I’ve been there way too many times. You turn on your camera ready for a good session and the camera just doesn’t turn on.
Not great.
From our experience, there are quite a few different reasons why your Canon EOS 70D won’t turn on and each one has a different solution.
Some of the fixes are easier than others, but this post should cover every scenario where your Canon 70D is not turning on.
We spent hours looking at different videos, forums and websites to find the solutions so you don’t have to.
By the end of this post, you will know:
- What to do next so you can fix your camera
- Who to go to to get your Canon 70D fixed if the solution is more technical
Table of Contents
1. Dirty Batteries or Battery Compartment
If your batteries are dirty then your camera may not turn on because the metal contacts that are used for power transfer can’t work effectively.
The same applies if there is dirt in your battery compartment on the camera.
Solution:
Make sure that the metal contacts on your batteries are clear of dirt so that your batteries can properly transfer power to the camera.
Use a blower that you would find in a camera cleaning kit to blow away any dust or dirt from the battery.
Also, use the blower to blow into the battery compartment on your Canon 70D to dislodge any dust or dirt to let it fall out.
💡Tip: You can use a flashlight to see better inside the battery compartment.
Use a clean dry cloth to wipe away any excess dirt or grime from your battery.
Once your batteries are clean, try them again by inserting them into your camera to see if they work now.
2. Dead Battery
Here we are talking about dead batteries.
Not just batteries with no charge. We think you’re smart enough to know to check that your batteries are charged before looking at this post.
We mean batteries that do not work anymore even if you do try to recharge them.
Sometimes battery chargers will seem like they are charging the battery fine, but when you put the battery in your Canon 70D it still doesn’t work.
Solution:
If you or a friend have a similar camera that takes the same battery then try inserting your battery into the spare camera.
You could also just try a spare battery in your Canon 70D to see if it powers on.
If you don’t have a spare battery or a spare camera to test your battery in then you may have to purchase a new battery.
You could try to take it to a camera repair shop to see if they will let you try one of their batteries just to see if it works before purchasing a new battery.
The Canon 70D can use an LP-E6 / LP-E6N battery.
Below are links to an official Canon version as well as some third-party batteries that we have tested.
3. SD Card Door Sensor
Your battery might be fine, but the issue could be the SD card door.
The SD card door has a sensor that lets the camera know if the SD card door is shut.
If the camera thinks that the SD card door is open then the Canon 70D won’t power on.
Solution:
Take care when closing the SD card sensor so the SD card door shuts tight and snug.
Click on the video below and it will automatically play from the section showing you what we mean.
If this doesn’t seem to work for you, consider a different issue on this list.
4. Battery Door Switch (Most Likely Issue)
The Canon 70D will not turn on if the battery door is open.
It has a sensor so the camera knows if the battery door is open or not, so make sure that the battery door is shut tight.
You might have the battery door shut but the switch that toggles on or off might not be working correctly.
Sometimes it could be due to an accessory like a battery grip not fitting correctly (especially if it is a third-party battery grip).
Solution:
First, to test this you want to put a battery (that you know is working and charged) into your camera with the battery door open.
The camera should not power on if you tried.
You can try to move the switch manually using something small, but be very careful with this.
You don’t want to break anything here and make things worse!
If you can manage to toggle the switch and your camera now turns on, then it is the switch that has not been toggling to the open or closed position correctly.
The videos below demonstrate this. Just click play on the video and they will start playing from the relevant section.
Video 1: Battery Door Switch
Video 2: Battery Door Switch
You can either try to fix it yourself like in the videos or take it to a camera repair shop or Canon Service Center to get them to assess and repair the battery door switch.
Canon will probably charge you a lot of money for this though.
5. The Detox Method
There are times when you accidentally leave the camera switched on for a long time and the battery drains all the way to zero.
When this happens it can also ‘lock up’ your camera, requiring you to do a reset which tends to free it back up to be used.
There are 2 solutions to this, we’ll call them solution A and solution B where solution B is a continuation of solution A.
Solution A
- Take the battery out.
- Take the lens off (put the cover back on the camera so the sensor isn’t exposed, we don’t recommend just leaving it exposed like in the video below).
- Take the SD card out.
- Wait 24 hours then put the battery and SD card back in and the lens back on.
- Try to turn the camera back on and see if it powers on (this may work about 40-50% of the time).
If it doesn’t work move on to solution B.
Solution B
Do the same as above in Solution A, but instead of using your existing SD card try to:
- Use a spare SD card.
- Format your current SD card if a spare SD card doesn’t work.
- If this still doesn’t work then you can try the same thing, but use a brand new SD card altogether.
Below is an SD card that works well with the Canon 70D:
Note: You can try a shortcut of the above solution by not waiting 24 hours. Instead, just wait 5-10 minutes before reattaching the lens and reinserting the memory card and battery. This works for some people.
6. Another Strange Fix
This seems similar to the previous solution but slightly different as you also try using a different lens.
Solution
In this example, you do the following.
- Make sure your camera is turned off.
- Remove the battery and memory card.
- Remove the lens.
- Wait 10-15 seconds.
- Insert a different memory card to the one you were using earlier.
- Attach a different lens to the one you were using earlier.
- Wait 10-15 seconds.
- Reinsert the battery.
- Try to turn the camera on now to see if it works.
Note: If you don’t have a spare lens, try to just turn the camera on while using a sensor cover attached instead of a lens.
The video below shows you how you would do this on a Canon 5D but it works for most Canon DSLRs and can apply to the 70D too.
7. Water Damage
If you’ve been in a particularly misty or humid place and were using your camera then you may have exposed it to water damage.
This can stop the camera from turning on.
Solution:
Leave your Canon 70D for a week or two and the moisture that has got inside should eventually dry up fully if it was only a small amount.
Try to keep it in a well-ventilated place that doesn’t have a lot of humidity.
Try to power your camera on as usual. If it turns on it is likely your camera was water damaged but the water dried up now.
You can either continue using it knowing the risk of it being water damaged.
Or you can send it to Canon to get it assessed/repaired properly to see if this will be an issue in the future.
8. Still Not Working?
If you’ve considered the rest of the issues above then the last thing you could do is just get Canon to have a look as it is likely to be an internal problem.
The problem could be something like a motherboard issue, a loose wire, a loose screw, or even water damage as we mentioned above.
Solution:
Get in touch with Canon so your camera can be assessed by a technician.
You can check out the support page for the Canon EOS 70D and go through the ‘contact us’ button.
Last time I checked they also had a live chat feature where you could select from different options to get help for your product.
One of the options was for ‘Camera Repair Information’ where you can find the nearest repair location and request a repair.
You can also try using the following links:
Alternatively, you can try a local camera repair shop if there is one near you. Give them a call to see if they would be able to help.
Conclusion
Hopefully, by now your Canon 70D is either working or it’s being sent away to be fixed so you can start taking amazing photos and videos again.
Useful links
- Camera cleaning kit
- Canon EOS 70D
- Official Canon LP-E6N Battery
- Third-Party LP-E6 / LPE6N Battery for Canon 70D
- Format your current SD card
- SanDisk 128GB Extreme SDXC UHS-I Memory Card
- Canon Repairs for the UK
- Canon Repairs for the USA
- Canon EOS 70D Support Page
Related Reading: