Windows 10 Mobile Camera App-Horrible reliability

[steven girdham]

I find the camera app excellent never had any problems and I have nearly 2000 photos best phone camera on market

 

[Captain_Eric]

My friend on a 640 and I have same problem, both on Insider Preview. We tried all the usual stuff, saving to device, switching off HDR and "Living Images." You are not alone.

I gather one post above mentions success by going to Fast Ring. Does anybody know if that that fixes it. (I know Fast Ring has it's challenges, and this should work on production, but we're very frustrated).

Any other insights, beyond Fast Ring switch, would be most welcome.

 

[Sedp23]

Originally posted by mikepalma
This problem in my experience was unique to the 950xl. I had it replaced 3 times at the local MS store and the techs openly stated that they were getting tons of returns of 950xl's. After switching to the 640xl, I am extremely pleased. Everything, including the Camera and Photos apps, works better, with no frustrating "Saving" when trying to take pictures. Plus no cheap creaky case, overheating when playing games or charging - 950xl is a poor phone and definitely no flagship.

So glad I didn't buy that 950 XL

 

[CraigCole]

This problem in my experience was unique to the 950xl. I had it replaced 3 times at the local MS store and the techs openly stated that they were getting tons of returns of 950xl's. After switching to the 640xl, I am extremely pleased. Everything, including the Camera and Photos apps, works better, with no frustrating "Saving" when trying to take pictures. Plus no cheap creaky case, overheating when playing games or charging - 950xl is a poor phone and definitely no flagship.

This is soooooooo typical of Microsoft! It's like one team has no idea what any other team is working on. Their software functions better on non-"flagship" devices... WHY?! You'd think the 950 and XL would receive all their development attention to optimize them to operate flawlessly. But instead, a year out, we're still suffering with unacceptable software.

It is infuriating. I was away this week for my anniversary, and had to reboot the phone numerous times. I ended up having to use my work iPhone 5s to take pics because the 640 was so unreliable. Now, I know, I am on a release preview, so I can't complain too much, but I wanted windows 10 and T-mobile just walked away from it. I did try the same thing on my ATT version, unlocked 640 running on the fast track and this doesn't seem to be happening. It does say saving for like 10-15 seconds or more in HDR mode, but eventually it goes away and the pictures save without the .thumb extension. I ended up having to rename a bunch of photos in the file explorer and remove the .thumb extension to be able to share them with family.

I was so ticked off, on the way home from our trip, I ended up buying a clearance Moto G at Best Buy just to start playing with it. I am not a fan of Android, but Microsoft is making it more and more difficult to be loyal to the brand, as much as I love the Windows interface on the phone. They aren't even going to sell Microsoft band anymore. So again, Windows folks are left high and dry. .

My 950's done this on a couple occasions, saving random low-resolution images with weird extensions. Fortunately, this almost never happens, though if I take more than about seven pictures in rapid succession the dreaded "Saving..." dialog pops up, which I find absolutely laughable. I don't care how much post-processing is going on, this should NEVER happen. From a user perspective it's unacceptable behavior, especially in 2016. With a six-core processor and three gigs of ram there should be plenty of horsepower in the 950, but evidently not.

In comparison, my friend's old iPhone 6 could burst up to 999 photos in a row without a single hiccup, accomplishing the task in less than two minutes (we tested it and I was blown away). Granted, the picture quality wasn't quite as good as what my 950 would produce but they were still excellent. This admittedly useless parlor trick floored me; the best my phone could do in the same time was probably 20 pictures. For me, things like this clearly demonstrate the 950 all-around inferiority, even compared to an outdated iPhone.

It's unbelievable MS has not made a Camera app a priority, as its such a key feature for smartphones.

Frankly, EVERYTHING needs to be a priority with W10M as, in my humble opinion, it's still a dumpster full of steaming garbage. The issues I've faced with my Lumia 950 have left my friends dumbfounded. Nobody else -- on either iOS or Android -- has had anywhere near the number of issues I've faced, and continue to cope with. When I hear issues like the OP's it just makes me angry... Windows Phone could -- no, SHOULD -- be soooooo much more than it is. :-(

 

[slyronit]

Well said. All the more infuriating considering how stable and reliable 7/8.1 were. Zero bugs, everything worked ad it should. Sure, W 10 has more features, but a year on, we shouldn't still be seeing bugs.

