Many Android users have reported that a seemingly innocent photo of a glorious sunset was breaking their smartphones when they set it as their wallpaper. But no one really knew why till the photographer himself opened up about it.
The photo is that of a beautiful sunset against a cloudy sky, and has a lake and greenery in the foreground as well. It is not very different from other photos that you usually set as wallpapers.
Many reported that loading the picture as wallpaper was causing their handset to switch on and off repeatedly until a factory reset was performed – which erases all phone data.
Take a look here:
Android Customers Beware! Setting This Attractive Picture as The Wallpaper Will Render Your Cellphone Ineffective pic.twitter.com/YtB5lYLVH4
— tech news 365 (@technews3651) June 6, 2020
This beautiful image right here can kill your Android phone. DO NOT USE IT AS A WALLPAPER! pic.twitter.com/BZvOpeKiQs
— nemo👻 (@heycatpur) June 4, 2020
When the photo started going viral, a San Diego-based scientist and amateur photographer, Gaurav Agrawal, reached out to the BBC. He took the photo at St Mary Lake in Glacier National Park, Montana in 2019 where he had gone with his wife. Describing it as a magical evening, Agrawal used his Nikon camera to take the photograph.
Agrawal said he took the picture with his Nikon camera and later uploaded it on Flickr after editing it on software called Lightroom.
Tech reporters and bug specialists revealed that it was due to ‘colour space’ that phones were crashing.
As per the findings, Lightroom gives a limited number of colour-mode options for exporting the finished result. And the one Agrawal chose for his picture, did not seem to sit well with most Android 10 and Google pixel phones as they did not know how to display the colours properly.
