yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers] clonk:
I find it bizarre that video and audio recordings created on either my S7 (which I purchased in July of 2016)

or

on my brand-new S7 Edge (which I just obtained yesterday) are plagued with persistent, intermittent static-type crackling sounds which can virtually ruin the shot video footage or captured audio.

But what I find even more bizarre is the fact that there are almost no posts about this problem that I've been able to find here on xda. First, I've been thinking it must be a relatively common issue considering that I've ended up with two new S7 devices that both experience it. And next, I've noticed identical pops/crackles on various YouTube videos shot with S7 or S7 Edge devices, but typically with no remarks about said noises from the individuals posting those videos. And the most peculiar thing is that I'm finding very few complaints on the Internet at large concerning the topic. Considering the huge number of Galaxy S devices in use, I would think that if this were actually a common problem there would be far more complaints out there.

Here is one thread on the topic at the Samsung support community website:

https://us.community.samsung.com/t5...s-have-strange-static-noises-at-the/td-p/1993

https://us.community.samsung.com/t5...icpage/board-id/GalaxyS/thread-id/1048/page/5

And here's the only thread I can find addressing the issue at xda (maybe I'm searching wrong?):

https://xdaforums.com/galaxy-s7/help/problem-noise-clacking-popping-static-t3427910

I guess what I'm really wondering is whether I may have been unlucky enough to acquire two new devices suffering from the same rare problem? Or whether the problem is actually quite common (as suggested in the threads I've cited above where it's claimed that the issue has existed within Galaxy S devices all the way back as far as the S4)?

I would very much like to hear others' thoughts and/or experiences concerning this problem.
[Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers] jklnexus:
I have got the same issue but if i take a quick video or audio recording prior to actual video the crackling is gone... this leads me to believe that it is software based especially because it happens in the stock camera app and snapchat which just uses the camera's viewfinder instead of proper camera api's... I also think it is a software issue because apps like instagram do not have this problem when recording videos and I know instagram uses the proper api's. Some on the web say that this is a hardware issue but i really hope not. I have a 930u what model do you have?
[Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers] clonk:
I have a 930P and a 935P. They both do it; however the 930P only does a couple of chirps/crackles/pops on the first few seconds of the first video I've shot since at least an hour before. And if I keep shooting new videos it won't do it at all. It used to be a lot worse on the 930P. But the more videos I've shot as the months passed, the less severe the problem has become. I use the quick prior video technique you mention as well. But I can't really use it on footage that I decide to shoot on the spur of the moment when there's a surprise incident I want to capture.

I personally can't be sure whether the issue is software or hardware based. I can tell you, though, that it happens on audio (voice) recordings as well.... so it's not app-specific. And considering that the crackling usually happens when the recording software hasn't been used for a while, it almost suggests that it's a thermal issue (which would be hardware), or a electro-static charge issue (which would be hardware as well).

I'm surprised that Samsung hasn't had enough complaints on this issue to identify the cause and come up with a solution over the years. And I still don't get why more people aren't complaining about it. Whatever the answer, if Samsung repair technicians are actually able to fix this issue on the devices that people send in for having it fixed, why is it that they can't implement a permanent fix for it on their assembly lines?
[Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers] Jonathan-H:
I took quite a few videos yesterday with the stock Samsung camera app, 4k and 1080p 60fps on my Xynos S7 Normal and no popping or scratching noises. I do have a rubber type case on so if the popping is fingers moving on the phone that might be why I do not have this problem.
[Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers] clonk:
The S7s I have are the SD820 models. I'm unsure whether any of the Exynos models suffer from this issue. But I think they may based on the regions some of the video clips I've seen (that contained the same sort of popping) have been shot in. Here's a link to one of the videos someone shot to demonstrate the problem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj2Hd2hpnDs

With my phones it's not caused by hand or finger movements. It happens when the devices are perfectly still, even sitting stationary on a table. And it makes no difference whether a case is on or off of them.

Am I simply unlucky enough to have acquired an S7 and an S7 Edge that have this (possibly very rare) problem in common? Or is it a fairly common problem that goes largely unreported for some reason? I'm not sure.
[Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers] olafsand:
God damn, i have that problem too. I dont notice it before :(

