Hero7 Black Freezes, video file shows frozen image but audio continues recording [ New ]

[bikelifewithrob]

Same, just had lost footage from my trip to Florida, trying to create better content for youtube channel and when you lose footage it pisses you off, not to mention the travel cost to get down there...

[genea47057]

**bleep** camera kept locking up on my New Year's ride and today I kept getting SD card errors when trying to record my daughter's gymnastics event. Big surprise, I was using a card that was recommended and had worked with my other cameras. Cold day in hell GoPro will get any more of my money. Still looking into AKASO plus Insta360 has something cool coming out on Jan 7th.

[vanipel]

Hello everyone,

I bought a brand new GoPro 8 before NY. Now, I returned from a ski-touring trip and discovered that one video has frozen picture and the sound continues. 

It was recorded with the following settings: 1080p, 120fps. My SD card is Samsung Evo 128gb.

Is there an official response from GoPro? or any other recommendation? 

There are 51 pages above and it's quite complicated to check it out. 

[genea47057]

GoPro's lack of response IS their official response. They have no intention of fixing this or addressing it. I rarely use my GoPro 7 or 8 any more. Most of the time I use my GoPro Silver Hero 4 and I've started looking into other cameras like the ones from AKASO. Sadly you are just another victim of this issue that GoPro will continue to ignore. Oh, and it's not because they don't know this thread exists because many of us (including yours truly) have pointed them to these posts. Pretty sucky right!?!?!

[bikelifewithrob]

Your Hero 8 does the same thing???

[genea47057]

YEP! I have a bunch of wasted video from a mountain biking event to prove it. There is no difference in the 7 or 8 with regards to this issue. It really comes down to low battery power. My last ride was not bad even in the cold but that was because I changed the battery once it got to around 30% (recommended by a poster here that has done a heck of a lot of work to help). So now I have to ride with 8 batteries with me (I'm not lieing here) since I use two GoPro cameras to record my rides. One on my chest and one facing backwards mounted to my helmet. So much fun having to constantly monitor battery life during my entire ride!

[bwx232]

If they made a door cover that would allow you to charge while still being waterproof it would solve a lot of issues. You could just run a USB cord down to a power pack with 10,000 mAh in your pocket and power the cam(s) all day!   But of course you can't in wet or muddy or snowy conditions because ther's a giant freaking hole in the cam when you charge! How easy would it be to make a door with a USB cable coming out of it all sealed up? Not hard.. but they don't think about things like that... only about making short exiting clips to show off there cam and sell more, and ignore massive problems.

[bikelifewithrob]

Someone else made something that will allow this, I am going to be testing it out shortly!  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ACNZ8BQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[genea47057]

The only thing I'll add here is that others have said that even with the GoPro powered externally they have found that the issue still happens. They have said that only running the GoPro without a battery and powering it externally has given some improvement. I cannot confirm any of this so please let us know how things pan out for you when you are done testing. Thank you for sharing this!

[gobikeyourself]

And even if they provided a weather sealed charging port, it still won't work. I ran exactly that setup (Go Pro 7 with a 10.000 mAh powerbank connected) during a mountainbike marathon last year. My race-time was roughly 6 hrs. Image froze at around 4 hours into the race and therefore the whole footage was useless. So unless you only use that setup to record short clips weather sealing also won't help.

[gobikeyourself]

---

@gobikeyourself  schrieb:
And even if they provided a weather sealed charging port, it still won't work. I ran exactly that setup (Go Pro 7 with a 10.000 mAh powerbank connected) during a mountainbike marathon last year. My race-time was roughly 6 hrs. Image froze at around 4 hours into the race and therefore the whole footage was useless. So unless you only use that setup to record short clips weather sealing also won't help.

---

I should add that I had a gopro battery in the battery compartment, so I didn't try the setup with only the external powwer connected.

[alertbluff2786]

Now it is time to grab insta360 one R twin version  or 1 inch version haha

[bwx232]

I might have to try that! 

[noblebluff34483]

Since GoPro has been pretty clear that they're doing nothing about this, I have started posting links to this thread on their social media posts to warn others to avoid purchasing GoPro cameras.

