Your camera is probably one of the most-used features on your Android phone. Everyone loves to capture memorable moments, take selfies, and share their daily lives through a camera. It's a great and convenient tool—which is why when you're faced with an error that prevents you from taking pictures or videos, it can be frustrating to deal with.

So if your Android phone’s camera has stopped working, showing the Unfortunately, camera has stopped message, here are ways to fix the camera on your device.

Why Does Your Android Camera Malfunction?

There are many reasons for your Android camera to stop working properly, from your phone's hardware malfunctioning to software issues. You'll almost always be presented with the error message Unfortunately, camera has stopped. There are many causes for this message, with the most common being low storage space on your phone.

Other causes include software issues such as incomplete Android updates, buggy software, malware, or third-party apps interfering with camera operation. These fixes are meant to help you if the error Unfortunately, camera has stopped pops up. But they can also be used if you receive any of the following error messages:

  • Error message Warning: Camera Failed
  • Front or back camera not working on Android
  • Mobile camera keeps stopping
  • Camera app freeze, crashes, or otherwise misbehaves

There can be multiple reasons why your camera is facing errors, so let's look at some solutions that will fix it.

1. Restart Your Camera App and Device

Your Android device might show an error when the camera has been in use for a long period of time. When you encounter an Unfortunately, camera has stopped working error, restarting your camera app is the best way to resolve it quickly.

Simply exit your camera for a short amount of time before opening it again. For best results, open the app switcher (by tapping the square button at the bottom of your screen, or swiping up and holding) and swipe away the Camera app. You can also force-close the app by going to Settings > Apps & notifications > See all X apps. Tap the Camera app and choose Force stop.

If this doesn't work, try restarting your phone. To do this, hold the power button, select Power off, and leave your phone off for 30 seconds to a minute before turning it back on. Then check to see if the problem is resolved. Even if it works, this solution may be temporary. If the error keeps reoccurring, then try another solution below.

2. Update Your Camera App and Device Software

Next, you should check for updates to your camera app. Open the Play Store, tap your profile icon at the top-right, and choose My apps & games. Here you'll see available updates for your installed apps—if there's one for the camera app, install it and see if that fixes your problems.

Read more: How to Download and Update Apps on Android Phones and Tablets

Similarly, if you have not updated your Android phone in a while, that can lead to camera problems. It's important to make sure that you are using the latest version of Android available for your phone. Certain camera problems may occur because of a bug in the software. Android updates usually fix these bugs and other issues with a device.

To check if you have any pending updates, follow these steps:

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Select System.
  3. Choose Advanced > System Update.
  4. Select Check for update.

Your device will automatically begin to check for updates. After a moment, your phone will notify if you already have the latest version, or there's a pending update. Update your phone if needed and check to see if your camera works normally afterward.

3. Free Up Your Phone’s Storage

A common cause for this camera error is that storage space on your phone or SD card is full. Try getting rid of unwanted photos and videos and moving old files to your computer or a cloud service such as Google Drive. Once you have cleared enough space, open the Camera app and see if the error is resolved.

Read more: How to Free Up Storage Space on Your Android Device

If you are using an SD card as secondary storage on your phone, your card or some of its files may have become corrupted, causing technical malfunction in the device. In this case, you should back up your important files that are on the SD card, then format it.

Here are the steps on how to format your SD card on Android:

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Select Storage > SD card.
  3. Select Format SD card.

Remember that doing this will erase everything on your phone, so only do it if you have important data backed up elsewhere.

4. Clear Up App Data and Cache

If you're still facing an issue, your next step should be to clear up temporary data used by the affected apps.

Clearing Cache for the Camera App

Your camera app's cache contains files that help it work more efficiently. Cache files are created for ease of use and a better user experience in terms of speed. However, the cache files are prone to getting corrupted, which can cause errors that may prevent you from using the camera.

Read more: How to Clear Cache on Android (And When You Should)

Clearing cache files helps remove any such corrupted data. The cache does not contain any important data; the only effect of clearing it is longer load times in your camera app for a short while.

Here's how to clear cache for the Camera app:

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Select Apps & notifications > See all X apps.
  3. Select Camera.
  4. Tap Force Stop to kill the application.
  5. Select Storage & cache.
  6. Tap Clear cache.

Now that the cache is empty, open up your camera and see if the error has disappeared.

If deleting the camera cache doesn’t help, then try removing the camera app’s data files. The data files contain your personal settings, so deleting the data will effectively make it like you're opening the app for the first time. Clearing the camera's data files will not result in your photos being deleted.

Follow the same list of steps as above, but select Clear storage this time. Once the process is completed, open your camera, and check if it is working as expected.

Your Gallery app is linked to your camera. If there are any errors in the gallery, it may affect your camera and end up displaying an error message. You can follow the same procedure for the camera app as above to clear the Gallery app's data and cache. Then see if the problem was indeed with that app.

Follow a similar procedure as above:

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Select Apps & notifications > See all X Apps.
  3. Select Gallery.
  4. Tap Force stop to close the application.
  5. Select Storage & cache.
  6. Tap Clear cache.

If clearing the gallery's cache does not resolve the issue, try clearing the gallery's data. Your photos are stored elsewhere, so you don't have to worry about accidentally deleting them. This may reset options you've customized in the app, though.

5. Use Safe Mode

With photo filters and photo editing on the rise, there are a lot of third-party apps that people prefer to use as their main camera solutions. Apart from these, other apps can create problems for the main camera app, the most notable ones being flashlight apps.

To check if a third-party app is causing your problem, you can use Safe Mode. In safe mode, all third-party apps are disabled, allowing you to narrow down the cause of the problem. Here is how to activate safe mode on your Android phone:

  1. Press and hold your phone's Power button.
  2. On your screen, touch and hold the Power off option.
  3. Continue holding until a popup appears asking to restart in safe mode. Select OK.

Once the device has restarted in safe mode, check if you can use your camera normally. If there are errors, it means that the problem lies in your camera; if there are none, then the problem is due to a third-party app. Try uninstalling camera-related apps that you have recently installed or updated.

Go to Settings > Apps & notifications to see a short list of your recently used apps. Tap See all X apps to view the full list.

6. Factory Reset Your Device

If all else fails, a factory reset will reset your device to a blank slate. You will lose all data, including all third-party apps installed on your device, so it's smart to make an Android backup first to save all your important data.

To perform a factory reset:

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Select System.
  3. Select Advanced > Reset options.
  4. Select Erase all data (factory reset) and confirm your passcode.

Resolving Camera Errors on Android

The camera is a great tool, but isn't free of errors. The solutions presented here should have helped you resolve the Unfortunately, camera has stopped issue on Android. Keeping your system clean is a great way to avoid errors like this occurring on your phone in the future.