I had a problem recently with my Sony A7R. The camera would continually revert back to the settings I had used a week prior, no matter what I did. For example, I turn the camera on, change the shutter speed and ISO, take a few pictures, then turn the camera off. When I turn the camera back on, it’s suddenly back to using settings that I was using a week ago! Not only that, but the camera would take forever to turn on, similar to how the camera acts when you replace the batteries. If you also have this problem, I figured out the fix, but you won’t like it…
After swapping out batteries, pulling out the SD card, and generally doing everything I could think of to get the camera “unstuck” I finally went with the last resort: the fix that worked for me was to reset the camera back to all the default settings. Yuck. But, fortunately, this worked for me. If you are also having this problem and want to try this as a solution, here’s what to do:
1. Hit the “Menu” button on the back of the camera and go to the last option along the top row, then go to option 6.
2. Scroll down and push the “Setting Reset” button as shown below (use the center button on the wheel to select the option).
3. Scroll down and choose “Initialize” as shown below. The camera will revert back to how it was when you first took it out of the box, all the way back to asking you the time and date. That means any custom button options you are using will be reset, all of your camera customization will be wiped out, any saved wifi passwords will be gone and all your downloaded apps will be removed. You’ll need to sign back in to the Sony PlayMemories store to reinstall your apps. Like I said, you won’t like the fix. Any firmware updates you’ve applied are not affected, fortunately.
I hope this helps anyone else who might have this problem. I did some searching when it happened to me, and I didn’t find much info on this particular anomaly. The solution is unfortunate, as I had my camera set up just the way I liked it, and after the setting reset I’m still finding little tweaks here and there that I’m having to redo. The issue might have been caused by the fact that I’m using a third party battery grip along with third party batteries, though I’m not 100% certain of that. Hope this helps anyone with this issue!
