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Is your camera locking up (No pre-view picture)?

Is your camera locking up (No pre-view picture)?
When I select the camera icon, I see the camera menu in the lower part of the screen and I can even take pictures, however I see a black image instead of the pre-view photo on the screen. This issue goes away by soft resetting the phone; however it usually comes back after few days and the only way to see the pre-view image is by resetting the phone. The strange part is that the camera can actually take pictures but I cannot see the photo before taking it. Have you heard of this issue? The phone works just fine otherwise and I like it a lot.
Thanks,

z_zk_z said:
Is your camera locking up (No pre-view picture)?
When I select the camera icon, I see the camera menu in the lower part of the screen and I can even take pictures, however I see a black image instead of the pre-view photo on the screen. This issue goes away by soft resetting the phone; however it usually comes back after few days and the only way to see the pre-view image is by resetting the phone. The strange part is that the camera can actually take pictures but I cannot see the photo before taking it. Have you heard of this issue? The phone works just fine otherwise and I like it a lot.
Thanks,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you running stock?
I can't speak for whatever potential issues might be caused by any of the custom roms in circulation, but on a stock phone, obviously it shouldn't be doing that.
I can't imagine what hardware issue would produce intermittent preview-ability that's temporarily remedied by a soft reset, yet still manages to capture the photo itself, but there's a first time for everything.
Sent from my Inspire using XDA Premium

My stock camera application (and Camera360) and camcorder applications both exhibit this behavior. A soft-reset of the device usually temporarily resolves the issue (i.e. allows me to use the camera for a short period of time). However, after my phone has been on for a while any app that uses the camera just locks up (eventually have to force close or soft-reset).
It is rather annoying. The only information I found seems to indicate that there may be an issue with the API within FroYo itself. Hopefully when we get the update to GingerBread the problem will resolve itself.
I also read something else about something to do with an LED widget that caused someone problems but I'm not using any LED widgets, so I'm not sure what that's referring to.
Hopefully there's a fix out there somewhere or we get the 2.3 update soonish.

ryguy25 said:
My stock camera application (and Camera360) and camcorder applications both exhibit this behavior. A soft-reset of the device usually temporarily resolves the issue (i.e. allows me to use the camera for a short period of time). However, after my phone has been on for a while any app that uses the camera just locks up (eventually have to force close or soft-reset).
It is rather annoying. The only information I found seems to indicate that there may be an issue with the API within FroYo itself. Hopefully when we get the update to GingerBread the problem will resolve itself.
I also read something else about something to do with an LED widget that caused someone problems but I'm not using any LED widgets, so I'm not sure what that's referring to.
Hopefully there's a fix out there somewhere or we get the 2.3 update soonish.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm...
This is the first thread I've come across that brings up this problem.
My stock (rooted) phone, my mom's stock phone, and my dad's stock phone have never encountered an issue like this, but then again, maybe we were the three lucky ones...
EDIT:
That's not to say you guys are crazy... maybe we just haven't had the right combo of circumstances to expose the problem/bug on our phones.
Now that I think more about it, I did have an issue when I ran barcode scanner once, about a month ago. That of course uses the camera. As soon as it identified the barcode, and I pressed the 'search web' button, it just froze (image still visible), but the back key/screen input was unresponsive. The only thing that worked was the home button, which, instead of going to the home screen, displayed the screen you see when you are about to end a call with someone on your phone. Thing is, I hadn't made a single call that day. That screen was also unresponsive, but when I pushed the home button again, it finally got to the home screen.
I then went into manage apps in settings and FC'd barcode scanner and the dialer/phone, just in case. I even uninstalled barcode scanner because I thought it might have a phone-specific bug that I didn't want to deal with.
I don't know if there's any correlation between the yours/OP's issue, but it sounds like it's ****ed up in a similar way. FWIW.
Sent from my Inspire using XDA Premium

I think I managed to fix mine by wiping my dalvik cache. On the downside, my current drain used to be around 5 when my phone was in standby and now it is around 45. On the upside, I haven't had a problem with the camera or camcorder since then.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

Mine ended up being a hardware issue. Phone was exchanged with at&t. Haven't had an issue with the camera since.
Just wanted to update for the OP.
Sent from my Inspire using XDA App

[Q] trying to use camera from lock screen results in crashreboot

I flashed 5.0 onto my Nexus 5 a while back and have been loving it. But there is a MAJOR issue I have encountered.
If, from the lock screen, i swipe to open the camera (I use Google's camera app) then swipe on the charms and select video and press record... i can almost always reproduce an immediate forced reboot it makes me very sad.
I have tried wiping the system cache... i'm not sure what else to do...
any advice?

bumping... been playing around with my N5 more and more and still getting the issue.
I notice that it happens in other camera apps that can take videos as well. Not just google's official camera app.
Also, it does not have to be launched from the lock screen for it to occur. sigh.
there have been a few times where i can get it to successfully record a video... but i can't reproduce it all the time. MOST of the time it crashes my entire phone

Same here. Noticed they pushing 5.01 out... Maybe a fix. I've had every Nexus and early software is allways buggy, IMO

thanks so much for replying. just glad it's not only my phone, you know?
I think I found a workaround until google fixes it. and they better.
if you open the camera and switch it to video mode but BEFORE pressing record, if you toggle the thunderbolt (light) on and off at least once (doesn't matter if you leave it on or on afterwards), then start recording it SHOULD work without rebooting... at least it has so far.

Dont have the issue on mine, i have the ElemantalX kernel though but i dont think that makes a difference

Zulith said:
I flashed 5.0 onto my Nexus 5 a while back and have been loving it. But there is a MAJOR issue I have encountered.
If, from the lock screen, i swipe to open the camera (I use Google's camera app) then swipe on the charms and select video and press record... i can almost always reproduce an immediate forced reboot it makes me very sad.
I have tried wiping the system cache... i'm not sure what else to do...
any advice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm certainly not suggesting the issue doesn't exist, but I cannot reproduce this on my stock 5.0 installation.
That being said, there are seemingly lots of Lollipop bugs that some people get and others simply do not... in my experience that'll probably make them a little more time-consuming to fix.

Well, a little good news... I hope?
I did a flash to 5.0.1 stock and i can't reproduce it anymore. videos record perfectly fine.
now let's give it a week or so of me dicking around with various apps and settings and see how that goes

Zulith said:
Well, a little good news... I hope?
I did a flash to 5.0.1 stock and i can't reproduce it anymore. videos record perfectly fine.
now let's give it a week or so of me dicking around with various apps and settings and see how that goes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's interesting - they must have changed something about the camera then.
I wasn't having the issue you described but I did occasionally get "cannot connect to camera".. fingers crossed it's sorted :good:

Rear Camera/Flash Issues Recurring after multiple hard resets

Hi All,
So I've been having issues with my rear camera on Nexus 5 (my front facing camera works fine). Currently the camera and the flash will not work and basically stopped working some time around the upgrade to lollipop. While on lollipop, I tried uninstalling the app updates, restarting, clearing the cache...all the usual suggestions I've found online for dealing with this issue, but none of them work. Now, I'm currently running 6.0 and still the camera/flash are not working. Tonight I tried wiping the phone and reverting all the way back to kitkat 4.4.4 to see if that would fix it. I tried this multiple times, wiping and reflashing to various versions ranging from 4.4.0 to 6.0 to see if any would somehow fix the camera issue, but none worked.
At this point, I'm back on 6.0 and its still not working. My phone doesn't even show the default camera app in the app drawer. I have to access it through the shortcut on the lock screen and when I do I get the "Can't connect to the camera" message. I'm assuming its a hardware issue at this point, but wanted to know if anyone has any insight on this. From what I can tell, the flash is not part of the camera module, so if the camera itself broke, it seems like the camera flash should still be recognized and functional (its not in my case, not even an option for the default flashlight on the taskbar pull-down screen). I am wondering if its worth buying an oem replacement camera module and installing it to see if this fixes the issues. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

Shameless Bump in the hopes of answer

Still looking for an expert's take on this

I have the same problem
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[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.
Click to expand...
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

Cameras & flash stopped working

Hey!
So a little backstory first.
I bought the Oneplus 7 Pro off an auction pretty much sight unseen knowing only it boots and has a cracked rear. In addition to that, I've found out that the speaker and fingerprint sensor are also broken. Since it's a second hand device I didn't bother with warranty since that usually doesn't carry over to next owners. I've already ordered new parts and am still waiting to receive them.
Now to the issue.
The camera worked amazing until last night when I was trying to open snapchat. It gave me the snapchat error message of being unable to open the camera suggesting to close the app or ignore the warning.
I shut the app and noticed I still had a notification that snapchat was using the camera.
I then rebooted the phone and once it started up again, the face unlock said the camera is in use by another app.
I uninstalled snapchat thinking that was the root of my issue however the face unlock still kept saying another app is using the camera along with camera app and all other apps just give a black screen or crash.
I removed camera permissions from all applications.
I updated my android to the beta branch.
I tried testing it within the safe mode.
I tried testing the cameras on the factory test app (whatever you get by dialling *#808#). The camera tests either crashed the app or just gave a warning however the flashlight test did turn the flash on. The popup camera motor works and even moved the camera up when trying to face unlock, it just left the camera up after failing to unlock.
Before I go and factory reset the phone (cba setting up all my apps which need another device to set up again) have any of you got any ideas on what to try next?
I did check on oneplus forums but as expected, people there just suggested to contact the support which I've no point in doing really since if I was to send my phone in they'll also want to fix the million other issues which I'm perfectly capable of doing myself.

