7d battery can't communicate with camera

[adamcohn]

Hey everyone,

I have two batteries for my 7D and both of them trigger the "unable to communicate with battery" error when I put a charged battery in the camera.

I did some searching and found the YouTube video "Canon 7D "cannot communicate with battery" error Online Repair it yourself" which shows a loose/dropped screw can cause this issue. I opened up my camera and the screw was a-OK already. So I have reassembled the camera and the issue persists.

Typically, I don't turn off the camera via the switch: more often I just allow it to turn itself off after the delay. Now, with this battery communication issue, the batter drains much faster, presumably a related issue.

Does anyone have any other solutions for the issue?

Thanks!

Adam

[Waddizzle]

How old are the batteries?  Are these existing batteries, which just started this issue? 

Are you using Canon batteries?  It is critical that you do use genuine Canon batteries.  Some third party batteries may fail to communicate with the camera, and the camera cannot, or may not, report the charge on them.

[adamcohn]

The batteries are a couple years old. Both are genuine Canon batteries, and both are used about equally. That said, I'd be surprised if both happened to fail at the exact same time.

[Waddizzle]

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@adamcohn wrote:

The batteries are a couple years old. Both are genuine Canon batteries, and both are used about equally. That said, I'd be surprised if both happened to fail at the exact same time.

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It is highly unlikely for two battery packs to independently fail at approximately the same time.  I assume that you are not using a battery grip, particularly a non-Canon battery grip. Some grips hinder communication with the batteries in some way.

It seems that a call to Canon U.S. Support at 1-800-OK-CANON is the best  course of action.

[adamcohn]

Yeah, you are correct that I am not using a battery grip. I'll see if I can find a friend with another Canon battery, just to confirm, but I think you are right that I might need to call Canon. Thanks for the help!

[RobertTheFat]

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@adamcohn wrote:

Yeah, you are correct that I am not using a battery grip. I'll see if I can find a friend with another Canon battery, just to confirm, but I think you are right that I might need to call Canon. Thanks for the help!

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It may not be germane in this case, but the communication between a 7D and its batteries can be much more elaborate than merely that the batteries need charging. A 7D can keep track of which batteries have been used in it and for how long. I believe it can even recommend which battery you should use next and which batteries are at risk of failure. So a breakdown in communication between camera and battery can potentially have a number of possible explanations and consequences.

I've never used those features much in my 7D's, probably because they tend to lose their validity if a battery is used in more than one camera.

[adamcohn]

Wow, I had no idea these features existed! I'll have to search to figure out how to access them!