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[Q] Front and Back Camera and LED stopped working after screen replacment

Hi, I'm having an issue with my Nexus 5 which is that the front and back cameras as well as the back LED no longer seem to function. This happens in the stock Camera app where as soon as it is opened, an 'Unfortunately, Camera has stopped.' message comes up and blackness is shown. This also happens in third party apps such as Snapchat where the message 'Snapchat was unable to open the camera. You may need to restart your device ' comes up. In addition, upon attempting to use Tesla LED, the back facing LED does not turn on.
The likely cause that I can see is the recent screen replacement that took place. I ordered this[1] online which came with a new set of cameras as well as a new screen. I took the motherboard, battery and rear case from the old phone and attached them to the new set of cameras and the new screen.
After performing the replacement, everything else worked except the cameras and the LED.
Upon seeing the issue, I tried swapping out the new rear facing camera (that came with the screen replacement) for the old rear facing camera that was in the old phone (the camera still worked before the replacement). After swapping the rear camera the issue was unchanged.
I have tried the following in terms of software fixes:
-Other camera applications - they crash or are black
-Clear cache and application data for the stock camera app - no effect
-Change to ART - no effect
I would greatly appreciate any help or advice that you can offer.

I'd reinstall stock rom and gapps, if they still don't work you know it's a hardware problem for sure. Then troubleshoot from there.

Lokke9191 said:
I'd reinstall stock rom and gapps, if they still don't work you know it's a hardware problem for sure. Then troubleshoot from there.
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I factory reset the device and tried the default Google Apps, still having the same issues.
Any suggestions for hardware trouble shooting?

bhtp said:
I factory reset the device and tried the default Google Apps, still having the same issues.
Any suggestions for hardware trouble shooting?
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Click to collapse
As for hardware trouble shooting, being that you know the original cameras worked, all you can do is check the connections . I'd unplug them and plug them back in.
I'd also try flashing the 4.4 stock camera zip and see if that works.

Lokke9191 said:
As for hardware trouble shooting, being that you know the original cameras worked, all you can do is check the connections . I'd unplug them and plug them back in.
I'd also try flashing the 4.4 stock camera zip and see if that works.
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Click to collapse
I tried reattaching all of the physical connections and that did not seem to make a difference.
In regards to flashing the 4.4 stock camera zip, would you be able to give me a little guidance as to how that process would occur?
Thanks so much for your help so far.

You'd need to root, install a custom recovery (twrp), use titanium backup to uninstall camera. Then boot into your custom recovery and install the camera zip.

Lokke9191 said:
You'd need to root, install a custom recovery (twrp), use titanium backup to uninstall camera. Then boot into your custom recovery and install the camera zip.
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Click to collapse
Sorry for such a long response time.
I updated the phone to 4.4.3.
Interestingly the back facing camera appears to have started working. The default camera application still fails to open, but when I use another application (Snapchat) and have it set to try the backfacing camera first, everything seems to work ok. However, when I switch to front facing the application says that it can't find the camera.
In addition, the back facing LED has begun to work again as well.
Previously, I had switched out the new rear facing camera (that came with the casing) for the old rear facing camera hoping that it might changes things. I recognize retrospectively that my method of testing was flawed as it seems as though regardless of whether one of the cameras is/was working the application would not open.
Hoping that the replacement of the rear facing had caused it to start working, I swapped out the new front facing camera for the old one. Upon testing, the issues with the front facing camera seem to persist.
At this point I'm not sure how to proceed. The lack of functionality of both front facing cameras (the old and the new) would seem to suggest an issue with the connector on the motherboard if the problem were hardware based. I'm not sure, though, if the problem could somehow be in software.
One software phenomenon that I observed is that as soon as I try to use the front facing camera, the back facing camera stops working again requiring the application to be reset. This occurrence has led me to question the causation between the update and the new functionality. It is possible that in my testing of the device before the update, I had simply been opening the front facing camera and upon seeing it fail, and trying the back facing camera and seeing it fail (because I had tried the front facing camera), that I assumed it was not working.
If you have any recommendations on how to proceed I would greatly appreciate hearing them. If not then thanks for all your help.