Such a shame that the #1 action camera company in the world is shipping such half baked product, and refusing to even acknowledge terminal issues with their products.   Disgusting, really.  Post links to this thread whenever you see a gopro ad on FB, a discussion on reddit, etc.  We need to get the word out and save other people the headaches.

[toughpike5712]

gobikeyourself,

Your case may be confirming that the issue may be related to how GoPro processor reacts to stability of power supply instead of disproving it. As I wrote in several articles in this thread few months ago, with my GoPro 7, through literally hundreds of tests over few weeks in various conditions, I could never reproduce the problem if the power supply was steady. I advised to use genuine GoPro battery which is higher than 30% capacity (I could reproduce problems in some colder conditions on GoPro batteries which were partially depleted) or use very steady power supply such as Karma Grip or direct connection to power source (not from PC USB port, which may be flakey).

You used 10,000 mAh power bank. Depending on your GoPro settings (4k, higher frame rate, linear mode etc.) or colder weather, camera can draw well over 1,600 -1,800 mAh of power per hour (40 minutes of continuous work, with high processing intensity settings, on one genuine GoPro 1,220 mAh battery). 

This means that in 4 hours it can consume 6,400 to 7,200 mAh. This would be depletion of 64% to 72% of your powerbank.

If the powerbank was of lower quality and/or old (used many times) or the weather was cold, its power output, while partially depleted, may not be handled well by GoPro firmware.

This, of course, does not mean that GoPro does not have a serious issue - it does. Its firmware cannot gracefully handle certain conditions and it is inexcusable that such a serious problem has not been addressed after such a long time.

But, at least for some of us (I am not claiming this is the case in all situations our there), paying attention to good power supply and battery depletion does work and reduces probability of video freeze while audio continues.  

For more info see my posts on pages 41 and 42 of this thread.

[bwx232]

It’s always some other problem besides the camera. All the GoPro problems are not gopro’s fault it’s always user error or SD card or battery or cable or power bank, etc.

LOL My power bank has 2x 18650 cells that can power a 1200 lumen LED flashlight each. They can both supply over TEN AMPS. That’s 20 amps combined and the USB port can output over 2 amps. Anyways they should have better circuitry if there are maxing out the USB connection. It’s pointless even arguing about that because that’s not the problem.

[toughpike5712]

bwx232,

This forum is mainly for help, although venting at GoPro can also help :-).

My advise helped me and helped some other people on this forum. So, at least in some situations, we can mitigate or reduce a known problem. This is what we are here for.

In some other situations it may not help. I was very clear about that.

[gobikeyourself]

---

@toughpike5712  schrieb:

gobikeyourself,

Your case may be confirming that the issue may be related to how GoPro processor reacts to stability of power supply instead of disproving it. As I wrote in several articles in this thread few months ago, with my GoPro 7, through literally hundreds of tests over few weeks in various conditions, I could never reproduce the problem if the power supply was steady. I advised to use genuine GoPro battery which is higher than 30% capacity (I could reproduce problems in some colder conditions on GoPro batteries which were partially depleted) or use very steady power supply such as Karma Grip or direct connection to power source (not from PC USB port, which may be flakey).

You used 10,000 mAh power bank. Depending on your GoPro settings (4k, higher frame rate, linear mode etc.) or colder weather, camera can draw well over 1,600 -1,800 mAh of power per hour (40 minutes of continuous work, with high processing intensity settings, on one genuine GoPro 1,220 mAh battery). 

This means that in 4 hours it can consume 6,400 to 7,200 mAh. This would be depletion of 64% to 72% of your powerbank.

If the powerbank was of lower quality and/or old (used many times) or the weather was cold, its power output, while partially depleted, may not be handled well by GoPro firmware.

This, of course, does not mean that GoPro does not have a serious issue - it does. Its firmware cannot gracefully handle certain conditions and it is inexcusable that such a serious problem has not been addressed after such a long time.

