[HTC 10 Questions & Answers] FinnMacKool:
Hi all,

I've been having quite a few problems with my month-old HTC 10, specifically with the camera (and the WLAN coverage, but at least that's working somewhat!) I finally unpacked it last week and have spent the whole week since attempting to fix the "Camera has stopped/Unable to connect to camera" problem. The selfie camera, however, is perfect and can be used in other apps, but attempting to switch to the camera on the back results in a freeze/force close. Considering I decided on the HTC 10 because of the camera quality, I'm a bit disappointed so far. A google search reveal a number of people having the same problem, but no real solution. Here's what I've done so far:

- Set up phone, comes with Nougat 7.0. Camera works at first, though seems to have problems with the auto focus. Camera app then updates overnight and stops working. Clear data/cache, remove updates, hard reset - no good. Flashlight does not work either, simply says "loading..." and stays like this indefinitely until closed.

- Factory reset, no change. Switch to safe mode, no change. Decided to unlock bootloader and install custom ROM after hearing that would fix it (I know, I know...I should have just sent it back at this point). Install Viper 5.10 + root with magisk, camera and flashlight still not working. Safe mode, not working. Full wipe in TWRP, RUU back to stock firmware (CID: HTC_034, flashed 2.41.401.3 signed firmware). Set up phone again on stock firmware, still no change in camera or flashlight.

- Install LeeDroid 10 3.7.0 custom ROM, root with magisk. I get a breakthrough here; turning off "OK Google" in settings gets the camera and flashlight working again! Still have the "laser autofocus blocked" issue, but I figure I'll deal with that later. Backed up with TiBu.

- Next day, decide to use a ROM that includes the latest security patches (got a bit annoyed waiting for HTC to push out the European updates, still on 1st January patch) so went for Resurrection Remix. Wipe, clean install etc. Camera stops working again, no change in safe mode. Wipe, clean flash back to LeeDroid, camera is no longer working, in normal mode or safe mode.

- Went through a bunch of custom ROMs at this point; ICE, Dirty Unicorns, LineageOS, then decided to try RR, LeeDroid and Viper again - camera still not working in normal mode or safe mode. With the ROMs that required GApps, used every package in both Open GApps and Dynamic GApps to install. No change to camera, Google Camera was unable to start as well.

- Flashed upgraded RUU (2.41.401.4 signed firmware) and went through the process of wipe/clean install custom ROM/test camera with all the above custom ROMs in normal mode and safe mode. No change in camera, though the ROMs were all excellently made :D

At this point I'm pretty stumped :confused: If it was a hardware problem, why did it work when I first installed LeeDroid, but not after? It's not been mishandled, it's just been sitting on my desk since I got it. The fact that it doesn't work in safe mode would suggest to me that ,maybe, a camera driver has been deleted somewhere along the way? I also tried a load of other methods I found on various message boards; flash it with no SD card inserted, flash without SIM card installed, etc. but absolutely nothing works.

Third party camera apps also don't work; most simply crash on starting. Open Camera says "Unable to access camera. Maybe being used by another app?", so I tried removing the permissions of all apps that had access to the camera except the camera itself - no change. Deleted cache/data/preferences of all apps - no change.

Finally, I had a look at the HTC diagnostics test using *#*# 3424 #*#* on the dialler - the camera test doesn't even show up! :crying:

I've run out of things to try at this point, so I'm posting this here to see if anyone can possibly shed some light on this very strange situation. Is there something I can do to fix it? Or should I start begging Amazon to give me a refund? Unfortunately I'm a week outside their 30 day return window...lesson learned for next time; if in doubt, send it back! :(