Camera doesn't work anymore

Help Fairphone 2
1

Only a few weeks ago I bought a fairphone 2 and I must say, I am very disappointed. It works not well at all. It shuts down and then restarts often, just like that. Other things happened, but my main problem now is the camera. At first it worked normal. But since a few days, it doesn’t work anymore. There are thin, colorful stripes on the display, the picture is blurred. Strangely, in the revolving function it works. But not in the normal function.
Can anyone tell me, what I could do about that?

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If you are outside of the grace period in which you could just return it and get your money back, you could contact support about a repair under warranty or an exchange, here’s the most promising way …

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The stripes are only visible on the display or on the pictures you take as well?

Did you already try another camera app?
I use and like “Open Camera”:

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Hi
I can’t take any photos. It says, it can’t connect to the camera. I can only take photos with the reverse function. There are no stripes when I have it on reverse. Only when I have it on the normal position it has stripes…

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So it is probably easier to call them “normal camera / rear camera” and “selfie camera / front camera”.

I understood: When you start your camera app …

  • the rear camera shows the error “Can’t connect to the camera”, you see something blurred and but there are some stripes on the screen. Right?
  • the front camera works without any issue. Correct?

As explained I would try another camera app at first. → Come back an tell us the result.
If you have the same issues with another app it is probably hardware related.
You eventually need a new rear camera module then.

Before you contact the support like mentioned by @AnotherElk I would try to open your phone (it was made to do so :wink: ) and clear the connector of the camera module.
Here is a guide how to open it and replace the module: Fairphone 2 Rear Camera Module Replacement - iFixit Repair Guide
In your case you will only check/clear the connector of the module, put everything together again and check again if the normal camera still have these issues.
If you need help with these kind of things (and if you don’t have anyone next to you), you can watch out for a community group next to you. Fairphone Community Map

Or you join a community event Current and upcoming events at Fairphone - Join us!

So next steps:

  1. use another app
  2. clear the rear camera connector to check if the current module has a hardware problem
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that problem will also have to be taken care of, as it is not normal behavior. You can have a look here:

For the camera, it sounds like a hardware issue, refitting the module seems indeed the easiest solution

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Thanks a lot for the advice, had the same problem with the rear camera and mended my phone in less than ten minutes ! I feel so empowered by my product :smiley:

For the reboots, put the phone on 3G. It stopped for me that way.

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Thanks Smojo, I had exactly the same problems with my new FP2 and the camera (colourish images delivered from camera until connection to camera was finally lost).

Using another camera app (Open Camera) did not help. So I opened the phone and removed the screen and front camera module. After cleaning the contacts I put it together again and now it works again. :slight_smile: So it seemed to be a bad contact at my new phone in my case (maybe one of the three screws of the camera module was not properly fixed).

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Well, unfortunately now the same problems are occuring again. :frowning:
I will have to support the Fairphone support, I think …

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Hi!
I’ve bought my FP2 in September and I have the same issue (stripes, “camera not connected”, selfie camera working fine). Till today it was working great. (it happened after I downloaded app Cam Scanner). Has anyone found what’s the problem? What do you mean by cleaning the module contacts - I know how to open it, but how to clean it? Might be dumb question but… thanks :wink: :blush:

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Hi
I had so many other problems with the fairphone, that they took it back to fix it. But they couldn’t fix it all so they gave me a new one.

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You have to disassemble the modules from the phone to get to the contacts.
Here’s a nice video about disassembling and reassembling all the Fairphone 2 modules, you are allowed to do that without losing warranty …

For cleaning this forum mostly recommends carefully wiping the contacts clean with pure alcohol.

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Thank you for all the instructions and sorry for my late response :wink: It worked!!! Camera works perfectly again :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: I kind of remembered what was the reason - I dropped the phone earlier that day while I was snoozing my alarm :blush:

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Cleaning the contacts did it for me - thanks a lot! (First had stripes on the rear camera but could use front cam; then all had gone black and I couldn’t even get to the front cam)
This is so satisfactory! I have managed to fix something despite my having thumbs instead of fingers!!!

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Hi!
Same here: I came to this topic because of the exact same thing happening with my camera. I dissembled my fairphone, brushed contacts with a q-tip and reassembled it. and it works fine again. so satisfying :smiley:

thank you all for sharing !

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Hi all!

I had exactly the same issue ca. 4 months after I received my FP2. While at the beginning it helped to slightly press on the back cover near the camera, the problem got worse and I had to clean the contacts to get my camera back (as described above). I opened up the phone and cleaned the contacts so many times, that I could’ve done it in the dark. However, it got worse and worse so at one point, I had no choice but to return my phone. I got a replacement and just after 3 months - ta daa, colorful stripes, lagging camera apps, lost connection to camera. I believe that this is somewhat of an achilles’ heel of this phone. I have to say that I carry my phone in the pocket of my pants where it is probably subjected to more mechanical stress than, say, in a purse.
I believe that a good case could help here but unfortunately, I haven’t found a sturdy case, just sleeves. Maybe anyone has any suggestions?

Anyways, I hope that my experience can help whoever has the same issue.

Best,
S.

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You might want to take a look into this topic:

I’m using the (belt pouch) Feuerwear Mitch 10 for ~ three years now.

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