bhtp said:
Sorry for such a long response time.
I updated the phone to 4.4.3.
Interestingly the back facing camera appears to have started working. The default camera application still fails to open, but when I use another application (Snapchat) and have it set to try the backfacing camera first, everything seems to work ok. However, when I switch to front facing the application says that it can't find the camera.
In addition, the back facing LED has begun to work again as well.
Previously, I had switched out the new rear facing camera (that came with the casing) for the old rear facing camera hoping that it might changes things. I recognize retrospectively that my method of testing was flawed as it seems as though regardless of whether one of the cameras is/was working the application would not open.
Hoping that the replacement of the rear facing had caused it to start working, I swapped out the new front facing camera for the old one. Upon testing, the issues with the front facing camera seem to persist.
At this point I'm not sure how to proceed. The lack of functionality of both front facing cameras (the old and the new) would seem to suggest an issue with the connector on the motherboard if the problem were hardware based. I'm not sure, though, if the problem could somehow be in software.
One software phenomenon that I observed is that as soon as I try to use the front facing camera, the back facing camera stops working again requiring the application to be reset. This occurrence has led me to question the causation between the update and the new functionality. It is possible that in my testing of the device before the update, I had simply been opening the front facing camera and upon seeing it fail, and trying the back facing camera and seeing it fail (because I had tried the front facing camera), that I assumed it was not working.
If you have any recommendations on how to proceed I would greatly appreciate hearing them. If not then thanks for all your help.
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Any updates mate? Did you made it work ?
I opened my nexus to fix the gps. Everything worked fine, until suddenly gps stopped working. I opened again, remove the fix, still the same.
Then my camera stopped working as well. "Cannot connect to camera" or something like this it gave me.
I've updated from 4.4.4 kitkat to android L latest build, and gps works but the camera app crashes, as well as any other camera on market ( either black screen or crash ).
Any help for me ?
Any answer it will be appreciated.

Same exact issue with front facing camera after glass replacement. Anybody find a fix yet?

[Q] Camera and lamp won't open

Hi everyone, I've look everywhere and I'm kind of desperate now
So, I've had my nexus 5 since it came out here in Europe, never had an unsolvable issue (thanks to the internet), but right now I'm stuck
MY PROBLEM :
One day (just like this, I don't remember doing anything special with my phone), the camera completely stopped working, along with the lamp.
DETAILS ABOUT THE PROBLEM (The situation right now) :
1. Camera doesn't show up in the application drawers
2. It DOES show up in Settings/Applications, and in "My applications" tab from Google Play, but I cannot open it in any way. When I could, however, it would just crash away.
3. I am also unable to access the stock lamp from anywhere (quick settings, etc.)
THE INITIAL SITUATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM :
1. I was running CM12.1 (nightlies) on my Nexus 5, and I beieve it occured after an update, but I don't believe it really has much to do with it. When I tried to open the camera, it would show me "unable to get a link with the camera" (translation may not be exact) and the system lamp had disappeared
2. I tried to downgrade the phone, to an earlier nightly, but it didn't fix it.
3. I've donne every kind of wipes : Data, Dalvik, Cache, even Internal Storage
4. After a full Internal Storage Wipe, I reflashed fresh Marshmallow images from the official website, unrooted, reflashed stock recovery, relocked the bootloader and used the system factory reset again on my phone.
5. After this, the problem changed a little bit. The lamp is still impossible to find, but however this time the camera is too. What I mean is, on CM, it used to show up and crash, now I can't find it in the app drawer (See DETAILS ABOUT THE PROBLEM)
I think that's all, so yeah, this one is kind of a challenge.
If the solution is software... Well i really dont know what I could try else; if it's hardware, I'm not afraid to open up my phone. (however I'm a complete noob)
One last thing, I've contacted Google, but the phone they sent me back was in such a bad state that I'm keeping mine (or getting them to send me an other), because the power button was really used, and the lowest part of the screen really "white" (brighter than the rest, my guess was it had fallen)
Thank you very much !

Hi, looks like we have the same problem. Unfortunately I have no solution for you, either. I have ordered a new rear camera from ebay that should show up here end of January. I'll let you know if that fixed the problem.

