My camera all of the sudden stopped working the other day. Whenever I try to use it, the screen goes black then force closes after a few minutes. I tried to download a few other camera apps and nothing happened. Currently running with no root and I don't want to root it until the camera is fixed, unless that would help fix it.
MSK01 said:
My camera all of the sudden stopped working the other day. Whenever I try to use it, the screen goes black then force closes after a few minutes. I tried to download a few other camera apps and nothing happened. Currently running with no root and I don't want to root it until the camera is fixed, unless that would help fix it.
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If you're on a 100% stock ROM with no changes and no root access with a camera that stopped working, there are very few things which can be done.
The only real solution would be to clear out the specific stock camera application's data directory. Not sure if this is possible w/o having to clear all the data.
I'd suggest the following steps in this order:
1) Manage applications under settings is where to look to clear out the specific Camera application data in hopes that only something was corrupted. Reboot and test.
2) Wipe all data on the device. Reboot and test.
3) If none of these worked, personally, I would return/exchange the stock device for another one as at this point, it would definitely seem to be hardware related.
An alternative route would be to gain root access and look into switch kernels/ROMs, but this could end up being a dead end if the issue is hardware related.
The only good/not so bad news is I've never seen the camera completely stop working on any of these devices .. at least not yet. So hopefully this issue is not hardware related! Good luck!
I cleared out the camera information and it worked the second I restarted my phone. Thank you!
That happened to me to, nothing I tried worked. Was good that I had ESRP. The Sprint store replacement the phone in lieu of just fixing the camera
dgr581 said:
That happened to me to, nothing I tried worked. Was good that I had ESRP. The Sprint store replacement the phone in lieu of just fixing the camera
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Sometimes it's nice for them to just fix your phone and not give you a refurb. My sprint store seems to screw ur phone up when they fix it lol.
In the past when I was on the evo they swapped my screen out and broke my volume buttons. Then they just gave me a refurb.
Same thing happened to me. Suddenly, it doesn't work. Oddly enough, the Front Face camera does work by using the Mirror app. But the Rear camera does not respond when launching the Camera app.
I already tried switching ROMs, switching kernels, factory defaults, and nothing worked. Might be a hardware issue. I just hope it can be fixed without replacing my phone. It would suck having a replacement phone with HBOOT v1.50...
Hey there,
Everytime I try to activate the front camera I either get a 'cannot open camera' error or just a black screen (even though I can change the settings), sometimes I just get a FC after few seconds.
I tried using different camera application and all I get is a black screen, some application allow me to take a picture but the result is just a completely black image.
I don't know what triggered the problem, it was pretty sudden. I was on CM7. Even after a complete wipe and flashing olympus rom, nothing has changed.
I tried cleaning the cache, rebooting, everything I can think of.
Looking for older threads in the forums didn't result any useful information.
Help would be very much appreciated.
bump?
Have you flashed a full blur ROM yet to make sure it isn't a hardware issue?
Sent from my Atrix with XDA Premium
Lets say I go back to motion blur rom and nothing changes, will it confirm that it is certainly a hardware issue? Thanks for the respond.
I haven't mentioned it but the LED doesn't work too.
Its possible that a cable was knocked loose. If you verify it is a hardware issue, you can void your warranty and take apart your phone to try and fix it following instructions here: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Motorola-Atrix-4G-Teardown/4964/1
I dropped my phone in some water, and the volume up button was acting like it was always being pressed (really annoying when rebooting as it kept kicking into RSD mode). I managed to disassemble it and clean the button, and now it works great again.
Is the only way to verify is to install motion blur rom? If so, is there any recommendation for a specific rom that might give me the most accurate indication that it's a hardware issue?
Thanks for the quick respond.
I would say that as soon as you have tried a ROM with a different kernel, you have verified a hardware issue.
Changed to motion blur based rom, still dead.
I guess it's a hardware issue.
Btw I dont know why I wrote it's the front camera but I meant the back camera so if it's BACK Camera+LED Light and switching roms/format/hardreset didn't help so it's a hardware problem.
I'll try and contact Motorola since I still have warranty.
Im on stock Droid DNA ROM. Have the latest update. Every time I try to open the camera it says "Unable to start the camera." I have already hard reset the phone 2 times and restarted. I also cleared the camera data and cache. I don't know what to do now..
Try downloading a camera app from the market and see how it works. If that app also can't get it to start then it may be a hardware issue. If it can then you know there is something wrong with the stock camera app.
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using xda app-developers app
Jaggar345 said:
Try downloading a camera app from the market and see how it works. If that app also can't get it to start then it may be a hardware issue. If it can then you know there is something wrong with the stock camera app.
