Your Android device may display this error when the camera has been in use for a long period of time or when there is too many running processes consuming a memory which should be intended for taking photos.
Therefore, in addition to closing all the apps that are running in the background from the multitasking of your Android, when the camera has stopped workingrestarting the app that we use to take photos and record videos is the best way to solve it quickly.
Simply, we will have to force its closure from the phone settings. To do this, follow this path:
- Open the Settings app
- Select Apps & notifications
- Press the three dots button in the upper right corner
- Select See all apps
- Locate the Camera app
- Click on Force Stop
But don’t go too far. Since we’re here, let’s clear all app data that can make it not work as it should and every time we try to open it we find the same problem.
- Reopen the Settings app
- Select Apps & notifications
- Press the three dots button in the upper right corner
- Select See all apps
- Find the Camera app
- Click on the Storage menu
- Select Clear data and Clear cache
This should leave the camera app as new and eliminate any bug that prevents you from taking photos as well as recording videos with your Android smartphone.
The camera does not open
However, beyond an error message, it can also happen that the camera does not openopen and close immediately or freeze.
All these problems have the same solution and the first is to try to force the app to stop and delete its data as we have just explained to you on these lines. But, if you can’t even fix the error with those, there are a good number of solutions that you should try on your device.
Switch off the mobile phone
The first thing you can do is restart the phone. But not by pressing the relevant button on the mobile, but turning it off directly and leaving it without power for about 5 minutes. Doing so will remove any static charge from the phone that can cause these glitches and reset the device so that any temporary glitches are gone.
Once the device reboots, open the camera app to see if it works fine. If after doing it you see that it’s still the same, don’t worry, there are more things we can do.
check the permissions
The app we use to take photos will crash o It will automatically close when you open it if it doesn’t have permission to access the camera hardware, just like other apps that don’t have access. So please check if you have accidentally denied the permission and re-enable it as follows:
- Open the Settings app on your Android phone.
- Go to Applications
- Select See all apps
- Scroll down until you find your Camera app
- Select Permissions
- Grant the appropriate access permissions
free memory
Having the smartphone as clean inside as it is outside is essential for everything to go smoothly. Otherwise, if we have a lot of garbage inside the equipment, it will never work well, and the camera will suffer the same fate.
Android phones require a certain amount of unoccupied storage to provide trouble-free operation. This is usually 10% of the total space on the device, so if you have less than this amount, consider starting to erase things.
All you have to do is open the Storage menu that you can locate within the Settings app and see which applications take up the most space, which files consume the memory of your mobile and, in short, what you can delete to win more memory on the computer. Similarly, you can use the cleaning tools that usually accompany each layer of customization based on Google’s operating system.
Update the camera app
From good to first an app can start to crash without us doing anything. In these cases, instead of blaming the configuration of the device, the best thing you can do is ask yourself if it is the app itself that is malfunctioning.
You may have one waiting in the Android store update of the same that fixes these problems. Go to the Google Play Store and take a look to see if, when you search for your camera app using the store search engine, there is a new version available waiting to be downloaded and installed.
Update the operating system
If what fails is you system appsyou should also try to update the device software in case it includes a patch that eliminates these errors that prevent you from taking photos and videos with your Android.
Manufacturers regularly release software updates to add new features and fix any bugs or issues that suddenly appear on your phone, and if this is the case for you, it’s easy to see if there are any. new software waiting to be installed from mobile settings
- Open the Settings app
- Scroll down and click System or Phone info
- Find the Software Update options
- Check if there is any update available and install it
Use safe mode
In the event that an app that does not work correctly has been downloaded from an app store, it may be the culprit of the error even though it has nothing to do with the way we take photos with the mobile.
Safe mode disables all third-party apps and features to help you find problems by doing the following:
- Hold down the phone’s lock button
- In the pop-up menu, long press the shutdown or restart options
- Select reboot in Safe Mode.
- Accept to restart the mobile
When the mobile starts again, you will see that the bottom appears superimposed ‘Safe Mode’. Now it’s time to run the Camera app again to see if it works fine. If so, the problem is caused by one of the apps you recently installed, so we encourage you to uninstall them.
Repeat the process until, when you turn on the mobile normally, everything works without problems.
reset the phone
Unfortunately, we have reached the point that none of us wanted to reach. If everything we have tried in the previous steps fails, we have no choice but to return the phone to its initial state, which means that all the photos videos, files and applications that we have in the terminal, will disappear. For this reason, it is very important to make a backup beforehand and leave all our content safe, either in the cloud or on an external storage unit. Once you are sure that you have put everything safe, to perform a factory reset and leave the smartphone as if you took it out of its box for the first time, this is what you must do:
- Go to the Settings app
- Select the System menu or Advanced/Additional Settings
- Look for reset options
- Tap on Wipe all data / Factory reset
- Confirm the operation with the security code
Wait for the mobile to turn off, configure it again from scratch and, when you have reached the home screen, check if the camera opens.
To technical service
If after restoring the smartphone the application continues to crash. It seems that there is no other option but to take the phone to be fixed. If the problem has arisen within the first two years of purchase, don’t worry, since this failure is covered by the phone’s warranty and you just have to contact the manufacturer to tell you where and how. take the mobile to fix.
In the event that your smartphone is a few years old, you should take it to a technical support to detect if the lenses are damaged, the motherboard, or other components that prevent us from taking photos and recording videos with the smartphone. This repair will cost around 150 euros, so it may be worth it to buy a new mobile… and with a better camera.
Use other camera apps
Before carrying out the previous two steps, that is, formatting the phone or taking it to be fixed, we must take into account that we may be suffering from an application incompatibility. For example, gcamit will not work with all mobiles due to a series of requirements that the processor must meet.
That is why it never hurts to try one of the many camera apps that Google Play Store puts at your disposal. If it also fails with them, even having tried the previous solutions, then you can restore the mobile and take it to repair.
In our opinion, these are the 3 most interesting:
Pro Cam X
This is an app that we have recommended on countless occasions given the excellent results that it manages to generate, both at the level of photography and video. The bad thing is that it is not free.
Among its most important features we have a series of exposure settings such as manual ISO, white balance and shutter speed, which give us much more control than what is provided, by default, by the standard camera that we have installed in the team.
These can also help you achieve slow shutter speed effects, such as light trails and motion-blurred water effects. Its focus system is one of the fastest and most versatile in the entire app market.
Footej Camera 2
Since the above app is a paid app, you probably don’t want to download it for just a trial. In that case, one of the best alternatives that you can find in the Play Store is this camera app.
The application brings together in one place professional functions that we can expect from an application of this type, with a streamlined and easy-to-use interface that is not as cluttered as PRO CAM X, making it more accessible to more ‘casual’ users.
It also includes the usual manual controls like ISO, shutter speed, and white balance settings, and supports video formats. high resolution as RAW.
open-camera
A application to take photos and record videos very practical if you want to use accessories such as an external microphone. With it you will be able to discover everything that your camera module is capable of, since it is optimized with all the possible functions, but ready to be used in a quite simple way.
It has many features that any hobbyist may need. Photography such as manual or automatic focus, exposure control, manual white balance, color compensation, altering the full manual exposure time, shooting in RAW format or consulting the histogram of the shot.