Unfortunately, the Camera has stopped

[Jacob Asplund]

Hey guys,
I have a LG G4 running Marshmellow and am having trouble with the camera. Each time I open the camera and try to take pictures or video the app crashes after 1-3 seconds with the error message "Unfortunately, Camera has stopped". Soon after I get another error message "Unfortunately, Photos has stopped". I cannot open the "Photos" app for more than a few seconds without it crashing, though I can usually open the stock Gallery app for quite a while without a crash (though it often does after some time, it is irregular). Occasionally the I will get the Photos error message even when I am not in the app or using the camera. This has been going on for a few months and I was hoping that a fix would come out in an update.

Any suggestions? I have tried clearing the cache for all photo related apps on my phone, but have not done any serious resetting.
thank you,
-Jake

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Try booting into Safe Mode, which temporarily disables all 3rd party apps. https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-21962

If the problem disappears in Safe Mode, then something you installed is causing the problem. You may have to uninstall apps one by one until the problem disappears. If the problem persists in Safe Mode, then it's more likely to be a hardware or firmware problem.

 

[gravitas6]

It's most likely a firmware problem. A lot of G4 users are experiencing this at the moment.

 

[ShadowTiger]

So, I tried everything available on the internet to make my camera come back to life and nothing worked, but I've come with a simple solution that might help those in the same situation.

A little background, I tried:
1 - Cleaning camera cache;
2 - Cleaning all camera data;
3 - Using another camera app;
4 - Reboot;
5 - Turn on and off;
6 - Set via developer option "no background processess" and turn off all camera notifications;
7 - Reset all app preferences;
8 - Take the battery for an hour and turn on;
9 - Factory reset;
10 - Reflash at least 3 different stock ROMS.

None of those worked for me, so I decided to open the cellphone following some rear camera replacing videos on YouTube. I tried taking the flat off from both cameras (rear and front) and putting them back, put all the screws back and turn the phone to see what error that might come. When I turned on nothing seemed to change, so I turned off and replaced all the camera flats back and just fixed the back not putting the screws back.

When I turned the cellphone on, to my surprise the cameras were back, but as soon as I put the screws back, the cameras would stop again. The same happened when I put the back plastic lid (don't know the name) on without the screws. Long story short, I managed to find which contacts were mildly oxidized and cleaned them with an electronic contact cleaner, but I believe isopropyl alcohol and some rubbing may do the work, heres a picture of the contacts:



If there's your warranty has expired you could give this a try, worked for me and also fixed a problem with the volume down button (I cleaned its contact by removing the camera lens glass).

 

[anon(10538567)]

Hi, just registered to say thank you! I did it exactly as your comment indicated and my camera turned on again. I hadn't been able to use the stock camera app, nor any other camera-related apps like Snapchat or video calling, or any other camera app from the Play Store. I was able to test it out while the screws were still out to confirm that cleaning the connectors did the trick (which it did) and then turn the phone off and screw them all back in.