typo404 said:
Hey!
So a little backstory first.
I bought the Oneplus 7 Pro off an auction pretty much sight unseen knowing only it boots and has a cracked rear. In addition to that, I've found out that the speaker and fingerprint sensor are also broken. Since it's a second hand device I didn't bother with warranty since that usually doesn't carry over to next owners. I've already ordered new parts and am still waiting to receive them.
Now to the issue.
The camera worked amazing until last night when I was trying to open snapchat. It gave me the snapchat error message of being unable to open the camera suggesting to close the app or ignore the warning.
I shut the app and noticed I still had a notification that snapchat was using the camera.
I then rebooted the phone and once it started up again, the face unlock said the camera is in use by another app.
I uninstalled snapchat thinking that was the root of my issue however the face unlock still kept saying another app is using the camera along with camera app and all other apps just give a black screen or crash.
I removed camera permissions from all applications.
I updated my android to the beta branch.
I tried testing it within the safe mode.
I tried testing the cameras on the factory test app (whatever you get by dialling *#808#). The camera tests either crashed the app or just gave a warning however the flashlight test did turn the flash on. The popup camera motor works and even moved the camera up when trying to face unlock, it just left the camera up after failing to unlock.
Before I go and factory reset the phone (cba setting up all my apps which need another device to set up again) have any of you got any ideas on what to try next?
I did check on oneplus forums but as expected, people there just suggested to contact the support which I've no point in doing really since if I was to send my phone in they'll also want to fix the million other issues which I'm perfectly capable of doing myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like you've done about all I would suggest. I've seen a million people with the same issues on it no one particular fix other than send it to support. Which myself won't do. Since I do my own repairs. So. Just bassicly waiting for mine to do it too since sending it to support we will never find the cause
---------- Post added at 11:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:35 AM ----------
Only other thing I would suggest. Is reinstall snapchat. Clear cache and data. Go-to camera app setting and wipe the cache and data their. Maybe a permission manager and deny rights to everything for the camera. And wipe cache from recovery

TheMadScientist said:
Looks like you've done about all I would suggest. I've seen a million people with the same issues on it no one particular fix other than send it to support. Which myself won't do. Since I do my own repairs. So. Just bassicly waiting for mine to do it too since sending it to support we will never find the cause
---------- Post added at 11:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:35 AM ----------
Only other thing I would suggest. Is reinstall snapchat. Clear cache and data. Go-to camera app setting and wipe the cache and data their. Maybe a permission manager and deny rights to everything for the camera. And wipe cache from recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeaaah, forgot to mention, I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling snapchat multiple times, I've wiped the camera app cache and data. I uninstalled Gcam app just in case. Already denied the camera permissions to every app I have. I suppose I'll try a factory reset and a wipe tomorrow.
I might consider sending it to oneplus once my replacement parts arrive just so they wouldn't charge me for parts I already have ordered and hence paid for.

Googled about and it seems like it's quite a common issue. In case anyone experiencing this stumbles upon this thread, here someone claims reflashing the rom helped for them.

Update, needed to text at work today and the messaging app also doesn't work, seems like an OS issue. Might try flashing an older rom using adb/fastboot, perhaps I received an update on the background.

I am so damn confused. Downgraded to android 10.0.5, nothing changed. Downgraded to 9.5.3 afterward.
Dialled *#808#, went to camera tests
rear camera preview opens front camera and actually displays the image now!?
second back camera preview opens wide lense camera and displays it
third back camera preview crashes the app
front camera preview on first try just showed rear optical zoom camera, later on pops up the front camera but displays the optical zoom camera.
flash test still works, the flashlight icon on the damn thing you drag down from notification bar isnt' grayed out and works but doesn't actually turn on the flash.
I got the camera app working by selecting the "selfie" icon on the dashboard or whatever's left of homescreen, however I can't select other cameras than the front one.
I'll keep poking around, this stuff's confusing lol

typo404 said:
Hey!
So a little backstory first.
I bought the Oneplus 7 Pro off an auction pretty much sight unseen knowing only it boots and has a cracked rear. In addition to that, I've found out that the speaker and fingerprint sensor are also broken. Since it's a second hand device I didn't bother with warranty since that usually doesn't carry over to next owners. I've already ordered new parts and am still waiting to receive them.
Now to the issue.
The camera worked amazing until last night when I was trying to open snapchat. It gave me the snapchat error message of being unable to open the camera suggesting to close the app or ignore the warning.
I shut the app and noticed I still had a notification that snapchat was using the camera.
I then rebooted the phone and once it started up again, the face unlock said the camera is in use by another app.
I uninstalled snapchat thinking that was the root of my issue however the face unlock still kept saying another app is using the camera along with camera app and all other apps just give a black screen or crash.
I removed camera permissions from all applications.
I updated my android to the beta branch.
I tried testing it within the safe mode.
I tried testing the cameras on the factory test app (whatever you get by dialling *#808#). The camera tests either crashed the app or just gave a warning however the flashlight test did turn the flash on. The popup camera motor works and even moved the camera up when trying to face unlock, it just left the camera up after failing to unlock.
Before I go and factory reset the phone (cba setting up all my apps which need another device to set up again) have any of you got any ideas on what to try next?
I did check on oneplus forums but as expected, people there just suggested to contact the support which I've no point in doing really since if I was to send my phone in they'll also want to fix the million other issues which I'm perfectly capable of doing myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disable default cam
Install latest GCAM
Install Camera FV-5 lite
BANG