A Moto camera that crashes or shows a black or frozen preview is almost always the camera app's cache or a conflicting app holding the camera resource, genuine lens or sensor failure is rare unless the phone was dropped.
- 1Force close the Moto camera app: Settings → Apps → Camera → Force stop, then reopen it.
- 2Clear the camera app's cache (not data, that keeps your settings): Settings → Apps → Camera → Storage → Clear cache.
- 3Check for another app using the camera in the background, a video call app or QR scanner that crashed without releasing the camera will block the main app, force stop it too.
- 4Run our Camera Test tool in the browser to check if the sensor itself responds through a different access path, if the browser can access it, the hardware is fine and it's the Moto camera app at fault.
- 5Update the Camera app via Play Store, Motorola pushes camera bug fixes there separately from full system updates.
- 6Restart the phone, this clears any stuck hardware abstraction layer process that's holding the camera driver.
Tip: If Night Vision or the ultrawide lens specifically fails while the main lens works, that lens's ribbon cable may be loose, common after a drop even without visible screen damage, a repair shop can reseat it cheaply.