hasn't locked or crashed once for me. I would think if it was common to all of them there'd be a big noise out there about it. I don't mean to diminish your problems, since this is obviously not the way it's supposed to work, but I can't duplicate it nor have i heard of it before your post.

Any other N4 owners want to weigh in?

 

[Speeds03]

My camera works fine.

 

[dinosaur1]

It hasn't happened to me. While I may have only taken 50 or so pictures so far, it hasn't locked or crashed once for me. I would think if it was common to all of them there'd be a big noise out there about it. I don't mean to diminish your problems, since this is obviously not the way it's supposed to work, but I can't duplicate it nor have i heard of it before your post.

Any other N4 owners want to weigh in?

Am I supposed to be able to see the Camera app under Settings>Apps>All?

 

[lunatic59]

Am I supposed to be able to see the Camera app under Settings>Apps>All?

I don't see it on mine, so I guess the answer would be no,

 

[dinosaur1]

I don't see it on mine, so I guess the answer would be no,

Here is Google's instructions to me today. What are we missing then?

Thank you for contacting us. I'm sorry you're experiencing problems with your device.

If you will go to settings> Apps> swipe over to the right to All Apps> find Camera app and try clearing cache and data. If that doesn't work try a factory data reset, the instructions are listed below.

 

[lunatic59]

I don't think we are missing anything. the stock camera app doesn't seem to be listed. I just checked on my SGS2 and the camera is not listed there either. Apparently Google support staff have a script that isn't 100% appropriate.

Did you try an alternate camera app?

 

[dinosaur1]

I don't think we are missing anything. the stock camera app doesn't seem to be listed. I just checked on my SGS2 and the camera is not listed there either. Apparently Google support staff have a script that isn't 100% appropriate.

Did you try an alternate camera app?

I did a factory reset so I would like to try it out. Before that I tried a camera app and it my flash didn't turn on at all.

 

[shaidtan]

As of 4.1 the camera and gallery apps are combined into the gallery app. If you want to follow Google's instructions substitute gallery for camera.

 

[dinosaur1]

I didn't that, thanks. My next question is sometimes when I use the Gallery app why does it revert to the camera when I am trying to look at the Gallery pics? This happens right after I take a picture and want to look at the picture that I just took.