How to fix a GoPro HERO10/HERO9 from Constantly Rebooting

The Issue

GoPro HERO10 and now the HERO9 has a critical software flaw that can "brick" the camera. We informed GoPro Inc. about this flaw in December. We got confirmation of receipt from them but it took until March to get any kind of traction.

It was poorly fixed, and now there is a new bug which is making the GoPro HERO9 unstable.

UPDATE: Should be fixed in latest releases. HERO10 v.1.42 , HERO9 v1.72

GoPro HERO10

If you connect more than six different devices to your GoPro HERO10, the camera will continuously resets on its own. Be warned, your friend who wirelessly downloads footage on to their phone using GoPro Quik counts towards this total. For this reason, skydivers are starting to see this bug a lot! 

Be sure to reset your connections often.

GoPro HERO9

If you have multiple BLE connections and then upgrade your camera to v1.70 firmware, after 8 hours your camera will green screen then reboot. This is being called the GoPro Green Screen of Death. I believe this is the cause, but GoPro is absolutely horrible on letting their customers know what is the root cause of issues.  

To prevent this error from occurring, be sure to reset your connections before updating to 1.70. This is difficult as most use their phone to update their camera.

GoPro HERO9 Fix: The factory_reset.txt portion of the HERO10 fix should be all you need to do to get your camera to work.

TLDR; Just put this factory_reset.txt file on your card and plug it into the camera. You may need to do this twice. 

This is a ticking time bomb for GoPro.

It's an easy fix for cameras that are fresh from the factory, but for us who actually use them, the process is extensive. This is also why I'm assuming GoPro Inc. hasn't taken this issue seriously (up to this point April 2022). My guess is engineers are testing with sterile cameras, the same BLE device, or using the same sequence each time.

If you're curious how the camera crashes when you've reach this limit, watch the following video.
Fortunately, the explained process will fix this endless loop. Unfortunately, there are many steps. For many of our cameras, updating or using the "factory_reset.txt" trick does not work. 

Requirements

• You'll need a card reader and a computer.
  Smart devices may work but you'll need a standard text editor like the following: 
     Mac: TextEdit
     Win: Notepad
     Linux: Whatever you want
• Skills to Copy, Rename, and Modify text files
• Obviously this only works with the GoPro HERO10

Overview
(skip if you don't care)

We first put the camera in a mostly factory reset state. This gets the timing correct so we can run our exploit. Unfortunately, the "factory_reset.txt" does not reset the necessary cache of Bluetooth addresses. 

In order to run this script, we need the camera's WiFi password. We determine this by extracting the camera's logs & configuration. Once we have these files, we manually copy the password. From there, we modify the gpauto file which will kick off our script.

Preparation

• Using a card reader, extract the contents of the zip file directly onto your micro SDcard.
  
  

You should see the contents on the root of the card as above.

• Eject the card once you verify the contents.

Factory Reset

• Remove the battery from your GoPro HERO10.
• Place the card into the GoPro HERO10. Insert the battery. The camera will power on on it's own.
• You should see the welcome GoPro "Splash Screen." If not, start over.
• The camera will reset on it's own. Let it sit for 15 seconds. If it no longer resets after the initial reset, congrats, you're done.
  Your camera is one of the lucky ones. You'll have to set up your settings again, but at least your camera is no longer bricked. 

• Otherwise, keep on following the instructions...

Check for log files

• Remove the battery and card from the camera.
• Using a card reader, place the card into your computer. In File Explorer/FileManager check to see if the following file exists.<CARD>\MISC\logs\logs_00\linux\fuse_b\conf.json
  (A slash designates a folder)
• If it does, skip the next step and go to the "Extract Password from logs" step.

Create Logs

• Otherwise, place the card back into your camera, then the battery.
• Important: Do not power on right away. Wait about 6 seconds!!!!
• Press the mode (side button to power it on)
• Pull the battery right when the screen goes black.
• You can redo these steps if you get the sequence wrong. 

Extract the Camera's WiFi Password from the Logs

• Remove the card and insert it into your computer.
• Run Notepad(Windows) or TextEdit(Mac) and open the file <CARD>\MISC\logs\logs_00\linux\fuse_b\conf.json
  (A slash designates a folder)
• If this file does not exist, redo the "Create Logs" steps. The 6 seconds wait after battery install is important.
• In the text file, find the heading "User Configuration" and item "passphrase"
• Copy the value. It is case sensitive and we do not want the quotes.
  For instance,
  "passphrase": "ZBZ-cTX-tRH",
  We want to copy the value ZBZ-cTX-tRH

Modify gpauto

• Within Notepad or TextEdit open the file named '_gpauto' on the card. You do not need to save conf.json if prompted. 
  Note: You may need to change the file extension to *.* to see all files.
• Replace the value 'Rep-lac-eMe' with the value copied from the previous file ie. 'ZBZ-cTX-tRH'.
• Save this file.
• Rename the file _gpauto to gpauto 
• Many text editors put a .txt extension at the end of the file so be sure to rename it in the file manager versus saving the file in the editor. 
• Now eject the card and place it in your camera.

Apply Patch

• Insert the battery, wait until you see the red light blink once then press the mode button on the side.
• You may hear a different beep than normal after a few seconds.
• It should now boot up as normal after a reset.
• If not:
  1. Try this sequence over again. 
  2. Ensure the password matches exactly as within conf.json. I recommend using copy/paste within your text editor.

Files

Hypoxic_debrick_GoPro_HERO10_v1.0.zip

Support

Sorry, I can't personally help out every one with support. If you contact GoPro Inc. you should be able to RMA your camera. My suggestion is to ask a friend to go through all the steps again. If that fails, contact GoPro for assistance. 

I'm available for paid consulting if necessary but it will cost you more than a new camera. In other words, I am not GoPro Support and have no affiliation with them. In fact...

DISCLAIMER

This product and/or service is not affiliated with, endorsed by or in any way associated with GoPro Inc. or its products and services. GoPro, HERO, and their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of GoPro, Inc.

Thank you,
-Trunk