GoPro 12 shuts down without any warning at random moments

[gopodgopod]

GoPro 12 Random Shutdowns (Not Overheating) – Issue Persists After Camera Replacement

Background

I have been using GoPro cameras since the HERO 3+ and I know how to set them up properly for my needs. Starting with the HERO 11, I have been shooting exclusively in Hindsight mode. My shooting style is to turn the camera on at the start of the day and keep it ready until I either need to change the battery or finish filming.

To keep the camera always ready, I set HSTO = 1440 (I use it for fishing, so I never know exactly when I will need to start recording).

My Overheating Prevention Setup

• Wi-Fi off
• 24 fps recording
• Both screens off
• Other unnecessary features disabled

With this setup, I have never had overheating issues — not with the HERO 11 and not with the HERO 12, from the day the HERO 11 was released until today.

The Problem

Symptoms:

• No beep, no on-screen message
• When I press the shutter button, nothing happens
• The camera will not power on after pressing the power button
• I have to remove it from the mount, take out the battery, and reinstall it to get it working again

Key Observations

1. When the camera is completely stationary (on a tripod, in a fridge, etc.), it can record for several hours without issues
2. When mounted on my chest harness, it becomes unpredictable and can shut down at any moment
3. Sometimes it shuts down during recording and fails to save the file
4. I initially thought it was a defective unit, but after replacing my HERO 12 with a new one, the issue remains

My Current Setup

• Camera settings: (attached screenshots)
• SD card: (details attached)

Conclusion

This issue is not related to overheating or incorrect settings. I strongly suspect it may be firmware or software related, since my HERO 11 worked perfectly under identical conditions. I would really like to continue using GoPro instead of switching to another brand, so I hope this can be resolved.

[dnewman-gpsw]

HSTO means the camera is recording constantly, it will likely thermally overload without active cooling, or at least require cold environment. No Labs feature comes with any guarantee, they are just experiments, many pushing the camera beyond the normal operation limits. I expect if you look at the log files (look in MISC/qrlog.txt) you will see that the camera either overheated, or crashed due the prolonged capture section.

[gopodgopod]

As I wrote above, I mounted the camera on a tripod and recorded stationary and continuously in a room where the temperature was over 25°C. Everything worked perfectly. I also placed the camera in the fridge to prevent overheating, and even in Hindsight mode it worked without any issues. In both cases, the camera operated without problems for the duration of three batteries.

However, as soon as I used the same camera in the same room but mounted it on a chest harness and walked around with it, the camera could randomly shut down. The only thing that helped was removing and reinserting the battery.

The log does not record anything about overheating. The only potentially related entry is {[2025-08-09 19:50:05 --% ] silent:shutdown}, which appears at random moments.

P.S. As I mentioned earlier, this issue did not occur with the GoPro 11. Initially, I thought it was a problem with the camera itself. It is possible that the battery is losing contact with the terminals or that something inside is poorly soldered. However, I strongly doubt this could happen on two different cameras. My guess is that there might be some kind of settings conflict — but that’s just my opinion.

[dnewman-gpsw]

This is helpful, as BITR is not compatible with HSTO, and I also wouldn't use NR01=1 with hindsight. Try without those.

[gopodgopod]

"wouldn't use NR01=1 with hindsight" - Can you write more about why that is?

[dnewman-gpsw]

Hindsight is recording and compressing into a circular buffer, the size of the buffer is limited, this is why BITR can't be used. The camera needs the bit-rate for the limited buffer size to be predictable, NR01 makes it much less so. It makes sense that a stationary camera might work, and camera in motion could fail, as the bit-rate can spike unpredictably (with BITR/NRO1) so that you would overflow the buffer.

[gopodgopod]

Got it. That makes sense. Today I also noticed that one bitrate was on the tripod and much higher on the footage shot while I was walking in the forest. For now, I’ll keep HSTO and NRO1 as they worked on the GoPro 11, and everything was great. I’ll keep monitoring it. I really hope to solve this problem.

Thank you for your help!