HOW TO FIX 'CAMERA FAILED' ON SAMSUNG GALAXY DEVICES

We’ve heard many reports of the error message 'Warning: Camera Failed' occurring on Android devices, and it seems to happen most often to Samsung owners. The good news is that while it’s annoying, it’s likely a software problem rather than fault with your camera. Here’s how to fix 'camera failed' on Samsung Galaxy devices.

• How to take better photos with your Android phones
• Best camera apps for Android

Jump directly to:

• Fix 'Camera Failed' on Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 Edge
• Fix 'Camera Failed' on Samsung Galaxy S6/S6 Edge
• Fix 'Camera Failed' on Samsung Galaxy S5
• Fix 'Camera Failed' on Samsung Galaxy S3 or S4
• The steps detailed below aren’t difficult or time-consuming, but you should make sure your device has a decent charge in its battery before you attempt them. If the battery level is too low, the camera often won't work, so it's worth ruling that out before you start trying anything else. In most cases, these solutions won't involve losing any photos or data from your device, but we recommend backing up anything you don't want to lose, especially if it gets to the point where you need to perform a factory reset.

  How to fix 'Camera Failed' on Android: Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 Edge

  Try all of these steps in order, until one of them fixes your phone's camera issue:
  • Restart the phone.
  • If restarting doesn't work, clear the cache and data of the camera app by Settings > Applications > Application manager > Camera app. Then tap Force Stop, and go to the Storage menu, where you select Clear Data and Clear Cache.
  • If clearing your camera app data and cache didn't work, the wipe your cache partition. Turn the phone off, press the Power, Home, and Volume Up buttons together and hold until you see the Samsung logo pop up on the screen and the phone goes to its recovery mode. Use the Volume down button to scroll to Wipe Cache Partition and then press the Power button to begin. Once you're done, restart your phone.
  • If all of that doesn't work, the problem likely has to do with Smart Stay. Some users have reported that there seems to be a software error when the rear camera starts up, but only when this function is on, likely because Smart Stay is already using the front camera to detect when you're looking at the screen so it stays on. Go to your phone's display settings menu and turn off Smart Stay to fix the issue temporarily. The long term fix for this, according to Samsung, is to make sure your phone's software is up to date, since the software issue has already been fixed in one of the updates.