Galaxy Note 5 camera focus and noise issues, other camera issues

NOte 5 camera

Are you looking for solutions for your #GalaxyNote5 problems? Our post today may help you. While rare, we are aware that some Note 5 units have built-in camera issues. We have been collecting some of these issues based on emails from some of our readers and here are some of them:

  1. Galaxy Note 5 camera focus and noise issues
  2. Live Broadcast issue on Galaxy Note 5
  3. Uploaded photos by Galaxy Note 5 turn upside down in auction site app
  4. Galaxy Note 5 camera rotation problem
  5. Galaxy Note 5 camera freezes when recording a video

If you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page.


 

Problem #1: Galaxy Note 5 camera focus and noise issues

My Note 5 camera has an issue where it won’t focus on near object sometimes. It usually takes me with while to focus it but on a good day it is usually instantaneous. On a bad day it just won’t focus.

Another issue is that the camera tends to vibrate excessively with loud mechanical rattling/crunching noises sometimes. When it happens the camera picture will appear waves like ripples of water. As a result the camera will be unusable until it stop. Usually it lasts a couple of seconds but sometimes it takes minutes and manifests itself repeatedly after restarting the camera app. When that happens the camera also loses its ability to focus. Please help as this phone is less than 2 months old. It happens after about one month of usage and has increased in frequency. — Gabriel

Solution: Hi Gabriel. The focus issue and the uncalled for noises during operation are indicators of a mechanical or hardware issue. While we’ve encountered a lot of Note 5 readers complaining about focus issues, most of them tend to be caused by glitchy software. Your case on the other hand appears to be due to bad hardware. The noise and the unflattering photo output is a product of poor mechanical implementation in the camera assembly. The best thing that you can do here is to request for a replacement phone as soon as possible. Any software troubleshooting that we usually provide in this blog will not fix your issue.

Problem #2: Live Broadcast issue on Galaxy Note 5

I have seen a bunch of problems with the live broadcasting but mine is different than the common. when i use the rear facing camera while in live broadcast or in a hangouts call the image is black and green. once i switch back to front facing everything looks fine. the rear camera does not do this other than these two things. i use hangouts and i can no longer use the rear facing cam. This has been doing this since the first day i got the phone. Just odd i have not seen anyone else talking about it. — Justin

Solution: Hi Justin. We haven’t heard of this issue regarding Live Broadcast feature on the Note 5 so this may be isolated to your phone. Your first task is to isolate what the problem is by doing some software troubleshooting.

Firstly, you must boot the phone in safe mode while live broadcasting to see a difference. There may be a third party application messing up with the operating system or with the live broadcast-related apps. To boot your Note 5 in safe mode, just follow these steps:

  • Turn off the phone completely.
  • Press and hold the Power key.
  • Once ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
  • The phone will restart but keep the Vol Down button pressed.
  • Once the phone has finished restarting, ‘Safe mode’ will be display in the lower-left corner of the screen.
  • You may now release the Volume Down button.

While in safe mode, third party apps are prevented from running. If the issue fails to occur while in this mode, start uninstalling third party apps until you have eliminated the problem.

Secondly, you want to ensure that the system cache is refreshed. The cache partition can sometimes get corrupted or outdated especially after an update, which can sometimes lead to all sorts of app issues. Deleting it forces the phone to create a new cache. To wipe the cache partition, simply do these steps:

  • Turn off your Samsung Galaxy Note 5 completely.
  • Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home buttons first, and then press and hold the Power key.
  • Keep the three buttons pressed and when ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key but continue holding the other two.
  • Once the Android logo shows, release both the Volume Up and Home buttons.
  • The notice ‘Installing system update’ will show on the screen for 30 to 60 seconds before the Android system recovery screen is shown with its options.
  • Use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘wipe cache partition’ and press the Power key to select it.
  • When the process is complete, use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key to restart the phone.
  • The reboot may take a little longer to complete but don’t worry and wait for the device to become active.

