yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hberntsen:
Thanks for your response, I mainly tested the camera to capture non-moving things (like the flowers outside) but usually I take pictures in all kinds of circumstances. I understand that it is hard for a camera to handle low light situations or situations where there is lots of movement. I also experienced this issue last night (indoor with lights on) but I can understand that's hard for a smartphone camera. I already have issues outside, with plenty of sunlight, capturing things that don't move/change.

I have owned a Galaxy S3 for 2 years and of course that camera sometimes did not focus correctly. The difference is that with the S3 i could simply tap the screen again and it will focus alright. With the S5 I first need to focus to something close, and then back again to the thing I wanted to make a picture of. So I kind of need to reset the focusing mechanism. That's what is annoying. I used my dad's iPhone 5 and could take the same pictures without any problem.

As far as I know I'm not using the camera any different than with my S3. In the video it might seem a bit shaky but that's due to the uncomfortable position of holding the phone in front of the camera. The issue is still there when I use something like a table to stabilize. Does the camera flash/heartbeat sensor play any role in focusing (outside with plenty of light)? I can't remember if I obstructed those. I'm sure I didn't block the camera with my finger ;).

I've briefly tested the Google camera app to confirm the issue is there as well. I could test with that some more but as far as I know the camera focus code is done in some hardware-specific library and the camera app simply asks the library to focus. The stock should just work on the default settings. Selective focus is off, face detection does not matter (but I only tested this without people in the picture). For focusing the options are pretty limited.

It indeed seems like I'm the only one. Maybe people don't care enough (the blurry pictures can still be fine for facebook posts). Couldn't it be a defective batch coming from Samsung? I find this hard to believe too. To me it seems like a software problem. The camera is trying to focus as fast as possible, it barely moves the lens if it is in a state where it thinks it is already focused. That's probably why focusing really close helps; it needs to do a 'full' re-focus.

Edit: Just tested the google camera again, wasn't blocking the sensors on the back in any way:

1. Opened app while pointing at the flowers

2. Tapped the flowers, saw focus ring, tapped again at another place but no difference, still blurry

3. Took picture: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/831846/s5/IMG_20140722_132806.jpg

4. Focussed to something close

5. Pointed camera at flowers again

6. Touched to focus (looks sharp now)

7. Took picture: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/831846/s5/IMG_20140722_133109.jpg

It's so simple to get such a blurry picture. In something like half an hour later I tried to take another picture but I already had to apply the fix again...
[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Kegs_Farrow:
Also having problems with focusing on S5

Hi there,

I was reading this forum and have the EXACT same problem with my S5! The camera won't focus at all! it was like that when i got the phone, then i took it in for repairs and it came back much much better. but then literally overnight it just decided to stop focusing again. it won't focus on distance shots. i've tried playing around with all my settings again, but nothing is solving the problem. i tap the screen to get it to focus with the green square, it says it's in focus but all of the pictures are blurry!

Did you manage to come right with getting your camera to work properly [MENTION=3186305]hberntsen[/MENTION]?
[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] W18WAR:
I dont know if you are rooted but if you are i would deffinitely install the following MOD as it fixes alot of the samsungs Camera Shortcummings

http://xdaforums.com/galaxy-s5/development/mod-hx-camera-mod1-0quality-t2816831
[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hberntsen:
My problems vanished, it could be due to an update from Samsung to ANG8. When I had the problem I tried various camera apps(also the HX mod) and all of them had the focusing problem. The HX mod does not help since the focusing code is not modified.
[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] priormix:
Camera focus fix

Hi guys!

I've been having this problem of the camera not focusing either. I did some looking around on the internet and found a quick and easy fix!

It seemed that my camera app/cache had become corrupted, as was common with the S5.

Go to Settings>Application Manager>All>Camera and then clear the cache. It was only about 35kbs.

I restarted the phone after this and the camera now focuses brilliantly again! No issues at all with far away or really close.

Give that a go and see if it works for you!
[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nivram13:
I'm having exactly the same issue im confident its a camera hardware issue. Im sending the unit back to Samsung to replace or repair overall im disappointed and find the camera very poor.
[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] leijonasisu:
I took a video for you guys because you seem to all be having the same issue.

http://youtu.be/VZdJD0z2duA

Mine focuses perfectly without me even touching the screen. When I do touch the screen it always reports a clear focus. Otherwise I can just move around and the camera automatically detects the distance even through a window, and instantly adjusts the focus to compensate.

If your phone does not behave the same way, then it's a defect, you aren't holding it correctly (blocking or obstructing the sensor) or you are experiencing some sort of other issue.

