S5 - Green line appearing in some photos?

[SHP650]

Verizon replaced my first S5 for a small green line appearing in some photos. My replacement arrived, and I'm having the exact same problem. See the link for an example. Can''t figure this one out! Seems to happen about 50% of the time, regardless of zoom or HDR settings.

A link to a photo with the line... Imgur

[vzw_customer_support]

Hi SHP650!

I'm sorry to learn about a green line showing in some photos. I assume you mean that this is only happening in some photos and not all of them. Do you see this green line on any other screen? Do you notice a pattern as to when this occurs? For example, is it happening only when the flash setting is turned on? Have you checked the pictures after changing any of the settings?

Lastly, is there any physical or liquid damage to the device?

ChristinaB_VZW
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[SHP650]

Hello!

Correct, this only happens in some photos, I'd say around half of them. It appears to be some sort of metering or focusing line, but it shouldn't be appearing in the photograph. The line never appears in the viewfinder while setting up the photo, but only in the saved image after it's been taken. I never use the flash, but I do find it occurs mostly in photos that I use the zoom feature. I've tried variations of turning on and off the HDR, stabilization, low-light detection, and picture size, but can't find any common link, as it will still randomly occur.

There's no physical damage to the phone - it's not even 6 hours out of the box after warranty replacement. Sort of a frustrating issue, considering it more or less completely "ruins" a photograph.

The only link I've made is that it's only been happening after the Lollipop update, so I'm assuming it's a software glitch.

I'd love some help with it... my job requires quite a bit of photo-taking, and this is making it tough!

Thanks for the help!

Below is the latest appearance of the "green line.."

[SHP650]

Just visited the Verizon store, and they're sending me another warranty replacement. I'll let you know if my 3rd phone also has the same issue. I spent over an hour with Samsung support, and they were unable to correct the issue. Quite frustrating that a new phone is incapable of taking a picture, but I'm very happy it's under warranty, and I'll continue to do replacements until this is resolved!

[caecilia97]

I might recommend clearing the cache via the recovery ROM in the device. Hold down volume up, home and power, releasing the power button when you see the blue "RECOVERY BOOTING" in the upper left corner, and maintaining the volume up and home buttons until you see the android icon with a menu on the top of the device display. Highlight "clear cache partition" with the volume rocker, and use the power button to select the option. The recovery ROM will clear the cache from the device, leaving your personal data fully intact. When it completes, push the power button again to reboot the device, and see if that helps with any of the troubles you're having.

I generally do this myself following any large maintenance release, including full OS/kernel changes being pushed. After this is done, it can take up to 72 hours for the OS and all of your applications to optimize, but it corrects a large array of issues that can occur due to corruption of the device cache following updates.

Good luck, and let us know what happens!

[SHP650]

After 3 factory resets, it may just be working now. The first reset was done this morning at the Verizon store, but the green line was still present. After I returned to my office, I spoke to Samsung support, and they remotely accessed my phone, and worked on it for a couple hours. Still no luck with them, so they had me do a factory reset. Another hour of tweaking, and they gave up, and suggested I return to Verizon for a warranty claim. I performed a third factory reset, since I wasn't sure if doing just two was enough. So far, I haven't seen a green line in my photos. I'm not feeling confident that the problem is solved, but I''ll see how the next few days go, until my 3rd replacement arrives. If there's no green line until then, perhaps I'll keep the phone I have, and send the replacement back.

I simply refuse to accept that "it's a software problem" and live with a green line in my photos. I was sold this phone by Verizon based on 'how awesome the camera is!' and "you'll never use a digital camera again once you have this!", and to suddenly have a green line cutting through pictures for work, pictures of grandma, and through the bride and groom at a wedding, it simply unacceptable; especially when the entire selling point of this phone (at least to me...) was the camera.

I'll be patient, but ultimately I'd like to hope Verizon would do the right thing if this turns out not be fixable, and is some sort of software issue with no reasonable solution.

[caecilia97]

Unfortunately, corruption of cache can occur with any build of android, on any manufacturer's device. I say specifically cache and specifically from recovery because I've seen with my own eyes on thousands of devices that it can fix a problem with SW updates better than a factory data reset without the disruption to your personal data on the device. Factory data resets by their nature are not as complete as one would be from recovery, and very rarely does a FDR *actually* need to be done in place of a cache clear to resolve an issue.

With the camera specifically, you may be able to clear the cache and data from the Camera app if the line recurs without even having to go to recovery. All of your photos and videos are stored in the Gallery app after being taken and saved, so they will NOT be disrupted by clearing the app data from the Camera app itself, though the settings for that app (and that app ALONE) will be reset to default.

[SHP650]

I spoke too soon. Just took another picture, and the green line has re-appeared. Suppose now I'll wait for my replacement, and pray it doesn't have the lollipop update, as this issue never occurred prior to updating the phone.

I just hope that if my 3rd replacement doesn't work, Verizon will at the least be willing to let me change to a different model phone, so I can have a functional camera.

[B33]

Have you Tried running the phone in Safe Mode and tried taken some pictures?  you might try this as you might have a App that is causing the issue.! 

[caecilia97]

Hmm. That's very strange. Are you downloading the same apps right away after a factory reset? With the changes to the kernel in Lollipop, a lot of developers have dropped the ball in terms of changing the manner in which they work to correlate better with the new kernel commands. It's possible that if your device is restoring from google, that it may be downloading an app again that is having issues following the MR to Lollipop. Have you tried to put your phone in Safe Mode? That will isolate the issue to hardware, and not a third party app. Hold the power button until you see the popup to power down, and hold the "Power off" option for 2-3 seconds. The device will ask you if you want to reboot to safe mode. I really hope I can help you get your camera working again.

~cae