Galaxy S8 owners are complaining about problems with the handset's rear camera. But Samsung suggests a fix might be available.
According to several Galaxy S8 owners on the Samsung Community Forum, a bug is preventing the Galaxy S8's rear camera from automatically focusing when users are trying to snap photos with the built-in Camera app and third-party apps. What's more, the manual focus also isn't working, creating a lose-lose for users. SamMobile earlier reported on the problem.
It's unclear at this point whether the issue is hardware or software related, and Samsung itself hasn't said what the cause could be. Instead, the company offered up some possible fixes.
According to Samsung, the first thing you need to do when facing the flaw is to ensure your operating system and applications are updated. The company also asks users to clear application data. To ensure it's not a hardware problem, Samsung also said you should try tapping the back of the Galaxy S8 near its camera to see if components came loose. The tapping maneuver could push those components back into place.
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If all else fails, Samsung says you should perform a full factory reset and start anew — not exactly the best-case scenario for folks who aren't interested in losing all of their data.
But even in those cases, Samsung acknowledges the problem might not be fixed. So in those cases, the company urged its customers to send in the unit to be repaired under its one-year warranty.
It doesn't appear those fixes work in every case. Some users said that those options didn't fix the problem and others said it did. No one was able to confirm the actual nature of the problem.
The camera bug comes just months ahead of the launch for the Galaxy S8's replacement, the Galaxy S9. That device is expected to be unveiled in January and could hit store shelves soon after.
