A7SII Viewfinder/Monitor "Auto" stopped working

[cotton]

When my display settings are set to "Auto" yet the "Auto" doesn't seem to be working at all. Visuals stay in the Viewfinder unless I switch to "Monitor (Manual)" in which case the monitor works. I've cleaned the viewfinder, but to no avail.

 

I saw one other thread on this, but it didn't really elaborate on anything. Anyone else have this issue? If so, were you able to fix without sending to Sony? Thanks in advance.

[adwb]

Carefully remove the rubber eyecup on the view finder, you will see a tiny "window" above the view finder, this is the sensor and if it has dirt on it it thinks it's your eye that's stopping the light.

Take a cotton bud or something small and soft and clean the little window

[cotton]

Indeed, a Q-tip got the job done! I also decided to set my keys to custom so I can manually switch back and forth. 

[woodpicman]

Cleaning the eyepiece solved that issue for me thanks adwb. But I haven't found a way for my a7II to set a custom key to switch between monitor and viewer. All I can find is 'deactivate monitor'.  Perhaps you have a solution

[adwb]

sorry there is no button option A.F.I.K

[suren]

Thanks adwb, such a great solution for which sony support asked me to reset , update firmware and then if nothing happened got for repair and i checked for near by centre but then just checked forum and such a easy but very important solution. Thanks a lot my camera works fine now. 

[wgb]

This worked with my A7r4 too. Thanks indeed for the tip!