What to Do if Camera Is Not Working
Having problems taking pictures with your Smartphone? When you click on your camera to take a picture do you only get a black screen? This isn't a very common issue for Smartphones but it sure can be troublesome. Usually when this happens the phone won't be able to take a picture or record a video at all. This article will go over some of the possible causes as well as some possible solutions on how to try and get a smartphones camera to start working properly again.
Cameras showing a black screen can be hard to fix
This issue can be a hard thing to fix and get working properly again. If the issue is software related than chances are a lot better that you might be able to fix it. I just want to stress that this can be a pretty bad malfunction and there's probably only about a 50% chance of actually fixing this problem.
Power cycle your phone
Simply power your phone off for 10 seconds and then power it back on and check your camera, if you haven't already done this already. This is referred to as a soft reset and this simple trick can fix minor software related issues.
Battery pull
Pulling out the battery of a phone when it is powered on is another type of soft reset that can get a phone to start working properly again. This causes no loss of data. This option is not available on all phones, and is only an option on phones with removable batteries. If your battery is built in and the phone is not designed to remove the battery then skip this step and proceed by checking your applications.
Remove any third party camera apps
Start out by uninstalling any third party camera applications that you have downloaded to the phone. The phone might have received an update for its software and the developer of the app might not have had the chance to update their app yet.
Start uninstalling other applications
If you have removed any third party camera apps or if you don't have or use any of these types of apps then try to think about the last app that you downloaded or an app you might have updated or downloaded around the time that this issue started to occur and go ahead and uninstall it.
A bad app can be the culprit of this issue so continue through your applications removing the most recently downloaded or updated applications first. After uninstalling an application open your camera and see if the phone is still displaying a black screen.
Soft reset
Soft reset the phone once more after uninstalling your applications, by powering the phone off, preferably by removing the battery, counting to 10, and then reinsert the battery and powering the phone back on.
Hard reset
If you have cleaned up all of your applications and your phone is still showing a black screen instead of the camera screen then what you're going to want to do is perform a full backup on your phone, saving all your important information and then perform a full reset on the device erasing all data from the phone. If it's a software bug, glitch, virus etc than wiping the phone should fix the issue. If you have a Smartphone running on the Android operating system and need help backing up your device and performing a factory data reset then you might want to read this guide on how to backup and reset an Android phone.
Hardware issue
If the camera is still showing a black screen after performing a hard reset chances are that this issue is hardware related meaning the actual camera piece is malfunctioning on the phone.
Disclaimer: Use caution before attempting this next suggestion, you don't want to physically break the phone accidently; it will void the phones warranty.
I know of instances where the actual camera on the phone can become dislodged and of course cause it to malfunction. By taking the battery out of your phone (if possible) and making sure the phone is powered off and then applying pressure to the actual camera lens itself, firm pressure but be careful you don't want to break your phones screen or anything else on the device, it can pop the camera lens back into place and fix the issue.
Again use this step with caution as you do not want to cause any damage to your device and this step is not guaranteed to work in all circumstance.
Review your other options
If accessing the camera still takes you to a black screen or your phone still won't allow you to take a picture or record a video than you might need to look into other options. For a list of additional suggestions or tips you can read I can't fix my phone, now what should I do.
If your camera starts working again but the pictures are blurry, or if the original issue was that the phones camera was taking blurry pictures and then started showing a black screen then the lens in your camera is probably damaged or broken. Read the article mentioned above about alternate options. It mentions warranty, which might be your best bet if you don't have any liquid or physical damage and you have had the phone for less than a year, you can also look into taking it into a repair shop to see if they can swap out the parts.
Hopefully it was just a software bug and the reset fixed it, if so enjoy your working phone if not look into warranty, repair, insurance, or some of the other replacement options listed in the article mentioned above.
What to Do if Camera Is Not Working
Source: https://smartmobilephonesolutions.com/content/how-to-fix-your-smartphone-if-the-camera-shows-a-black-screen/