Google Pixel 3 Fatal Camera Error Rears Its Ugly Head

Google launched its Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones in October, and so far the devices have proven to be popular with Android fans. However, there have been some significant issues with these devices including a flaw that prevented the smartphone from saving photos in some instances. Some Pixel 3 devices have also suffered from a bug that resulted in two notches being displayed on the screen.

Another Pixel 3 camera bug has surfaced, and this one causes the camera to encounter a fatal error that prevents the camera from working at all until the phone is rebooted. Reports indicate that the failure occurs when owners attempt to use the camera in third-party apps. When the error is triggered, the camera doesn't work in any app, even the native camera app, until the phone is rebooted.

Weirdest Pixel 3 bug: enable camera access for any third party app and it stops working completely 😅 pic.twitter.com/R48Fe0vJAL

— Owen Williams ⚡ (@ow) October 25, 2018

The error is said to be easy to reproduce for many Pixel 3 owners; all users need to do to see if their device is affected is to try and use the camera in an app like Snapchat or Facebook. Reports indicate that not all Pixel 3 devices suffer from the flaw meaning that this could be a hardware issue limited to certain devices. 

Users report that restoring the device doesn't solve the issue. Interestingly, there are reports that this same camera issue has been plaguing older Pixel and Nexus devices. However, there are more reports of the error occurring on the new Pixel 3 devices than on those older smartphones. Google has offered no official statement on this current issue.