LG G7 Camera Files Do Not Open

[Jx J]

My LG G7 has a recent problem with files from the camera not opening.

The camera takes a photo and it's usually visible in the gallery, but when I open it, it does not open properly.
When I sent it to my Windows PC, again, the photos do not open, despite having a .jpg format.

I can temporarily fix the problem by stopping the camera app and reopening it.

However, the problem seems to recur later.

Does anyone have any idea what is wrong ? Obviously I need a camera that will reliably take photos every time, not just after fiddling about.

 

[mustang7757]

Hi, have you tried to clear data then force stop?

 

[B. Diddy]

Are the photos saving to Internal Storage or an SD card by default?

 

[Jx J]

I've tried clearing the data and forcing the camera to stop. If I force the camera app to stop, then open the app, it works OK immediately afterwards. If I take photos later in the day, it's back to the same problem.

I am saving pictures on an SD card, the same as I have done for the last 2.5 years. It has about 70 GB of free space.
Your question has made me realize I moved a lot of old photos off the SD card onto my PC last month.

 

[B. Diddy]

Keep in mind that SD cards are inherently unreliable and can become corrupt or fail without warning. Make sure you don't rely on an SD card as the sole storage location for important data.

 

[Jx J]

I've had another go at clearing camera data, clearing cache, stopping the camera app & restarting the phone. It seems to be working for now, so thanks for the advice.

As for SD cards, I only ever buy top brands like Samsung and have been very lucky with reliability so far. I periodically back up data.

 

[B. Diddy]

That's good -- just make sure the backups you make are on a pretty regular basis. A while back, I spoke to an acquaintance who works in the memory industry, and he told me that pretty much every SD card maker uses the same low quality chips. The difference is in the warranty -- good companies like Sandisk have excellent replacement policies, but that won't help with data loss.:-\

 

[mustang7757]

I've had another go at clearing camera data, clearing cache, stopping the camera app & restarting the phone. It seems to be working for now, so thanks for the advice.

As for SD cards, I only ever buy top brands like Samsung and have been very lucky with reliability so far. I periodically back up data.

That's great , yeah sometimes doing couple times gets it going .

 

[Jx J]

Unfortunately it seems my problem has come back.

I shall do further experiments, including:
1 Cleaning the contacts on the SD card
2 Temporarily saving photos on the phone storage
3 Last resort -swapping SD card

 

[mustang7757]

Ok keep us posted

 

[Jx J]

1 Cleaning the contacts on the SD card did not work & it's Sandisk, rather than Samsung, as I previously thought.

2 I put in a brand new Samsung SD card and have not managed to reproduce the problem with that.

3 I'm having some problem copying the files off the old SD card to my PC. It runs for a while then stops. Am not sure if that's temperature related or it running until it reaches corrupted data. However, I covered the card reader & a USB extension in clingfilm, then stuck it in the freezer in a small tub of water. I'm getting better results copying data off it like that.

So very much looks like the SD card. Thank you for the advice !

I have backups, but of course these are only periodic. Looks like I could do with something smart enough to back up new or modified files only. Rather like a Robocopy for the phone.

 

[mustang7757]

Try using cloud back up such as google or drop box it doesn't hurt to have few different back up incase things go wrong