Some cases can ever so slightly interfere with the sensor too. The sensor is so much wider than you think when you look at it directly. So if you have even anything slightly in the field (even the field that is not displayed on the screen) it may give you bad results with focusing. (However I see the OP has no case in his video).

Overall I am 100% satisfied with this camera.
[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nivram13:
What I have found in testing is if I tap the front of the phone with my finger the focus kicks in a works, temporarily however it resorts back to the non focus issue after a brief period. Any shots taken at close range are fine its basically any shot the it using the zoom function or any shots of anything at a distance such as a scenery shot.

---------- Post added at 09:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:04 AM ----------

The camera focuses and shows the green circle each time, but when you look a the shot you can see the blur this is with shots taken in daylight.
[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nivram13:
The camera focuses and shows the green circle each time, but when you look a the shot you can see the blur this is with shots taken in daylight.

---------- Post added at 11:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:19 AM ----------

That is not the fix I've tried that several times without any luck
[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nivram13:
Non focus - FIX

Update:

My S5 has been repaired by Samsung to resolve the non focus issue the problem related to a faulty camera module and was replaced with an updated camera module the focus now works perfectly. If you have this issue you'll need to get the camera module replaced it would seem a lot of S5 users are having this problem.
[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] griffin_1:
Im having this issue and its really annoying. Im thinking of sending it to repair, but im afraid that : a) might still come out the same b)Lose waterproofing since they have to actually remove the screen/front to fix it c)they don't do anything because it focus sometimes and it might focus when they do the tests

So, what would be a good indication that focus problems is really a faulty sensor? Compared to my s3, the s5 struggles to focus and its really noticible when i try to take a picture of text and close up.
[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Zotho:
Blurry

I got a similar Problem, but I am not absolutely sure if it´s focus-related or something else with the camera.

Almost every picture I take is blurry, and my focusing lens is also very loud when I shake the phone.

I compared my S5 to 2 others today and mine was really having the worst image quality, no matter what I did. Changed all settings on my phone to match the other one which has good IQ, but it really doesn´t change anything.

Someone said to change ISO to 100 instead of Auto, this improves a little bit, but still the other pix are way clearer.

Will wait for Lollipop Update and see how it improves, but I guess its a hardware issue.
[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] griffin_1:
I have read about that camera noise and Samsung has said it's normal and part of the camera module and system. Strangely, I never heard it on mine.

Have you tried photos outside in sunlight? Camera seems to show its worth only in those conditions. Regardless, if full auto in different s5 is better than on yours that much, then you might have a bad sensor and should get it replaced.
[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Zotho:
In good light conditions the pix look quite good, but as you take photos indoors the´re just blurry and smeary. No sharpness. Compared it to an iP5s first and then to the other S5s, even checked my old S2, which also made better pictures.

Now I wonder if I really wait for Lollipop and hope it´s a software issue or directly use the warranty.

Thinking about rooting and using custom ROMs, I didn´t really find out if this is possible with LP as well (given it´s possible to downgrade to a towelroot compatible version, say 4.4.2 as atm). Is there a chance?

What would you suggest? Wait for the upgrade and if it doesn´t help, send it to the support? Or do this right now and hope they will also see the difference to a good camera and replace or repair it? Have to wait like 2 weeks they said.

Thanks!
[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] griffin_1:
Honestly, we are all going to start accepting that the camera is not that great in anything other than outside with direct sunlight (or probably with studio film lights but not everybody has those laying around).

Auto-focus is not great and its very frustrating actually, even if you have decent light inside, it miss it a lot of time and you have to keep moving and pressing the screen - but put it outside or next to a window in daylight and the autofocus works well enough. Oddly, my s3 still has better/more accurate autofocus in lower light scenarios than the s5, even if the final image isn't that great (its actually inferior, but autofocus works much better). The s5 focus for a split second and then loss focus.

Also, most photos i take on the s5 just turn out having way to much noise.

I don't think software is going to do much at this point. It helped in the first batches, but now im starting to think is more the sensor fault than anything else. I don't think lollipop will help unless we get the manual controls, which samsung s5 doesn't have on lollipop rom. Also, i remember reading that lollipop didn't improve the camera quality on the s5. Software will help quite a bit, but it won't be everything.

With warranty, if they test it and are able to get it focus a few times they probably won't fix it or replace the sensor, unless it's something really bad - but that's my opinion and why i haven't used the warranty on mine, because they might test it in better light and get the focus to work and won't even bother.

Also, im afraid it will lose the waterproofing from factory. I recently saw videos of repairs on the s5 and the whole fron't screen needs to be removed in order to access the camera or any hardware and im afraid that might in any way compromise waterproofing - i don't plan on take it on the water but who knows.

