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We can’t imagine our Macs without cameras anymore. But as any tech customer support specialist will tell you, they also create the most common issues customers complain about. Although Mac camera not working is no doubt upsetting, it’s luckily quite easy to fix on your own in most cases.
Most Macs today come with a built-in front-facing camera, often referred to as the FaceTime camera. It’s located near the top edge of the screen and turns on when you open an app that is able to take pictures, record videos, or make video calls. Since FaceTime activates automatically, there’s no need to wonder how to connect camera on Mac. However, the activation process sometimes fails and it’s good to know what to do to get the connection back.
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Possible Reasons For Webcam Not Working On Mac
When you have your MacBook camera not working properly, it’ll say disconnected or unavailable. The “There is no connected camera” error might surprise you anytime with any app if it finds your camera not working on MacBook. But don’t rush to assume that now you need to somehow “connect” the camera back on or that there’s a hardware issue that requires warranty service:
macOS doesn’t come with a camera settings app. Most apps that use the Mac camera come with their own configuration options, so there’s no on-and-off switch — neither physical nor software.
Even if you think it might be a hardware issue, you can usually resolve the problem of Mac camera not working quite quickly on your own with the help of a few little tricks
Below is a comprehensive guide to the tips you can use to get your camera back up and running should it misbehave.
Check for apps using the camera simultaneously
We know that Mac camera is turned on automatically by the apps that use it. But what’s also important to note is that only a single app can utilize the camera at the same time. So when you have your Mac webcam not working, make sure you’re not being denied access to the camera because some other app is using it at the moment:
Launch Activity Monitor from Applications
Quit all other open apps or utilities that might be using the camera (e.g. Skype, FaceTime, and Photo Booth)
If you’re not sure which applications might be accessing your camera, save your work and close all the open apps to rule everything out
Simply restart your Mac
If quitting apps didn’t help, there might be a chance that some processes are using the camera in the background. A restart will almost certainly resolve the issue, giving you full access to the camera once again. To restart your Mac:
Select the Apple icon in the top menu bar
Click Restart…
Use Force Quit with FaceTime not working on Mac
As effective as restart is, it takes time and halts everything you’re doing. Which might not be an option when you’re in the middle of an important FaceTime call. Fortunately, for FaceTime not working on Mac, there’s another trick that doesn’t require a reboot and fixes the problem immediately. That is using a command line to Force Quit the process:
Go to Applications ➙ Utilities ➙ Terminal
Click inside the terminal window and type sudo killall VDCAssistant
Hit Return on your keyboard and enter your admin password if prompted
Relaunch the app to see if the issue of webcam not working on Mac is resolved.
Fix Skype camera not working on Mac
If you’re wondering why is my camera not working on my Mac when making Skype calls specifically, chances are that Skype is the app to blame here. Here’s what to do with your Skype camera not working on Mac:
Make sure that you have the latest version of Skype
If you do and there’s still no connected camera on MacBook — reinstall the app
Still experiencing the problem? Apply the same fix as described above for FaceTime not working on Mac. Then restart your computer and test Skype again.
Finally, check that you’re connected to the internet and your speed is sufficient enough (at least 128 kbps, or 1 mbps for HD FaceTime video calls). In case you do have problems with the internet connection, try WiFi Explorer, a network analyzer that helps identify and fix common network problems with your connection without involving a costly professional.
WiFi Explorer scans your network environment (band range, signal quality, security status), identifies channel conflict and coverage issues, and gives you quick recommendations to improve your WiFi.
Visual graphs in WiFi Explorer make it easy for you to assess the situation at a glance without diving deep into the numbers.
Reset your Mac’s system controller
If you find the camera on Mac not working still and nothing of the above seems to help, you may try resetting what's known as the System Management Controller (SMC). The SMC manages a lot of hardware functions on your Mac and rebooting it may serve as a solution to your problems.
To reset the SMC on MacBook (2017 or earlier):
Shut down your computer
Plug in your power adapter
Hold down Shift + Control + Options keys and the power button at the same time
Allow 30 seconds to pass before releasing the keys, which will boot the Mac back up
Resetting the SMC on modern MacBook Air or Pro with the T2 security chip is different and involves a two-step process. Sometimes simply completing the first step will resolve the problem, but proceeding with both is generally a more solid approach for fixing the camera not working on MacBook issue.
The first step required to reset the SMC on MacBooks (of 2018 or later):
Shut down your Mac
Press and hold the power button for 10 seconds
Release the power button and wait a few more seconds
Turn the Mac on again
Check to see if you still have the Mac webcam not working problem. If the issue persists, proceed to the second part below.
The second step required to reset the SMC on MacBooks (2018 or later):
Shut down your Mac
After the computer is turned off, press and hold the right Shift key, and the left Option key, and the left Control key for seven seconds
While still holding the keys, press and hold the power button for seven more seconds
Release all and wait a few more seconds
Press the power button again to turn the Mac on
Assuming the problem with MacBook Pro camera not working was with the SMC, whatever the issue was it should now be resolved.
Optimize your general system performance
Reading through the what to do with the MacBook camera not working guide, you have to remember that your camera should work flawlessly most of the time. Unless your Mac tends to accumulate all kinds of useless files that might slow it down. No wonder then you might experience the Mac webcam not working.
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Best advice here is to perform regular system cleanups — automatically. Use apps like CleanMyMac X to clean, protect, and optimize your machine’s performance to bring it to the state it once used to be.
CleanMyMac X optimization and maintenance tools sort through the old unused files, random app caches, and help you uninstall unnecessary apps completely without leaving behind the leftover bits on your drive. The app also scans for thousands of malware threats and neutralizes them in seconds, takes care of gigabytes of disk space taken by the email attachments you’ve never even downloaded, as well as removes histories, cookies, and caches from all the browsers you use. All in a single click.
