Lumia 928 no longer auto-rotates the screen; compass also seems off

[coip]

My wife complained today that, when viewing photos on your Nokia Lumia 928, the screen wouldn't change orientation when she physically rotated the phone to match the portrait and landscape pictures. I checked out other apps that auto-rotate (such as HERE Drive) but it seems the phone simply won't do it. It'll stay in portrait mode (unless the app is a videogame that defaults to landscape upon opening it). My concern was that the mechanism inside the phone that detects that sort of stuff--what is it, the gyroscope or accelerometer or something?--is broken. I asked her if she dropped the phone recently and she said she didn't. She also didn't mess with any settings she said (she doesn't have GDR3 yet anyway, so I don't think there is screen rotation lock anyway). I opened up a compass app on both her 928 and my 928 and her compass is definitely off. It's jumpy and inaccurate. I tried restarting the phone, and I also tried soft resetting the phone. Neither worked. What do you think?

 

[psiu_glen]

Had this happen on a Trophy, had to replace it.

Edit: should obviously still be under warranty for you.

 

[coip]

Had this happen on a Trophy, had to replace it.

Edit: should obviously still be under warranty for you.

Yes, it's still under 1-yr warranty. I figured it meant a replacement was needed, but I worried that Verizon would be skeptical that she dropped it (she didn't) and try to fight her. Maybe I should try a hard reset first?

 

[psiu_glen]

They will undoubtedly want a hard reset done, so if you can tell them it's been done you will be ahead of the game.

Make sure to backup photos first and ensure everything else is backed up as much as possible.

At least you should be familiar with the restore process that way when a replacement comes

Mine actually took awhile to go on the Trophy, was intermittent for a couple weeks before giving up the ghost.

Edit: as long as there isn't physical damage to the exterior or the red dots of doom indicating water damage there shouldn't be any problems.

 

[coip]

They will undoubtedly want a hard reset done, so if you can tell them it's been done you will be ahead of the game.

Make sure to backup photos first and ensure everything else is backed up as much as possible.

At least you should be familiar with the restore process that way when a replacement comes

Mine actually took awhile to go on the Trophy, was intermittent for a couple weeks before giving up the ghost.

Edit: as long as there isn't physical damage to the exterior or the red dots of doom indicating water damage there shouldn't be any problems.

When this happened to your Trophy, did it just 'happen' randomly? Or was there some event that triggered it (like dropping it)? There are no signs of damage on the 928--so it should pass inspection. I'll try the hard reset first, but even if that somehow works, it would still worry me because certainly this must be some sort of hardware failure, not a software one, correct?

 

[felickz]

When this happened to your Trophy, did it just 'happen' randomly? Or was there some event that triggered it (like dropping it)? There are no signs of damage on the 928--so it should pass inspection. I'll try the hard reset first, but even if that somehow works, it would still worry me because certainly this must be some sort of hardware failure, not a software one, correct?

or get it near any high powered magnets? (how do they work)

 

[coip]

or get it near any high powered magnets? (how do they work)

Good question. I asked her and she said it wasn't near any magnets, let alone high-powered ones.

 

[coip]

Well, color me curious. Today my wife says, "Hey, the phone fixed itself! Look, it auto-rotates now." Sure enough, it rotated just fine. Checked in in multiple apps. Then I booted up the compass and checked that again too. What was definitely off a few days ago (in both the compass and the screen rotation in all the apps I tested) now works just fine. What the heck is going on here? The only thing I did to fix it was soft reset it, but I checked right away afterwards and it was still broken at that time.

 

[hopmedic]

High-powered magnets can damage the compass, but I've never heard of them hurting the accelerometer, which is what the phone uses to detect orientation. I could be wrong, of course - if the accelerometer is made from ferrous metals, they could certainly be adversely affected by a strong magnet, but I've not heard of it. I don't know what the gyros are made from, but since not all phones have them, I'm doubting that the phone depends on them for orientation detection.

 

[psiu_glen]

That particular Trophy was heartily used before I got it (red dots were triggered as well) so in my time handling it, nothing more than dropping off the couch onto carpet. But before I had it I don't know.

Have seen a few reports of this online across different phones so it's not unheard of.

 

[coip]

Update: Now the same thing happened to my 928! What the heck? I definitely didn't drop it or damage it in any way, and suddenly it stops auto-rotating just like what happened to my wife's phone a few days prior. Her phone fixed itself after a few days, so maybe mine will as well, but this is really bizarre.

 

[hopmedic]

It's contagious?

 

[psiu_glen]

What the heck is right? You guys live under power lines? Downwind from a nuc plant? Do your pets have extra limbs? There has to be some reasonable explanation for this.

 

[coip]

What the heck is right? You guys live under power lines? Downwind from a nuc plant? Do your pets have extra limbs? There has to be some reasonable explanation for this.

I know, this is very weird, right? We've had other problems on our 928s since the GDR2/Amber update (freezing, forcing us to soft reset, or random reboots), so maybe this is related to bugs in the Amber update, but no one else seems to have experienced them (or perhaps people didn't notice since they always keep their phone in portrait mode).

Well, when it happened to my wife's phone I did another soft reset and that seemed to fix the problem (though seemingly not immediately). So, I just checked my phone again and was still having the no-rotation problem (so, it's been a problem for more than a day), I just did a soft reset and the problem is fixed!

 

[michfan]

I'm having this problem too! Ever figure out a solution?

 

[michfan]

NM, I was trying to read in portrait mode and missed that soft reset part. It worked. Thx!

 

[Bombfetish]

I'm also having this problem on my 920, just started recently. No rotation, no accelerometer, no compass... And also, no games hub somehow!

But sticking to the sensors... I've had soft resets fix it, it works for 1-2 mins, then stops again. It is broken 90% of the time, then it will randomly work. Happens in any app. Hope there is a fix soon, I don't get what would cause this to happen all of a sudden.

I've tried soft resets, deleting new apps, tapping relatively firm on the back of the phone (as suggested in other forum posts here), and also turning off the WiFi and restarting the phone.

 

[coip]

I'm also having this problem on my 920, just started recently. No rotation, no accelerometer, no compass... And also, no games hub somehow!

But sticking to the sensors... I've had soft resets fix it, it works for 1-2 mins, then stops again. It is broken 90% of the time, then it will randomly work. Happens in any app. Hope there is a fix soon, I don't get what would cause this to happen all of a sudden.

I've tried soft resets, deleting new apps, tapping relatively firm on the back of the phone (as suggested in other forum posts here), and also turning off the WiFi and restarting the phone.

Soft resets worked for me but if that's not working, perhaps it is time to try the hard reset. Just be sure to have all your stuff backed up as a hard reset will erase it all.

 

[Bombfetish]

Hard reset. And didn't install anything... Still didn't work. So its not any of the apps I had. Any other suggestions?

 

[parksy78]

I had the exact same problem with my 920, see my post. Nokia care changed the prox sensor! Working now. Who'd have thought!