Recently, some Samsung Galaxy S21 users (Including S21+ & S22 Ultra) have experienced a weird problem which is when they open the camera on their smartphone, a black screen appears. This has been reported several times on the Samsung community as well as on forums like Reddit.
If you are here for the same reason, well then we have good news! In this guide, we will tell you how you can fix the black screen that appears when you open the camera app on your Samsung Galaxy S21 smartphone. Keep reading!
Note: Solutions in this guide will work on any Samsung Galaxy S21 model (S21, S21 Plus, S21 Fe, and S21 Ultra models.)
Editor’s note: We created these instructions using a Samsung Galaxy S21 running Android 12. Depending on your device’s software version, some steps and menu positions may look slightly different.
Jumps Into
Why Does My Samsung Galaxy S21 Camera Shows a Black Screen?
This can happen mainly because of 2 reasons;
- Software problem
- Hardware problem
So let’s see the possible causes for each department.
Software problems that can cause a black screen when using the camera
Software problems are the easiest to fix. But software problems are the rarest reasons that can happen. Here are a few software issues why you are receiving a black screen when opening the camera app.
- Third-party camera apps block the official camera app when accessing the camera.
- The Android system has a glitch.
- A problem with the camera app itself.
Hardware problems that can cause a black screen when using the camera
Hardware problems are the ones that cause the most. These types of problems are that you should not be involved to fix and it is better to let an expert repair your smartphone.
- Damaged camera lens/shutter
- A glitch in the camera sensor
- The camera is no longer working
How to fix the camera black screen on Samsung
These are the best fixes that have been tested and can make your camera work back again. Some of them are hardware related so be careful when performing them. Also, only go to the next solution if the previous one does not work.
Fix 01: Check the camera
If you haven’t done this yet, turn your smartphone back and look at the camera carefully. If you can see your S21 camera lens is covered by dust or particles, this should be why you are seeing a black screen when you open the camera app.
You don’t need to worry about this. What you should do is take the smartphone to the nearest Samsung customer care. If your Galaxy S21 is still in the warranty period, they will fix it for you for free. Or else you will have to pay the repair cost by yourself.
Fix 02: Restart your device
If you just saw the black screen and rushed here, then give your S21 a fresh restart. It will reboot the device so if the Android system or the camera app was glitched, it will automatically get fixed.
There is no special procedure to restart your device. Just do it as you do normally. But let the device be turned off for at least 1 minute before turning it on back.
- Press and hold the power button until the boot screen appears.
- Tap on the Shutdown/power off button twice to turn off your device.
- Wait for 1 minute and turn on your device again.
After your device is turned on, open the camera app and see if the problem is gone.
Fix 03: Uninstall any third-party Camera app
Some people use third-party camera apps like open camera to take photos on their mobile devices. This is completely okay but sometimes these apps can cause some issues like the black screen issue that you are facing right now.
The reason is that these apps might not be compatible with newer Android versions and sometimes app updates themselves can also result in these kinds of problems.
So If you have already installed such apps you can verify this by opening the third-party camera app and seeing if the camera is working just fine. Then you can uninstall that app and it should work.
Note: Take a backup of photos that you have taken using these apps. Because when you uninstall them, the photos can also get deleted.
- Head over to Settings on your Galaxy S21.
- Go to Apps.
- Tap on any third-party camera app that you have installed on your smartphone.
- Tap on Uninstall.
- Restart your device.
Fix 04: Clear camera app data
If you have not installed any third-party camera app, maybe the problem is caused by the official camera app itself. It can be due to an app crash or damaged cached files. You can simply fix this by clearing the app data of the camera app. Just follow these steps;
Note: This will not delete the photos that you have taken. If you are unsure, you can take a backup first and then follow the below instructions.
- Go to Setting, and then Apps.
- Tap on the Camera app.
- Under Camera app settings, tap on Storage.
- Tap on Clear data.
Fix 05: Hard Reset
If none of the above methods work, you have 2 options. Either you should take your Galaxy S21 to the nearest Samsung repair center or perform a factory reset.
If you want to try the hard reset option, you can go with that. But keep in mind that once you reset your Samsung Galaxy S21, you will lose all the personal data inside the phone. So take a backup before doing this.
Here are the steps you need to follow to factory reset (hard reset) your Samsung Galaxy S21.
- Turn off your device
- Press and hold the volume up button + power button
- Your phone will boot into recovery mode.
- Use volume up/down keys to navigate through the recovery mode and select factory reset
- Press the power button
- You will see a confirmation message. Select yes and press the power button again to reset all data
- After complete, select Reboot now and press the power button.
After rebooting, you have to set up your device since all the data is erased. After setup completes, open the Camera app and see if the black screen is fixed.
Conclusion
I hope you have successfully fixed the camera black screen problem in your Samsung Galaxy S21 smartphone. If not, the problem should be caused by hardware. (lens, camera compartment) Do not try to repair the camera by yourself since it should be handled by an expert, go and repair your mobile from the nearest Samsung repair center.
If you have any questions regarding this guide, feel free to leave a message so we can help you.
Have a nice day!