How To Enable Camera in Android Emulator

By default when you create an Android Virtual Devices (AVD) in Android, the Camera is disabled. So if your application uses Camera API, it might not work properly in Android Emulator. Also SDCard must be defined in emulator in order to use Camera.

To enable Camera in your Android Emulator, just add following highlighted code in your AVD’s config.ini file. You can find the config.ini file under your user directory/.android folder.

File: ~/.android/config.ini

hw.lcd.density=160
skin.name=HVGA
skin.path=platforms\android-9\skins\HVGA
hw.cpu.arch=arm
abi.type=armeabi
vm.heapSize=24
image.sysdir.1=platforms\android-9\images\
hw.camera=yes
sdcard.size=64M
...
...

In case you don’t find the config.ini file or want to enable Camera support through Android SDK and AVD Manager, follow below simple steps.

Open Android SDK and AVD Manager:

Step 1: Add SD Card in AVD

In the SD Card setting, set the value for Size. To enable camera, the SD Card must be enabled in Emulator.

Step 2: Add Camera Support in Hardware under AVD

Now under Hardware section, click New button to add Camera hardware. It will open following Dialog box. Select Camera support from the Property dropdown and click Ok.

Step 3: Enable Camera Support in Hardware

The new hardware: Camera support is visible under Hardware section. Set its value to yes and save changes by pressing Edit AVD.

And that’s all. Just save the changes and launch the emulator. You’ll be able to start Camera application and take snaps (Default android pic) through it.