3rd Party App Camera Problem

[kebabby]

Hi all,

I have a Pixel 2 (standard version) with latest update (UK based). I am having issues when taking photos with 3rd party apps including WhatsApp, Facebook, MyFitnessPal, Starling Bank and Twitter. The photos have coloured distortion throughout

I have spoken to Google chat who put me through to various departments each getting generally less helpful. Reinstalled all apps including Play Store and Google Camera. Shared screen with someone at Google to show problem, they reinstalled Whatsapp, got same problem then emailed me to say it's not a Google related problem, contact the developers.

I only use the installed Google Camera App and am up to date with all security updates etc.

As I am awaiting a response from 5 developers, I thought I would ask the experts if any of you have come across this before.

I get no errors, just the distorted picture and the receiver can see the same problem. I do not have the problem when using the Google camera app.

Thanks for any help.

Regards
John

 

[Rukbat]

The Pixel (2 and 3) has a special graphic processor chip in it (for HDR and a few other things), and apps written using the standard APIs may be messing up on that. The 2 has been out for about a year, though, so they all should have gotten caught up. (I don't use any of the apps you do, so I can't comment on any particular one, but all my older camera apps seem to work just fine - Open Camera, Camera FV5, etc.)

 

[GSDer]

I am having issues when taking photos with 3rd party apps including WhatsApp, Facebook, MyFitnessPal, Starling Bank and Twitter.

The only app I use from your list is WhatsApp. I occasionally take pictures directly in WhatsApp, rather than choosing a picture from the camera roll, and I have never come across that problem.
Since you have so many 3rd party applications involved I'd suggest performing a Factory Reset, then setup as New (ie don't restore your applications and settings) and only install WhatsApp. Test that to see if the problem is present; if it's not, uninstall WhatsApp and pick the next app from your list and repeat until you discover the culprit.

 

[kebabby]

Google refuse to help with this problem, they keep asking me to test ONLY with Google branded apps and keep ignoring the 3rd party app problem and directing me to the developers. I have now tested with 8 x 3rd party apps all with same problem (I have reported to all developers). Google say it is a developer related problem and their product is fine. They have done absolutely nothing to test this, they just say the sample phones they have at Google do not exhibit the same problem with the apps I have mentioned, therefore my phone is fine.

Does anyone know how to RMA a UK phone that is 10 months old?, as they will not even help me with that.

Thanks
John

 

[GSDer]

As I noted earlier it's quite possible that one of your 3rd party applications is causing this problem for all the rest. Since the stock Camera application works fine and you can't run 3rd party applications in Safe mode there's no benefit to trying that.
You could try uninstalling ALL of the 3rd party applications that you're having trouble with and then just install WhatsApp to see if the problem reoccurs. If it doesn't, install your other applications one at a time until you identify the culprit.
If uninstalling all of the apps doesn't produce a good result then do a Factory Reset as suggested earlier.

 

[J Dubbs]

As I noted earlier it's quite possible that one of your 3rd party applications is causing this problem for all the rest. Since the stock Camera application works fine and you can't run 3rd party applications in Safe mode there's no benefit to trying that.
You could try uninstalling ALL of the 3rd party applications that you're having trouble with and then just install WhatsApp to see if the problem reoccurs. If it doesn't, install your other applications one at a time until you identify the culprit.
If uninstalling all of the apps doesn't produce a good result then do a Factory Reset as suggested earlier.

^^this^^