Video taken 5 minutes ago

https://youtu.be/MraHDORny4g
[Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers] clonk:
Yep, you sure do. So this proves that the problem exists on the Exynos models as well. I think it also may suggest that many S7 users just haven't noticed the problem yet, like yourself. It could be that when some users hear these crackles, they think they are just background audio that was picked up during the recording. I wonder how many other S7/S7 Edge owners really have this issue but simply haven't noticed it? It's quite frustrating!
[Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers] clonk:
One thing I have just discovered: If I cover the bottom mic hole with my thumb and then start to record video (leaving my thumb over the bottom mic hole until I stop recording), when I play the video I've just recorded there is a muffled rushing sound for the first several seconds and the periodic pops can be heard in the background under that sound. But after those several seconds, with my thumb still over the lower mic hole, there is one final loud-ish pop, after which both the muffled rushing sound and the pops are seemingly gone. I have duplicated this 5 times so far. It has always behaved the same way. The impression I have from my testing is that upon the point at which the loud-ish pop occurs and the rushing noise vanishes, the device has somehow detected that the bottom mic has been blocked and thus auto ports its mic input instead from the device's top mic, simultaneously cutting off input from the bottom mic. Whereas if I perform a similar blocking of the top mic during a recording, nothing at all seems to happen. I can't even hear any change in noise from my finger touching the top mic hole. That is, until I force the switch by plugging the bottom mic hole.

So what does this all mean as far as the popping/crackling issue? One thing it seems to indicate is that the unwanted pops/crackles are introduced to the audio input circuitry when the device is listening through the bottom mic hole. So the problem may be within the circuitry connected to that lower microphone. If there were some way to force a permanent switch to the upper mic (or turn off the lower mic) during recording, it may solve the popping/crackling issue.

Thoughts anyone? Please test this on your devices and post back with your findings.
[Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers] clonk:
Wow! Here's a thread that I hadn't seen before just now (started in 2013):

https://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2317900

And here's a short YouTube vid that includes a discussion which I just found as well and it's right on point:

https://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2317900

The guy who posted the video confirms part of my findings, that the bottom mic is the one that typically produces the crackles when it's in circuit. He speculates that it may be a built up static condition on the lower condenser microphone. I was actually thinking the same thing. I mentioned it in post number 3 in this thread in fact. He mentioned that if you shoot a burst of compressed air into the lower mic hole the static goes away for a while. Yesterday, I discovered that, too. And that's what led me to the mic hole blocking tests I've been doing today.

This has been going on with Samsung devices for at least 3.5 years, and without being resolved! And when you call Samsung tech support about it they always tell you that they've never heard of it before. They did so with me concerning my S7's audio popping and they told some of the people in the discussions I've posted links for above the same thing 3.5 years ago.

I guess most people have just given up on this matter, since the problem is still seemingly built-in to many of Samsung's devices and there are so few new complaints posted anymore about it. What angers me the most is that Samsung continues to disavow any knowledge of this longstanding issue. They collect everyone's money for new devices that possess this flaw, but they have failed to fix the problem in over 3 years (have they even tried?), and they continue to tell those experiencing the issue that they've never heard of it before. Too bad everyone with the issue doesn't decide to organize and hold Samsung legally accountable for selling us these flawed devices at premium prices.
[Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers] clonk:
Update:

Yesterday evening I spent over one hour on the phone with Samsung customer support concerning this issue. The support representative was quite courteous. He was even outgoing, in terms of his willingness to check various resources during the course of our discussion. He proceeded to share the substance of my complaint with his supervisor and his second tier support contact person throughout our phone session. Nonetheless, my anger prevails.

I'm still angry because not only did this Samsung support representative claim that he'd never heard of this recorded audio popping/crackling issue among Galaxy S model devices before... he as well conveyed that neither his supervisor nor his second tier support person had ever encountered complaints about it either. Those responses simply do not comport with Internet reports to the contrary, some of which describe the issue being discussed with Samsung customer support personnel, and even being conferenced with cell carrier service support folks. Nor do they comport with the number of Internet forum complaints springing up on the problem ever since the S4 was a current device, not to mention with the two separately purchased S7 devices of mine, which both demonstrate said recorded audio crackling.

Another indication that this is a widespread flaw among Samsung Galaxy phones is the number of statements I've read from people who've experienced the crackling issue who claimed that after they had received replacement devices of the same models, those replacement devices demonstrated the identical recorded audio crackling. If those claims are in fact true --and I believe they are-- I think it's fairly conclusive that a serious design or quality control issue exists in the midst of Samsung's engineering and manufacturing. When someone pays $600 to $800 for a brand-new device, once they begin using the device's video recording function they shouldn't have to learn that said device will randomly ruin their video footage. While that's bad enough, Samsung's phone support people consistently disavowing awareness of the issue is unconscionably unacceptable to me. Selling flawed devices while pretending the problem doesn't exist is not a mark of integrity for a technology company. But unfortunately Samsung has no qualms in doing so while they become richer and richer.

