Phone Contacts forced to crop at wrong ratio! - One (M7) Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

No matter what... any time I try to set a contact photo on the HTC One for phone contacts, it FORCES me to crop it. Not only that, it FORCES a weird rectangular aspect ratio when the contacts use a SQUARE aspect ratio for display. This means every photo I use looks squished and hideous as a result.
I've tried using alternate phone apps, but every single one just loads up HTC's built-in one when editing the contact information therefore forcing me to deal with the (terrible) cropper tool.
You cannot skip or bypass this crop. You MUST crop or you MUST cancel. No other way around it. Nothing I do is working, and I don't wanna risk breaking my phone by rooting it or whatever. Is there ANY WAY or ANY APP that has a custom contact editor that can get me past HTC's terrible cropper?
I even manually cropped 1:1 ratio images and put them on the phone myself, and it STILL tries to crop them in a rectangular aspect ratio. I can't find help or information on this anywhere.
What's weird is if I choose to take a picture on the fly using the built-in camera, it comes out fine. However I can't obviously get a picture of every contact on my list as some don't live near me!

Related

[WIP] New Gallery Application

Hey everyone,
After wrestling with the HTC Album for a while, I've got tired of it not doing what I want it to do and have therefore started developing my own. I'm still in the algorithm writing stage but it's coming along very nicely as yet.
Here's some of the features that I'm planning:
Database Backend - This will be extensible through the use of 'tagging'. You will be able to add an 'infinite' number of tags to each photo.
UI - Will allow swiping through pictures and other enhancements over the standard app.
Different Browsing Views - Can browse via the database (and tags) or the normal file based directory views.
EXIF tags - Ability to read them. Not sure on where I'm going with this feature yet.
There's no time frame when this will be first released, but it will be out when I have it in a nice stable state, and feature-wise, similar to the HTC Album. Further features will then be added in further (quick) releases. I have a name of the application in mind but I don't want to announce it yet as this application is very much in progress. I also don't want someone to steal the name.
So why have I posted this? Well I know the good people of XDA are full of good ideas so I'm asking you this: what would you want from this new Gallery app?
Reserved for future use.
will you try to add in multi touch like the demo photo app of long ago that was never refined? i cant wait for you to finish, the htc album gets on my nerves too. it always reorders the pictures as it pleases even though i have "sort by date" selected after a wipe.
yea, add multitouch
As long as there are more sorting options ill be eternally grateful
Not sure on multitouch as I don't really see a need for it (plus can't be bothered with the potential Patent infringement stuff). I will include a nicer way of zooming in and out than the simple buttons though, and I think it's more elegant than multitouch.
Regarding sorting, there will definetly be better sorting options. And i'll make sure they actually work too. This is probably the number one thing that annoys the hell out of me with the HTC Album.
Have the ability to pick a folder of images or folders.
I hate using gallery on my phone and it picks every picture on my SD card. Kinda annoying honestly, but hey it is what it is.
Also implement features such as double tap to zoom...hate using the zoom toolbar
And auto rotate with animation
Refer to app called "Picture Viewer" to understand wht i am talkin about...its a nice app just lackin features...
http://www.cyrket.com/package/rip.android.GlImageView
an idea for zooming: clockwise to zoom in and counter-clockwise to zoom out ... i dont remember where ive seen that before but just seems like a cool idea if able to be implemented
xidominicanoix said:
an idea for zooming: clockwise to zoom in and counter-clockwise to zoom out ... i dont remember where ive seen that before but just seems like a cool idea if able to be implemented
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm the app i refered to in the above post has zoom in / zoom out by moving ur finger up or down
Different implementation possibilities lol
Check out the Albums program from Hero. It has some nice features: pinch zoom in/out, sd card/facebook/flicker albums, swipe to navigate, slideshow animations, autorotate animation, grid or directory view, etc.
The tags feature you are adding would be great since I have them in directories for now (basically 1 tag only).
The ability to add pictures from a remote "gallery" server (or similar remote server you can run at home) would be great since I don't put all my pictures on facebook/flicker (nor do I want to).
http://gallery.sourceforge.net/
I think a zoom feature like this would be nice if you think that you could do it. You can watch it in action if you watch the video. It two minutes and six seconds in.
http://phandroid.com/2009/03/18/androids-circular-zoom-on-the-htc-magic/
What annoys me the most is the phone generating thumbnails for all 1600 of my pictures, I have to leave it there for 10 minutes or so to let it do that. My old phone, which a dumb phone never had to do that when browsing all the pictures and was way faster.
I second SolemnWishing's request. I would like to see the thumbnail part in the default gallery done away with in the app. Are you going for a complete default gallery replacement app or will this piggyback in anyway off the default one? I would like to be able to replace it completely just like the launcher.apk and the mms.apk.
SolemnWishing said:
What annoys me the most is the phone generating thumbnails for all 1600 of my pictures, I have to leave it there for 10 minutes or so to let it do that. My old phone, which a dumb phone never had to do that when browsing all the pictures and was way faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm yea tht is frustrating, i hope the OP finds a way around it..perhaps read the images n instead of creating smaller ones it shud just resize the images n display them or somethin....
tmjonesva said:
will you try to add in multi touch like the demo photo app of long ago that was never refined? i cant wait for you to finish, the htc album gets on my nerves too. it always reorders the pictures as it pleases even though i have "sort by date" selected after a wipe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are a few great features in the demo app. If you could get a hold of the source ... WOW ... it could save you a lot of time and give you a great start on creating a kick ass gallery app. Good Luck!!
I don't agree with the request to eliminate the thumbnailing. Thumbnailing is a great feature and only happens the first time you open a particular image set - it is then databased so the thumbnails load instantly later. A more customizable approach would be a better idea, like the option to disable thumbnailing selectively.
It would be nice to have the option of EXCLUDING and/or HIDING certain paths, for example, some programs add in their own images that you most likely don't want visible in the gallery. I don't like those image hiding programs that screw with the file extensions, and suggest that password protection and obfuscation isn't necessary -- just the ability to keep the crap out.

