In Summary
- With the built-in WhatsApp camera, you can easily take photos and share them with your friends and on your status.
- Sometimes, users face problems with the camera error message “Camera failed” or “Cannot start camera” when they try to take a photo or video with WhatsApp camera.
- In this guide, you will learn different methods to fix WhatsApp camera not working on your Android smartphone.
The pictures taken with the built-in WhatsApp can be bad, but it’s a great addition to WhatsApp to instantly take pictures while chatting with a friend and uploading a status. It can be really frustrating when the WhatsApp camera suddenly stops working, and you can not take pictures.
If you are facing this problem right now, do not worry, you are not alone. Most users online report that WhatsApp camera keeps crashing and displaying loading errors on Android smartphones. In this guide, we will show you various solutions to fix WhatsApp cameras not working on Android smartphones.
Table of Contents
How to Fix WhatsApp Camera Not Working on Android
Restart your Smartphone
Let’s try a simple method first: restart your Android smartphone. Restarting the device is the most popular and well-known troubleshooting method to fix most problems, including the WhatsApp camera not working. Different smartphones follow different steps to reboot a device. However, most of the steps are very similar for all Android smartphones. If restarting the device doesn’t fix the problem, follow the other troubleshooting techniques listed below.
Check camera permissions for WhatsApp
WhatsApp, like any other app, requires permission to access your smartphone’s camera. Google introduced new privacy controls with Android 11 that change how apps access data from certain sensors on your Android smartphone.
With these new privacy settings, you can deny apps access to location, microphone, camera, and more. If you have granted an app access to that sensor but have not opened it in a while, the app permissions will automatically reset. You can easily grant the camera access permission for WhatsApp again. To do so, follow the steps below:
- Open Settings on your smartphone
- Go to Apps and then App Management (may differ on your smartphone depending on the version or brand)
- Now find WhatsApp and click on it. Now go to the Permissions section and tap on Permissions.
- Now search for the camera and set it to “Allow only when using the app” or “Ask every time.” If you set “Ask every time,” every time WhatsApp needs access to the camera, it will ask you if you want to allow the camera permission.
- After that, close the app and open WhatsApp to see if the problem is fixed. If the problem persists, follow the other troubleshooting methods below.
Enable Camera Access From Privacy Settings
With each new iteration of Android, Google has begun to offer users more privacy controls. With Android 12, Google offers a new privacy dashboard that lets you control and sees how different apps access data on your device. If your device is running Android 12 or later, you need to make sure that camera access is enabled in the privacy settings for WhatsApp. To enable it, follow the steps below.
- Open the Settings app on your phone
- Scroll down and tap on the “Privacy” section.
- At the top of the screen, tap on the “Privacy Dashboard” item.
- Under “Controls and notifications,” check the box next to “Camera access.”
Close other apps using the camera
Make sure all other apps currently using the camera are closed. If another app is actively using the camera on your smartphone, WhatsApp may have trouble accessing the camera. If you are using Android version 12 or later, you will see a green dot in the notification bar when the camera is currently in use. You can also use the privacy dashboard to see how different apps are accessing your device’s camera. You can close the app by swiping up the list of recently used apps or force quit the app that is using the camera.
Free up Storage
The system automatically turns off the camera when the storage space on your Android device is exhausted. You can see the “Running out of storage” notification at the top when you do not have enough storage on your smartphone. To fix this problem, try getting rid of unwanted photos and videos and moving old files to your computer or a cloud service like Google Drive. Once you have freed up enough storage, open the Camera app and see if the error is fixed.
You can use different methods to free up storage space on your smartphone. The most common methods are:
- Identify apps that need more storage and reset them. Navigate to Settings > Storage > Other apps. Wait for the list to appear, then tap the menu button in the upper right corner and select Sort by size.
- Move photos to the cloud: You can move photos and videos to cloud storage and delete them on your Android smartphone. You can use free cloud services like Google Drive (with free storage of up to 15GB per account) to back up your data.
- Use the Google Files app to manage your storage space: Google Files is one of the most useful apps for managing storage on your smartphone. The Files app opens automatically and starts analyzing your storage. It identifies junk files, large files, old files, and anything else that it thinks is safe to delete.
Force Stop the app
Forcibly stopping the app is another easy way to fix the WhatsApp Camera problem. When you force-stop an app, the app is closed, and its background processes are stopped. Forcing an app to stop can be useful to clear the currently running process of WhatsApp. It is also a useful tool to free up system resources if you have too many apps running in the background, which can improve your device’s performance.
To force quit an app on Android, you can follow the steps below:
- Open the “Settings” app on your Android device.
- Scroll down and tap on “Apps” or App Manager,” depending on your device and Android version.
- Find WhatsApp and click on it.
- On the app’s info screen, you should see a button that says “Force Quit.” Tap on this button.
- A warning message will appear asking you if you want to force quit the app. Tap “OK” to confirm.
- The app should now force quit, and all background processes, services, and notifications will be stopped.
- Alternatively, you can search WhatsApp, long press on it, and click on the info to see the options to force quit.
- Note that force quitting WhatsApp will not delete any data or settings associated with the app, so you can continue to use the app as usual after force quitting.
