Note 4 camera autofocusing died

[Casey Cheung]

I resurrected my old Samsung Note 4 with a new battery I bought from Amazon. The original battery just didn't work properly anymore which affected the phone's performance.

I tried taking pictures and videos and noticed the camera lens does not autofocus. The camera doesn't focus at all. However, the camera does zoom in and out when pinching out the screen, it just doesn't focus. When I tap the screen, a circular motion appears, which normally means it's trying to autofocus on the subject, but nothing happens. All still pictures and videos are totally blurry.

Oh well, it's an old phone.

 

[B. Diddy]

Sometimes it helps to give the phone a judicious whack around the camera module, which might unstick the autofocus mechanism.

 

[Casey Cheung]

Sometimes it helps to give the phone a judicious whack around the camera module, which might unstick the autofocus mechanism.

Holy macaroni, it worked!! When I first read your suggestion, I thought to myself...yeah right. So I whacked my phone on my lap, ouch, that stung a little and did nothing. Then I whacked the phone harder onto the carpeted floor a few times. Then lo and behold, the autofocusing worked again! I was amazed!

The reason I want this phone to work again is for the camera's ability to do "Dual camera" mode for videos. That's the mode for shooting videos using the rear camera, and the front facing camera is recording my face simultaneously in a small box that can be positioned anywhere on the screen. It's so cool! I just wish the small box doesn't have that postage stamp look to it, I wonder if this can be changed to a simple square (rectangle) without the postage stamp design? Is the Note 4 the last phone that has "Dual camera" mode? I wish my Note 10+ has this feature!

Anyway, I will keep on whacking this phone as prescribed, if further dosage is required!! Thank you!!!

 

[Casey Cheung]

EDIT: Okay, it appears the phone requires regular dosages of whacking to reawaken the auto focusing. Hmm, that's too be. That means I cannot rely on this phone to continuously autofocus correctly during say a 5 minute video clip.

 

[B. Diddy]

Too bad, something might be loose in the camera module that makes it get stuck.:-\