If none of the proposed solutions can fix your Mac camera not working on MacBook, find an Apple Store or authorized Apple technician to have your Mac serviced. Or contact Apple’s telephone support. Remember that there also remains a possibility for mechanical or hardware problems with your camera, which are impossible to fix with software tweaks.
In all other cases, MacBook camera not working should no longer be a problem for you. Best of all, you can use both WiFi Explorer and CleanMyMac X mentioned above for free during a 7-day trial of Setapp, a platform of more than 150 apps that can fix just about any Mac problem in no time. Never miss your FaceTime call again!
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A security researcher has found a flaw in the popular video conferencing app Zoom that could be used to turn on the camera on a Macintosh computer without a user's permission.
The vulnerability allows any website to forcibly join a user to a Zoom call, with their video camera activated, without a user's permission, explained Jonathan Leitschuh in a post published Monday on Medium.
Leitschuh is a senior software engineer at Gradle, an open source software project based in San Francisco. His article demonstrates how to embed code into a website so that any Zoom users who land there will be connected instantly to a Zoom meeting with their video cameras running.
The code could be used in a malicious ad or in a phishing campaign, he wrote.
User in Complete Control
Zoom contradicted some of Leitschuh's conclusions in a Monday post by Chief Information Officer Richard Farley, including the contention that a meeting host could turn on a participant's video by default.
Run Iphone Apps On Mac
Hosts or participants cannot override a user's audio and video settings, Farley wrote. That includes turning a camera on or off.
It would be difficult for rogue users to hide their participation in a meeting, Farley maintained.
'Because the Zoom client user interface runs in the foreground upon launch, it would be readily apparent to the user that they had unintentionally joined a meeting and they could change their video settings or leave immediately,' he wrote.
Zoom had not seen a single instance of the Leitschuh vulnerability being exploited in the wild, wrote Farley.
Nevertheless, in the next Zoom upgrade, users will be able to apply settings they used for their first Zoom session to all future sessions automatically, he noted.
Target on Zoom's Back
Leitschuh also found that the vulnerability he discovered could be used to launch a denial-of-service attack on an individual machine. It would enable the sending of repeated meeting requests to a Mac, which eventually would lock it up.
'We have no indication that this ever happened,' Farley wrote.
However, he acknowledged that the company released a fix for the problem in May, though Zoom did not force its users to update because it was empirically a low-risk vulnerability.
Leitschuh was critical of Zoom's installation of Web server code to enable its client to update and install new versions of itself. That code remains on a machine even if Zoom is uninstalled from a computer.
'Having every Zoom user have a Web server that accepts HTTP GET requests that trigger code outside of the browser sandbox is painting a huge target on the back of Zoom,' he wrote.
Leitschuh isn't alone in his criticism of Zoom.
'Leaving a server running even after uninstallation is unacceptable,' said Martin Hron, a security researcher at Avast, headquartered in Prague, the Czech Republic. Avast makes security software, including antivirus programs for the Mac.
Working Around Poor UX
The Web server with limited functionality was a workaround to accommodate changes made in Safari 12, Farley explained. Those changes required users to confirm they wanted to launch the Zoom client every time they joined a meeting. The local Web server allows users to join meetings directly without going through that step.
'We feel that this is a legitimate solution to a poor user experience problem, enabling our users to have faster, one-click-to-join meetings,' Farley wrote.
'We are not alone among video-conferencing providers in implementing this solution,' he added.
There is no easy way to remove both the Zoom client and Web server app on a Mac once the Zoom client is launched, Farley acknowledged, but he added that a new app to uninstall both files is expected by this weekend.
Until that time, users should deactivate the setting that turns on the camera upon joining a meeting, as well as disallow a browser from automatically opening the Zoom app for Zoom links, Avast's Hron told TechNewsWorld.
Privacy Nightmare
The vulnerability could be bad news for Mac users of Zoom, who number more than 4 million, according to Leitschuh.
'Even though most Zoom users are in the enterprise, they are still consumers, and this vulnerability could result in a privacy nightmare if their work computers are used at home or for personal reasons,' Hron said.
'Any website can turn on the Zoom client with the video feed enabled, which essentially could turn a casual browsing session into a serious invasion of privacy in the home,' he explained.
Having your camera and audio enabled on your Mac without your knowledge can create a number of scenarios with bad outcomes, suggested Greg Young, vice president for Cybersecurity at Trend Micro, a cybersecurity solutions provider headquartered in Tokyo.
'One of those outcomes could be the use of the captured video or screenshots for blackmail,' he told TechNewsWorld.
'Another is when entering credit card information online, we all hold the card up in front of us in view of the camera, and usually flip it over at least once,' Young said.
Businesses should be worried too, noted Adam Kujawa, lab director atMalwarebytes, a Santa Clara, California-based maker of an antimalware software for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Android and iOS.
'If anything said and shown on the camera can be spied on, that can be mighty dangerous for a company with a lot of IP to hide,' he told TechNewsWorld.
Hard to Weaponize, Easy to Exploit
The flaw would be difficult for cybercriminals to weaponize in any effective form, Kujawa said, but the ease of exploitation would invite mischief.
'Just send out a convincing email with a link that points to a localhost server and wait for users to click,' he observed, 'or share it on social media.'
It's the practice in the industry to give a software maker 90 days to fix flaws found by bug hunters.
'Unfortunately, Zoom has not fixed this vulnerability in the allotted 90-day disclosure window I gave them, as is the industry standard,' Leitschuh wrote. 'The four-plus million users of Zoom on Mac are now vulnerable to an invasion of their privacy by using this service.'
John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John.