GoPro Starts Recording When I turn it on!

If you’ve been messing around in the settings menu of your GoPro Hero camera, you may have accidentally turned on ‘One Button Mode’. Your GoPro Camera may have actually arrived this way directly from the manufacturer. Don’t worry, your camera is not defective or broken! It is working after all right? One Button Mode is basically there for anyone who has never used a GoPro before or is not too familiar with all of the different settings. You must admit, it can get pretty confusing with all the menus and only 2 buttons.

In this mode, the GoPro starts recording automatically in the default power up mode when you turn the camera on.

The shutter button is disabled in one button mode. You must turn off the camera by holding the mode button to stop recording. That is the only way to stop.

So you might be saying, OK that’s great that my GoPro starts recording on its own and it’s not broken, but how do I turn it off?

To turn off one button mode, follow these instructions:

GoPro Original HD Hero: Turn on the camera (if it is in one button mode, the GoPro starts recording by itself). Press and hold the shutter button for about 2 minutes until it beeps a few times. Press the shutter button once more to enter the settings menu. The one button mode menu is the first menu that appears on the LCD. It should say onO. The last O basically tells you that one button mode is turned ON. Hit the shutter button once to toggle between having it on and off. It should now say onF. The F stands for OFF in this case. Hit the power/mode button a few times until ESC (escape) appears. Hit the shutter button to exit the settings menu. That’s it! You have successfully turned off one button mode on your Original GoPro HD Hero camera.

GoPro HD Hero 2: Turn on the camera (if it is in one button mode, the GoPro starts recording by itself). Press and hold the shutter button for 2 seconds until the settings icon appears (it looks like a wrench). Enter the settings menu by hitting the shutter button once more. Cycle through the menu options with the power/mode button until you see the 1 button icon (it should be the 8th option). Press the shutter button to enter the 1 button mode settings. Press the power/mode button once to turn this mode off. Hitting the power/mode button another time will turn it back on so make sure you only hit it once. Press the shutter mode to confirm the selection and then hit the power/mode button to cycle through the rest of the settings menu until you see the words exit on the LCD screen. Hit the shutter button to exit the menu. That’s it! You have successfully turned off one button mode on your GoPro HD Hero 2 camera.

With all that said, if you’re lending your camera to a friend who has no prior experience, having it set up so that the GoPro starts recording with one click of a button will make their lives much easier. Compare explaining all the different settings, fields of view, frame rates, modes and buttons versus: “push this button and the GoPro starts recording.”