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.
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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
Open Settings on your smartphone Go to Apps and then to App Management (may be different on your smartphone depending on the version or brand) Find the app and click on it. Now go to the Permissions section and tap on Permissions. Now search for the camera and set it to “Never”. This will prevent the app from accessing the camera. If you are using Android version 11 or lower, You can long press on the app and click on the info and then go to permissions and tap on the camera, and set it to disallow.