[Q] SONY: Wrong method of naming Photos in xperia.

For the past 15 years I used Nokia mobiles, I was very happy the way Nokia named newly shot photos (e.g. 21062010128, i.e. 21 June, 2010 0128, the current date and then an increment number). This gave me a lot of flexibility in sorting, organising and finding photos (I know that the exif data of a photo does contain the photo shot time).
But sony, gives the numbers like 'DSC_0295'. Just the useless word DSC and an increment number. This gives me a lot of problems while finding and storing the photos. E.g. when I move some photos from my phone to a photo storing folder on my hdd, then the phone again starts naming photos like dsc0001, 002 etc. And when 2nd time I try to move these photos to my storing place, then I've to rename all the new photos so as to avoid to overwrite the earlier ones. What say fella!
VERY POOR SONY. Pls give us the proper naming method having date time included in photos title. It won't hurt you and help us a lot.
i agree with you but you can use another camera app from play store
That's because they use the same naming scheme as their Digital cameras, I think its because of the camera software, as DSC is Digital Still Camera? That prefix is common among most Digital cameras, even DSLRs from Nikon use the same naming scheme and even HTC Phones.. You can use image importing software to fix that otherwise yeah, the manual method works. You could folder them by date.
I haven't tried them but you could check this app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.smartphoneapps.jcrename
or this one https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cyb.satheesh.filerenamer .
They both claim that you can batch rename files. Hope it helps.
Use dropbox camera upload.. it changes filename to date from EXIF and you can keep using stock camera.
gerickjohn said:
That's because they use the same naming scheme as their Digital cameras, I think its because of the camera software, as DSC is Digital Still Camera? That prefix is common among most Digital cameras, even DSLRs from Nikon use the same naming scheme and even HTC Phones.. You can use image importing software to fix that otherwise yeah, the manual method works. You could folder them by date.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
'The Free Photos & File Renamer' seems to be an alternative.
But my post was not a question. It was a remark regarding the deficiency of this file naming system of different manufacturers EXCEPT NOKIA!
Using 3rd party apps is never as efficient as the built in function. I don't know what is problem in implementing this thing in all sony devices. It is very very beneficial to many users.
And I know the full form of DSC. But what I don't know why they would write to the beginning of every photo shot. And particularly when there are problems in this (as enumerated in my starting post).
So, pls be kind enough to understand the spirit of my post before replying. Thanks all!
It appears you have a problem with the naming scheme because it makes it difficult to sort by date.
So in the default album app, pictures are already sorted by date.
In windows explorer you can easily set it to thumbnail then arrange by date as well....
I too think the current naming system is crap. As I file photos in folders and sometimes make a camera dump many times a day, there will be overlaps.
I'd rather see they'd be named something like this:
XXX_yyyyMMdd_hhmmss_nn.jpg
"XXX_" would be a prefix you yourself could choose. I would have it read "XZ_" because i take pictures with many different cameras and I'd like to tell the cameras apart. If no prefix is entered in the camera settings, it will be left out. (Default may be "DSC" if Sony so wishes, but please give us the choice.)
"_nn" would be a serial number (_01, _02...) IF there are multiple pictures on that same second. Otherwise the serial would be left out.
Don MC said:
I too think the current naming system is crap. As I file photos in folders and sometimes make a camera dump many times a day, there will be overlaps.
I'd rather see they'd be named something like this:
XXX_yyyyMMdd_hhmmss_nn.jpg
"XXX_" would be a prefix you yourself could choose. I would have it read "XZ_" because i take pictures with many different cameras and I'd like to tell the cameras apart. If no prefix is entered in the camera settings, it will be left out. (Default may be "DSC" if Sony so wishes, but please give us the choice.)
"_nn" would be a serial number (_01, _02...) IF there are multiple pictures on that same second. Otherwise the serial would be left out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, it couldn't get any more stupid than this ****ed up naming scheme. Sony should really do something about it.
To be honest, I like the way it is. It is consistent, clean (not a buch of digits). Is specially helpful when filtering the good and bad photos on the computer, to them move or delete them... The Nokia method would make me really confused and bothered.
Felimenta97 said:
To be honest, I like the way it is. It is consistent, clean (not a buch of digits). Is specially helpful when filtering the good and bad photos on the computer, to them move or delete them... The Nokia method would make me really confused and bothered.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It would be great if we could choose how it names the pictures, wouldn't it?
I posted about this some time ago. Mainly because when I transfer photos to other place and delete them from phone, the camera starts counting from 0001 again. It's really bothersome if you upload photos to cloud directly from the phone.
Sent from my eXposed C6603
bloodsuckingcomputer said:
Agreed, it couldn't get any more stupid than this ****ed up naming scheme. Sony should really do something about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think the DSC_xxxxx is for Digital Camera Shutter counts. it usually used in professional photographer to judge the life of lens and shutter etc. and sometime they make many shot in studio and it may less than a second 3-4 shot. so the dsc_xxxx may help them to tell their stuff which is the final desicion to be use as their project. compare to date they more prefer shutter count.
I would be ok with this naming scheme, because I had some Sony Cameras (DSC-P73, DSC-W120 and now DSC-HX5), but the biggest problem is either not storing the next photo number like the cameras do, relying just in the last number found instead (if you leave a DSC_1594.JPG in /sdcard/DCIM/100ANDRO, the next photo will named as DSC_1595.JPG), and not allowing you to change this number (except by doing the way I explained, which is very inconvenient).
why not looking in the exif tag?
DoubleYouPee said:
Use dropbox camera upload.. it changes filename to date from EXIF and you can keep using stock camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
excellent suggestion!
I spent a few frustrated hours with my new Xperia ZR trying to figure out how to archive different project related pics in folders without messing everything and dropbox not only does that automatically so I have reasonably named photos now, but I don't even need to bother xfering the files over, using the cable to connect etc. As soon as I'm at home or at work on wifi it moves them over
many thanks!
cheers
V.
virtuvas said:
excellent suggestion!
I spent a few frustrated hours with my new Xperia ZR trying to figure out how to archive different project related pics in folders without messing everything and dropbox not only does that automatically so I have reasonably named photos now, but I don't even need to bother xfering the files over, using the cable to connect etc. As soon as I'm at home or at work on wifi it moves them over
many thanks!
cheers
V.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes
And then you write a .bat script to automatically move the photos based on EXIF information to your \pictures\ folder on HDD .
Never bother with organizing pictures again.
you are right
zopfan said:
For the past 15 years I used Nokia mobiles, I was very happy the way Nokia named newly shot photos (e.g. 21062010128, i.e. 21 June, 2010 0128, the current date and then an increment number). This gave me a lot of flexibility in sorting, organising and finding photos (I know that the exif data of a photo does contain the photo shot time).
But sony, gives the numbers like 'DSC_0295'. Just the useless word DSC and an increment number. This gives me a lot of problems while finding and storing the photos. E.g. when I move some photos from my phone to a photo storing folder on my hdd, then the phone again starts naming photos like dsc0001, 002 etc. And when 2nd time I try to move these photos to my storing place, then I've to rename all the new photos so as to avoid to overwrite the earlier ones. What say fella!
VERY POOR SONY. Pls give us the proper naming method having date time included in photos title. It won't hurt you and help us a lot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ZOPFAN
You are right
I m having the same problem when organizing pictures... At least it should be squential from the beginnig of the phone life, like canon does. I think the nokia method is the best because it organises time oriented.
Like this ,its a mess... i dont want to lose time renaming fotos, and i need to put them in existent folders by subject...
PLZ if you find a solution, upgrade software or any app that can rename them by daTe will be great..
Thanx~
SONY XPERIA e4 DUAL, 2015
Nice necro-thread bumping...
And if we talk about topic its most... useless whining I heard. Every app and every system have sorting methods by date of creation/modify/name so dsc prefix is not a problem at all.
Also if you work with images for most of time, maybe you should use apps that deal with such prefix, even free IrfanView dont have problem with that.
Not to mention sorting by exif data, if you take image management serious you would know that there is such thing and this topic would be unnecessary, because there is looots of apps for that.