But, at least for some of us (I am not claiming this is the case in all situations our there), paying attention to good power supply and battery depletion does work and reduces probability of video freeze while audio continues.  

For more info see my posts on pages 41 and 42 of this thread.

---

Thanks for your insight. My intention was not to disprove the above assumption. It was merely making exactly that point. I also believe that - whichever - part of the camera cannot handle unstable power supply. Which is pretty unacceptable. As a normal consumer I can't  go through days of testing before using the camera. That's GoPros job before selling the thing. And even more so, before relasing a "new version" with exactly the same problem unsolved. And yes for sure the powerbank was already low in capacity at the time the camera froze - - though temperatures were pretty hot that day (https://www.strava.com/activities/2489914114/analysis) and the bank was new. But you are right, now that I know the issue I would adopt a different recording strategy rather then record the full race in order to keep power supply on a sufficient level. Thanks anyway for all the testing and feedback!

[jmk1111]

I too have the Hero blck 7 freeze issue,just like 1000s of other users. GoPRo when will you fix this? Or is it a since we already paid fopr the camera we are stuck with a daulty product that doesn't work.

Its especially annoying when diving with the camera, biut skiing is a close second for me. 

[matthewu70172]

HELLO ANYONE FROM GOPRO

Does the new Firmware update posted at https://gopro.com/en/us/update/hero7-black resolve the frozen video / audio continues issue? The update just says "general bug fixes."

It would be REALLY great to know that GoPro actually acknowledges the problem and that this update has resolved it.

Can SOMEONE FROM GOPRO PLEASE CONFIRM????????

[addvanced]

No, the firmware does not fix anything.  I updated my camera right before a new year's ski trip.  It happened 5-7X on the trip.

[hainman]

Anyone on here use the Facebook gopro uk page
Seems a few folk still insist that all these issues are down to user error and dodgy SD cards etc
Which i think is sh1te
I was laughed at whe I said about my Hero 7 freezing up in colder weather
It’s a bloody all sport camera
Should be able to use in any condition I would think

[jayr3438]

@hainman

Yes you should be able to use that. 

Just make sure that you have a recommended SD card and then keep your camera warm. 

Check this thread: https://community.gopro.com/t5/Cameras/Hero-7-Black-Battery-Life-in-cold-weather/td-p/286650

-jay

[toughpike5712]

hainman,

Your post made me smile :-).

Please paste a link to this thread on the UK Facebook user group you are referring to, so the non-believers can read hundreds of posts with user errors and flakey SD cards :-). 

As far as freezing temperatures. Outside of obvious issue with GoPro firmware, there are real technology limitations regarding battery performance in freezing cold. This is why when doing filming in freezing tenperatures it is wise to follow few simple steps to avoid unpleasant surprises. I am talking about any camera - not only GoPro. When it is really cold keep battery in your inside pocket and put it into camera just before you start shooting. Once the camera starts filming the processor will keep it warm (unless it is really, really cold).

But, I have seen people sking all day with GoPro on their helmets and battery inside when there was minus 30 outside. In such weather battery will freeze and the camera will not start filming at all (not becasue of camera fault but becasue battery will not have enough power). And if it starts, it may deplete extremelly quickly. Besides, batteries loose stability when they are really cold, which means that you can expect undesired behaviours. 

I just realized that the user error which I am making is saying "GoPro start recording" with an American accent instead of British. No wonder my camera freezes :-). Just kidding. :-).

[bwx232]

24 hr time lapse in freezing cold and it worked fine. Battery should be the only thing affected by cold inless it's ridiculously cold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1vuvGarAOo     

This cam was a wreck though.. completey defective, constantly freezing up and stabilization was wrecked and never worked right. Got worse and worse as time went on over a year. Did the freezing with still image a lot too in all weather conditions, hot and cold. It Completey flaked out when using mic adapter and would never record reliably with that hooked up. 

Had to send it back finally and got a replacement and that one seems better but cannot test it thoroughly till summer. I usually wear it as a helmet cam on motorcycles, etc..

