It’s no secret that we’re fans of the HTC One M8. It’s a gorgeous looking handset and offers unique features and qualities that make it stand out. But no matter how much we like it, it’s not a perfect device. Like all smartphones, it has its share of problems. We’ve found some of the most common issues with the HTC One M8 and have provided some possible solutions for you to try should you run into them.

A lot of people have had issues with the camera lens on the HTC One M8 getting scratched. Over time it can pick up so many scratches that it has an impact on the photos you are taking. The general consensus is that the scratching generally shows up on a special coating that’s an extra layer on top of the glass lens, possibly to reduce reflections or fingerprint smudges.

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Quite a few One M8 owners have run into a glitch where they plug their headphones in and the phone doesn’t recognize them. When they play music it continues to come out of the speakers and the headphone icon doesn’t appear on screen.

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Some people are panicking after their One M8 refuses to turn on, even though it should have power. They’ve tried plugging it into the charger and holding the power button, but to no avail. This is actually a common problem with smartphones and it’s usually easy to fix.

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A lot of M8 owners are suffering from lag and a bit of instability after the Android 5.0 Lollipop update. There are a couple of things worth trying.

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Your One M8 battery life is going to gradually decline, but some owners have found a rapid drain bug rearing its ugly head after updating the phone software. It’s highly likely this is down to a specific app.

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A few people are getting fed up because instead of vibrating a couple of times when a new notification comes in, like it used to, their One M8 is vibrating repeatedly unless they actually clear the notification. This problem is affecting people after upgrading to Android 5.0 Lollipop and luckily it’s really easy to fix.

Solution:

A number of people have found that the LED isn’t working on their new HTC One M8. It’s supposed to flash for notifications, such as a new email or a text message. Most people are reporting that it works for charging and low battery, by displaying orange or green, although it may be dim, but it isn’t flashing at all for notifications.

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A few One M8 owners have been complaining about low volume during calls. It may sound as though the other caller is whispering or leave you wondering whether they’ve hung up. This seems to be an issue even if the volume is turned up to maximum.

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Apparently a few HTC One M8 units have been booting into safe mode straight out of the box. You’ll know if yours is one of them because it will say “Safe mode” at the bottom left of the screen.

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A number of people have run into problems with the Wi-Fi on the HTC One M8. It may be refusing to connect, perhaps it drops and fails to reconnect automatically, or maybe it’s just running at a very slow speed compared to another device.

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One of the features that HTC trotted out in its announcement of the One M8 was an Extreme Power Saving mode. The mode would send the phone into an almost hibernation stage, only allowing through the most minimal of information and allowing the phone to stay alive for 15 hours on just 5 percent battery life. That mode is missing on some HTC One M8 handsets, an issue that has mostly plagued United States owners. The reason for this is because U.S. carriers are shipping a version of the smartphone that is running an earlier software version than the one with Extreme Power Saving.

Solution: Users without Extreme Power Saving will have to wait for a software update to arrive. The phone hasn’t been out for too long, but updates should start rolling out fairly soon. You can always check for system updates by going to Settings > Software Updates > Check Now. The HTC software version that includes Extreme Power Saving mode will be version 1.54.401.5 and up.

A fair number of HTC One M8 owners have reported an error message that occasionally displays on their phone that the SIM card has not been detected properly. This error often pops up at random and has been known to arise multiple times over the course of use with no real rhyme or reason.

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Some users have had a difficult time with the HTC keyboard. Specifically, some users find they are suddenly typing in entirely different languages. This isn’t so much a software problem as it is clumsy fingers or poor spacing on the keyboard itself, but it’s an annoyance either way.

Workaround:

Solution:

Some users have reported the HTC One M8 crashing during use. Those who has mentioned the problem have not noticed a pattern in usage to cause such an occurrence. The phone simply reboots on occasion without any prompting.

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Outside of the complaints about the quality of photos captured by the HTC One M8 — sorry, not much we can do about that one — there have been reports of the camera crashing during use in portrait mode. Some users have even reported that there are no issues with the camera in landscape, but changing orientations causes the HTC camera app to crash.

Solution:

This issues has been tracked to a specific app. LastPass, the popular password manager tool, has been causing the problem thanks to its latest update. The good news is you won’t have to delete the app or use a different photo app. They can live in harmony. Here’s what you’ll have to do:

By all accounts, this seems to do the trick.

Bluetooth is one of those problems that pops up with just about every phone, especially when it comes to trying to connect with a car. The HTC One M8 is no exception to the rule, and it has its own share of issues with Bluetooth connectivity. There are a lot of ways to break through these issues, including persistence, but here are some that seem to work.

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A handful of users have noticed that their HTC One M8 always appears to be roaming. This could be a concern for anyone who doesn’t want their cell bill to be incredibly high even though they are making calls from well within their region of service. This is a known bug and HTC promises that users seeing the roaming signal at all times are not being charged for roaming services.

Solution:

This comes down to a software update that should be on the way soon. To check and see if your HTC One M8 is up to date and has the latest firmware, go to Settings > Software Updates > Check Now

HTC provides its own apps for the HTC One M8, but some of those have been problematic for users. Specifically, the search function of the HTC email app doesn’t yield results in a timely manner and has trouble displaying messages.

Solution:

If you find yourself with this problem, you are likely a Yahoo mail user. Yahoo and the HTC mail app don’t seem to play nice together. The default values are incorrect. You can follow these steps, provided by Yahoo, to fix the problem:

If an error occurs throughout the process, try the following:

Despite the pretty screen on the HTC One M8, there have been some complaints about dead pixels — pixels that won’t light up — and stuck pixels — ones that are permanently on — with the displays. This can ruin the viewing experience for the One M8 user.

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The HTC One M8 isn’t just designed to be in your pocket on the go, but in your hand while you’re in the living room. An IR blaster in the device makes it capable of becoming your TV remote. But that’s assuming it works, which by the accounts of some users has not been the case. The error message “Unable to retrieve data” appears after attempting the setup process.

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If you’ve run into any other HTC One M8 problems or, even better, found a solution that isn’t listed, then please post a comment and share. You will also a lot of great advice over at the XDA Developers forum for the HTC One M8.

Article originally published on 4-22-2014. Updated on 3-31-2015 by Simon Hill: Reformatted and added problems with camera lens scratching, headphone not working, won’t turn on, lag after update, rapid battery drain, and repeated vibrations on notifications.