Galaxy S5 Smart Stay does not work!

[vlsi2000]

Before switching to S5 few days ago, I was with Note2. Both from VZW.
I loved the smart stay feature of Note2.
I expected the same to work just as well with the latest S5.
But smart stay S5 simply does not work.
I know how smart stay works and all the conditions required for it and have used it without any problem with Note2.
The same user under the same condition just cannot get it to work with S5.
Restarting, checking/unchecking options, I have tried everything I can think of but it just doesn't work.
With Note2, if I continue to stare at the phone, the eye symbol would appear and goes away without dimming or turning off the screen.
But with S5, while I am staring at the phone, the eye symbol would appear and then screen becomes dim for a second or two and then goes off.
Front camera works as a camera, so I suspect a software bug here.
Does anybody else having the same issue with S5?

 

[UJ95x]

Before switching to S5 few days ago, I was with Note2. Both from VZW.
I loved the smart stay feature of Note2.
I expected the same to work just as well with the latest S5.
But smart stay S5 simply does not work.
I know how smart stay works and all the conditions required for it and have used it without any problem with Note2.
The same user under the same condition just cannot get it to work with S5.
Restarting, checking/unchecking options, I have tried everything I can think of but it just doesn't work.
With Note2, if I continue to stare at the phone, the eye symbol would appear and goes away without dimming or turning off the screen.
But with S5, while I am staring at the phone, the eye symbol would appear and then screen becomes dim for a second or two and then goes off.
Front camera works as a camera, so I suspect a software bug here.
Does anybody else having the same issue with S5?

Welcome to Android Central
Have you tried any of the other "Smart" features to see if they work?

Sent from my Galaxy S4 running SlimKat 4.4.2

 

[sjaduae]

Nope seems fine to me

 

[vlsi2000]

Welcome to Android Central
Have you tried any of the other "Smart" features to see if they work?

Sent from my Galaxy S4 running SlimKat 4.4.2

Smart rotation and Smart pause work.
It's just Smart stay that fails to work.

 

[vlsi2000]

Nope seems fine to me

hmm....not a systematic problem then.
maybe a quality control issue.

 

[UJ95x]

Smart rotation and Smart pause work.
It's just Smart stay that fails to work.

Tried a factory reset or wipe the cache partition?

Sent from my Galaxy S4 running SlimKat 4.4.2

 

[vlsi2000]

Nope seems fine to me

I am running VZW stock ROM without root or any other mod at the moment.
Are you running the same on your S5?

 

[vlsi2000]

Tried a factory reset or wipe the cache partition?

Sent from my Galaxy S4 running SlimKat 4.4.2

Ok, will give that a shot tonight.
Thanks.

 

[UJ95x]

Ok, will give that a shot tonight.
Thanks.

Let me know if it works

Sent from my Galaxy S4 running SlimKat 4.4.2

 

[vlsi2000]

Ok, so here is an update on the issue.
Now the smart stay feature seems to work quite reliably.
What did I do to change its behavior?
Nothing much.
I simply continued to use the device before it had any chance to turn off its screen.

Here is my theory on the issue.
I never really gave the phone the chance to work with my face!
Like with any human interface technology, it needs to be trained before it can be put to work reliably.
It needs to know which set of image it receives through its front camera correspond to the condition of someone looking at the phone.
This includes my face and the lighting condition I'm using it under.

My problem was that I was too focused trying to debug the problem that I waited the phone to turn off the screen every time I tried something different in the settings.

But by not letting the phone to turn off the screen (by just keeping touching the screen), the phone would eventually be able to match images it sees to the condition that someone is 'looking' and 'working' with the phone.
Once it acquires enough data, it knows when to turn off the screen and when not to just by analyzing images it sees through the front camera.

As to why smart pause and smart rotate worked while smart stay failed?
My guess is that these two features only need to figure out orientation of two circular objects of roughly equal size and shape.
But smart stay needs to know that they are actually eyes of the user.

