Proximity sensor goes crazy in sunlight (WhatsApp, Signal, Facebook Messenger, Stock Dialer, WaveUp)

today I noticed, it did not happen when BT earbuds are connected, can anyone reproduce this?

Edit @Razem: Whatsapp message

Under which circumstances? Phone call? Or in general? It is possible that if BT headphones are connected, then most apps do not turn off the display using the PROXIMITY_SCREEN_OFF_WAKE_LOCK (because putting the phone to your ear at that point doesn’t make sense). But this still does not mean that the proximity sensor returns the correct value.

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Yesterday the sun was master in an empty sky. When we were in bright sunlight (as in standing on a pond, 6m into a sun lit pond/lake), it was quite difficult to make a photography, as the screen was almost black. The reflection of photographer’s face dominates the image on-screen.
In half shade, under trees and leaves, there was no problem.
Pointing in other directions, where the photographer’s face isn’t lit by direct sunlight at all, the photo preview is much better, but that’s a different scene. That isn’t the lake but trees on it’s banks.
So indeed, in high light, the screen turns dark. The direct opposite of what one would expect.
I expect the, when reading in lowly lit conditions the screen should be dimmed.
Taking photographs in highlight conditions, traditional cameras will show that almost ideal situation. Most digital cameras do that too: show a dark scene without enhanced colours (when the naked eye sees mostly gray and dark colours). And show a sunliybeach or mountain view.
My latest Samsung phone/camera would ‘enhance’ evening pictures and almost make-believe that it were noon. Plain daylight though were plain daylight, and easily visible.
A small Pentax camera leaves the option to diminish the glitter reflection on water but let’s me choose whether to use that or not.

Yesterday’s experience in bright sunlight wasn’t really what I wanted, so few photo’s can document that day.

The bug is confirmed and shall be fixed asap

Hey everyone,
just so this thread does not go to sleep:
Build FP4.TP1X.C.079.20231013
At the end of august i got a mail from customer support, which told me that the issue was definitely identified and they aim to fix it in an upcoming update in october. The update came and went and yesterday I was bothered again by the same issues as always. Even the worst outcome, the soft-locking still happened. Short summary what that was: When the proximity sensor gets hit with a rapid succession of direct sunlight and shadows, it may put the phone into a soft lock because of going back and forth betwen “ear mode” and normal mode, where you can not do anything, until a certain process has finished. In my case the screen goes black and I can’t unlock the phone anymore, until the process (playback of voice messages in my case) is finished. Only then my phone works as expected again.
I really hope it will be solved one day.

That was another issue tjat was fixed, this here is not fixed and some of us send log reports in sep.

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Yeah I noticed that the issue got grouped together with “automatic brightness issues”, from which I don’t and never did suffer. But I can only repeat what the customer support mail said, they said they identified this issue and will address it and for me, this did not happen.

Well they can mix things up as well and you might get back to them to ask what happened

Now that summer is around the corner. I havent ever received any feedback after sending logs. Did you ever get any feedback?
@anon64862762 could you enlighten us what the starus is also when FP calls it a wont fix, as the current situation is a bit frustrating.

No, I didn’t get any feedback. :frowning:

It seems FP still didnt understand the issue and in the public bug tracker they connect this to brightness and a dark unreadable screen. This would not cause WA audios to stop playing. When sun hits the proximity sensor while listening to WA audios, the screen is locked and audio stops playing.

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They still keep mistaking the proximity sensor for the ambient light sensor. :man_facepalming:

I would be really interested in what the logs, sent back in Sep, revealed. However it seems to be a secret that needs to be kept by all means…

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Jupp, I have made them aware in our email back and forth, that they keep grouping bugs together that don’t even belong together. Excerpt from one of my most recent mails:

“sorry, but I think somwhere down the road you grouped together some bugs or you confused the main issue that I had. If you look into our backlog of messages, you can see that my support request was for the issue of a misbehaving front proximity sensor (“ear proximity sensor”). I am happy to hear, that progress has been made and people with the automatic brightness issue have a solution now. But, in fact, my original issue with the proximity sensor still persists.”

Reply:

“Thank you for your reply and for taking the time to write such a detailed description of the issue.
I will forward all this information to our technical department. As soon as we have an update, we will get back to you.”

They are polite and always respond, but clearly, on the technology level this bug seems to stay forever. At this point in time I don’t think they will resolve the issue anymore.
Listening to voice messages hands free in the car (so, the legal and safe way) is just not possible as soon as a sliver of sunlight is involved. Since it is summer on the northern hemisphere right now, i get bothered by the bug on a daily basis. Very, very frustrating. With my FP 4, I learned that even “minor” inconveniences can bother you to a point that you almost regret having bought the device. I still stand behind the Fairphone idea and like my phone otherwise, but it is really a daily nuisance.

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Thats how it is: it seems to be the sensor (infrared) itself, they cant change the hardware and cant influence this on software level. I hope they will officially call it a wont fix in public, so that people affected can stop hoping for something not coming.

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Maybe this is a work-around:

You can disable all sensors (including the proximity sensor) by going to the developer settings and then to the quick access developer tiles. There you can enable the “sensors off” tile. After that, in your drop down quick menu (the one you pull from the top of the screen) there now should be the option to turn off all sensors. If you enable it, voice mails play regardless of the proximity sensor readings. Note that things like auto-brightness or intentionally switching off the screen at the ear will no longer work. However, since it is a quick-access option, one could get used to enable it in bright sunlight only and disable it indoors.

Enable developer settings:
Settings → About the Phone → Click Build-Number multiple times until you are a developer

Settings path:
Settings → System → Developer options → Quick settings developer tiles → Sensors Off (enable it)

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Looks like I got same issue. Phone screen goes crazy when I use navigation in the car, but sometimes in random moments too. I wrote a message to customer support, I thought that this is en issue with screen itself, but looks like it might be a problem with a sensor.
I’ll write after reply from support.