So, personally, im just trying to accept that the camera isn't that great as i thought and not stress more about it. If your camera does take inferior photos compared to others and you have similar problems with focus like OP, then i suggest you take it to the warranty. If its just focusing problems in low light or inferior image quality in low light with pictures coming out the same as other s5's (not compared to other phones, different sensors), then it probably won't do much taking it to the repair center, unless it gives you peace of mind or getting another opinion from the repair center.
[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nivram13:
Where the photos were taken was irrelevant, inside or out the camera module was faulty on my one a problem many S5 users have had it's NOT software well not in my case anyway this solution is get the module replaced the S5 camera is average at best and if compared against the likes of the Note 4 it's very poor.
[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] griffin_1:
True. I asked if he tried outside because in my case the camera focus better outside with a lot light , even if inside is well lit enough to take a picture. Most of my problems are with focus inside, even is decent light, it just doesnt want to pick proper focus and it shouldnt be like that, my old s3 and other older or lower-end phones are not like that.

Unfortunately the camera was so hyped for nothing, yes it takes good pictures if are outside during the day but its a pain to focus or get a picture that isnt full of noise, the s4 took good pictures and it wasnt a mess to focus. I havent sent mine for replacement because i just know they are going to test it in a well lit enviroment and it will probably pick up the focus and send it back.
[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nivram13:
Samsung repaired and replaced my camera module without any question once I'd demonstrated the issue I even sent them the link to this thread. I found the camera focus was even worse when using video.

Agree the S5 as both a camera and a smart phone is average at best hence why I use the s5 rarely now with the Note 4 as my main phone.
[Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rtk19:
Can I flash PA 3.99 ROM with multirom if my internal ROM is 4.4.4? I tried it once but the phone was stuck on the google logo without even going to the bootscreen so I've deleted it.. is it possible somehow? and can I downgrade even without multirom?
[Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rohit297:
I think it is quite simple, I have Mahdi ROM, miui ROM and android l together with multirom and each ROM is working perfectly, you just need to flash the secondary ROM with multirom and don't share kernel and for radio after you flash the 4.3 ROM u just need to set the radio.IMG from recovery in multirom , and choose the 4.3 compatible radio image and you are done, enjoy the power of having a nexus device
[Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rtk19:
OK I've flashed the ROM and it still not booting up, how do I choose the radio image? I saw the option to change the radio image in the recovery but I don't know what to choose..
[Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rohit297:
If u r on 4.4x ROM then you don't need to flash radio IMG only if u r trying to install miui KitKat
[Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rtk19:
I'm on carbon 4.4.4, but if I don't need to flash radio image why it's not booting up?
[Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rohit297:
First boot always take sometime on miui, for how much time did u wait for the phone to boot
[Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rtk19:
I'm not on MIUI I'm on Paranaoid Android 3.99, and it's not even go to the boot screen it's stuck on the google logo
[Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rohit297:
Oh sorry,ok i think you should start from th scratch,i mean just delete the secondary rom and uninstall multirom and flash the twrp recovery and then again install multirom then let the multirom download the new recovery for you and let it install it first then boot into recovery then in multirom then add secondary rom and flash your rom remember to check don't share kernel then flash gapps on the same rom, oh i forgot to mention that before all this download a 4.3 compaitible radio if it is a cwm flashable zip then extract the modem.img from it ,put it in internal memory ,after flashing the rom and gapps then from recovery in multirom and then list rom then select ur secondary rom and then set boot.img and then select that modem.img file from internal memory,hope it works now
[Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rtk19:
Thanks man it's working I owe you
[Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rohit297:
:):):):):):beer::beer::beer::beer:
[Samsung Captivate Glide] taiber2000:
hello everybody,

as my glide malfunction i moved to the relay 4g instead.

wanted to thanks the community and especially the devs for a great work.

thanks you and see you around.
[8525, TyTN, MDA Vario II, JasJam General] iKelvin:
Hi. Is there a way to sync desktop and PPC, but not synching specific categories?
[8525, TyTN, MDA Vario II, JasJam General] MikeChannon:
Hi

Not sure exactly what your looking for but Active Sync is rather limited. I use mobsync.exe which is an addon for active sync that allows the synching of any folder on device or storage card with folders on PC.

Mike
[8525, TyTN, MDA Vario II, JasJam General] iKelvin:
During a sync, there are some appointments I do not not to be synced to PPC, just leave those appointments on desktop (Outlook). I was thinking of classifying all those appointments under a category and not sync that category to PPC. Is there a way to do that?
[8525, TyTN, MDA Vario II, JasJam General] thebimbo:
Why make it so difficult for yourself...! What you are trying to do, synching by categories, is just asking for a mess...

