Hello, I have a Motorola Moto G3 and several months ago out of the blue my Google Play Services stopped functioning properly. It disappeared from my home screen and all apps which used it will no longer work, saying that 'This app cannot run without Google Play Services, which is not supported on your device' (paraphrased). Yet, the app still exists on my phone, as it's in the app list and takes up space and uses data. I tried re-downloading it, but it would not work, saying it already exists. Now things like Google Maps ask me to sign in to retrieve my locations, but when I go to, it will not let me (probably because I already am signed in!).
Some time after this - I cannot recall if it was immediately, as it was a while ago - my camera app stopped working, coming up with the 'Camera Busy: Camera unable to start' message. I have restarted the phone countless times, cleared the cache, and done a factory reset on the app, to no avail. I tried a hardware test on it, but Moto only came up with the front facing camera test, there was no rear camera option available (this is after the reset). The front camera actually opened for the test, yet I cannot access it myself because the camera app doesn't allow me to click any of the buttons to switch view etc. I am very reluctant to resort to a full factory reset on this phone, as it's had other issues with storage and recovering/backing up data. Plus, it's everything I have! I have yet to come across a camera better than the G3 - I own a G5+ but have not switched over to it yet for other reasons, and its camera, while highly rated, has not come close to the G3. To me it will be a great loss if I have to abandon the G3 because of all of this. My photos will never look the same, and in my line of work (wildlife biology) having that camera to quickly take excellent, colorful pictures has been very important. I doubt the G5+ can perform the same (it really has trouble focusing closeup without using the manual focus, which is a pain).
Anyway, not to ramble, but I can't help but think these two phenomena are connected somehow. Is this a problem with the OS? An update? Something that can be fixed on Google's end? What if a reset is all I have and that doesn't work (I'm never optimistic)? I am always fearful to mess around with Google apps on these phones as it seems you press one wrong thing and Google goes and deletes your whole account. I am grateful for any help or experiences you may have had with a similar issue. Thanks.
05-30-2020 01:53 PM
