Nokia 9 PureView issues: Fingerprint problems, camera crashes, and more

Nokia 9 PureView is, generally speaking, an exceptional phone. Of course, it revolutionizes the camera sensors implementation by using five of them. And that alone is enough to draw attention from many. But you’ll be using the phone for other stuff, right?

When you look at the Nokia 9 PureView as a whole, you see a well-balanced mid-range device that performs decently. Sure, it’s not the flashiest phone out there, and if you ask me, it’s a bit overpriced for its spec sheet in 2019. But all in all, you’ll do okay with it.

What’s even better is that I haven’t managed to find a bunch of reported issues with the Nokia 9 PureView yet. Sure, it’s still ‘young’, so we can attribute the lack of reported problems to the fact that not too many people own this device yet. Nevertheless, the number of complaints is respectably low, even for the early stage of its lifecycle.

So, if you were unfortunate enough to face any of the following issues, keep reading this article for solutions (or at least to understand the situation better).

Table of contents:

1. Fingerprint not working
2. Screen rotation not working
3. OK Google not working
4. Camera crashes
5. Microphone not working

Note: All the issues mentioned in this article are individually reported cases, and they might never occur on other devices. If you’re looking to buy this phone, and stumbled upon this article while researching it, DON’T take these problems into consideration.

1. Fingerprint not working

The fingerprint scanner has been making the most troubles for the PureView users so far. According to numerous reports, it seems Nokia didn’t do the best job when integrating the fingerprint scanner. Namely, the phone requires too much finger pressure to scan the fingerprint. And pressing the screen too hard countless times every day is definitely not going to add up to the phone’s life span.

On top of the technical problems, users have been reporting that the fingerprint scanner doesn’t even work sometimes. However, there’s a solution to this. If you restored a backup when setting up the phone, instead of setting it as new, it’s possible that some of your old apps interfere with the scanner.

So, boot into the Safe Mode, and start investigating. Sure, it’s painful to uninstall each app individually, but at least you’ll deal with the fingerprint sensor failures.

2. Screen rotation not working

Screen rotation failure is another issue reported on Nokia’s support forums. As one user points out, the screen fails to rotate most of the time, which drastically limits the functionality of this phone, especially when it comes to taking pictures in the landscape mode.

Unfortunately, we still don’t have the workaround for this issue. Perhaps the development team will address with some future updates. So, what can I say? You’ll probably have to wait for the patch.

3. OK Google not working

Google Assistant issues are common for all Android devices, not just the Nokia 9 PureView. However, it seems that the 9 Pureview owners have more problems with this feature than they should.

Numerous reports are popping up on the support forums about OK Google not working. Right now, there’s no solution to this issue. However, one user pointed out on the forums that the whole Nokia network seems to have the problem with Google Assistant. So, you’ll probably have to wait for either Google or Nokia to deliver a workaround.

4. Camera crashes

The camera is, of course, the Nokia 9 PureView’s main selling point. It’s amazing what you can achieve with this five-lens setup. But what if the Camera app crashes? Then you’re deprived of the feature you basically bought the phone for.

Well, that’s exactly what happens to some users. The camera app crashes upon opening, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

On the positive side, Nokia already acknowledged this problem and promised a solution.

Thank you for the feedback. Few notes:
– With more users out there, we’ve seen a few camera crashes due to battery voltage drop when charge is low. We will address this
– Under the display FP sensor has limitations. We will improve the experience. We also have face unlock

— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) March 13, 2019

So, if you haven’t already received the patch, just keep checking for updates, and you’ll get it soon.

5. Microphone not working

And the last ‘serious’ problem I managed to find is the microphone issue. According to some users, the microphone just doesn’t seem to work. This problem could also be connected to the above-mentioned Google Assistant issue.

Unfortunately, there’s no solution, as it could easily be a hardware problem. And if you suspect it’s a hardware problem, all you can do really is trading in your phone for the new one.

That’s about it. As you can see, there aren’t too many reported issues with the Nokia 9 PureView yet. That, of course, is good, but even a single slight issue can spoil the feeling of using a new phone.

If you’ve recently encountered a problem I didn’t mention here, feel free to write it down in the comments below.