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Help Camera randonly coming on

M

marbledgodwit

Newbie
I have very few apps and the apps that I have, I have had since the day I got it (not apps that say they use the camera). Over the last month, I have noticed that my camera will randomly be on when I hit the sleep button to unlock my screen. I didn't have my camera on at all prior to any of these instances. The latest, I had the phone in my hand, had hit the sleep button, left it on my home screen ( camera not used in several days) when I hit the sleep button. As I was walking into my apartment, I saw a big flash, looked at my phone and the camera is on - I am looking at the ground via my camera. When my phone is locked (before I swipe unlock), I can still swipe through screens and one of the screens apparently is the camera, which I didn't know til a friend was trying to help me.

I find this odd and don't care for it. I have even tried to turn the camera off - apparently you can't on a GNEX. Any suggestions? I did have a few apps that I deleted, but again, none said they would access the camera.
 
Haha! Tried finding the camera settings and no joy. Have looked under settings - no luck. Looked in apps - no luck. Turned camera on & looked under settings - nothing. Where is it that I am missing it? I had a friend look as well and he couldn't find the camera settings either or controls!
 
Well, ever since Jelly Bean (I think) if you swipe right from the lockscreen it takes you directly into the camera app. I'm guessing that while in your pocket the phone was activated and while moving around in your pocket, registered as a swipe and opened to the camera. If your phone's screen is coming on randomly in your pocket that could be a short in the charging/USB port that makes the phone think its being plugged in and unplugged thus turning on the screen. That is a fairly common problem. The part about the camera being activated is certainly less common.

If you don't keep it in your pocket and the camera is randomly coming on when untouched I would say that's a problem.
 
Here is an example. Had my alarm set for 04:00 this morning. Woke up at 03:59, picked up the phone & looked the time and set it back down. It was on the screen to the left of my home screen, with all of my app icons on it. The only way to access the camera is to hit the app button or to swipe to the last screen to.the right, which is the camera. All I did was pick it up & lay it down. I could still.see my app icons when I laid it down. A few seconds later I picked it up to pull the charger out of it and I noticed the screen was black & I could see the big blue camera button - sure enough the camera was on. My alarm never went off, I never swiped screens nor did I hit the app button & hit the camera icon. I turned the camera off. It is stuff like this that I find irritating, especially since it never used to do it.
 
Hmm. Mysterious. I don't know what to suggest. Have you tried looking at "manage apps" to see what apps are running? Perhaps something is running that shouldn't be and has camera access? Maybe its a hardware problem. I really don't know.
 
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