Anyways, for those of you having the same issue, just ignore the problem and keep using it.
It only takes about an hour or less of continuous usage to learn user's face and lighting condition.
It will work before you know it!

 

[UJ95x]

Ok, so here is an update on the issue.
Now the smart stay feature seems to work quite reliably.
What did I do to change its behavior?
Nothing much.
I simply continued to use the device before it had any chance to turn off its screen.

Here is my theory on the issue.
I never really gave the phone the chance to work with my face!
Like with any human interface technology, it needs to be trained before it can be put to work reliably.
It needs to know which set of image it receives through its front camera correspond to the condition of someone looking at the phone.
This includes my face and the lighting condition I'm using it under.

My problem was that I was too focused trying to debug the problem that I waited the phone to turn off the screen every time I tried something different in the settings.

But by not letting the phone to turn off the screen (by just keeping touching the screen), the phone would eventually be able to match images it sees to the condition that someone is 'looking' and 'working' with the phone.
Once it acquires enough data, it knows when to turn off the screen and when not to just by analyzing images it sees through the front camera.

As to why smart pause and smart rotate worked while smart stay failed?
My guess is that these two features only need to figure out orientation of two circular objects of roughly equal size and shape.
But smart stay needs to know that they are actually eyes of the user.

Anyways, for those of you having the same issue, just ignore the problem and keep using it.
It only takes about an hour or less of continuous usage to learn user's face and lighting condition.
It will work before you know it!

Awesome. Glad it's working now

Sent from my Galaxy S4 running SlimKat 4.4.2

 

[saxicola]

Slightly off topic, but I have just got my new Galaxy S5 and I can't find a feature called 'smart rotate'. I can see 'smart stay' and 'smart pause'. any suggestions.

 

[skbgiants]

Look under display settings : screen rotation : there it is!

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Amit Panchal2]

i got a new galaxy s5 and smart pause and smart stay feature is nor working properly. plz help on this.

 

[theultrahvybeat]

FWIW I had a customer today with same smart stay issues many of you are describing in this thread. Turns out his front facing camera was the issue. A washer from the assembly had slid down to cover the lens. (When opening the front camera you could see a black bar across the image).

Since the Smart Stay feature utilizes the front facing camera this was causing it to not detect the users eyes and keep dimming the screen.

So if you're having Smart Stay issues I would say just don't forget to check if your front facing camera is working properly as it could be contributing to the feature not working.

 

[EduardoLemos]

Since last Android update I am having this problem. System hangs while little eye symbol appears. All together the system probably had 4 to 5 hours this week (in the hanging condition each time if which 5 minutes! ) "studying" my face. I need to resolve this issue or throw away S5/Android go back to the iphone. Would love to get help before I do so. Thanks very much.

Awesome. Glad it's working now

Sent from my Galaxy S4 running SlimKat 4.4.2

Since last Android update I am having this problem. System hangs while little eye symbol appears. All together the system probably had 4 to 5 hours this week (in the hanging condition each time if which 5 minutes! ) "studying" my face. I need to resolve this issue or throw away S5/Android go back to the iphone. Would love to get help before I do so. Thanks very much.

 

[KellyAnn Dean]

Before switching to S5 few days ago, I was with Note2. Both from VZW.
I loved the smart stay feature of Note2.
I expected the same to work just as well with the latest S5.
But smart stay S5 simply does not work.
I know how smart stay works and all the conditions required for it and have used it without any problem with Note2.
The same user under the same condition just cannot get it to work with S5.
Restarting, checking/unchecking options, I have tried everything I can think of but it just doesn't work.
With Note2, if I continue to stare at the phone, the eye symbol would appear and goes away without dimming or turning off the screen.
But with S5, while I am staring at the phone, the eye symbol would appear and then screen becomes dim for a second or two and then goes off.
Front camera works as a camera, so I suspect a software bug here.
Does anybody else having the same issue with S5?

Yes driving me nuts too wtf