Clear Cache
Clearing the cache is another best solution to fix WhatsApp camera not working on your smartphone. App cache is a temporary storage on your smartphone that contains data and files like images, videos, and other data that an app needs to access frequently to make the app load faster. WhatsApp also uses this cache to load faster and run smoother. If there are problems with the cache memory on the device over time, it can cause the app to stop working. You can simply clear the cache to fix this problem.
Clearing the app cache does not delete any personal data such as login credentials, saved settings, or app-related documents. It only removes temporary files and data that the app has stored in the cache.
To clear the cache on an Android device, you can follow the steps below:
- Open the “Settings” app on your Android device.
- Scroll down and tap “Apps” or “Application Manager”, depending on your device and Android version.
- Find Telegram and click on it.
- On the app’s info screen, you should see an option labeled “Storage.” Tap on that option.
- On the storage screen, you will see an option called “Clear cache.” Tap on this option.
- A confirmation dialog will appear asking if you want to clear the cache. Tap “OK” to confirm.
- Repeat these steps for all other applications whose cache you want to clear.
- Alternatively, you can also find the WhatsApp application, long press on it, click on the info and save settings and clear the cache.
Update WhatsApp
Sometimes the specific version of WhatsApp can be the reason that prevents you from using WhatsApp Camera. This can be a developer’s mistake, or the specific version of the app is not optimized for your device. You can easily fix this problem by updating WhatsApp on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
To update WhatsApp on an Android, follow these steps:
- Open the Google Play Store app.
- Tap the profile icon in the top right corner.
- Tap Manage apps & device. Apps for which an update is available are marked with “Update available”
- Find WhatsApp and update the app.
Uninstall and install WhatsApp
If the problem persists, try uninstalling WhatsApp and reinstalling it. This is also one of the most popular and common ways to fix WhatsApp problems. Make sure that you back up your chats and media before uninstalling WhatsApp. You might lose your data if you don’t do it properly. Follow the steps below to back up your WhatsApp data.
To backup your data on WhatsApp, follow the steps below:
- Open WhatsApp and go to Settings by clicking on the vertical three-dot menu in the upper right corner.
- Tap Chats.
- Tap on Chat Backup.
- Here, you can choose to back up your chats manually or set up automatic backups by selecting the frequency (daily, weekly, monthly) and whether you want to include videos in the backup.
- You can also choose whether to back up your data to Google Drive (if you’re using an Android device).
- If you want to back up your data to Google Drive, you’ll need to sign in to your Google account and give WhatsApp permission to access your Drive.
- Once you have set your backup settings, you can tap Back Up Now to manually back up your data.
- Once you have created a backup, follow the steps below to uninstall WhatsApp on your Android smartphone.
How to uninstall WhatsApp on your Android
- Open your phone and locate WhatsApp
- Now long press on the app and click Uninstall on Android.
- Once you have uninstalled the app, open Google Play Store and search for WhatsApp if you have an Android device.
- Install WhatsApp on your smartphone once you’re there. Open the app and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the setup. On the backup screen, tap Import chats from backup to restore your WhatsApp chats and media.
- Once the process is complete, add the sticker packs to WhatsApp and check if the problem is fixed.
Reset your Smartphone
If the above troubleshooting methods don’t work, you can reset your smartphone as a very last resort. When you factory reset a device, all data, settings, and apps, including WhatsApp data, are erased and reset to the original factory settings, just like a new device. All your personal data, including contacts, Google accounts, photos, videos, music, and documents, will be deleted from the device’s internal memory.
You need to set up your reset device just like you set up a new device. Different Android smartphones require a different factory reset procedure. Once the reset is complete, set up your smartphone, install the app, and try using WhatsApp Camera again. This should fix the problem of WhatsApp Camera not working on your smartphone.
So, these are the popular troubleshooting methods that you can apply to fix WhatsApp camera not working on your Android smartphone. If you are facing this problem, you are not alone. Most Android smartphones, including flagships, usually have camera issues as well. Fortunately, most problems can be fixed with simple methods like restarting the device and reinstalling the app. Let us know what methods helped you fix the problem in the comments below.
FAQs on Fixing WhatsApp Camera Not Working on Android
How to fix a camera stuck in selfie mode?
Camera freezing issues are very common on most Android smartphones. Even flagship smartphones experience this problem. If your camera is stuck in selfie mode, there are a few things you can try to fix the problem:
- Restart your camera: sometimes a simple restart of the camera can fix the problem. Turn off the camera, wait a few seconds, and then turn it back on.
- Check your camera settings: Look for an option that allows you to switch between front and rear cameras. Depending on your camera type, this option may be in different places. For example, on an iPhone, you can find this option by tapping the camera icon and then tapping the icon that looks like a camera with two arrows. On an Android device, you can usually find this option by tapping the Settings icon in the Camera app.
- Update your camera app: If your camera app is outdated, it can lead to problems like this. Check if there is an update available for your camera app and install it if necessary.
- Clear the camera app cache: Clearing the camera app cache can also help fix issues like this. To clear the cache, go to your phone's settings > Apps > Camera > Storage > Clear Cache.
- Reset your camera app: If none of the above steps work, try resetting your camera app. Go to your phone's settings > Apps > Camera > Storage > Clear Data. Note that this will reset all settings and preferences within the app, so you may need to set them up again after the reset.
- Restart your Android smartphone: restarting your device will fix most issues. If you get stuck, try restarting your device.