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using xda app-developers app
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tried. It wont use the camera
Sounds like a hardware issue then.
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using xda app-developers app
This is the same error I get on the CM10.1 ROM since the camera isn't working yet... as everyone else has mentioned it's most likely a hardware issue especially if you've tried wiping the entire phone and still have the problem.
Had this happen today. Did you ever get it straightened out?
If I try a photo the flash comes on and will not go off unless I reboot. If I try a video the screen goes black and freezes. I've rebooted, "hard" rebooted by holding power button down, turned off fastboot, cleared data and cache.
I tried CameraMX from the market and it doesn't work.
I did not buy my phone from Verizon. What are my options?
It doesn't matter where you bought it, HTC will warranty it as long as you talk to them like a human and explain the situation while being respectful.
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk 2
Thanks bud. I'll give it a shot. I really like HTC phones I hope this (along with whatever may happen with the warranty) doesn't leave a bad taste in my mouth.
So, I've been resetting, force closing and clearing data the past 2 days throughout the day for the camera. Usually, after I've did a reset the camera will open, but when I try to take a picture the flash comes on and stays on the the app freezes. The led flash will not go off until I do a reset. A force close won't even shut it off.
Today after a reset, I opened the camera and instead of trying to take a pic I cycled through the flash settings. As soon as I did the interface switched to portrait, (like the phone was held) and it took pics and video like normal!!!!!!!!
It works now. What a crazy problem.
Completely stock DNA with latest ota update. Phone has not been dropped or anything.
Wow, that doesn't make any logical sense. How strange... Glad you got it fixed though!
Sent from my ViperDNA using Tapatalk 2
I see similar camera weirdness a lot when I'm at Best Buy in the best buy mobile section and I've intervened on 10 or 15 exchanges by tinkering with camera and gallery like clearing app data.
You've taught me a new trick in case I ever get to show off for the hot best buy mobile girls.
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk 2
If you have a flash light app and do not turn the flash off this will cause the camer to not start
Recently had the problem (camera won't start, or can't connect to camera). Got the solution here:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/verizon-droid-dna/244680-camera-unable-start.html
Just hold the power button for ~20 seconds til it reboots, and camera works just fine. No loss of data or anything. It's supposed to be the equivalent of battery pull.
Mine too!
bluesamg said:
Im on stock Droid DNA ROM. Have the latest update. Every time I try to open the camera it says "Unable to start the camera." I have already hard reset the phone 2 times and restarted. I also cleared the camera data and cache. I don't know what to do now..
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Click to collapse
Hi there ,
I have my DNA in the same situation ("Unable to start the camera").it crashes.... I have tried everything ! NOTHING works..tried to root ,change rom...maybe firmware! nope ,No solution for that i guess.
Please tell me what did you do to get it working ? did you send it back to verizon ?what did they do ? can they fix it ?or they have changed the whole phone ? please be in touch .
One more question is : Does your phone sometimes crashes ? in my case i have the same problem with the camera ..... and i have my phones system gives me :"proccess system not responding " . could that be bacuse of the camera problem ? Do you have the same ?(your phone get stuck sometime ..and goes OFF\RESTART ?)
I have the same case !! but in my country i have NO verizon here ..so actually i can't fix my phone !
What should i do ?
Thanks guys for help .
shadyabs said:
Hi there ,
I have my DNA in the same situation ("Unable to start the camera").it crashes.... I have tried everything ! NOTHING works..tried to root ,change rom...maybe firmware! nope ,No solution for that i guess.
Please tell me what did you do to get it working ? did you send it back to verizon ?what did they do ? can they fix it ?or they have changed the whole phone ? please be in touch .
One more question is : Does your phone sometimes crashes ? in my case i have the same problem with the camera ..... and i have my phones system gives me :"proccess system not responding " . could that be bacuse of the camera problem ? Do you have the same ?(your phone get stuck sometime ..and goes OFF\RESTART ?)
I have the same case !! but in my country i have NO verizon here ..so actually i can't fix my phone !
What should i do ?
Thanks guys for help .
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Click to collapse
Read the thread please. The answer is in it.
Sorry for the necromancy, I'm having the same issue, and no amount of resets, soft or hard, has resolved anything.
I received this phone about a month ago as a total care replacement for a very sad old Droid X that was needing to be put out to pasture. When I first got it, everything worked fine. The camera worked a couple weeks ago, even, but I went to use it today, tapped the camera icon, it briefly opened then instantly closed with a message "Unable to start the camera".