[zbysior]

timelapse is not hard on camera its like taking a pic every so often.  4k 60fps, all connections turned on is where it craps out for me

[bwx232]

Yeah but the gopro creates it's own heat.

It'll create a ton more heat shooting 4k video than time lapse, so what can we infer from that?

Cold isn't the problem for the cam, it's the lithium batteries that can't handle the cold and that's a well known fact beyond anything to do with gopro. I'd say run a power bank with large capacity in cold weather for best results. All lithiums will suffer voltage drop in the cold, but lithiums with more capacity will do better because load from gopro isn't taxing them as much in the first place.

I was running off iphone charger for time lapse as even my 18650x 2 powr bank wasn't lasting in that cold. 

[fireybeach33781]

Has anyone found a solution for this...I am having the exact same problem, go pro 7 black, recordings freeze video after a few minutes even but the audio continues. The only way to get it back on track is to pull the battery, needless to say while skiing...this is inevitably going to end in my GoPro faking off a chairlift or with water damage inside of the case. Notably I never have this problem with time lapse or any other mode other than video recording (even when the other modes have been running for hours). I usually use 2.7k with otherwise default settings. Please advise this is frustrating losing every single clip from a travel ski day, I’m not even going to bother using it tomorrow it’s more useful in the suitcase than on my person

[bwx232]

---

@fireybeach33781 wrote:
Has anyone found a solution for this...I am having the exact same problem, go pro 7 black, recordings freeze video after a few minutes even but the audio continues. The only way to get it back on track is to pull the battery, needless to say while skiing...this is inevitably going to end in my GoPro faking off a chairlift or with water damage inside of the case. Notably I never have this problem with time lapse or any other mode other than video recording (even when the other modes have been running for hours). I usually use 2.7k with otherwise default settings. Please advise this is frustrating losing every single clip from a travel ski day, I’m not even going to bother using it tomorrow it’s more useful in the suitcase than on my person

---

Your camera is defective like probably 80% of them. Who knows what the real number is but seems like a very large percentage of them. Send it back to GoPro because it is a complete useless waste of time trying to make that thing work.

[toughpike5712]

fireybeach33781,

I mentioned multiple times on this thread that GoPro 7 and 8 firmware has a bug which seems not to tolerate power supply fluctuations. This is not the only cause of your problem, but one of them.

First of all, you do not need to remove battery when GoPro freezes. Simply push and hold power button for more than 6 seconds. The frozen GoPro will shut down. Than you can turn it on.

Second - when you ski and temperature is cold (below freezing) the battery performance will degenerate which may cause GoPro to malfunction (due to the forementioned firmware bug). When you want to ski, you must make sure that battery is warm. The only way to do it is to keep your battery or GoPro with the battery in your jacket inside pocket and pull it out only when you start skiing and recording. When recording the GoPro processor will warm the battery and you may be fine (unless it is really, really cold.

Third - do not use battery when its capacity dips below 30%. The power supply is less stable then and may contribute to problem you see.

Fourth - if it is acceptable to you, lower the recording resolution from 2.7k to 1080. This will offload the processor and make it less prone to freeze due to high power demand.

Fifth - if you use non-genuine battery, all bets are off. GoPro 7 and 8 are known not to handle third party batteries well.

The above may not 100% eliminate the problem you are experiencing, but may significantly reduce the probability of it happening. Try it.

BTW - you can try replacing GoPro through GoPro support but, in my opinion, this will not help. This problem is most likely either with GoPro firmware and/or with GoPro processor design.

Good luck!

[shalaby]

If there is one word to describe Hero 7, it would be Unreliable.  It freezes video, yet maintains audio, eats up battery for no reason, connectivity to remote is hit or miss.  Very frustrating and annoying that after a day of action filming and the work you thought you had is not there.  The $59 knockoff I had was more reliable.  When you pay close to $500 for a GoPro setup, the minimum expectation is that it works and and my time is not spent trying to figure out their problems.  Was thinking of Hero 8 or 360, not anymore.

