You set up an old Motorola phone as a camera. It is on the charger, the screen is off, and the camera app is recording. When you come back, the recording stopped hours ago. No error. The app is simply closed.

Motorola phones are often called "close to stock Android", so this surprises people. But newer Motorola phones add their own battery features on top of Android, and one of them can close apps even after you think you turned it off.

This guide shows the settings that stop a screen-off camera on a Motorola phone, where to find them, and how to test your phone in ten minutes. It is written for a simple setup: one spare Android phone, no cloud account, no subscription, often no SIM card and only home or shop Wi-Fi.

Why does my Motorola phone stop the camera app when the screen is off?

Because a camera with the screen off is exactly the kind of app that battery features are built to stop: it runs for hours while nobody looks at the phone.

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, Motorola scores 3, in the middle of the list. Plain Android (AOSP) scores 0. Samsung, Xiaomi, OnePlus and Huawei score 5.

So Motorola is not the worst. But its page opens with this:

"Even on Motoroal phones, has been reported an increased amount of apps being killed in the background lately."

(The spelling is theirs.) The page also says, under its section for app developers: "No developer solution at the moment."

That second line is the important one. 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 Motorola switches below are not something an app can flip for you. Only the person holding the phone can.

The five settings that stop a screen-off camera on Motorola

Menu names change between Android versions and models. If a step does not match your phone, use the search box at the top of Settings and type the bold words. You will not have every one of these on every phone. Do the ones you find, in this order.

1. App battery usage: Unrestricted (the hidden menu)

This is the one most people miss, because the switch you see is not the whole setting.

Don't Kill My App calls it "hidden from the plain sight". In each app's settings there is an App battery usage item with a toggle. Turning the toggle on is only half of it. You have to tap the words next to the toggle to open a second screen.

  • Go to Settings → Apps → [your camera app].
  • Open App battery usage.
  • Turn on Allow background usage.
  • Now tap the text of that option (not just the toggle).
  • On the next screen, choose Unrestricted.

If you only flipped the toggle, the app is usually still on a limited setting. Check that the screen you end on says Unrestricted.

2. Improve battery while inactive (the Battery care app)

This is the newest and the trickiest. Some newer Motorola phones have an option called Improve battery while inactive, added by a pre-installed app called Battery care. Don't Kill My App describes it as "enhanced by unknown AI algorithms".

  • Go to Settings → Battery and turn off Improve battery while inactive.

Here is the hard part. The page says Battery care "does seem to kill the apps even if you disable the option". In other words, turning it off may not be enough on every phone. Do it anyway, then run the test at the end of this guide. If the test still fails after you have done steps 1 to 5, see "The advanced fix" below.

3. Adaptive Battery: off

Adaptive Battery is a standard Android feature, not a Motorola one. It learns which apps you use often and limits the ones you use rarely. Don't Kill My App says it "might be quite aggresive on some phones" and that "the definition of infrequently used apps is quite wide".

A camera phone is the perfect victim: you set it up once and then never open the app again for days.

  • Go to Settings → Battery and turn off Adaptive Battery (on some phones it is under Battery → Adaptive preferences).

On a phone that lives on a charger and does only one job, there is little to lose.

4. Background restriction: remove it

Android lets the phone, or a person, put a single app under Background restriction. Phones sometimes suggest this when an app "uses a lot of battery", and someone taps yes.

On older Motorola menus, Don't Kill My App gives this path:

  • Settings → Apps & notifications → [your camera app] → Advanced → Battery.
  • Tap Background restriction (or Background limits).
  • If it says Background activity restricted, tap it and choose Remove.

On newer phones, choosing Unrestricted in step 1 covers this.

5. Managing background apps (find it with search)

The page says this one "does not seem to be found in the layout, but rather with the search tool".

  • Open Settings and type managing background apps in the search box.
  • Find your camera app in the list and turn its switch on, so it is allowed to run in the background.

If your phone shows nothing for that search, it does not have this screen. Move on.

Also check: Battery Saver

Battery Saver is a whole-phone mode. When it is on, it tightens the rules for every app at once.

  • Check Settings → Battery → Battery Saver is off, and that it is not set to turn on by itself at a low battery level.

A camera phone lives on the charger, so it does not need power saving. If the battery still drops while plugged in, the charger or cable 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?.

The advanced fix: removing Battery care with ADB

Only do this if steps 1 to 5 are done and the test below still fails. It needs a computer, a USB cable, USB debugging turned on in Developer options, and Android's ADB tool.

Don't Kill My App's only fix for Battery care is to remove the com.motorola.batterycare package for your user:

adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.motorola.batterycare

Two notes before you type it:

  • Use two normal hyphens before user. The command on the page is printed with a single long dash (–user), which is a typing artifact. A terminal will not accept it as the --user option.
  • This does not delete the app from the phone's system. --user 0 removes it for the phone's main user and -k keeps its data. It can normally be brought back with the standard package command: 
adb shell cmd package install-existing com.motorola.batterycare

Removing pre-installed apps is at your own risk, and a system update may bring the app back. After any update, check that Improve battery while inactive is still off and run the test again.

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: 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 a budget Moto with 2 GB or 3 GB of RAM can still stop

Many spare Motorola phones are older budget models with little memory. On those phones two different things can stop your camera:

  1. 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: use the phone for the camera only, remove apps you do not need, and do not run games or social apps next to 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 (then overnight)

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. Then do it again overnight. Adaptive Battery and "while inactive" features are built around time without use, so a short test can pass while a long one fails.
  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 within minutes of the screen going off usually means step 1 (Unrestricted) was missed. A gap that only appears after a long quiet period points to Adaptive Battery or Battery care. A gap that starts after someone used the phone points to a person tapping a "clean" or "restrict" suggestion.

Run the test again after every system update. Updates can add new battery features, move menus, or reset switches.

Quick checklist for a Motorola camera phone

  • [ ] App battery usage: background usage on, then tap in and set Unrestricted
  • [ ] Improve battery while inactive off (if your phone has it)
  • [ ] Adaptive Battery off
  • [ ] Background restriction removed
  • [ ] "Managing background apps": camera app allowed (if search finds it)
  • [ ] Battery Saver off, and not set to turn on automatically
  • [ ] 10-minute test, then an overnight test
  • [ ] Only if it still fails: (advanced) remove Battery care with ADB
  • [ ] Re-test after every system update

If you have a different brand

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 — Motorola (page dated 9 June 2026; score, quotes, Improve battery while inactive / Battery care and the ADB command, App battery usage and Unrestricted, Adaptive battery, Background activity restrictions path, Managing background apps). Scores read from the site's vendor list on 15 November 2026.
  • The pm install-existing restore command is a standard Android package-manager command, not from the Motorola page.

Don't Kill My App is a volunteer project, not official Motorola documentation. Menus differ by model and Android version. 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.