Are you about to make a FaceTime call but the camera on your Mac is not working? I have highlighted 5 ways you can use to fix the FaceTime HD camera problem. Here are the quick tips for dealing with the issue when you get the prompt 'There is no connected camera' on your MacBook Pro or MacBook Air.
- How To Access The Camera On My Macbook Air
- How To Access The Camera On My Macbook Air 2
- How To Access The Camera On My Macbook Air Isn T Working
Before delving into the solutions though, here is something you need to know. Besides hardware challenges, problems affecting the webcam or camera arise when multiple processes what to use the same camera. As such, when a process using the FaceTime camera fails to terminate properly, it is bound to hog resources from the next application that wants to access the camera.
Now, the solutions.
1. Rebooting Your Mac
When faced with the FaceTime no camera available on MacBook, the easiest fix to try is restarting your mac. The reboot will terminate all running processes and give you a clean slate to start with. However, if your FaceTime call is in a few minutes, you will have to try other quick fixes.
Quickly close apps that are associated with using the camera. For this fix, use the Activity Monitor App.
- Go to the /Applications/Utilities folder and launch the Activity Monitor App.
- Click on the 'Process Name' on the top left column to list the applications alphabetically.
- Click on 'VDC Assistant' then on the 'X' icon on the top left to close the app.
Your MacBook laptop has a pretty decent camera tucked into the top of its screen, considering the lens is so small you can't see it without leaning in for a close look. If you have a regular. If your camera keeps erroring and it is becoming problematic, you could try this reset to get it back into shape. NVRAM (Non Volatile Random-Access Memory) is like the BIOS in Windows. It's a place where the system stores many core settings that are read when your Mac boots up.
When a camera app is launched, it initiates the VDCAssistant process hence the reason you need to close it to allow FaceTime take over the camera resources.
An upgrade to the latest mac OS can cause your MacBook pro webcam not to work. Free download browser protection software. Try the following steps for checking whether the camera works well or has other unrelated problems.
Log into another FaceTime account and test the built-in camera. This step will help you know if the camera isn't working because of a user-specific issue or not.
Try using PhotoBooth or iChat to confirm whether the camera not working on FaceTime is application-specific.
4. Solve the FaceTime not Connected in Display Problem
In some cases, the problem you'd facing is FaceTime HD camera not working on your MacBook Air. Fixing this issue is easy, although you have to do it manually.
- Launch FaceTime on your MacBook pro or MacBook Air.
- Go to Menu > Video, then choose 'FaceTime HD Camera (Display)'
That's it.
5. Stop VDC Assistant Using a Command Line on the Terminal
Save the best for last. This last fix will solve the majority of your FaceTime camera issues. And it's easy to follow and takes a very short time to execute.
VDCAssistant is a background process (daemon) that controls the functionality of the built-in iSight camera on the Mac OS. If your camera is not working on a Mac Pro or Air, this is one of those processes you should check first.
- Close all applications that are using the camera on your MacBook (Skype, FaceTime, Google Hangouts).
- Go to Launchpad > Terminal
- Enter the following command: sudo killall VDCAssistant
- Enter your login password when prompted
- Then type the following command: sudo killall AppleCameraAssistant
- When done, launch FaceTime and the camera should work.
Those are the solutions to problems affecting your FaceTime camera. These solutions will also work when iSight cannot connect to Photobooth. Let us know if you managed to fix your FaceTime.
Here is How to Turn OFF or Disable Camera on Mac, in case you do not use the FaceTime Camera on your MacBook or want to disable the Camera on Mac for security reasons.
Disable Camera on Mac
The built-in Camera on MacBook cannot be physically disconnected because it uses the same bus that connects the MacBook's screen with the motherboard.
Plugging OFF or physically disconnecting the Camera from MacBook will turn off both camera and the screen of the MacBook.
Hence, the only way to physically disable camera on Mac would be to cover the camera with a sticker, duct tape or by using camera covers as available on Amazon.
If you are looking for a software based solution, you can use any of the methods as provided below to disable the iSight or the built-in Camera on your Mac.
1. Prevent Apps from Using Camera on Mac
Hp scan software osx. If you have a reason to believe that the Camera on your MacBook is being secretly used, you can prevent Apps from using the Camera on your Mac.
1. Click on the Apple logo in top menu bar and click on System Preferences in the drop-down menu.
2. On the System Preferences screen, click on the Security & Privacy tab.
3. On security & Privacy screen, click on Camera in the left pane. In the right-pane, uncheck the Apps having access to the Camera on your Mac.
After this, your Mac will automatically prevent the unchecked Apps from accessing the built-in iSight Camera.
2. Prevent Websites from Accessing Camera on Mac
Depending on your Safari settings, the websites that you visit may gain access to the Camera on your MacBook.
Hence, follow the steps below to disable Camera Access to all websites.
1. Open the Safari browser on your Mac.
2. Next, click on the Safari tab in top menu bar and select Preferences… in the drop-down menu.
3. On the next screen, click on the Websites tab > click on Camera in the left pane and select either Ask or Deny option for Websites listed under 'Allow websites to access the Camera'.
How To Access The Camera On My Macbook Air
Also, select Deny or Ask option for 'While visiting other websites' option.
Choosing Deny option will prevent websites from accessing the Camera on your Mac, while selecting the 'Ask' option will make the websites to prompt you to either Allow or Deny access to Camera.
3. Disable Camera on Mac Using Parental Controls
The parental Controls feature on Mac provides an easy way to Turn OFF the camera on your Mac.
This feature allows you to Turn OFF the Camera for any of the User Accounts on your Mac, while allowing the Camera to work normally on other User Accounts.
1. Open System Preferences on your Mac > click on Parental Controls.
2. On the next screen, click on Enable Parental Controls button.
How To Access The Camera On My Macbook Air 2
Note: You may have to click on the Lock Icon and enter your Admin Password to gain access to this setting.
3. On Parental Controls screen, select the User Account in the left pane. In the right pane, click on the Apps tab and uncheck Allow Use of Camera option.
This will prevent all the Apps on your Mac from using the built-in Camera on Mac and also the plugin Webcam (if any).
Why Some Users Disable Camera on Mac
The built-in Camera on MacBook is commonly referred to as the FaceTime Camera, while officially it is known as iSight Camera.
The Camera on MacBook can be used to make FaceTime calls to family/friends and also to conduct online business meetings using Skype.
However, some users want to disable the Camera on Mac to prevent the possibility of malware abusing the video capability of the MacBook to secretly record video sessions.
How To Access The Camera On My Macbook Air Isn T Working
OSX/FruitFly, OSX/Crisis, OSX/Mokes are some of the known Mac Malware programs that are known to spy on unsuspecting Mac users.
Note: If you are concerned about your privacy, using third-party apps to block the webcam on your Mac is not a good idea.