[nobledusk46740]

Hey mate, did you get a resolution to this problem as I have the same issue. I know I have come in late on this thread but I also had my GoPro 7 replaced by the retailer that I bought it from only to have the same issue. I haven't used it since 18 months ago as it basically ruined my whole Thailand trip 🙄 

[38offslalomskier]

This is disappointing and gopro needs to fix this. I just go back from a skiing trip to Colorado. 90% of our ski runs, including videos on the chair lift, start with about 7 seconds of video and then the video freezes and all I have is the sound of wind and voices. Unfortunately, I only have one ski run captured from the entire day. I think this is a cold weather problem, as it was about 20 to 25 degrees F all day, and I've never had this issue when water skiing in the summer.  

[fireybeach33781]

Same thing here, first time out to Utah to ski...and nothing to show from it.  I had hand warmers in my pocket (it was toasty in there) and kept the battery out of the camera until the top of the lift and then fired it up...the most I managed was 3 minutes out of 35, most of them were under 90 seconds before freezing...real go pro batteries at full charge basically no changes from haphazard push and shoot which is frustrating as heck.  Imagine standing at the top of a chairlift in the wind/snow etc trying to get batteries in and out so I can get a 5 minute clip....hardly what i would call an action camera.  My coworker...had no issues with his $70 akaso camera, after years of gopro loyalty, I will not be making another $400 purchase next time around.

[bwx232]

It has happened to me on a hot day with freshly charged batteries or running on USB power with and without battery installed so take all this stuff about power and cold with a giant grain of salt. Also has happened to me on 70F days, and cold days, and all temperatures.

[eligiuszh1]

Agree, it happens in any temperature. Although I need something like GoPro 8 and/or Max it prevents me from buying GoPro untill it is proved the problem is solved. And that common socket for battery and charging in GP8 - if I want to power GP from powerbank during cycling then the camera is fully exposed.

[bwx232]

My refurb replacement has not done it yet but I have had minimal actual real life testing. But I have used cam about 30 times and it has been good so far with this SD card: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FCMKK5X "SanDisk 128GB Extreme MicroSDXC UHS-I Memory Card with Adapter - C10, U3, V30, 4K, A2, Micro SD - SDSQXA1-128G-GN6MA"

But who knows it might do it again once I start using cam as I did before, mostly on my helmet on my motorcycle which I have only done a few times with this replacement cam.

[chrisu0074]

Last night I filmed a community meeting on my Hero 7, 4K 30fps. About 2 hours long in total with a number of mp4 files approx 4GB
Distraught to find out whilst I have all the audio, i only have 10 seconds of video in the first file, all other files have just one frozen frame.
Have tried endless methods to recover video (every software tool I can find on the net), also handbrake and recover_mp4 and ffmpeg tools using a reference file, but without success. My set up was Hero 7, with external mic and a USB power bank to the mic adapter module. SD card was 128GB Sandisk Extreme V30 U3 A2. Always worked fine in the past.

Seen all the comments and resolutions about updating firmware, issues with SD card etc. But my only concern now is trying to recover the video. Is it all a waste of time? Each 8 min video is 4GB, was hoping this would suggest the data is there but is just in some way corrupted headers or something. Have I lost it?

[boldstoke314]

I have read every post here. No one has ever been able to recover the data. I hope someone can say otherwise but unlikely. Sorry....

[redriver36215]

400+ replies later, is there really no fix for this?

Just happened to me today, a whole day of video ruined. I get maybe 30 seconds of video and then 5 minutes of audio. 

[gobikeyourself]

---

@chrisu0074  schrieb:
Last night I filmed a community meeting on my Hero 7, 4K 30fps. About 2 hours long in total with a number of mp4 files approx 4GB
Distraught to find out whilst I have all the audio, i only have 10 seconds of video in the first file, all other files have just one frozen frame.
Have tried endless methods to recover video (every software tool I can find on the net), also handbrake and recover_mp4 and ffmpeg tools using a reference file, but without success. My set up was Hero 7, with external mic and a USB power bank to the mic adapter module. SD card was 128GB Sandisk Extreme V30 U3 A2. Always worked fine in the past.

