Camera FP4 no longer working after system update

Help Fairphone 4
22

Thanks @Kyrylo_Snizhko and @OldRoutard for reminding me of that. I’m actually almost sure that’s what is causing the problem. On previous Android versions there was a setting Disable Sensors (or something very similarly named), which I used to have activated most of the time, for privacy and security reasons. Every time I wanted to use the camera, I had to first deactivate (i.e. enable the sensors) that. In case I forgot the result within the Camera app (alert stating ‘Unable to connect to the camera’) and within other apps using the camera (black or white ‘picture’, depending on the app, no error message at all) was exactly what I am now seeing all the time.

That particular setting/option suddenly was removed for the latest Android version (15) on the FP4 :frowning:

Would it be somewhat easy to temporarily restore Android 14 in order to be able to deactivate the setting?

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23

Or did we skip version 14 on the FP4? Or was that version 13?

24

I would first try to reset the settings App, else do a factory reset

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25

Or see if it’s possible to put the setting with adb. That would save the hassle of a full reset.

For the record, there was no A14 for the FP4.

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26

Great suggestion! Looks like I could use service call sensor_privacy 10 i32 0 i32 0 i32 2 i32 0 (will try that this evening).

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27

In the adb shell, yes. I just checked it on my FP6 (the toggle is visible in A16) and see the toggle move when I input the command. So that should sort you out if that’s the problem and if the setting is the same in A15 (very likely).

[Edit] Unfortunately I can’t replicate your problem on my FP4. If I set the value to 1 the camera remains available. Maybe there’s a bug in A15 which would explain the absence of the setting in the UI.

In A16, if I disable the camera, any request to use it brings up a dialogue offering to unblock the camera.

So, this is probably not a solution for you, but worth trying anyway I guess.

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28

The command (and some variants I tried) was accepted with this as response:

Result: Parcel( 00000000 00000000 ‘…’)

But unfortunately, it made no difference …

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29

BTW, when thus enabling and disabling the microphone, the GUI toggle changed colour in real time :astonished_face: So the principle works, but apparently the dedicated camera toggle access has been removed in Android 15?

30

Finally found the solution after reading https://source.android.com/docs/core/interaction/sensors/sensors-off. Let me show you in a sequence of screenshots:

signal-2026-05-09-110600_003
signal-2026-05-09-110600_003945×2048 177 KB

signal-2026-05-09-110600_002
signal-2026-05-09-110600_002945×2048 137 KB

signal-2026-05-09-110600
signal-2026-05-09-110600945×445 64.4 KB

So, indeed, it was software :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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31

Thanks for the many great suggestions and the active participation here, it encouraged me to not give up!

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32

Yes, I did the same with Mic instead of Camera.

Glad you got it sorted :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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33

Thanks for the suggestion. That app (as you were already suspecting), together with a ton of similar ones I tried, just shows the hardware characteristics as reported by the OS’ API. Theoretically they could still show errors in case of hardware problems in some parts/modules, because the OS would then not be able to communicate with those particular interfaces. Or perhaps some of those parts/modules won’t show up at all in such a case.

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