How to fix your Samsung Galaxy J5 that’s showing “Unfortunately, Gallery has stopped” error [Troubleshooting Guide]

The error “Unfortunately, Gallery has stopped” on your Samsung Galaxy J5 might have been triggered by a third-party app or it may have something to do with the storage or camera. We’ve seen this kind of problem happening to other devices since we started providing support to our readers. In fact, we’ve already fixed most of the issues that are similar to this one so it’s not new to us to receive emails regarding the Gallery crashing.

Samsung Galaxy J5 camera gallery has stopped

In this post, I will walk you through in troubleshooting your device whose multimedia manager keeps crashing. Of course, the subject of our troubleshooting would be the Galaxy J5, a mid-range phone that got positive reviews from its users for its specs and performance. So, if you own this device and are currently bugged by an error or two, continue reading below as this article may be able to help you fix the problem.

But before we jump right into our troubleshooting, if you have other issues with your phone, make sure you drop by our troubleshooting page for we have already addressed a lot of issues with this device. Try to find problems that are similar with yours and use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work for you and if you need further assistance, contact us by filling up our Android issues questionnaire.

Troubleshooting Galaxy J5 with “Unfortunately, Gallery has stopped” error

The purpose of this troubleshooting guide is for us to know what the real problem is, what triggers the error and what needs to be done to get rid of it. But before we go to the steps, here’s one of the messages we received from our readers that best describes this problem:

Problem: Hi guys! My phone is a Galaxy J5 given to me by a friend. Anyways, there’s this error message that keeps popping up every time I take pictures and it says “Unfortunately, Gallery has stopped.” When I open the camera, everything works fine but by the time I take a picture, that’s when the error shows up. Now quite sure what caused it because it may have started on its own. I hope you can help me with it. Thank you.

Troubleshooting: While the error message explicitly says that it’s the Gallery app that crashed, we still have to look at what triggers it, in this case the camera, before we jump to another possibility. What we will do is rule out possibilities one by one until we can pinpoint what the real problem is. With that being said, here’s what you need to do:

Step 1: Clear the cache and data of the Gallery app

It may seem as though the Gallery is the one keeping all your pictures and videos, it’s not. It’s just managing them. Your pictures and videos are saved somewhere safe. So doing this procedure won’t delete any of them.

We have to go after the Gallery app first since it’s the one that keeps crashing. All we have to do at this point is to reset it and that means clearing its cache and data. This is how you do it:

  1. From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  2. Tap Settings.
  3. Tap Applications.
  4. Tap Application manager.
  5. Tap Gallery.
  6. Tap Storage.
  7. Tap Clear cache.
  8. Tap Clear data and then tap OK.

After this, try to take a picture to see if the error still shows up and if so, move on to the next step.

Step 2: Clear the cache and data of the Camera

We’ve already cleared the cache and data of the Gallery app to no avail, now, it’s time we cleared the cache and data of the camera app, which, apparently, triggers the error when a picture is taken. Don’t worry, none of your pictures and videos will be deleted so it’s safe to just go with this.

  1. From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  2. Tap Settings.
  3. Tap Applications.
  4. Tap Application manager.
  5. Tap Gallery.
  6. Tap Storage.
  7. Tap Clear cache.
  8. Tap Clear data and then tap OK.

Try to take a picture after this procedure to see if the error still shows up and if so, then you have to continue your troubleshooting.

Step 3: Find out if third-party apps have something to do with it

There are apps that may cause built-in apps to crash and you have to look out for them because you may not enjoy the optimum performance of your device if it’s getting error every single time you want to do something. In this step, you just need to find out if one or some of the third-party apps is causing the problem and to do so, you have to reboot your phone in safe mode:

  1. Turn your Galaxy J5 off.
  2. Press and hold both the Volume Down button and the Power key.
  3. When the Samsung logo displays, release the Power key but continue holding down the Volume Down button.
  4. Allow the phone to start up while holding down the Volume Down button; it may take a few seconds to complete.
  5. When the phone reaches the home screen and you can see “Safe mode” in the lower left corner of the screen, then it’s successful. Otherwise, repeat the steps from the top.

Once the phone has booted up successfully in this mode, open the camera app and take a picture. If the error still shows up, then you have to go after the firmware.

Step 4: Try deleting all the system caches so they will be replaced

It’s possible that the cache that’s handling the Gallery or the Camera has been corrupted for some reason. That is why at this point in our troubleshooting, you need to try to delete all the system caches so the phone will be forced to replace them with new ones that are perfectly working and compatible with the system:

  1. Turn off your Galaxy J5.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the device logo screen displays, release only the Power key
  4. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  5. Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
  6. Press the Power key to select.
  7. Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘yes’ and press the Power key to select.
  8. When the wipe cache partition is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
  9. Press the Power key to restart the device.
  10. It will take a little longer for the phone to reboot after this procedure but wait until it reaches the home screen before using it.

Once the phone has rebooted, open the camera and take pictures. If the error still pops up, you have no other choice but to reset your phone.

Step 5: Reset your Galaxy J5 to bring it back to its default settings

You have no other option, at this point, but to reset your phone. We’ve done everything an average user has to do in a bid to fix the problem to no avail. So, it’s time to bring the device back to its factory default settings to see if there would be a difference in the performance and if the error would disappear.

The error “Unfortunately, Gallery has stopped,” while very annoying, is a minor problem which can be fixed by a reset. However, we often suggest this procedure at the end because of the hassle it entails in backing up your files and data as well as restoring them after. But at this point, you have no other choice. So, disable anti-theft and then do the reset. Here’s how you disable anti-theft…

  1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  2. Tap Settings.
  3. Tap Accounts.
  4. Tap Google.
  5. Tap your Google ID email address. If you have multiple accounts setup, you will need to repeat these steps for each account.
  6. Tap More.
  7. Tap Remove account.
  8. Tap REMOVE ACCOUNT.

After this, follow these steps to do the master reset:

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the device logo screen displays, release only the Power key
  4. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  5. Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
  6. Press Power button to select.
  7. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
  8. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
  9. When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
  10. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Alternatively, you can also reset your phone through the Settings menu…

  1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  2. Tap Settings.
  3. Tap Backup and reset.
  4. If desired, tap Back up my data to move the slider to ON or OFF.
  5. If desired, tap Restore to move the slider to ON or OFF.
  6. Tap Factory data reset.
  7. Tap Reset device.
  8. If you have screen lock turned on, enter your PIN or password.
  9. Tap Continue.
  10. Tap Delete all.

I hope this troubleshooting guide can help you.

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