Android
How to keep the flashlight on while the camera is open
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Android shuts the flashlight off when a camera app opens, because the camera takes exclusive control of the LED. The fix is a camera app that drives the light itself rather than relying on the system flashlight. Switching to video mode also keeps the light on in most stock camera apps.
You turn the flashlight on from the quick settings panel. You open the camera to photograph whatever you're looking at. The light goes out. Turn it back on and it goes out again, or the toggle simply refuses to respond while the camera is running.
This is not a fault with your phone, and it is not something you have configured wrongly. It is how Android arbitrates access to the LED, and it has worked this way for about a decade. Here is what's actually happening and what genuinely fixes it.
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Why Android turns the flashlight off
The LED next to your rear camera is not a separate torch. It is the camera's flash unit, and it belongs to the camera hardware. Android exposes it two different ways, and the two ways do not cooperate.
- Torch mode is what the quick settings toggle uses. It asks the system to hold the flash unit on, independently of any photograph.
- Flash mode is what a camera app uses. It fires the LED as part of taking a picture.
When an app opens the camera, it takes control of that camera device — including its flash unit. Android's own documentation is explicit about the consequence: torch mode is turned off and becomes unavailable when the camera device the flash unit belongs to becomes unavailable, or when the camera resources needed to keep the torch on are taken by higher-priority camera activity. Opening the camera app is exactly that.
Source: Android developer reference, CameraManager.setTorchMode().
So the sequence is: your flashlight holds the LED, the camera app opens and claims the camera, and the system drops your torch to hand the hardware over. The camera app then decides what the LED does — and most stock camera apps only offer flash-at-capture for photos, not continuous light.
The obvious workaround — set flash to "on" and take the shot — produces a photo, but it doesn't let you see. You're aiming a camera into a dark space with no preview of what's in there, firing blind and inspecting the result afterwards.
It also can't solve the problem people most often describe: the shadow cast by their own hand and phone. Continuous light lets you move the phone until the shadow is out of the way. A flash that fires at the instant of capture gives you no chance to adjust.
What works and what doesn't
Every approach people try, and whether it actually gives you a live view with the light held on.
| What you try | Live view with light? | What actually happens |
|---|---|---|
| Flashlight from quick settings, then open the camera | No | The camera claims the flash unit and the system drops your torch. |
| Open the camera first, then pull down quick settings | No | The toggle is usually greyed out, or switches itself straight back off. |
| Set the stock camera's flash to "On" | No | Fires only at the moment of capture. You still can't see beforehand. |
| Stock camera, switch to video mode | Usually | Video mode offers continuous light on most phones. Works, but you're in video. |
| A camera app that drives the light itself | Yes | One app owns both, so there's no conflict to lose. The reliable answer. |
| Two apps in split-screen | No | Still two apps contending for one flash unit. The conflict is unchanged. |
| Rebooting, clearing cache, reinstalling | No | Nothing is broken. This is designed behaviour, not a fault. |
The video-mode trick
If you don't want to install anything, this is the workaround that costs nothing.
- Open your normal camera app.
- Switch to video mode.
- Turn the flash on. In video mode it becomes a continuous light rather than a flash.
- You now have a live view with the LED held on. Take a still by grabbing a frame, or just use it to look.
The catches are real. You're in video mode, so the still-photo controls are gone and any frame you extract is at video resolution rather than full sensor resolution. Some camera apps drop the light again when you stop recording. And on a few phones the video light is dimmer than full torch output.
For a quick look under a sink it's completely adequate. For anything you need to document properly, it isn't.
Using a camera app that holds the light
The durable fix is to stop having two things fight over one LED. If a single app opens the camera and drives the flash unit, there is no conflict, because there is no second claimant. The light simply stays on for as long as the app is running.
This is what a camera app can do that the system flashlight cannot, and it's why the answer to this question is always "use a different camera app" rather than "change a setting".
What to look for:
- A light that stays on, not a flash. The app should hold the LED continuously in photo mode, not only during video.
- A live preview while the light is on. This is the entire point — seeing before you shoot.
- The screen not sleeping. If the display times out while you're holding the phone into a gap, you lose the light with it.
InspectCam is built for this: it holds the LED on with a live camera view, for seeing into dark, tight spaces. It's free for the light, the live view, photos and video.
Samsung, Pixel and Xiaomi differences
The underlying behaviour is the same everywhere, but the details vary.
Samsung Galaxy
Samsung's camera app offers a continuous light in video mode, and the quick-settings torch reliably drops when the camera opens. Older Galaxy models let a flashlight widget hold the LED through a camera launch; that stopped working on newer ones, which is why long-time Samsung owners are often the most surprised by this.
Google Pixel
Pixel behaves the same way. Worth knowing separately: Pixels sometimes get stuck reporting "flashlight camera in use" with both the torch and the camera unavailable, usually after an app crashed while holding the camera. That's a genuine stuck state rather than the normal conflict — a reboot clears it.
Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO
These have a documented history of the torch turning off unexpectedly while the camera is active, including cases where the system still reports it as on. If your light dies a moment after a capture rather than when the app opens, that's this, and toggling the torch off and on again is the usual recovery.
Using a borescope with your phone?
If you're doing this because you're inspecting something awkward, a borescope may suit you better than the phone's own camera. The compatibility list records models tested on Android, with the date tested. If a scope isn't being detected, the troubleshooting page works through the causes in order. On iPhone, start with why USB borescopes don't work there.
Questions people ask
Why does my flashlight turn off when I open the camera?
Because the LED is the camera's flash unit, not a separate torch. When a camera app opens the camera device, it takes control of the flash along with it, and Android drops the torch to hand the hardware over. It's designed behaviour, not a fault with your phone.
How do I use the camera and flashlight at the same time on Android?
Either switch your camera app to video mode, where the flash becomes a continuous light, or use a camera app that holds the LED on itself. A single app controlling both means there's no conflict for the system to resolve.
Can I keep the flashlight on while taking a picture?
Not with the system flashlight and the stock camera app together. Setting flash to "On" fires the LED only at the moment of capture, so you still can't see what you're aiming at. For continuous light you need video mode or a camera app that drives the light directly.
Why is the flashlight toggle greyed out when the camera is open?
The camera app currently owns the flash unit, so the system won't let a second thing claim it. Close the camera app and the toggle becomes available again.
Did this used to work on older Android phones?
On some devices, yes. Older phones let a flashlight widget hold the LED through a camera launch. Android's handling of torch mode was formalised in Android 6.0, and since then the camera reliably wins the conflict.
Does turning flash to "On" do the same thing?
No. Flash fires for a fraction of a second as the shutter operates. It lights the photograph but not the preview, so you're aiming blind, and it can't help you move the phone to get your own shadow out of the shot.
If your phone behaves differently from what's described here, tell us the model and what it does — device-specific behaviour is exactly what this page should record.