I tried a few more times, force quit, cleared cache, tried again, still nothing. Force quit, cleared data, tried again. Soft reset, tried again, nothing. Held power button for a reset, still nothing. Powered off and back on again, still nothing. Another soft reset, still nothing. Tried 3 other camera apps, Google Camera closed immediately with a similar error message, Vignette just sat there at Initializing Camera forever, and some garbage front camera only selfie app opened but only showed a black screen for the viewfinder.
I did another soft reset, still nothing.
I did a factory reset, and tried again without downloading any of the apps previously installed. Still nothing.
I've tried several more soft resets and cache clears since then.
It's looking more and more like a hardware problem but previous posters in this thread reported fixing similar issues without doing anything to the hardware. It has never been dropped, it has never been wet. It hasn't even been outside in a light drizzle. It's never been sat on, it's never gotten warmer than 109 reported internal temp.
Other than take it to Verizon and whine at them about how the free phone I just got a month ago is a broken piece of crud for no apparent reason or malfeasance on my part (which is probably why they had it on hand to give away, reconditioned my big toe), is there any potential resolution I'm missing that doesn't involve warranty-voiding stuff.
THIS IS PROBABLY THE ANSWER YOU ARE LOOKING FOR!
"Today after a reset, I opened the camera and instead of trying to take a pic I cycled through the flash settings. As soon as I did the interface switched to portrait, (like the phone was held) and it took pics and video like normal!!!!!!!!"
I didn't see you mention that you tried this. It fixed my dna and I never had another issue.
natypes said:
THIS IS PROBABLY THE ANSWER YOU ARE LOOKING FOR!
"Today after a reset, I opened the camera and instead of trying to take a pic I cycled through the flash settings. As soon as I did the interface switched to portrait, (like the phone was held) and it took pics and video like normal!!!!!!!!"
I didn't see you mention that you tried this. It fixed my dna and I never had another issue.
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Click to collapse
I can't even get that far, as soon as I tap the camera icon, the camera app flashes open for a moment then instantly closes with an 'unable to start' message. The odd thing is that every so often, with no rhyme or reason, it will randomly start working just fine, then not work at all for weeks on end.
Of course now it's so broken, even LED Flashlight apps don't detect it as even having a camera.
[Updated]
I recently put CM 11 on my Verizon S4. Everything was working fine. I decided to update to a more recent nightly (likely last weekend). After the update, my camera doesn't work any more. When I go in to the camera it shows a blank screen for the camera image, freezes for a while and then a popup says that the Camera Failed! After googling, I tried restoring the previous CM 11 image that worked previously. I tried wiping the cache, force closing the app and clearing cache and data, I re-flashed the original Samsung image, I did a factory reset. Nothing worked to restore the camera. I went in today to a phone repair shop and they replaced the camera module. That didn't help - it still didn't work. Thankfully they didn't charge me anything for their time which was really nice of them. I get home and restored the CM 11 backup of the working image. The camera still doesn't work and now the external speakers don't work for media files. I was afraid that it was something forgotten to be reconnected by the repair shop, but I can hear the phone ring when I make a call. (I haven't received a call yet so I don't know if it is only on outgoing calls).
Can anyone point me to help or resources for how I can diagnose and hopefully fix these problems? My phone is falling apart and I don't know what to do!
Peter
[Update] I solved the camera problem by restoring a backup of the original TW rom. This seems similar to a problem I had with dubbsy's rom where the GPS wouldn't work some times after a flash and required restoring the touchwiz rom to get it to work and then re-flashing the custom rom. Once the camera started working again with the original rom it continues to work with the OctOS rom. Strange but at least it works.
The external speaker was resolved by taking it back to the repair shop. He switched the external speaker module with one from another S4. Putting it back together it worked, but when he put back in all the screws and closed things up it didn't work again. Finally loosening a few screws, getting it to work and then retightening solved it. I don't think it was the original speaker module, but something about opening it up and closing it back up caused the speaker not to work at all. Now it does and I can hear the ringer and notifications agin.
I have a stock rooted G3 running ZV8. One day last week, my rear facing camera stopped working. No warnings or anything like that beforehand, just no longer working. I get a black screen with only a back button and the last pic taken icon, but nothing else. When I try to access the camera from another camera app I get the message that the camera can't be started or is in use by another application.
The front facing camera seems to still be functional, but can only be accessed by a camera app that goes directly to it, like Camera360. I'm at a complete loss as to ideas about whether this is a software issue, or a hardware issue. If anyone else has had issues with their camera no longer working, any info you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
I am having the same problem, and it just appeared out of nowhere as well... I have tried clearing the camera apps cache and data and have wiped davlick from twrp but to no avail. Going to try wiping and reinstalling the rom and will get back to you if it works.
I am running the stock rooted rom :S