I just got a Samsung Galaxy S3 Neo (GT-I9301I, Android 4.4.2) and shortly after, it started giving the dreaded “FAILED TO INITIALIZE CAMERA” message…. my phone is not rooted (yet) and I’ve been using the original Samsung Launcher or Go Launcher.
The problem shows up a few minutes after booting, sometimes the error message is displayed while other apps are running. If, after getting the error, apps that use the camera directly (usually torch and camera) are opened they get stuck for several seconds, later giving another error message.
It’s not an hardware issue because just after rebooting or turning on the phone everything works fine, the problem affects camera and torch applications (both kinds want to access the camera resource). I’ve done some researches and testing, full of articles suggesting the clearing of data and cache from the camera apps, uninstall of all torch apps, factory resetting the phone*, wiping it*, camera’s firmware version changes, etc.
At the end the FASTEST AND SIMPLEST SOLUTION for me was: just clear cache and data from camera and all the other apps using it, remember to save your relevant saved data from each application if you have some. In my case the culprit was the default Gallery app, it has camera access permissions because it can switch to camera mode. When I deleted cache and data my photos weren’t deleted, but you probably wouldn’t take any chances.
To do so you can easily go to Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications, and don’t forget to reboot the phone afterwards. “Clear cache” removes temporary files related to the app, while “clear data” restores it to a clean install, removing settings, saves, etc.
That’s it, now it’s almost 2 weeks without problems so I guess it’s gone..
From what I’ve read the same thing shows up with different phone models, mostly Samsung, so the solution is probably the same if the same error is displayed.
If you want to read some more info on the matter and find some useful apps related to permissions management and diagnostic, I’ve found THIS to be a good source.
Onward!:
Verify if the XPrivacy system is commonly circumvented, if not let’s try it…
*before doing something drastic, read my other article on fully reinstalling OSes