Camera cannot focus since Anniversary Update

[DonDiddit]

The horrible anniversary update broke my phone - II had to do a hard reset. Since the hard reset, everything but playing Music from SD and the Camera are back to working. Camera App Launches and sometimes does amazing pictures, more often than not though it can not focus or apparently willingly (and audibly) UNfocuses after a split second. After never having been happier with a phone in my life, i can now say i have never been more frustrated by a phone. Obvisouly not hardward, other camera apps work (but suck), and the stock app sometimes throws in an amazing picture as i was used to before reverting back to not focussing.

Camera also does a very audible "clicking" sound when attempting to focus, never did that before either.

Is there any way to uninstall and re-install the stock camera app without having to go through yet another hard reset? Or any other help anyone can give? Please?

More background on why anniversary Update sucks: I was overseas in a Hotel, woke up in the morning, Anniversary Update had happened overnight, and my 950xl was entirely unusable. Meaning I could not open any apps, live tiles were broken, it was basically a pretty brick. Could dismiss Lock screen (without Notoficications, access a start screen with "empty" tiles, and access Settings (without subfolders). Great, thanks Microsoft.
Funny enough, My Surface pro 4 i have for work, entirely unconnected to my private Lumia, broke from Anniversary Udpate as well (crashed twice during installation, cost me 4 hours of working and let to me not leaving the office until 3am). I have been with MS since the HD2 and always happy but this amongst the latest news might just tip me over to switching and not looking back.. Frustrating!

 

[Chintan Gohel]

maybe in the future, you can set the updates to happen during daytime hours when you're able to give your full attention instead of at night when things can go wrong without you knowing ;-)

So the camera bit, have you checked for app updates? And do you have the latest OS and firmware?

 

[DonDiddit]

Well for what it's worth, it is not like there's a lot one can do once the update has started.

All "up to date" and pretty darn broken apparently.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Well for what it's worth, it is not like there's a lot one can do once the update has started.

All "up to date" and pretty darn broken apparently.

either a firmware update is missing or the hardware has broken down - that means a replacement or repair is needed

 

[DonDiddit]

I rather think it is the third option - faulty freaking software that got messed up during the Update. As per the above, Camera CAN still focus, and does so occasionally. Would it not be unusual for a phone, especially for a camera, to "break" after an update that went wrong? I don't really believe in it.

So no known way to just re-install the camera app somehow?

 

[pompeyladbfp]

Yup exactly the same problem, it has a forum on Ms help page, very common.. Ms says its hardware issue.. But its clearly not. Very frustrating as phone was purchased because of camera.

 

[Sanchit Raut]

Try hardresting ur phone or else wait for next update.i dont think its an hardware issue as it is malfuncitioning after s/w update

 

[vezycash]

On Windows 10 for PC, the only way to reinstall stock apps is through Powershell. So unless there's powershell somewhere on Mobile 10, don't see how it's possible.

I'll look around on other forums. If i don't repost here, it means I didn't find anything.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

I rather think it is the third option - faulty freaking software that got messed up during the Update. As per the above, Camera CAN still focus, and does so occasionally. Would it not be unusual for a phone, especially for a camera, to "break" after an update that went wrong? I don't really believe in it.

So no known way to just re-install the camera app somehow?

did you check using wdrt if your firmware is up to date?

 

[Stuart Gray]

Same problem here, camera has basically become unusable since the anniversary update. It focuses for a second and then drifts in and out of focus, about 1/3 of my photos are in focus. I'm also getting strange behavior where half of the image is in focus, top half is in focus and bottom half is not at the same depth-of-field...so not an aperture issue.

 

[pompeyladbfp]

Hoping next update sorts this out

 

[pompeyladbfp]

Anyone have same problems?

 

[ceraf]

Had the same problem with my phone. Constant refocusing during photos and videos, and I could hear a noise whenever it did.

I used the online chat support, and they told me to send it to a "Microsoft" repair centre (which was really a 3rd party company doing repairs for Microsoft and other manufacturers in my area), shipping at my expense. There wasn't an option to drop it off myself even though it was relatively close by.

Thankfully I had a retail Microsoft Store in my city, so I took it there instead. Answer desk said they would try to reset the phone to see if it fixes itself, and then if needed send it to their 3rd party repair centre to get fixed. I left my phone with them.

Next day I get a call to go back and try out my device after the reset...turns out they didn't even send it in for repair, strangely. I went to the store and found that my phone still reproduced the problem. To my surprise, they then swapped it for a brand new Lumia 950 XL for me at no cost, no questions asked. Kudos to Microsoft support staff on this one (Yorkdale Mall location in Toronto).



On a side note, their waiting times for their Answer Desk were a bit long as I scheduled an appointment during their busier hours. They did offer me water/coffee/etc., though...haven't gotten that kind of service at an Apple Genius Bar =)

 

[pompeyladbfp]

My handset was replaced in the end