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I have an existing application developed for Windows Phone 7, which uses CameraCaptureTask.

The captured image is returned back to the app, which will be processed for grayscale conversion.

While testing the same app (same binary to be precise) in Windows Phone 8 Lumia 920, I figured that a copy of all the images captured through the CameraCaptureTask are saved in "camera roll" folder.

This is a bit annoying as the users of my app are not expecting the captured images crowding the "camera roll" folder. I looked up the documentation http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/hh394006(v=vs.105).aspx and found the below quote,

On Windows Phone 8, if the user accepts a photo taken with the camera capture task, the photo is automatically saved to the phone’s camera roll. On previous versions of Windows Phone, the photo is not automatically saved.

So far I couldn't find a way to avoid this case in Windows Phone 8.

Is there a way to turn off this feature before calling the CameraCaptureTask's Show() method in Windows Phone 8?

Senthil
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2 Answers2

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No. This is a consumer feature request implemented on WP8 that's transparent to developers. The usecase here is that a consumer uses the CameraCaptureTask to line up a perfect shot, doesn't use it an app for whatever reason and can't find it ever again later.

As a side-note, I actually had this happen a few times to me when using various twitter and photo editing apps and it's quite annoying.

JustinAngel
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  • thanks for the insight, it came as a surprise to me and I'm working on an alternative approach. I'm planning to update this with the alternative post once I'm done. – Senthil Nov 29 '12 at 08:14
  • You can always use the raw Camera APIs if your temporary snapshots REALLY doesn't need to be saved. For example, that's what most Panorama stitching apps do nowadays. – JustinAngel Nov 29 '12 at 16:30
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    Thanks JustinAngel, that's exactly what I was looking looking into. Here is the link to the raw Camera APIs I'm planning to follow (its WP8 specific) http://www.developer.nokia.com/Resources/Library/Lumia/#!advanced-photo-capturing.html. – Senthil Nov 29 '12 at 17:03
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Makes no sense. CameraCaptureTask was created to allow apps to capture photos for the app use, not for users to push them into Camera Roll. That is what Lenses are for (either custom code can write into camera roll as well).

It is not transparent to developers because one of my apps has just been removed from the WP8 market. They say because can cause "undesired upload of an app photo to skydrive".

Justin are you sure it isn't a bug? is it going to be fixed?

This forces me to break my development into 2 now: WP7 and WP8. I don't want that hassle right now...

Jandieg
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