What to do if your Galaxy S8 camera is foggy or has moisture inside

Hello and welcome to today’s troubleshooting article. We bring you three #GalaxyS8 cases reported to us in the last few days. We’ll continue to cover other similar or totally different issues on the S8 in the coming days so keep watching for them.

Problem #1: Galaxy S8 screen wont’ turn on if locked

Samsung S8. phone had minor screen cracks. can charge and once turned on the blue light up the top lights up..also the two buttons on bottom light up. Phone make noise when adjusting volume up and down and also vibrates.

Problem: screen is pitch black and can’t see no logo or anything on screen while trying to do reboot and holding volume down and power. Left if my pocket for an hr or so and phone screen turns on..but once phone dies or goes to screen saver is back to black screen of death again ..any ideas..Not too sure on android version.

Solution: Galaxy S8 screen assemblies are generally durable and won’t crack on their own. If we are not mistaken, your phone’s screen was cracked after it was dropped or hit by something hard. That reason that caused the screen to crack must be the same one that now cause it to stop working intermittently. Physical damage can either show immediate negative result or it can take a long time. Dropped devices that don’t even show obvious signs of damage externally may even suffer catastrophic motherboard failure or malfunction sooner or later. To see if your screen problem can be fixed on your level, you can try to wipe the phone and return its software to its defaults. You can do that by factory resetting your phone. If the problem goes away after a factory reset, then you’re in luck. If it doesn’t, then make sure to send the phone in for repair or replacement.

For reference, these are the steps on how to factory reset your S8:

1. Back up data on the internal memory. If you have signed into a Google account on the device, you have activated Anti-theft and will need your Google credentials to finish the Master reset.
2. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
3. Tap Settings > Cloud and accounts.
4. Tap Backup and restore.
5. If desired, tap Back up my data to move the slider to ON or OFF.
6. If desired, tap Restore to move the slider to ON or OFF.
7. Tap the back button to the Settings menu and tap General Management > Reset > Factory data reset.
8. Tap Reset device.
9. If you have screen lock turned on, enter your credentials.
10. Tap Continue.
11. Tap Delete all.

Problem #2: What to do if your Galaxy S8 camera is foggy or has moisture inside

Hello. just a minute ago I was taking a shower and my phone was with me in the room. I only washed it once after I was done showering (but it did take like an hour to finish taking a shower) and now after I came out the front camera was foggy, as well as the Iris scanner and the brightness sensor I think it was called. It can’t recognise my irises, yet. It’s been like an hour since I saw the problem after the shower. I somehow managed to suck out a big part of the moisture/foggy thing from the front camera and is almost clean, but the iris scanner continues to not work. WIll it fix on its own if I just leave the phone to dry, like with the usb port?

Solution: The Galaxy S8 has water resistance protection so we’re wondering if that said protection has been compromised somehow. Unless you intentionally hit the phone with high pressure water jets for some time, we don’t think an S8’s water resistance will fail.

Dry the phone

To see if you can fix the issue, try to dry the phone properly first. Wipe it with a clean, soft cloth and put in a place with room temperature for up to a day. Or, you can place it on the back a powered on TV or computer tower so indirect heat from them can help with the natural evaporation process. Keep in mind that water evaporates on its own so all you have to do is to wait it out. Avoid putting the phone near an oven, fireplace, or under direct sunlight.

Get professional help

If water moisture won’t disappear, you should let Samsung handle the situation. Keep in mind though that they won’t definitely dry the phone for free so be ready to shell out some money for it. Alternatively, you can let an independent service center to dry the phone for you. Going the third party repair route however will void Samsung warranty. That means that if something goes wrong and you’ll decide to let Samsung fix your phone, they won’t even touch the device at all.

Problem #3: Windows PC can’t access files on Galaxy S8 Active

This week I hooked up my S8 Active to my work PC to retrieve a picture file, I expanded the directory tree to the Camera folder like usual though this time no images were appearing while the “gas gauge” like green color scrolls across the directory path.  When it finished, the image files seem to be represented with a windows drive icon.

A few weeks ago my phone went through an update for the OS and this is the first time I’ve tried to connect with a USB since then. Last night I tried to connect with my home PC after reading it might be a driver issue (I have a secure work network and no admin rights on my work PC) and had the same results.  I then read here to try to connect using the Smart Switch app, I installed it and when attempting to connect I got a message in the app saying to the effect that files on this phone are locked from viewing, which would also explain my inability to search any other folders of the phone, they all read as empty.  The app mentioned I have to allow access so I viewed my phone when I reconnected the cable and saw the allow or deny selection, when I selected allow the app took me through the process of backing up my data to my PC. What happened to my phone? I can’t find any setting to “unlock” access/read files on my phone through a USB connection, I can view my gallery of both pics on the phone and SD card so I know it’s all there.  Please, help! Thanks ahead of time for any help in this matter.

Solution: There’s a number of possible reasons why you are not able to view files on your phone. These reasons include but are not limited to:

• possible restriction set up on your work PC
• phone or SD card may be encrypted
• files may be corrupted

To see if the issue lies on your computer, try using another one, preferably a PC without restrictions and that you have admin rights. Make sure that its operating system is up-to-date and Smart Switch app installed. If that won’t work, then it’s very possible that either you have an encrypted device or the files you’re trying to view are broken.

Samsung devices or SD cards don’t get encrypted on their own so it must only be you who did it. Unencrypt the phone or the SD card to view your files.

Corrupted files may or may not be repaired. If those files are worth a few hundred dollars to you, then get help from professionals who may be able to recover or repair your files. You can use Google to find reputable companies that specializes in data recovery or repair.

---