Why Does My OPPO, realme or vivo Phone Stop the Camera App With the Screen Off? Auto-launch, Background Power and Recents Lock

You set up an old OPPO, realme or vivo phone as a camera. It is on the charger, the screen is off, and the camera app is recording. Later you check it, and the recording stopped long ago. No error message. The app is simply closed, or it opens fresh as if it was never running.

On these phones this is usually not a broken phone and not a broken app. It is the phone's own battery system, which is built to close or freeze apps you are not looking at. A camera with the screen off is exactly that kind of app.

This guide shows the settings that cause it on ColorOS (OPPO), realme UI (realme) and Funtouch OS / OriginOS (vivo), where to find them, and how to test your phone in ten minutes. It is written for a simple setup: one budget Android phone, no cloud account, no subscription, often with no SIM card and only home or shop Wi-Fi.

Why does my OPPO, realme or vivo phone stop the camera app when the screen is off?

Because these phones add their own background limits on top of normal Android, and some of those limits are on by default.

The volunteer site Don't Kill My App tracks how phone brands treat background apps and gives each brand a problem score out of 5. At the time of writing it scores OPPO 4, vivo 3 and realme 3. For comparison, plain Android (AOSP) scores 0.

Its OPPO page describes the problem on one model, the OPPO F1S, like this:

"Background services are being killed (including accessibility services, which then need re-enabling) every time you turn the screen off."

Its realme and vivo pages are more careful. Both say the system restrictions "have not been fully uncovered yet." And on all three pages, the section for app developers says there is no known fix on the developer side. That is the important part.

An app can ask Android for permission to keep running with the screen off. That is what a foreground service is, and it is why a screen-off camera app shows a notification while it records. But the extra switches that OPPO, realme and vivo add are not something an app can turn on for you. Only the person holding the phone can.

OPPO and realme phones share much of the same software base, so many menus look alike. vivo is a separate company with its own software. Below, each setting lists where to find it on each brand.

The five settings that stop a screen-off camera on OPPO, realme and vivo

Menu names change between software versions and between models. If a step does not match your phone, use the search box at the top of Settings and type the bold words.

1. Auto-launch / Autostart

This list decides which apps may start, or start again, without you opening them. If the camera app is off here, the phone does not have to let it come back after it is closed.

• OPPO (ColorOS): open the app's info page (long-press the app icon → App info) and turn on Allow Auto Start-up. Don't Kill My App reports this for ColorOS 6. On older OPPO phones it was inside the security app's startup manager.
• realme: Settings → Battery → Power saving settings → App battery management → [your camera app] → Allow auto-launch. On older realme phones, App battery management sits directly under Settings → Battery.
• vivo: Settings → More settings → Applications → Autostart, turn your camera app on. On very old phones (Funtouch OS 2.6 and lower) it is i Manager → App manager → Autostart manager.

2. Background activity / battery: no restrictions

This is the per-app battery rule. A restricted app can be paused once the screen has been off for a while.

• OPPO: App info → Battery usage (on some versions Power Saver), and choose the option that lets the app run in the background. Don't Kill My App notes that with "smart" restriction, background work is paused once the app is closed and only resumes when you open it again. That is not what you want for a camera.
• realme: in the same App battery management page as step 1, turn on Allow background activity and Allow foreground activity, and turn off Optimize battery use for the camera app.
• vivo: Settings → Battery → High background power consumption (on newer phones: Background power consumption management), find your camera app, and allow it. Then open App info → Battery → Battery optimization and set the camera app to Not optimized. On Android 13 and newer vivo phones you can also set the app's battery usage to unrestricted from Settings → [your camera app] → Battery.

3. Power saving modes: off

These are whole-phone modes. When they are on, they tighten the rules for every app at once, including the one you just allowed.

• realme: Don't Kill My App says Power saving mode "may terminate background processes" and can switch on automatically at a set battery level, and that Super power saving mode "will disrupt background processes." Turn both off, and turn off the automatic switch-on.
• realme: under Battery → Power saver options, look for Sleep stand-by optimization. It "automatically enables low power mode when the system thinks you are asleep." A camera that should record all night does not want that. Turn it off.
• OPPO and vivo: check Settings → Battery for any power saving mode and make sure it is off, and not set to turn on by itself at low battery.

A camera phone lives on the charger, so it does not need these modes. If the battery still drops while plugged in, the charger is the problem, not the settings (we explained that in Why Does My Phone Security Camera's Battery Drop Even Though It Is Plugged In?).

4. Lock the camera app in Recent apps

All three brands have a clean button in Recent apps that closes everything. Locking the camera app protects it.

• vivo: open Recent apps, swipe the app card down, then tap the lock icon. On some versions, tap the card's menu and choose Lock or Lockdown. Don't Kill My App says apps locked this way "are safe from getting terminated when they run in the background."
• OPPO and realme: open Recent apps and look for a Lock option on the camera app's card. Depending on the version, you drag the card down or open its menu. Don't Kill My App lists "pin your app to the recent apps screen" as one of four steps OPPO needed, and notes that "all four of those need to be done before the app would function."

