Re: GoPro Hero 5 Black Turning On By Itself

Anonymous · ‎05-24-2017

I wish I had found this thread before just purchasing a Hero 5. How is it possible this problem still exists after 9 months? My brand new camera with the latest firmware can only be turned off by removing the battery. When pugged in to charge it turns on after a few seconds. If you turn off wireless, it still comes back on after a few seconds and wireless is re-enabled! I left it fully charged and turned off on the desk and 4 hours later it wouldn't turn back on because the battery was flat. I assume I can return this for a full refund?

jefft · ‎06-02-2017

@Anonymous - This sounds like a different issue than what's in the rest of this thread. Your issue sounds like you may have a firmware issue. I'd suggest doing a manual update on the camera to see if that helps. Instructions on how to do that can be found at the bottom of the page at https://gopro.com/update/hero5.

Jeff

Anonymous · ‎06-02-2017

On of the many features the GoPro Session 5 has.. apparently. :)

Anonymous · ‎06-13-2017

@Anonymous... it probably turned itself on while plugged in and just ran down. Mine turns on while plugged in. I too just remove the battery otherwise i notoce it dwindling.

Anonymous · ‎06-23-2017

Great help. I was going insane why it was turning on.

Anonymous · ‎07-07-2017

Just for this forum, in relation to @Anonymous problem. Make sure you have turned off your Bluetooth as well. I had the same issue with my Hero Session 5 where I disconnected the wifi but the Bluetooth was still on. Once I turned the Bluetooth off and switched the wifi it stayed off.

Anonymous · ‎07-10-2017

You have to unpair the bluetooth on your phone/hero 5.

Desinstall Capture app and reinstall it, when capture ask you to pair your phone, say no.

That's the only solution.

You can test it, when you turn off the bluetooth on your phone, the hero 5 will never turn on again.

Anonymous · ‎07-15-2017

@jefft omg thanks! This solved the issue with momee turning on by itself everytime i turned it off.

robbyj630 · ‎07-29-2017

What's been done to resolve this? I'm still having issues with Garmin connect app turning my Gopro on.

Anonymous · ‎07-29-2017

+1

Anonymous · ‎07-29-2017

@robbyj630 wrote:
What's been done to resolve this? I'm still having issues with Garmin connect app turning my Gopro on.

I just turn off wireless conectivity uder "Connect".

Anonymous · ‎08-07-2017

Thanksgizmo675 - your solution worked. Shouldn't be needed, and presumably there is some reason why Capture wants a bluetooth connection, but solves the issues of the camera switching itself on the whole time.

Anonymous · ‎08-22-2017

I just bought the GoPro Hero 5 and am kind of regretting it. There are way to many odd things happening. Example it will only use certain SD cards and it turns on by itself after I turn it off. I turn it off it , turns back on, I turn it back off and it turns back on, etc....i end up having to take the battery out. Then it gets really hot, really really hot... ugh! I thought I was buying a user friendly camera..

Anonymous · ‎09-01-2017

This is ridiculous! Having to take the battery out every time so that the camera won't turn on by itself is simply absurd!!! I tried updating manually (as advised), but it still won't solve the problem...

Anonymous · ‎09-01-2017

I think we have to accept that GoPro doesn't know how to fix this.

In the beginning Matt (I think) said it was definitely an error and lately Jeff has said that this is an intended feature to wake up and look for connections.

My guess is that the camera is broken by design because there's nothing checking what wakes up the camera through Bluetooth and perhaps this is in a secondary chip not reachable by firmware updates.....

Anonymous · ‎11-11-2017

Just got my Hero6 the other day. Got the same problem with my camera turning on out of the blue. No WiFi or connections turned on. Still, the Hero6 turned on, sometime during the night, while inside the Karma Grip and guess what - the Hero6 is completely drained and the grip is at 50%. I mean, what the hell? So now I'll have to wait a couple of hours for the Hero6 and the Karma Grip to charge, ONCE AGAIN, before I can go on with my adventures. Where's the god **bleep** fix? Got the update, got everything. Still powering on by itself and draining all my battery.

