What do I do when a capture will not save to Photos?
An Error after saving can offer Try Again, Discard, and Not Now. The app tries to retain both local files so you can recover the pair. It blocks new photo/video capture while that pair remains unresolved, even if you dismiss the alert.
In this article
If Photos access was declined
- Choose Not Now to dismiss the alert while keeping the pending pair.
- Open Settings → Permissions → Photo Library and tap the row to open iOS Settings.
- Allow Radar Camera to add photos/videos, then return to the app.
- If the pending-save alert is no longer visible, tap a capture shutter while idle; it resurfaces the unresolved pair's error instead of starting a new capture. Reopening the app also surfaces retained recovery records.
- Tap Try Again.
- Wait for Both saved to Photos, then check Photos for the pair.
The permission error reads Allow photo access in Settings to save your photos and videos. The generic save failure reads Your photos or videos couldn't be added to Photos. They're still on the device: try saving again. iOS may also supply its own detailed error.
If saving failed for another reason
Keep the pending pair, check available iPhone storage, resolve any error described by iOS, and use Try Again. Saving the same pair does not record the scene again. If no retry options exist, the error may be a capture/session failure rather than a retained Photos-save failure.
Recover after reopening
For a pair durably retained in app storage, the next launch displays A capture from last time hasn't been saved to Photos yet. Try again or discard it. Resolve it with Try Again or Discard. If several pairs were retained, the app presents them oldest first, one at a time, after each is resolved.
Not Now keeps the pair and postpones the decision; it does not clear the block on capturing. Discard deletes the pending local capture rather than saving it. Choose it only when you no longer want that take. It does not remove already saved assets from Photos.
If deletion itself fails, the alert says Couldn't discard all capture files. Try again to finish deleting them. After that, Try Again retries deletion, not a Photos save. The discard intention can survive reopening.
Recovery limits and duplicates
Do not delete Radar Camera while a needed pair is pending: deleting the app removes its private data. Storage failure can prevent durable retention, and some files may remain only for an in-session retry. Recovery after reopening is therefore conditional on successful retention.
Exceptionally, one asset can reach Photos while its sibling fails, or the app can stop after Photos accepts a pair but before its local commit record is durable. A retry can create duplicates. Check Photos and remove unwanted duplicates there after successful recovery. The app has add-only access and cannot browse or clean your library itself.
Force-closing during an active unfinished recording is not the same as reopening a durably stored failed save. Do not promise recovery of every unfinished recording.