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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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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?
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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] 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
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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

Camera issue

https://youtu.be/h3Z6rSS3g58
In link above you can see what kind of issue I have with my camera after latest security update on android Nougat. I tried system repair via PC Companion, but issue still presist. I have this problem over a month, and my patience is running out.
I tested camera firstly afrer software repair, and problem was still there.
Yes, problem is still there in SAFE MODE.
I changed to internal storage, problem is still there.
Even when I try to record video, it's extremely laggy, only way I can record is with front facing camera on HD resoution with steady shot OFF.
I don't wanna downgrade my phone, and starting over with this problems again, I hope that SONY will soon launch new update with this issues fixed.
Does anyone know fix for this issue?

First of all, this is not a general problem, only you faced with this.. so there won't be an update for this.
Try my thread. https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-z5/general/ftf-e6603-33-53-83-google-drive-patched-t3581463
Follow 1-14 and select all wipe options..

No, he's not. I have exactly the same problem. I tried everything, including flashing FTF from the link above, but the problem is still there.

I think that may be an hardware issue.

There was no issue before latest update. My phone didn't drop or something like that.
I can only record on HD with stabilisation off, and to have decent videos on both, rear and front facing camera. But if I try to record on Full HD with even stabilisation off, that become mission impossible, so much lag in video, even tough audio is ok.

[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