Cannot access image sensor

When an error message "Can't access image sensor" appears, it means that the camera cannot take images, record videos and cannot detect motions, because the application has lost access to the image sensor of the camera device. Image sensor is the electronic chip that converts real scene into an electronic image. There can be several reasons for this error message, read bellow.

To avoid this error message, it is also very important to ensure that there is not any other application on your camera device that access the camera sensor at the same time as the Security Camera CZ. This is because camera sensor can be accessed by only one application at a time on Android devices. If more applications try to access the camera sensor simultaneously, the error message "Can't access image sensor" appears. Typically, you must not have installed and running more security camera applications on your camera phone.

Cameras with Android 10 and bellow

Some older phones whose electronics is already a bit tired can freeze time to time. When the camera sensor freezes and denies to work, the application cannot access it anymore and the error message is shown. This problem typically occurs on devices with Android 6 and bellow. Devices with newer Androids usually behave well and do not produce this error.

Solution: When this happens, only hard restart of the camera device helps. Please note that this problem will probably repeat on older devices which freezes time to time. When you see this error message more often on your camera, you can also try to make a factory reset of the camera device. The factory reset will clean everything from the device and makes the device fresh like it was when it was new. Please be aware that the factory reset cleans really everything from the device, so if you have any data on it, do not forget to back them up before making the factory reset.

Cameras with Android 11 and up

When you get the "Can't access image sensor" error message on camera that has Android 11 or newer, it is usually because the application on the camera device is not running on the display and instead it is closed. Due to new Android security rules that were introduced with Android 11, camera sensor can be access only by applications that were started by a human. When the application is not running on the display and you try to start the app remotely, the application is started, but because it was not started by a human (it was started remotely), it doesn not get access to the camera sensor and an error message is shown.

Solution: Always keep the application running on the display of the camera device. Do not close it by a "Back", "Home" or "Power" buttons on the camera device. The application has a built in screensaver, which starts automatically and which dims the screen to save power. If you want to lock the screen, you can follow instructions on Lock the screen article.