As you can see from my recent post, I am also having the same problem. I have also order a replacement rear camera from ebay and I fitted it. It worked for one day and then it also stopped working. I am not sure whether it is worth repeating this experiment or I'd just be wasting money on replacement cameras. So annoying, because, apart from the camera (and the torch), the rest of the phone functionalities are still perfectly fine.

Has anyone tried to use a different camera or torch app?
Sent from my Nexus 5

ShapesBlue said:
Has anyone tried to use a different camera or torch app?
Sent from my Nexus 5
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Of course.

maurimauri29 said:
Of course.
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That's odd then. It seems like you've done nearly everything that should of been done. I'm at a loss for words here
Sent from my Nexus 5

Nexus 5 Back Camera not Working, Even After Factory Flash

I have a Nexus 5 where the back camera and flash have stopped working, even after numerous factory flashes to both 6.0.1 and 4.4.4, as well as CyanogenMod 13. The stock camera app just crashes with an error that it cannot connect to the camera, and the CyanogenMod camera will only show the inside camera with no switch button. The flashlight button is missing entirely in the menu.
I have also purchased another camera and installed it, but the problem still remains. Any help would be really appreciated.

maybe its a hardware issue.

I did try two other cameras, but I do not have another device to confirm if they work. Is there a way to check if it is hardware?

[HELP] Camera won't work after Android 11 Update + Possible Cause?

I was previously on android 10 i believe just a few days ago and my camera was working just fine. The other day I got a notification telling me to update to android 11...so i did and didn't think anything of it.
I use my camera alot for photography so this is very important to me, google camera or any app that uses your camera no longer works.
Example 1: As soon as I launch google camera it just crashes.
Example 2: Snapchat, instagram, or any other apps just give me the error like "snapchat was unable to open the camera".
I know a lot of people are getting this same issue because if you go to the play store and go to google camera app and sort reviews by recent tons of users are experiencing this.
I have two theories on what's causing this.
Theory 1: I've been using an app called "lens cap - disable camera" for over a year now just for peace of mind, I guess it used some sort of device administrator priveledges to block all apps from accessing the camera.
I believe I had the lens cap on (camera disabled) before and when I started updating to android 11 and I think that may have caused a weird break in permissions that somehow has me permanently unable to use the camera anymore.
The reason why this is something I suspect is because according to the developer of that app "android 11 removed most of the functionality of device administrator in favor of enterprise work profiles" (not sure what this means) but I think for some reason this caused it to get permanently blocked.
I have the github page for the apps source code if anyone can possibly look at it and see what exactly the app was changing in the first place because then maybe that way someone can possibly come up with a way to fix mine and many others cameras.
Edit: Apparently I'm not allowed to post links on a new account but the program can be found on github called LensCap by a user named percula
Theory 2: Android 11 just broke the camera by itself and the lens cap app maybe has nothing to do with it.
Ive already done all the obvious troubleshooting like resetting permission/preferences, restarting in safe mode, uninstalling and reinstalling camera apps + clearing cache and storage etc
Sorry of my formatting or grammar is sloppy at all I've had a long day and I just really want to get this working again

If none of your troubleshooting fixed the issue, I think the next option is to do a full reset (using recovery - not the selection in the settings menu). Another alternative is to flash the full factory image and allow it to factory reset the phone as well.
This will mean loosing all your app data and pictures, etc, so back up before you do it. But I am confident it will fix your issue, regardless of the actual cause.

sic0048 said:
If none of your troubleshooting fixed the issue, I think the next option is to do a full reset (using recovery - not the selection in the settings menu). Another alternative is to flash the full factory image and allow it to factory reset the phone as well.
This will mean loosing all your app data and pictures, etc, so back up before you do it. But I am confident it will fix your issue, regardless of the actual cause.
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Click to collapse
So would you recommend doing "recovery" or "flashing"? Also how do I get to this "recovery" thing,
originally I was thinking about trying to downgrade back to android 10 but from what I remember the steps looked really confusing ;w;
Apparently a lot of people are getting this issue but in the end they said they had to try and RMA it, so I hope recovering or flashing fixes it, kinda worried this update actually permabricked something in my phone.
sorry if its a dumb question I don't know much about phone stuffs
thank you for your response.