Seen all the comments and resolutions about updating firmware, issues with SD card etc. But my only concern now is trying to recover the video. Is it all a waste of time? Each 8 min video is 4GB, was hoping this would suggest the data is there but is just in some way corrupted headers or something. Have I lost it?

---

I would be happy to tell you otherwise, but I tried to recover the frozen files last year, I fount no way of doing it. So I am afraid it is not some kind of header issue, but rather a software issue at the moment of recording.

[redriver36215]

Thanks for the reply. I haven't had time to go through all 400+ replies so my apologies if this has been asked/answered. Is my Hero 7 Black junk now? I'm still within the one year warrantee but I couldn't get the support Chat to work, and despite several attempts I never got a call back when I tried that option either.

I swapped batteries today and the problem persisted through the change so unfortunately it doesn't seem like a power cycle fixes it. And I can't get through to GoPro to get them to replace it, so it this thing a several hundred dollar paperweight? Or does it seem to be sporadic?

I don't do anything with it that I really can't afford to lose so if it's just a once in a while annoyance, while sucky, I can deal with that. 

[snowymesa3657]

Same issue over one year
They don't seem willing to improve
I was foolish to believe Gopro.

[fishycomics]

I found chrome the browser works to get to gopro. try that.

[vitalistankevich]

Just in case. Same problem. Lots of dissapointment. Tons of spoiled videos.

The only way to solve a problem somehow is dividing videos into many parts 

while shooting. But you look like an idiot saying "Go Pro start video!" ang "Go Pro stop video"

every couple minutes. And all this SH'T just for 400 bucks. 

Go Pro guys, is anybody home?

[bwx232]

---

@vitalistankevich wrote:

Just in case. Same problem. Lots of dissapointment. Tons of spoiled videos.

The only way to solve a problem somehow is dividing videos into many parts 

while shooting. But you look like an idiot saying "Go Pro start video!" ang "Go Pro stop video"

every couple minutes. And all this SH'T just for 400 bucks. 

Go Pro guys, is anybody home?

---

It sucks doesn't it? Answer, no they do not care at all, not even a little bit. They will once they finally get hammered when the competition catches up and passes them by, but until then they are selling defective cams by the millions I am sure.

I think they can get away with it because no other action cam comes close in terms of image quality and stabilization. The DJI has a lot going for it but looks like garbage in comparison. I was going to switch to DJI but couldn't get past the terrible macro blocking it produces.

Send cam back to GoPro and you might get one that works better. My new (used/ refurbished) one works better so far but it is very untested still. I'm about 99% sure it will start acting up when I use it on my helmet in the summer like I did with other one I sent back.

[shalaby]

What’s more troubling is that Go Pro doesn’t seem to care. They even erased a review i put on their site that called this problem out. As far as i’m concerned, i have a $500 paper weight. I’m purchasing the Insta 360 next, instead of the GoPro version of a 360 degree Camera. Not sure who feels more F’ed, their customers or their shareholders.

[alertbluff2786]

I just got my insta360 one R. IT IS AMAZING PRODUCT!  I have GoPro 6, 7, 8. And I love my new camera. Try it. If you want to have better quality. Try one-inch version. 

[fastgorge25552]

So a whlie back I called GoPro support to see what they may be able to do on a call. They had me factory reset the camera and manually update the firmware from SD Card.

I have since made five 10 minute clips at home, and rand the battery dry with no issues. I then went to the trail for some mt biking in about 43 degree weather. I made two clips and drained a battery. Then made 14 more clips of various length. So far the issue has NOT presented itself,  yet i'm not convinced it's fixed.

I did however change some settings. I'm running 2.7k 60fps yet low light was turned on and this was very low light so i'm sure the FPS was reduced. The GPS was also turned off, as well as the communications.

Next I'll try it with the low light setting turned off.

[fastgorge25552]

So that didn't work. Today I had a video image freeze after 45 seconds. Interestingly the entire GoPro was frozen after that too, so I swapped batteries. I turned low light adjustment off, and have a lot of choppy frames. Wonder if that's related.

I'll call back into support when I have the time to deal with it.