Instead, with either Agenda Fusion or Pocket Informant, you can set up view and global filters to hide/show whichever categories you want.
[8525, TyTN, MDA Vario II, JasJam General] iKelvin:
Reason is that I have a lot of appointments that are related to work and would prefer to leave them on my desktop. Have a category called Office which has all (a lot of them) work related stuff and it does take a long time to sync to mobile device. It would be nice if I could exclude them from sync. That's the reason I'm looking for a way to exclude user defined category from synching.
[8525, TyTN, MDA Vario II, JasJam General] arghness:
I think older versions of ActiveSync supported this for WM2003SE. Seems that it was removed, along with Wifi synch.

I agree that being able to include or exclude specific synch categories would be very useful for many people.
[G3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] eelton:
Has anyone else had a problem with the GPS heading ? I noticed that the arrow indicating direction of travel in Google Maps was wrong. It also shows either zero or a static number for heading in GPS Test Plus.

I initially thought it was the compass, but I can see in a compass app that it's OK.
[General Omni Discussion] JenMei:
Hi!

I've been using since January OmniRomm and am very satisfied.

Silk recently, my battery will discharge very quickly. The cause is obvious Google+.

Does anyone have the same problem and can help me maybe.

Thanks.
[General Omni Discussion] valeri.nikolov:
For me a tool that controls the connectivity usage did the trick.

I put that one:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.latedroid.ultimatejuice&hl=en

It extended the battery time twice for me. You can also search for alternatives of the kind in google play store.

Cheers :)
[General Omni Discussion] Entropy512:
G+ is a data hog. Even if you disable notifications it eats data. Disable background data in Settings->Data Usage
[General Omni Discussion] JenMei:
Thank you. I will test it.
[General Omni Discussion] Bobacco:
Hey! I have the same problem but haven't found a solution yet neither. I might be true that G+ is a data hog, but this generalization can't be the reason for this clearly newly occuring fingerprint_scanner_local wakelock that keeps my i9100 firing away at maximum clock speed for the whole time. Uninstalled for now and I haven't been lucky at finding something in the better battery stats thread.
[General Omni Discussion] andrea90:
If you don't use it, you can easy unistall with Titanium Backup or similar app
[General Omni Discussion] ryancell:
Yea I got fed up with google + turning sync on after I would turn it off, it would toggle back on, so I uninstalled it fully.
[General Omni Discussion] andrea90:
Nice work, I've already done since months
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dmcgahon:
Hi,

Just ask for any other information, I'm bound to not remember to provide everything :) Have had this i9100 for about 30 months. No battery issues for the first two years but plenty in the past six months.

Phone would switch off suddenly (no low battery warnings) or go black / unresponsive and super-hot. Replaced the battery and after about 2 months the new battery (probably not original) was literally bent and mis-shapen. Bought a genuine (I hope) Samsung battery and installed CyanogenMod and still seeing hard power-offs when they wouldn't be expected.

See attached for this morning. Phone unplugged after charging (via USB) all night. Attempted to use Apollo and it wouldn't work so didn't even use the phone on the bus. Clearing data for Apollo after arriving at office and that is working again now. Made one long phone call before starting work and towards the end of that phone call just dropped. When arrived into the office plugged back into USB again.

Why did it power off at 70% and why wouldn't it turn on again even though after being plugged in and charged for 5 minutes it starts up at 40%?

What do you think? Is this a hardware issue and I have to give up on the phone :)
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] S3P3HR:
Does near camera get hot ? it shows media taking 21% which I assume it is not normal .

also we need to know about Rom version and recovery version .

Media scanner is the process that scans every folder and file so that if you copied or downloaded a .mp3 file it shows on your library . However for many reasons this can go wrong . Do you have folders with many files ? (talking in thousands) ... for example apps like maverick can download many thousand mapTiles that saves on internalSD or ex ... Then MediaScanner everytime needs to go trough all those many thousand files and that burns cpu/battery ...

if so try http://geeknizer.com/fix-android-media-server-scanner-sdcard-cpu-battery-drain/

other than that battery can go bad which is easily replaceable .
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dmcgahon:
Attached screenshot from this morning. Notice how it drops to zero at a point. The phone switches off even though the battery isn't exhausted.

Near camera not getting hot. Not sure whether media 21% was normal or not, that morning only 30%+ of battery used when the hard switch-off event happened.

ROM is CyanogenMod 10.1.3-i9100 (Sept 23rd) and recovery is CWM v6.0.3.6

No folders with many files. Use the phone lightly really. A few MP3s, email, phone calls, general browsing, occasionally Skype.

Real question is why the drop from almost 70% battery to zero, as shown on last weeks and this mornings screenshots?

Battery is brand new, unlikely to be the problem.

Will install a battery drain app and study closer.