[Q] Camera pictures sharp then soft

I've posted http://forum.xda-developers.com/z3-compact/help/z3-compact-camera-z1-compact-t2899172 but having spent a couple of days I wanted to see if other are having the same issue.
Basically.. when I take a photo in any mode, the initial capture looks great, but then 0.5-1 second later Sony 'processes' the image and it looks worse 9 times out of 10. Example is if you take a picture of your hand, the initial capture shows all the skins imperfections and looks really good on the screen, a second later, it looks softer... I am not using 'face soften' or anything like that either.
Why is this the case? Can you disable the processing? I can't believe this got through Quality Control, surely people in the product testing group would have noticed this? Seems a weird flaw in the software...
rcbmulder said:
I've posted http://forum.xda-developers.com/z3-compact/help/z3-compact-camera-z1-compact-t2899172 but having spent a couple of days I wanted to see if other are having the same issue.
Basically.. when I take a photo in any mode, the initial capture looks great, but then 0.5-1 second later Sony 'processes' the image and it looks worse 9 times out of 10. Example is if you take a picture of your hand, the initial capture shows all the skins imperfections and looks really good on the screen, a second later, it looks softer... I am not using 'face soften' or anything like that either.
Why is this the case? Can you disable the processing? I can't believe this got through Quality Control, surely people in the product testing group would have noticed this? Seems a weird flaw in the software...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally get what you mean. It's as though when the shutter is half pressed, everything is in focus. Then when you snap, all goes blur.
I was attributing this maybe to my shaky hands, but apparently I'm not the only one having this problem.
More often I experience what you said in Manual mode. My photos are better in SA mode.
Sony Soft skin effect ruins all pictures of people
You are 100% correct. Sony has put a soft skin effect (some asian girls love it) on all pictures of faces. It automatically ruins your picture and makes it look fake.
I'm a professional photographer, but the new Xperia phones are so "smart" that they are useless on portrait pictures. Sony MUST fix this.
You can not take a normal picture of any face with the Xperia Z3 or Z3 Compact. Nobody should buy this phone before Sony fixes the issue with "Soft skin".
rcbmulder said:
I've posted http://forum.xda-developers.com/z3-compact/help/z3-compact-camera-z1-compact-t2899172 but having spent a couple of days I wanted to see if other are having the same issue.
Basically.. when I take a photo in any mode, the initial capture looks great, but then 0.5-1 second later Sony 'processes' the image and it looks worse 9 times out of 10. Example is if you take a picture of your hand, the initial capture shows all the skins imperfections and looks really good on the screen, a second later, it looks softer... I am not using 'face soften' or anything like that either.
Why is this the case? Can you disable the processing? I can't believe this got through Quality Control, surely people in the product testing group would have noticed this? Seems a weird flaw in the software...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've experienced the same thing as the OP on occasion. Sony has always had rubbish jpeg processing that destroys details, even in its high-end cameras. I really wish it would offer the option of switching noise reduction and other processing algorithms off. The Z3c camera is capable of very good quality, but the software makes taking any photo a hit-or-miss experience (janky white balance, incorrect shutter speed/ISO for scene, over processing of jpegs, etc.).
I renamed the iAuto mode to uAuto (aka Unintelligent Auto)
Does this processing still happen if you use the Google Camera app instead? My understanding is that these processing algorithms are sony-app specific and if you unlock the BL and lose your DRM keys (thanks a lot sony), you no longer get sony's denoisification/etc processing, at which point the sony camera app will behave just like any other camera app that doesn't have access to sony's processing.
This is a terrible "workaround" as sony doesn't give us a way to set google camera is default - and we can't disable these features in the sony camera app.
I've got the same problem even if I use the google's camera instead of the default one. I don't understand why we're allowed to turn off this soft skin effect even if we "turn off" with the button on option. I really hope Sony is going to fix this because it's so annoying.
Lets wait for the new android L as it will come with raw image support, so hopefully this will be a fix .
http://www.androidauthority.com/nexus-5-lollipop-camera-api-samples-540858/
And have hdr mode on 20meg pics with a toggle option. In fact the whole hdr function needs work. Its currently pathetic.
I also hate this softening. I was wondering if it would be deactivated by loosing drmkeys.
2mal16 said:
Lets wait for the new android L as it will come with raw image support, so hopefully this will be a fix .
http://www.androidauthority.com/nexus-5-lollipop-camera-api-samples-540858/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It would be preferable if Sony had software that took decent auto-mode photos in the first place. RAW support would be nice, but half the time I don't want to be editing photos, I just want to take a quick photo and post it online. Preferably an photo that's sharp, with decent white balance, some detail left at high-ISO, and no pink spot in the middle -- four major things that are not guaranteed with the camera now. Not to mention the fact that the file size for a RAW 20MP image (often over 30MB) will lead to storage space filling up fast.
pipspeak said:
It would be preferable if Sony had software that took decent auto-mode photos in the first place. RAW support would be nice, but half the time I don't want to be editing photos, I just want to take a quick photo and post it online. Preferably an photo that's sharp, with decent white balance, some detail left at high-ISO, and no pink spot in the middle -- four major things that are not guaranteed with the camera now. Not to mention the fact that the file size for a RAW 20MP image (often over 30MB) will lead to storage space filling up fast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Storage should not be that much of a problem as you always can expand with the SD card if you need to.
Nevertheless i agree with you, but since this softening effect can also be observed on Sony cameras i doubt that your wish will come true.
What RAW Image support will hopefully bring is better camera apps which process and compress exactly in the way you want without further modification on a computer (as we are basically already running around with a small computer). This of course will still take some time and effort but is very likely to happen.
So i guess we still have to live with this a couple of months .