I still can't understand why there aren't more folks currently concerned about this issue here on xda? It's hard to imagine that that's the case since I know there has to be quite a lot of crackling Samsung devices among xda's member base. Perhaps most Samsung-using xda members don't shoot much video so haven't noticed the problem... or maybe video and audio recording simply isn't very important to the majority of Samsung device owners here. But I have to say I find that somewhat difficult to believe.
[Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers] ciprigeorgiu:
Just tested making several videos and I really don't har any popping sounds but it's true that in the videos shared above it's very obvious. I have an Exynos model bought 3 months ago.
[Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers] clonk:
I'm glad your device doesn't appear to have the problem. I'm unsure what the percentage of affected Samsung phones may in fact be. Even if it were, say, only 5%... that's a lot of phones considering how many of them are out there. That 5% would be 50,000 devices for every 1,000,000 sold. And I suspect that the figure is well above 5%. Thanks for testing and for sharing your result.
[Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers] clonk:
Now this guy is REALLY upset about the crackling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXBtgcSDxsA

Please be warned before clicking, he uses lots of expletives.
[Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers] P500:
S7 Exynos Model, bought in December.

I have no popping or crackling whatsoever. Just tested every resolution.
[Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers] remosam:
nothing like this on my g930f purchased in august 2016
[Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers] clonk:
I'm happy for those of you whose devices don't suffer from this recorded audio crackling problem... thanks for reporting on it. It's a shame though that so many Samsung phones in fact

do

demonstrate the problem. And it's disturbing that Samsung hasn't taken responsibility to isolate and fix the issue during the past 3.5 years of its presence. I find it especially unacceptable that Samsung refuses to even acknowledge that the issue exists after all of that time.

I am reasonably certain that these crackly pops are built-up static charges that tend to discharge during audio recording sessions, and that said static charges exist somewhere in the audio input circuitry, or perhaps in the lower microphone element itself. And I have actually found one way that seems to dramatically reduce the frequency of those discharges or, in some cases, even eliminate them altogether. I'll explain below.

If your device suffers from the recorded audio crackling problem, you might want to try an extended recording burn-in period. Simply bring up your camera app, hit the video recording button, then leave the device on a table. Allow it to record without interruption

for

at

least

one

hour

. After that, you can either review the footage to observe the periodic crackles bleeding down to nonexistence, or you can simply delete the footage. From that point you may seldom, if ever, notice any crackling again on your recordings. It seems to have worked on both of my S7s. It may or may not work for you, however. And I'm aware that the crackling may reappear at some point for me. But the results here have been good so far... so I think it's worth a try for you.

The best of luck with your crackling issues. If you perform a burn-in session, please report back here with the results.

Thanks
[LG V20 Questions & Answers] PhoneBill:
I have had my US996 almost a month. Infant mortality period should be past so I tried to unlock bootloader today. I had all the necessary settings enabled and got into Fastboot mode. I entered "fastboot oem device-id' and " waiting for device" stayed on PC screen for 5 minutes until I aborted. I'm sure this isn't normal. I really want to unlock this beauty because I paid $117 more than Verizon charges just so I could. Any suggestions?
[LG V20 Questions & Answers] me2151:
If it says waiting for device you phone is not being recognized in fastboot. Verify the fastboot DRIVERS are installed in device manager.
[LG V20 Questions & Answers] PhoneBill:
I am obviously missing something here I have verified that the phone has the latest usb driver. I open an administrative command prompt and go to the directory where the 3 downloaded files are. I use the oem cable to connect the phone to my PC. I select either photo or file transfer (tried both several times) and enter "adb bootloader reboot" which reboots the phone into adb mode. I then enter "fastboot oem device-id" and the dos screen says "waiting for any device". IMy previous phone was the LG G3 which was rooted, bootloader unlocked, and running SkyDragon ROM and with heavy modding via Xposed. I'm no developer but I'm not exactly a noobie either. I'm about ready to throw in the towel. Very frustrating! Thanks for your help anyway me2131
[LG V20 Questions & Answers] redshorty4:
The reboot command is "adb reboot bootloader" not "adb bootloader reboot". You can confirm you're in fastboot mode as your phone screen will show the following,

If you're sure you're in fastboot, you can check if your computer I registering it by running "fastboot devices"

C:\Users\XXX\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\platform-tools>adb devices
List of devices attached
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
LGUS996XXX device

C:\Users\XXX\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\platform-tools>adb reboot bootloader

C:\Users\XXX\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\platform-tools>fastboot devices
LGUS996XXX fastboot

If it does not register in "fastboot devices" you're either not in fastboot mode or the drivers aren't installed.
[LG V20 Questions & Answers] PhoneBull:
No devices were seen. when I run "fastboot devices". Also, the PC device manager displays this information in "Events":: Device USB\VID_1004&PID_633E&MI_00\6&7f41b3b&6&0000 requires further installation.

