How To Fix LG V40 ThinQ Camera Photos Are Grey With Exclamation

The #LG #V40ThinQ is a premium flagship Android device released last year which is best known for having a triple rear camera system and a dual front camera system. This allows the consumer to take excellent quality photos using the device. This is an IP68 rated device that makes use of an Aluminum body with Corning Gorilla glass on both the front and back. It has a 6.4 inch P-OLED display which is great to use for viewing various multimedia content. Under the hood is a Snapdragon 845 processor paired with 6GB of RAM. Although this is a solid performing device there are instances when certain issues can occur which we will be addressing today. In this latest installment of our troubleshooting series we will tackle the LG V40 ThinQ camera photos are grey with exclamation mark issue.

If you own an LG V40 ThinQ  or any other Android device for that matter then feel free to contact us using this form. We will be more than happy to assist you with any concern that you may have with your device. This is a free service we are offering with no strings attached. We however ask that when you do contact us try to be as detailed as possible so that an accurate assessment can be made and the correct solution can be given.  

How To Fix LG V40 ThinQ Camera Photos Are Grey With Exclamation Mark

Problem: The photos I take with my LG v40 ThinQ phone are stored on a micro SD card. the photos are also automatically uploaded to Google photos. today I took several hundred photos, about half of which got uploaded before I had an incident with my phone which I will now describe. actually, several things happened, some of which may have no bearing on the problem, but I don’t know that, so I will describe everything that happened. I didn’t notice that my battery was getting very low until the phone shut itself off. as soon as I noticed, I connected the phone to the powerbank then left it charging. Three more things happened: 1.) I dropped the phone on the sidewalk (but the silicone case seems to have absorbed the shock — the phone is otherwise working normally) 2.) I was taking some more pictures when Google map directions started to speak and I rushed to reduce the volume; I could tell from the shutter noise that phone was taking several pictures while I was pressing on the volume down button. 3.) I whipped out the phone quickly to snap a couple of a pictures while carrying several packages with my hands. I’m not quite sure what I clicked on in my haste. [I know, that’s not very helpful information.] Half an hour passed and I took three more pictures. When I got home I looked at the pictures I took and discovered that none of the pictures on the SD card could be accessed: “camera roll” showed hundreds of thumbnails all the same, greyed out with a triangle and an exclamation mark. they persist that way. however, the trash folder shows all the thumbnails correctly and the photo editor folder shows all the photos edited the previous days. Those can be accessed. If I open the camera instead of “Gallery”, then the photos I took in situations 1.) and 3.) do not appear but the last three photos I took DO appear, perfectly normally. That’s it, that’s all I can tell you.

Solution: Before performing any troubleshooting steps on this phone it’s best to make sure that it is running on the latest software version. If an update is available then I suggest that you download and install it first.

It’s very likely that the drop the phone suffered has contributed to this problem and has corrupted the photos stored in the microSD card. Listed below are the recommended troubleshooting steps you need to perform for this issue.

Perform a soft reset

The first thing you need to do in this case is to refresh the phone software by doing a soft reset. This is done by pressing and holding the Power button and Volume Down until the device powers off, approximately 8 seconds, then release.

Check if the issue still occurs.

Check the microSD card on your computer

Since you mentioned that the photos are stored in the microSD card then I suggest that you remove this from your phone then let your computer read its contents. You will need a card reader to do this. If your photos can be accessed this way then I suggest you make a backup copy of these on your computer. Once the backup has been made you should format the card using a FAT32 partition then insert it back to your phone. Take some photos then check if the issue still occurs.

Start the phone in Safe Mode

Sometimes an app you recently downloaded from the Google Play Store can cause this problem. You can check if this is what’s causing the problem by starting the phone in Safe Mode as only the pre-installed apps are allowed to run in this mode.

  • With the screen on, press and hold the Power key.
  • In the options menu that displays, press and hold Power off.
  • When prompted to restart in Safe Mode, tap OK.
  • After your device restarts, it displays Safe mode at the bottom of the screen.

If the issue does not occur in this mode then the problem could be  caused by an app you downloaded. Find out what app this is and uninstall it.

Wipe the cache partition of the phone from the recovery mode

Clearing the cache partition of the phone will erase the temporary system data which if corrupted can cause this problem.

  • From the Home screen, tap Settings.
  • Tap the ‘General’ tab.
  • Tap Storage > Internal storage.
  • Wait for menu options to finish calculating.
  • Tap Free up space.
  • Tap Temporary files & raw files.
  • Select the following options: Cached data, Clip tray temporary files, Raw files from camera
  • Tap Delete > DELETE.

Check if the issue still occurs.

Backup your phone data then do a factory reset

One last troubleshooting step to consider is a factory reset. Make sure to backup your phone data before proceeding with this step.

  • Back up data on the internal memory before performing a factory reset.
  • From the Home screen, Settings.
  • Tap the ‘General’ tab.
  • Tap Restart & reset.
  • Tap Factory data reset.
  • If desired, tap the Erase SD card checkbox.
  • Tap RESET PHONE – Delete all – RESET

In case the issue still persists even after performing the steps listed above then you should bring the phone to a service center and have it checked.

Feel free to send us your questions, suggestions and problems you’ve encountered while using your Android phone. We support every Android device that is available in the market today. And don’t worry, we won’t charge you a single penny for your questions. Contact us using this form. We read every message we receive but can’t guarantee a quick response. If we were able to help you, please help us spread the word by sharing our posts with your friends.

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