 

[YogeshChoure]

I understand what you're saying. Processing time with 20MP pics is normal and I understand that. The problem is, the processing never ends. I have left it up to 30 mins with "Saving", it never finishes and all pics taken during that session end up corrupted (.thumb). I cannot leave it longer than that, because if it hasn't processed 6 photos in 30 mins, it never will and because my camera is useless during that time.

I am surprised that no one else has this problem, which means there's a specific trigged to mine.

 

[MichaelMcD]

My wife is having this same problem with her Lumia 830 RM-983, on the latest W10M production build. She can only take about 5 to 7 photos before it hangs on "Saving...". The only way to use the camera again is to do a soft reset.

The odd thing is, I have the exact same phone on the exact same build, but I do not have this problem. Even more oddly, both of our camera apps report being the same app version, 2016.1021.11.0, but the apps do not appear the same. The settings menus are different, and the little preview/button to view the last photo taken is different. On mine, it is a square shape in the bottom right corner (when phone is held in landscape mode). On hers, with the problem, it is a circle in the upper left corner. (This is the way mine used to be until a recent Windows Camera update.)

Both phones are saving photos to SD cards. I assumed her problem was due to the SD card being corrupt, so first I replaced it with a new one, but that did not fix it. Next I moved the photo storage to phone memory, but the problem continues. I also thought it could have something to do with OneDrive uploading since her OneDrive account is full, but even when I turn off OneDrive uploading, the problem persists.

The only difference I can find (and cannot eliminate) between our two phones is that her phone is encrypted and mine is not. So I am wondering if the latest Windows Camera app has a problem dealing with encryption. Since her phone is encrypted by her company's policy, I cannot turn that off to test.

The only thing remaining to try would be a factory reset, but I am reluctant to do that without some assurance that it will work, since it is very disruptive and time consuming.

It would be interesting to learn if others having this problem also have their devices encrypted or not.

We really need a solution to this. This, on top of the app gap, has my former Windows phone fan-girl wife ready to ditch the phone and the entire platform. The camera is so important to her.

 

[slyronit]

My wife is having this same problem with her Lumia 830 RM-983, on the latest W10M production build. She can only take about 5 to 7 photos before it hangs on "Saving...". The only way to use the camera again is to do a soft reset.

The odd thing is, I have the exact same phone on the exact same build, but I do not have this problem. Even more oddly, both of our camera apps report being the same app version, 2016.1021.11.0, but the apps do not appear the same. The settings menus are different, and the little preview/button to view the last photo taken is different. On mine, it is a square shape in the bottom right corner (when phone is held in landscape mode). On hers, with the problem, it is a circle in the upper left corner. (This is the way mine used to be until a recent Windows Camera update.)

Both phones are saving photos to SD cards. I assumed her problem was due to the SD card being corrupt, so first I replaced it with a new one, but that did not fix it. Next I moved the photo storage to phone memory, but the problem continues. I also thought it could have something to do with OneDrive uploading since her OneDrive account is full, but even when I turn off OneDrive uploading, the problem persists.

The only difference I can find (and cannot eliminate) between our two phones is that her phone is encrypted and mine is not. So I am wondering if the latest Windows Camera app has a problem dealing with encryption. Since her phone is encrypted by her company's policy, I cannot turn that off to test.

The only thing remaining to try would be a factory reset, but I am reluctant to do that without some assurance that it will work, since it is very disruptive and time consuming.

It would be interesting to learn if others having this problem also have their devices encrypted or not.

We really need a solution to this. This, on top of the app gap, has my former Windows phone fan-girl wife ready to ditch the phone and the entire platform. The camera is so important to her.

1. The camera does not care about encryption. Bitlocker is an OS level process, all apps write to disk as usual, the OS encrypts the files before writing to storage. It is transparent to an app.
2. Only the phone memory is encrypted, not the SD card (No way to read encrypted SD cards in W10M), so this can't be it.

I switched to phone memory recently, haven't had this problem in last 2 weeks. But the camera app also got updated at the same time, so I am not sure which one fixed it.

I have to manually copy photos from my phone storage to SD card once in a while, so that I don't forget to copy them before I factory reset my phone (Though OneDrive would save me).

 

[bulls96]

I am having the same issue of sometimes the camera getting stuck at "saving". 950xl non insider with the latest camera update, saving to sd card.