What further installation? I have never run across this cryptic message before. No idea what to do now.
[LG V20 Questions & Answers] LBJM:
Go over the process again and do a search on XDA for the latest fastboot drivers and install those. I was having problems with the old fastboot and it worked for me after I updated it.
[LG V20 Questions & Answers] PhoneBull:
There has been progress but I still cannot get fastboot to work. I am using fastboot.exe dated 11-12-2016 and is the latest I could find. The progress is that, after loading and installing the file "Universal USB Driver" on the PC can now see the device when I enter "adb devices" at the C:\Tools> prompt. It shows LGUS996b******* device. I then enter "adb reboot bootloader" and the phone shows the "Welcome to Fastboot mode for bootloader unlock". But when I enter "fastboot oem device-id" I still get the "Waiting for any device" message and nothing further happens. Sorry, I'm STILL missing something. Thanks for the help so fay to the three responders.
[LG V20 Questions & Answers] LBJM:
I used "fastboot oem unlock" as I only had the V20 attached to the PC and not any android devices.
[LG V20 Questions & Answers] PhoneBill:
Has anyone successfully unlocked the US996 using a Windows 10 Pro 64 bit PC?
[LG V20 Questions & Answers] LBJM:
I did it with windows 8.1 x64, just make sure you have adb that supports win 10 and find fastboot drivers for win 10.
[LG V20 Questions & Answers] PhoneBill:
I hate to admit it but I am ready to give up. I have tried all the suggestions made here plus many others and cannot get past the "Waiting for any device" message when I try to fastboot. I have used both 3.0 and 2.0 USB ports, have disabled driver signature enforcement in windows, disabled Automatic Download of Drivers from Windows Update and virtually everything else I could find about this problem. I am SO SICK of "Waiting for any device" that I am considering selling the US996 and getting another G3 because last night US99610f was installed on my phone and apparently root has been lost with this ROM version. I thought I had auto updates disabled but all the playing around with settings I have had to do in the past week must have turned it back on. I thank all in this thread who have tried to help me.
[LG V20 Questions & Answers] PhoneBill:
I'm the OP and am finally unlocked and rooted! It took a lot of searching, deleting stuff from Windows 10 and loading new stuff, and time but I finally succeeded and am happy to report have experienced no problems. The OTA was pushed to my phone 2 days before I succeeded in unlocking so I was on US99610f. So maybe those of you holding off on the OTA for fear of losing root are going to be OK. TWRP and Titanium Backup both fully functional although I don't understand why the SuperSu version I have is 2.79 when I downloaded 3.0.2-1. I am anxiously awaiting Xposed for Nougat and hopefully success someday with mods for enabling the FM radio and Verizon Advanced Calling. Even if none of that happens it's still a beast of a phone.

Edit: OOPS! I DO have TWRP ver. 3.0.2-1 and SuperSu ver. 2.79. I wasn't thinking when I typed the above!
[LG V20 Questions & Answers] tripey:
That's good to know. I took the update last week. I'm waiting to root. I'm not confident about being able to go back to stock. Still pretty confused by the methods... and waiting for Xposed.

EDIT

Oh, I wasn't aware Advanced calling is lost once phone is rooted...
[LG V20 Questions & Answers] jayochs:
advanced calling was lost for me when I upgraded to the F firmware. I had to clear cache and reboot a million times but I also had my friend at Verizon toggle advanced calling on and off to trigger something...and something worked and it wasn't grayed out anymore and was on again. so I don't think it's rooting that does it, but it was the new OTA.
[LG V20 Questions & Answers] timandjulz2:
I had the same problem with fastboot saying "waiting for any device" even though adb was able to list the devices. I finally got "fastboot oem device-id" working with my LG V20 model US966 on Windows 10.

Go into Windows Device manager and find the phone. Right click the phone and choose "Update Driver".

Then "Browse my computer for drivers".

Then "Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer"

You may see a single item "Android Device". If so, select that and you will get the option to choose which device driver to load.

Choose "LGE Mobile ADB Interface" and click Next.

You will get a warning that the driver is not recommended. Click "Yes" to use it anyway.

Note that if you do not get an option to install the driver then make sure you have installed the Android Driver (via Google's Android SDK) and the LG Driver.
[ZTE Axon 7 Questions & Answers] ecotpl:
Just got my ZTE Axon 7 A2017U Build A2017UV1.0.0B29. :)

I have been searching XDA and haven't found a starting point that I feel comfortable with that gets me an unlocked bootloader and root, even with studying and piecing together multiple posts as is usually required. :confused: :(

I have rooted and bootloader unlocked every device that was capable that I have ever owned across multiple carriers for years using XDA's many guides. I'm confused at where to start here. Can someone post in detail where to start when you have a build >20 along with links to what files are required and the usual step-by-step processes? :fingers-crossed:
[ZTE Axon 7 Questions & Answers] tabletalker7:
https://xdaforums.com/axon-7/development/recovery-official-twrp-zte-axon-7-t3515715 this is a perfect step by step here. At the end when you have a choice to flash SuperSu or the no-dm-verify script in TWRP flash SuperSu and you will be rooted
[ZTE Axon 7 Questions & Answers] lafester:
There are several guides on the subject. I used the newbie guide.