Dust in rear camera

[Coffee Shampoo]

Hello,

For some reason my Galaxy S5 has been getting dust in the rear camera and it's from underneath so I don't know how to clean that, it's gotten to the point that it's affecting all the pictures I take as they come up with small dark blurs.
Any reason why that could be happening and any idea how to have it cleaned? I don't have any experience in dealing with a cellphone's hardware and I just moved from a BlackBerry Q10 to this. All help is appreciated.

Regards,
Thuriel.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! If it's definitely inside the lens glass, I would contact Samsung for warranty repair. That shouldn't be happening.

 

[SpookDroid]

Hi Thuriel,

I know Telcel's warranty process isn't the most friendly thing in the world, but if this was bought off from them and the device is not over a year old, you should try to get a replacement from them (that, of course, assuming you haven't dropped the device or gotten it wet...the latter is their favorite excuse not to honor warranties, claiming that you got the device wet).

Dust can collect inside the phone if any of the components have any large enough gaps between them to let dust in (especially when carried inside your pocket, you'll see dust/lint in there). Most of the time it shows up behind the glass, but it can reach other parts of the phone; in your case, the camera lens. These gaps can be cause by manufacturing defects or from components becoming loose after a drop.

Here's how I cleaned the dust off my old Nokia (yes, many many many many many many years ago). Just take off the back cover, get battery and all cards out, get a can of compressed air computer cleaner (they sell those in most Office Depots or similar stores, even BestBuy but it's usually cheaper at OD or even Radio Shack or Steren shops), and start blowing air in all holes you see there. Check to see if the dust in your lens moves at any specific 'opening'. Be careful not to blow air for too long on a single spot as this can cause the air to cool rapidly and that causes moisture. Just do very quick bursts, wait a couple seconds, burst again, and so on and so forth.

If you see any gaps between your screen or where the protective glass of the camera meets the back casing, that's also a good place to start blowing air in.

Hope this helps!

 

[Coffee Shampoo]

Thanks for the replies, and yes, I got the phone in my carrier Telcel. I'll definitely try the compressed air method, I've already got one can. In the event that doesn't work, I'll be heading back to the store where I got the phone.

 

[SpookDroid]

Make sure you go to a CAT with a repair center or things will just get delayed. If this is a very new device (like less than a month), you can get them to check your device on-site if you yell a little and most of the time they'll just give you a new phone instead of messing around with a repair...but you have to be loud and angry haha. Might backfire though, depending on the manager you get. It worked when I bought an S4 and after two weeks the speaker fell off and you couldn't hear sounds clearly anymore. Instead of trying to repair, they just gave me a new unit).