Also noticed, when shooting 4k, the sd card icon flashes in the bottom left, and the video doesn't show up on the photos app.

 

[slyronit]

Check your camera roll folder, do you see any files with an extension .jpg.thumb?

Unfortunately,although I thought the problem went away after switching to internal memory, it hasn't, I still see corrupted images.

 

[wgrs]

Check your camera roll folder, do you see any files with an extension .jpg.thumb?

Unfortunately,although I thought the problem went away after switching to internal memory, it hasn't, I still see corrupted images.

Same problem here on Lumia 640/W10M production. Lost several days of photos in low resolution thumb mode. Needs a reboot after 5-7 photos, otherwise endless "saving".

This company really breaks everything. I can accept some bugs here and there, but not crap which makes the camera useless.

 

[Captain_Eric]

Same problem here on Lumia 640/W10M production. Lost several days of photos in low resolution thumb mode. Needs a reboot after 5-7 photos, otherwise endless "saving".

This company really breaks everything. I can accept some bugs here and there, but not crap which makes the camera useless.

@wgrs: On behalf of myself and perhaps the whole Windows Central community, I want to thank you for your valuable insight: "breaks everything", "crap," and "useless", which advances the conversation in ways you can't even imagine. It is just what all of participants are looking for on these sites: Concise, clear, proactive, solution oriented. Well played.

 

[The Lumia God]

The Camera app has a lot of features but its needs a lot of fixing and reduced grain and EIS

 

[wgrs]

@wgrs: On behalf of myself and perhaps the whole Windows Central community, I want to thank you for your valuable insight: "breaks everything", "crap," and "useless", which advances the conversation in ways you can't even imagine. It is just what all of participants are looking for on these sites: Concise, clear, proactive, solution oriented. Well played.

Then I'm curious to hear your solution oriented suggestions for a camera app which needs a reboot every 5 photos and can only save in low resolution 1MP.

I call this crap.

 

[slyronit]

After switching to Phone memory 3 weeks ago, the perpetual "saving" and ".jpg.thumb" issue has returned only once on my 950XL and was solved by a 2-button reboot. Happy with the camera again!

 

[Geovane Bitencourt]

I had the same problem with lumia 640xl lte dual. But my phone creates .jpg.thumb files. It also stay at saving message. I let it 4 days and I get nothing. I installed another program to get photos (better).
I tryed the following setups.
1)without sdcard - still stucked into message "saving". Still saving .jpg.thumb files.
2)get a UHS Speed Class 1 (U1). Same problem. I tested this sdcard into computer and get full speed as manufacture wrote at chart product (scandisk). Into 640xl I got 4x less.
3)without ay program installed unless the origin programs deployed. SAME SAME SAME ...
4)FINALLY WORKS. I got back windows phone 8.1 (denim). It works fine recordering movies at 1080. Window sphne 10 doesn't get record at 1080 into sdcard nor into device memory.

This all happened since last update deployed at 16/11/2016.

I have two lumia 640 xl lte dual, with the same problems.

Good luck for all.

 

[slyronit]

Hmm. Looks like something is ruining SD card performance which is in turn causing the camera problem

 

[Geovane Bitencourt]

Maybe yes
I took back to window phone 8.1 ande the camera can record movies at 1080.
I have a app to benchmark windows phone and I got 12mb/s recording files at the sdcard until 10mb/s.
Using windows phone 10 it just got 8mb/s until 2mb/s.

But the camera app presents the same problems using hardware memory. I tested the 640xl withou sdcard.
So I think that something wrong is happening with service related to file system isn't doing its job.

Regards
Geovane

 

[wgrs]

Hmm. Looks like something is ruining SD card performance which is in turn causing the camera problem

That was my first idea, but the bug is independent from SD card, happens internal too.

Even more strange: exactly same camera app on 2 devices, the slow preview device doesn't show the bug.

W10M is just so much beta, even the production ring. Use another camera app from the store when it's not working any more.

 

[Captain_Eric]

That was my first idea, but the bug is independent from SD card, happens internal too.

Even more strange: exactly same camera app on 2 devices, the slow preview device doesn't show the bug.

W10M is just so much beta, even the production ring. Use another camera app from the store when it's not working any more.

Agreed. Moving to "device storage" was not a permanent solution, at least not on 640XL and 640.