Anonymous · ‎12-26-2017

Here's what worked for me:

Open the Gopro app. Go into settings. Disable "Quickstories Auto Mode."

It seems the Gopro was constantly turning itself on to see if it had any new media to upload. Turning this feature off stopped the seemingly random restarts without disabling connectivity on my Gopro.

Hope this fixes for some other people as well!

im35461 · ‎04-01-2018

My one turned on today, on 02.60 and I do have Garmin Connect but no GoPro apps on any BT device in my home (factory reset them a while back and found no real use for the app).
Voice Command is set to off
I shall give the GP5 a factory reset.
Also broke the battery cover hinge so more expense :(

im35461 · ‎04-01-2018

Small correction, it is the USB cover I broke and during a factory reset if you set the time format to 24hr this setting is not saved and it reverts to 12hr (minor bug compared with random powering on).

mariustanya · ‎04-02-2018

Hello @im35461,

It would be best to get in touch with our Support team for assistance on this. You can reach them here: https://gopro.com/help/ContactUs

Thanks,
Marius

Anonymous · ‎04-18-2018

Well. About 2 weeks ago I charged up my fancy gopro 5 black. Went to my son's BJJ tournament (he is 8 and it was his first time in this style of competition). Charged up my camera the night before and unplugged it in the morning. It was turned off and placed into a protective carry case. I pulled it out just in time for his first match and turned it on, but noticed the camera was warm for some reason (not normal but hopeful it would still be ready to go). I turned it on and it instantly displayed low battery and turned off. Great! Luckily I was able to catch some video on my cell phone but it isn't as good. When I got home I checked all of the settings and the wifi and bluetooth were turned off.

GO PRO - do you have any advice fir this. I'm rather disappointed as I missed part of his tournament and the video quality isn't as good as it would have been on my gopro.

Anyone else have any tips or thoughts? This is the first time something like this has happened with the wifi and bluetooth off. Is there sometimes a delay after un plugging from a computer before the gopro turns itself on?

aragon1006 · ‎04-21-2018

Hi @Anonymous

I am sorry if you weren't able to record this wonderful moment. Its such a big one as it is his first time joining the tournament. I'm a big fan of MMA myself.

The only reason that I can think of why the camera will heat up (when not plugged in) is if it was left on/recording for a long time. Did you check if there was any recording saved prior to the time you took it out of the case?

My suggestion is to do a manual software update first. After the update is completed do a factory reset. (Preferences> Factory Reset)

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Ej

Anonymous · ‎04-29-2018

Swipe down, see connections and prefernce screen. click Connections, Scroll down to WiFi Connection, click that so the Icon is greyed out! Your Wifi is now off.

Anonymous · ‎04-29-2018

see this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3ls7S6Eho&t=17s

mariustanya · ‎04-29-2018

Hello @Anonymous,

Thank you for sharing! We will pass this along to the team in charge.

Best regards,
Marius

Anonymous · ‎04-29-2018

I did this with mine long ago to fix the problem and it worked to keep the Gro Pro Hero 5 black from turning on by itself. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous · ‎05-13-2018

Sad to see posts here going back 2 years, with no apparent fix. I just bought my GP 5 Black, and updated the firmware. Mine turns itself on unless I turn the wifi off. Seems to be a rather inconvenient thing to have to do, and a problem that should have been addressed a long time ago. Any hope for a true fix?

Anonymous · ‎05-14-2018

This has just recently started happening to me. Or at least I've only noticed it recently. Very annoying that such an expensive piece of kit will turn on and drain it's battery. Any fix for this yet which doesn't involve turning off the WiFi? I do like using my phone as a remote

Anonymous · ‎05-14-2018

Maybe this will give you some insight. I have a hero 6 with the same problem. I don't think the devices run the same firmware, but maybe share some portions of the code. Who knows.

I think it's the app, or my phone. I have not had the issue since uninstalling the mobile app. I have the smart remote too, which also connects via wifi. I think the app connects via wifi and bluetooth? After pairing the app it seems to connect via wifi, but also shows paired in bluetooth. I have a Samsung S8.