There's definitely an issue with android 11 and the camera.
I didnt have any issues on the beta 2, 2.5, or 3. But upon installing the public, official version.. the camera fails. I've tried 2 factory resets. I've installed the ota.zip via adb sideload. And then did a complete format and install of the full image.
Here's what issue I'm having, personally:
When I open the gcam app, it freezes for about 15 seconds. Then I get the "not responding" screen. If I hit wait, about 15 second later, I get the camera on and it's images are on the screen. But it's so laggy that it's not even functional. For instance, If I try to zoom in, it's about 20 seconds until it actually does. Same for taking a picture. I have sent bug reports to them.
I'm gonna downgrade to a better/smoother version. Probably a custom android 10.
Like others, I use it24/7. The pixel 3a is an incredible camera. I hope it's fixed soon.

I don't even know where to post, I came here looking for a solution, but looks like there may be none, other than going back to Android 10 and never ever installing any kind of update on this phone.
I bought the 3a because of the camera, and because I was taking crappy quality pix of my toddler with my previous phone. A9 worked great, A10 worked great. Camera almost instant, switching from Camera, to Video to Portrait, no problem. Message that A11 is available, so hey why not, it's not IOS. Wrong. It totally screwed me, the camera takes from 1-8 seconds to start, to switch between modes. If I double click power when locked camera start (with delays), I then turn it off using power button, when I unlock the phone the camera app is open.
Sometimes when I open it a second time it stays on the setting I chose before (i.e. portrait, or video - not camera default - this would be a nice toggle in the options though - say if you always shoot portrait).
Portrait mode has reversed the picture order (left/right - blur/no blur).
I have missed many shots of my little one since I've upgraded because of this garbage update.
I have a lot of apps that aren't the "latest" version, that work as I need them to; can someone suggest an app that will let me back up my exact versions, then reinstall them after? I have no idea if such a backup/restore app could also save the app data; I don't have root
Also, if someone could point me to a post which shows the way to switch back to Android 10, step by step, I would appreciate it. If I need to reload all the apps and info, I might as well go back to a known working version.
I have also noticed that some other apps are acting funky now. A once rock stable and reliable phone, these days I just want to throw it straight down at the pavement with all my strength... often...

I have the same issue. Have you resolved it yet. My camera app is working but other app using camera gives error.i had also lenscap and problem arised after update to android 11

Rear camera sluggish

I'm facing an issue with my camera which I couldn't find anything about via a web search. So I would like to know if anyone experienced something similar?
I'm running the stock rom and didn't tinker with the phone.
Since yesterday my rear camera is really slow an only slowing blurred images. The whole phone seems to be running really slow and unable to handle the data. Switching to the front camera takes ages but once it's active it's working normally.
If I try to use the camera several times I end up with a black preview image. A reboot returns the camera to the previous laggy state.
Changing to a different camera app yields the same behavior. Could be an issue with the latest patch for Android 12 I i installed around the same time or my hardware is fried...

stephael said:
I'm facing an issue with my camera which I couldn't find anything about via a web search. So I would like to know if anyone experienced something similar?
I'm running the stock rom and didn't tinker with the phone.
Since yesterday my rear camera is really slow an only slowing blurred images. The whole phone seems to be running really slow and unable to handle the data. Switching to the front camera takes ages but once it's active it's working normally.
If I try to use the camera several times I end up with a black preview image. A reboot returns the camera to the previous laggy state.
Changing to a different camera app yields the same behavior. Could be an issue with the latest patch for Android 12 I i installed around the same time or my hardware is fried...
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I would try a system reset if possible, I know its a pain but if it works problem solved, You could also try going back to a different build via android flash tool , just a couple of ideas although extreme ,would narrow it down even more to a hardware issue over corrupt software. Hth

hammered58 said:
I would try a system reset if possible, I know its a pain but if it works problem solved, You could also try going back to a different build via android flash tool , just a couple of ideas although extreme ,would narrow it down even more to a hardware issue over corrupt software. Hth
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I feared that I would have to do this. Factory reset and flashing an older version didn't help.
Now I can hear that something is moving inside when I shake the phone. Time to crack it open and have a look.
Thanks for the suggestions.