Finally, you want to do a factory reset if nothing changes. This will ensure that any firmware-related issue is minimized. If you haven’t done this before, here’s how:

  • Turn off your Samsung Galaxy Note 5 completely.
  • Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home buttons first, and then press and hold the Power key.
  • Keep the three buttons pressed and when ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key but continue holding the other two.
  • Once the Android logo shows, release both the Volume Up and Home buttons.
  • The notice ‘Installing system update’ will show on the screen for 30 to 60 seconds before the Android system recovery screen is shown with its options.
  • Use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ and press the Power key to select it.
  • When the process is complete, use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key to restart the phone.
  • The reboot may take a little longer to complete but don’t worry and wait for the device to become active.

Problem #3: Uploaded photos by Galaxy Note 5 turn upside down in auction site app

I have a problem with my Samsung Galaxy Note 5, which is a variation of some of the issues I have found so far by research on your site. Some complain of pictures being taken upside down after the Lollipop upgrade. I don’t quite have that problem, but it may be similar. My pictures are fine in the Gallery, but when I post or upload it to an auction site or a recipe app that I use, the pictures consistently end up upside down. It is aggravating. Pre-Lollipop, I had some problem with auction site uploaders not working at all, so by the fact that I can now upload to some auction sites, that is a slight step forward, but as noted, they do end up upside down. I can’t tell you if I had trouble from within apps. I don’t remember if I loaded any pictures in my apps. before the Lollipop upgrade. Do you have a solution for this?

Thanks. — Danny

Solution: Hi Danny. If you’re using an app of your auction site, the problem may be on how that app is coded. We recommend that you contact the developer of that app first to see if they’ve heard of this problem before. The only troubleshooting that we recommend on your phone is wiping the app’s cache and data as well as deleting the cache partition. If these two solutions won’t work, that’s an indicator that the app is problematic.

To wipe an app’s cache and data, please follow these steps:

  • Go to Settings.
  • Proceed to Applications.
  • Select Manage Applications.
  • Tap the All tab.
  • Look for the auction site app and tap it.
  • From there, you will see the Clear Cache and Clear Data buttons.

Problem #4: Galaxy Note 5 camera rotation problem

Hello guys, after I installed DarkLord V1 then V2-2.1, I got rotation issue. When I turn on camera, camera screen button are auto rotated on right landscape mode. and when I take pics in gallery they are rotated. When I turn on rotation, and I go to gallery, gallery is rotated on right side like landscape mode but phone is in normal position. If I rotated phone, rotation go on wrong side. also same issue with other apps.

Next, when I install CM12.1 nightly official – Rotation WORKS lol! All good then. When I flash 5.0 official stock via Odin, again same issue with rotation. Back to CM12.1 all good. Now I tried Phronesis Rom v2.0 N5 port, and same issue with rotation. I will pay for rotation fix. If you need some more info from me, logs etc let me know. Ty in advance. — Marko

Solution: Hi Marko. Custom ROMs are great when they work but can also be a source of unending frustrations if they don’t. Darklord V1 has a known video and camera bug upon release but we would like to think that the developer had already fixed it. We haven’t tried other custom ROMs you mentioned here but we recommend that you contact the ROM developer for any issues you may encounter when using their product. We’re sure that they’ll be more than willing to assist you to improve their software.

If the rotation problem occurs even on official ROM though, make sure to perform a master reset after flashing to bring back the default firmware state.

Problem #5: Galaxy Note 5 camera freezes when recording a video

Hello there. You guys have wonderful articles to read. Keep up the good work. That said. I am having “camera issue” on my Samsung Galaxy Note 5. Currently I’m running a custom Touchwiz 5.1.1 ROM.

The camera issue:

The camera works fine with regular still picture taking mode. The camera freezes and reboots by itself when using video mode.  I haven’t tried the front camera yet.

So far I did, factory resets and wiping cache/dalvik/data/system by going to the recovery mode.

Any suggestions? Thanks. — Lenny

Solution: Hi Lenny. Make sure to use the phone’s internal storage as the default storage for videos. Afterwards, reformat or replace the SD card you’re using before trying to record a video again.

If you are not even using an SD card though, try to boot the phone in safe mode (steps provided above) to verify if a third party app is to blame.

 


 

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If you are one of the users who encounters a problem with your device, let us know. We offer solutions for Android-related problems for free so if you have an issue with your Android device, simply fill in the short questionnaire in this link and we will try to publish our answers in the next posts. We cannot guarantee a quick response so if your issue is time sensitive, please find another way to resolve your problem. 

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