The camera permission keeps popping up: how to fix it for the scan

Why the question keeps coming back

Tapping AI snap to log opens the camera straight away. Before it does, EasyRoutine checks whether it may use the camera. If not, and your phone still allows the app to ask, the phone shows its own permission prompt. That prompt comes from iOS or Android, not from EasyRoutine, and the app cannot answer it for you.

So the prompt returns as long as camera access is not granted for good. The usual reasons:

• You tapped "Don't allow" earlier. On Android the app may ask again next time, so you see the prompt on the next scan.
• You chose "Only this time" on Android. That grant ends after you leave the app for a while, and the next scan asks again.
• Access was turned off in settings, by you, by a privacy tool or after restoring a phone backup.

Answering While using the app (Android) or Allow (iPhone) stops the prompts.

When the scan opens a form instead of the camera

If you denied access and the phone will not let the app ask again (on iPhone this happens after the first "Don't Allow"), EasyRoutine stops opening the camera by itself. Opening the scan then goes straight to the Log Activity form, so you can still log by hand.

Tap the camera button at the top of that form and the app shows Camera access needed with Not now and Open Settings. The message mentions adding a photo because the same permission covers both the scan and taking activity photos. Open Settings takes you to EasyRoutine's page in your phone's settings.

Allow camera access in settings

iPhone

1. Open Settings and scroll down to EasyRoutine.
2. Turn on Camera.
3. Go back to EasyRoutine and open the scan again.

Android

1. Open Settings, then Apps, and pick EasyRoutine.
2. Tap Permissions, then Camera.
3. Choose Allow only while using the app.

The exact names differ a little between Android makers and versions. Long-pressing the EasyRoutine icon and tapping App info is a shortcut to the same page on most phones.

What EasyRoutine uses the camera for

Two things, both started by you:

• The scan. You photograph an item and the AI matches it to one of your activities that has a photo. The scan photo is resized, sent to find the match and not stored. What the AI sees.
• Activity photos. Take Photo in the activity sheet. You can use Choose from Library instead, which asks for photo library access rather than camera access.

The scan works with the camera only; it cannot read a picture from your gallery.

Rather not give camera access?

That is fine. Everything except the scan works without the camera: give activities a photo from your library, or no photo at all, and log by hand with Log under the day on the Calendar. How to log an activity.

Common questions

Keep reading

More on this topic

• How EasyRoutine's AI recognizes photos, and what it can scan
  How EasyRoutine's AI names an activity from its photo and matches a scan to your own activities, what it can and cannot recognize, and what happens on no match.
• The AI scan keeps logging the wrong activity: why correcting it does not help, and how to fix it
  Photo scan picked the wrong supplement again? Deleting the wrong log does not teach the scan anything. Fix the names and photos it compares against so look-alikes stop mixing up.
• I don't want to photograph every product: do I have to?
  Photos are optional in EasyRoutine. An activity can be just a name and a color and logs the same way. Only the camera scan needs a photo, so add it where it pays.
• The scan doesn't work without internet: what you can do instead
  The EasyRoutine scan runs on a server, so it cannot work offline, and neither can logging. What you see without signal, and how to log it later at the real time.
• The scan is slow or doesn't respond: what is going on
  EasyRoutine scan stuck on Matching? The match happens on a server, so a weak connection is the usual cause. What else slows it, and how to log by hand right now.
• The scan suggested the wrong name for my activity: what to do
  EasyRoutine suggested a wrong name from your photo? Edit it before you save. Your own name does not stop the scan working, and a retaken photo fixes a bad guess.