Picture File Names

So this is annoying me very much.
If you remove a picture off the phone, the file name numeration "resets".
For example, I take a picture, it gets numbered as DSC_0042.jpg. If you MOVE that picture off the device, the next picture you take will also be labeled DSC_0042.jpg, instead of DSC_0043.jpg.
This is terrible. Especially considering all digital cameras and phones I've ever used, keep the counter going. Huge headache when backing up and moving pictures.
I don't see any option to fix this on the phone, am I missing something?
Info
JCBomb said:
So this is annoying me very much.
If you remove a picture off the phone, the file name numeration "resets".
For example, I take a picture, it gets numbered as DSC_0042.jpg. If you MOVE that picture off the device, the next picture you take will also be labeled DSC_0042.jpg, instead of DSC_0043.jpg.
This is terrible. Especially considering all digital cameras and phones I've ever used, keep the counter going. Huge headache when backing up and moving pictures.
I don't see any option to fix this on the phone, am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you didn't
that s the system counter
:good:

Question regarding camera settings and Image Editing

Hello,
I have 2 questions regarding camera modes and editing on my Note 8. First a little back story – I often take pictures for local car dealers and each car generally gets 100-120 pictures before I go to editing. I generally take all of my pictures with “Auto” filter or as the phone calls it “effect” on. However after taking my pictures, if I were to go and access “My Files” and see the sets of pictures under “camera” I can then modify them again by selecting various effects. When doing so and selecting “Auto” again, the image is saved and almost each time comes out brighter, and in my opinion overall better looking than the original picture (which was also taken with “Auto” effect on). I then end up having to choose the pictures I plan to use from my PC, having to manually re-apply “auto” effect on each picture, and re-upload them.
What is happening here? Is the phone not applying “auto” the first time around as I'm taking pictures? Or is there a double “auto” effect going on here, once at the time of the picture being taken, and once post picture? and if so is there a way to have the 2nd version of the image as the result from the first go at it?
Is there an image editing software / samsung tool that I can use on my PC so that I can instantly apply a certain filter/effect for a batch of files in one shot? Or if not, is there a way to edit a whole folder on the phone itself if I were to isolate the images I wanted edited? Or any other solution so I don't have to manually apply an effect on each image.
Thank You

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