With my phone off, my gopro behaves. It stays off when I tell it too, and I can even turn it back on with the smart remote, which uses the GoPros wireless connection. Once I turn my phone on with the app that I previously paired, it turns on immediately, and won't stay shut down. I even tried disabling the wifi on my phone, and the GoPro would still turn on. I finally had to remove the app from my phone for the time being. I might re-install it and see if I can get them to work together, but it's definitely the app causing my issues. Which sucks, because there are some decent features in the app. But it causes the device to be completely disfunctional when it constantly turns back on because it drains it's already small battery super quick.

Anonymous · ‎05-14-2018

I believe the issue started happening with me after I turned on Quikstories auto mode on the phone. There were a few times the GoPro displayed a symbol of data transferring to my phone whenbi turned it off and it turned itself back on. So maybe the camera wouldn't turn off because I had just taken a shot and the data was being sent to my phone.

I've turned this option off in my settings anyway and I'll see how I get on.

Anonymous · ‎06-14-2018

I've got the same problem with a Hero 6. I'm running Garmin Connect and Garmin Smartphone Link on my Galaxy S8. I'm pretty sure it's related to the Garmin software as when I try to connect to the camera in the GoPro app, the Garmin Link software also starts looking for my GPS.

I've been corresponding with Support and they want me to send the camera in for repair/replacement.

Has anyone with the problem had it repaired/replaced with success? Going from what I've been reading here, I'm guessing this is a design issue rather than a defect (in the traditional sense) so I doubt a replacement would resolve the issue.

With the summer months upon us, I'd rather not be without the camera for 2 weeks or so. I can tolerate leaving the wireless off (which works) until I need it.

Thanks.

aragon1006 · ‎06-14-2018

Hi @Anonymous

Good to hear that you have communicated with our Support Team regarding the issue.

I had experienced this issue with my HERO6 Black. What resolved this is a manual software update and a factory reset.

If this has not been done yet, you may give this one a try. Let us know how it goes.

Regards,

Ej

Anonymous · ‎06-14-2018

Let me save you some effort. Give up now man.
I got a hero 5 a year or so ago. Had the same issues as everyone else in here.
Pursued it with the support system here, tried the updates that they suggested to you and everyone else.
Didn't work, same as everyone else.
They'll eventually offer you a replacement unit, and then finally the "work around" of keeping your wifi off on your GoPro until you need it.

They aren't going to fix it.

Sorry dude.

Anonymous · ‎06-14-2018

Thanks, but I should have mentioned we've done the manual update, factory reset, etc. etc. already. It seems to help for a day or so, but then I went to use the camera and the battery was dead.

Anonymous · ‎06-14-2018

Thanks, Omni and no need to apologize - it's what I was expecting based on the comments here.

It's disappointing but I rarely use the phone app so leaving the wifi off isn't a big deal for me. I can see it being a much bigger deal for others and it should work on a device in this price range, though.

swiftstar04780 · ‎08-12-2018

how do you manually update the camera if it keeps turning on and off every 2 seconds? I had this camera for a while now and this is the first time its doing this. It happened after I connected it to my computer to try to remove some files.

mariustanya · ‎08-12-2018

Hello @swiftstar04780,

The manual update could not be completed if the camera keeps turning on and off. The camera needs to be up for at least 5-10 minutes to complete the process. If it is due to power issues, you can try using a different, fully-charged battery if available. Otherwise, our Support team here https://gopro.com/help/ContactUs will be able to help with further steps to be taken. You can reach the team via phone or chat.

Thanks,
Marius

ulrih78 · ‎10-15-2018

I've got same issue whith GoPro hero 7!

dannere · ‎10-15-2018

Opps, two version later and they have not fixed it!?

ulrih78 · ‎10-16-2018

Yes, no Garmin devices around me at all. Sometimes it may take 5/10 attempt to switch it off and sometimes only one, I can't figure it out when and how