android-camera-bugfix-skill

Black preview usually means the Surface was never attached to the CaptureSession or setRepeatingRequest was called before onConfigured. Check TextureView/SurfaceView/PreviewView lifecycle timing and confirm the session reached its configured state before submitting requests.

Capture hangs typically occur when an ImageReader has all maxImages buffers acquired and none closed, filling the buffer pool. Ensure every onImageAvailable path, including error and early-return branches, calls image.close().

Camera2 debugging focuses on CameraDevice/CameraCaptureSession state callbacks, HandlerThread cleanup, and manual resource pairing. CameraX debugging centers on bindToLifecycle/unbindAll ordering, correct LifecycleOwner usage, and closing ImageAnalysis images.

Switch freezes happen when the old CaptureSession or CameraDevice was not closed before opening the new one, or session creation raced the old close. Follow the ordered sequence: stopRepeating, abortCaptures, close session, close device, then reopen and rebind.

Device HAL differences cause OEM-specific failures. Query CameraCharacteristics.INFO_SUPPORTED_HARDWARE_LEVEL and degrade gracefully for LIMITED or LEGACY devices, and always re-query capabilities per cameraId rather than assuming rear-camera features apply to front.

CodeGraph does not index XML layouts, AndroidManifest.xml, or Gradle files, so permission and dependency issues need manual grep-based checks. HAL-level crashes like tombstones require vendor escalation; the app side can only add defensive close and retry logic.