This is the one to do even if you skip everything else. It protects you from anyone in the house or shop who taps "clean" because the phone feels slow.

5. realme: App quick freeze

realme phones have a feature called App quick freeze. Don't Kill My App says apps on this list "cannot receive or send notifications and cannot run on the background."

Find it with the Settings search box. Make sure your camera app is not on the list. If someone in the house added it to save battery, the camera will stop every time the screen turns off, no matter what else you set.

A setting we would not start with

realme phones also have a Performance mode or Battery mode with a "smart" option that Don't Kill My App says "may break background processes." Changing it affects the whole phone, not one app. Do the five steps above first and run the test below. Only change the phone-wide mode if the test still fails.

Does this work without internet?

Yes. None of the settings above need internet, a SIM card or an account. They are local switches on the phone.

That matters for a common setup in shops and homes where the camera phone has no SIM and only joins the local Wi-Fi, or no Wi-Fi at all. Recording to the phone's own storage does not need internet. A live view inside the same Wi-Fi network does not need internet either, as long as the router is on. Streaming to YouTube Live is different: that one needs a working internet connection.

Why phones with 2 GB or 3 GB of RAM still stop sometimes

Many camera phones are older A-series OPPO, C-series realme or Y-series vivo models with little memory. On those phones two different things can stop your camera:

1. The brand's battery rules (this guide). These are settings. You can change them.
2. Android's low-memory killer. When memory is full, Android itself closes apps, starting with the least important. A foreground service ranks high, but it is not untouchable.

The settings here fix the first one. For the second: keep the phone for the camera only, remove apps you do not need, and do not run games or social apps beside the camera. We explained how Android picks what to stop in A Foreground Service Is Not Immortal: What Android's Low Memory Killer Does to a 24/7 Camera on a 2 GB Phone.

The 10-minute test: does your phone still stop the camera?

Changing settings is not proof. Test the real phone with the real app.

1. Make the changes above. Restart the phone once.
2. Open the camera app, start recording, and turn the screen off.
3. Note the time. Put the phone on the charger. Do not touch it.
4. Wait at least 10 minutes. One hour is better. A full night is best, because realme's sleep stand-by optimization only acts when the phone thinks you are asleep.
5. If your app has a live view over Wi-Fi, open it from a second phone or laptop while you wait. Is the picture still moving?
6. Unlock the camera phone and look at the recordings. Do the files continue past the time you noted, with no long gap?
7. If there is a gap, note roughly when it started. A gap soon after the screen went off usually means a battery setting was missed. A gap that starts in the middle of the night points to a sleep or stand-by mode. A gap that starts when someone used the phone means the Recent apps lock was missed.

Run the test again after every ColorOS, realme UI, Funtouch OS or OriginOS update. Updates can add new power features, move menus, or reset switches.

Quick checklist for an OPPO, realme or vivo camera phone

• [ ] Auto-launch / Autostart: camera app on
• [ ] Background activity allowed; battery optimization off / Not optimized for the camera app
• [ ] vivo: High background power consumption allowed for the camera app
• [ ] Power saving modes off, and not set to turn on automatically
• [ ] realme: Sleep stand-by optimization off
• [ ] Camera app locked in Recent apps
• [ ] realme: camera app not in App quick freeze
• [ ] 10-minute test done, then an overnight test
• [ ] Re-test after every system update

If you have a different brand

• Redmi, POCO or Xiaomi: see Why Does My Redmi, POCO or Xiaomi Phone Stop the Camera App With the Screen Off?
• Tecno, Infinix or itel: see Why Does My Tecno, Infinix or itel Phone Stop the Camera App With the Screen Off?
• Samsung: the night-time trap there is a scheduled automatic restart. See Why Does My Samsung Phone Camera Stop Recording at Night?
• Developers who want the Android side of this (Doze, foreground services, and why vendor layers sit on top) can read Why Does My Android Camera Stop Recording When the Screen Turns Off?

New to this? Start with Turn an old Android phone into a screen-off security camera (no cloud, LAN-only), then come back to this checklist before you leave the phone alone.

Sources

• Don't Kill My App — OPPO (OPPO F1S description and four-step workaround, Allow Auto Start-up on ColorOS 6, Power Saver options), realme (App battery management options, power saving modes, Sleep stand-by optimization, App quick freeze, Performance mode), vivo (Autostart paths, High background power consumption, Battery optimization, locking in Recent apps). Brand scores read from the site's vendor list on 13 November 2026.

Don't Kill My App is a volunteer project, not official OPPO, realme or vivo documentation. Its OPPO page is based mainly on one model, and its realme and vivo pages say the picture is incomplete. That is exactly why the test matters more than the menu.

Background Camera RemoteStream turns an Android phone into a screen-off camera: it records with the screen off and keeps recordings on the phone, with no cloud account needed. Its Pro tier adds a live browser view over your own Wi-Fi and YouTube Live streaming; check the Play listing for what is free and what is Pro.

• Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.superfunicular.digicam
• Website: https://superfunicular.com