CAMERA_UNAVAILABLE on Samsung A23: black screen

[ironmanromeo]

SPECIFIC ISSUE ENCOUNTERED

Hello everybody. This is not a strictly SceneForm-related issue but indirectly it is. It is not clear if it was SceneForm that caused it or it is a problem with the phone: it happens that on a newly purchased Samsung A23 the camera no longer has the privileges and does not start. The error obtained from a native HelloWorld Java ArCore app returns that the camera is in use by another application. There is no need to close all the apps, delete them, re-install them: nothing is done. I also downloaded the demo app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gorisse.thomas.ar.environmentlights on the phone which has the same problem: the screen stays black. Access to the room has been given to all apps. The system camera app was restarted and I reset the settings: nothing to do. I don't know how it happened but on one occasion the camera unlocked and the apps worked, but once closed and reopened they no longer worked. Looking online "it seems" that the problem is limited to only some Samsung phones, even the A23 is not mentioned because it is still new. Tips? Thanks in advance.

https://developers.google.com/ar/reference/java/com/google/ar/core/TrackingFailureReason

Motion tracking paused because the camera is in use by another application. Tracking will resume once this app regains priority, or once all apps with higher priority have stopped using the camera. Prior to ARCore SDK 1.13, NONE is returned in this case instead.

VERSIONS USED

• Android Studio: Android Studio Dolphin | 2021.3.1 Patch 1 - Build #AI-213.7172.25.2113.9123335, built on September 30, 202
• ARCore SDK for Android: 'com.google.ar:core:1.34.0'
• Device manufacturer, model, and O/S: Samsung A23-5G
• Google Play Services for AR (ARCore): 1.34.22640223
  On Windows, use: adb shell pm dump com.google.ar.core | findstr /i "packages: versionName"
  On macOS, use: adb shell pm dump com.google.ar.core | egrep -i versionName\|packages:
• Output of adb shell getprop ro.build.fingerprint:

Packages:
versionName=1.34.222640223
Hidden system packages:
versionName=0

STEPS TO REPRODUCE THE ISSUE

1. Build and install ArCore HelloWorld Java
2. open the app
3. black screen

WORKAROUNDS (IF ANY)

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

[agGitHub]

Any update? Also have this issue.

[matejnevlud]

Tested on latest HelloWorld Java ArCore example, still black screen.

[PauGuillamon]

Same issue here with Samsung Galaxy A23 5G.
Android build number: TP1A.220624.014.A236BXXU4CWE3
I tested it with ARCore 1.37 and 1.38 and I also get reports from users that the device was never able to handle any AR app. Uninstalling and reinstalling ARCore did not help.

ARCore seems to not be able to open the rear camera. The result of Session.update() is a Frame with timestamp always 0.
When using the front camera, ARCore seems capable of opening it but unable to do any tracking.

Opening the camera through another library, such as Camera X, works fine. Also the system camera app works as expected (including face recognition). So it doesn't seem to be a hardware problem.

[PauGuillamon]

It also affects Unity. According to Unity-Technologies/arfoundation-samples#1079, it worked fine with Unity 2020.3.23f1.
Once I get access to a Galaxy A23 I'll test different ARCore versions to hopefully get the specific version that broke it.

[matejnevlud]

Tried using hello_ar_java sample from ARCore 1.20 and it`s working on A23 !!

https://github.com/google-ar/arcore-android-sdk/tree/v1.20.0

[PauGuillamon]

ARCore 1.22 (the one used in Unity 2020.3.23.f1) also works fine.
ARCore 1.32 did not work.

[ninjadev64]

I have the same issue on a Motorola Moto G8 Power (disguised as a Pixel 5 through root) using the HelloAR Kotlin sample. Is the solution just to downgrade ARCore?

[yanadelrey]

On Android 12 (API level 31) or later, make sure that "Block Camera" is set to OFF in system settings.

I randomly found it here in Errors section lol: https://developers.google.com/ar/design/interaction/ui

Tell me if it works. (btw I am a UX Designer)

[tiofeliz]

On Android 12 (API level 31) or later, make sure that "Block Camera" is set to OFF in system settings.

I randomly found it here in Errors section lol: https://developers.google.com/ar/design/interaction/ui

Tell me if it works. (btw I am a UX Designer)

Where do i set that off i cant found it anywhere :(

[PauGuillamon]

@yanadelrey that's not the case, the camera is accessible through the Camera2 API.

Bug is still reproducible with ARCore 1.40.

[thecnoNSMB]

A year later and this is still an issue. Should this be noted as a device-specific issue in #89 or is that thread dead?

[cosminstefanxp]

Hello, any updates on this? We've been stumbling upon this on Samsung A33. It seems it used to work with AR Core 1.21, but then something got broken. And the behaviour is that AR system cannot take ownership of the cameras.