mike-hk
Level 1 (5 points)
Mac OS X

Q: camera not recognized in El Capitan, tried most things

Hi Everyone,

 

I have the same problem that others have had.  I have tried:

-Other apps and they don't recognize it.

-Rebooting

-power down and power up

-Reset SMC

-Reset NVRAM

-Try as different user

-also the killall commands to kill back ground apps.

 

Still no luck and still having issue.

 

Any other suggestions?

 

Also did anyone else have  to re-install OS X to fix this?

 

Cheers,

Mike

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1), MBA 2011

Posted on Nov 27, 2015 1:10 AM

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mike-hk

Q: camera not recognized in El Capitan, tried most things

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  • Helpful answers

  • by jeremy_v,

    jeremy_v jeremy_v Nov 28, 2015 12:03 PM in response to mike-hk
    Community Specialists
    Nov 28, 2015 12:03 PM in response to mike-hk

    Hi mike-hk,
     

    Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities. 
     

    It looks like you've tried a lot of good steps to troubleshoot your camera not being recognized in El Capitan. I have some questions that may lead to some additional suggestions:
     

    1. Did this camera work on your Mac before upgrading to El Capitan?
       
    2. Does the camera appear in System Information when connected to your Mac? 
       
    3. Is it recognized when connected to other computers?
       
    4. Are other cameras or USB devices recognized by your Mac?
       
    5. What kind of camera is it, and what kind of media is on the camera?


    Best Regards. 

  • by mike-hk,

    mike-hk mike-hk Nov 28, 2015 5:06 PM in response to jeremy_v
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 28, 2015 5:06 PM in response to jeremy_v

    hi Jeremy_v,

    See my responses below:

     

     

    1. Did this camera work on your Mac before upgrading to El Capitan?   yes it did.
    2. Does the camera appear in System Information when connected to your Mac? no it does not.
    3. Is it recognized when connected to other computers? internal camera that came with my mba
    4. Are other cameras or USB devices recognized by your Mac? i haven't tried yet.
    5. What kind of camera is it, and what kind of media is on the camera? it is the internal camera that is part of my 2011 MBA.

     

    I would rather not do a full re-install but alas that might be my only choice.

     

    cheers,

    Mike

  • by jeremy_v,

    jeremy_v jeremy_v Nov 29, 2015 3:27 PM in response to mike-hk
    Community Specialists
    Nov 29, 2015 3:27 PM in response to mike-hk

    Hi Mike,
     

    Thanks for replying. I see that it's the FaceTime (internal) camera that's not being recognized on your Mac.
     

    You may also want to try starting up in safe mode to see if the camera is recognized that way. If not, I agree that reinstalling OS X is the next step.
     

    How to reinstall OS X on your Mac has some detailed steps for reinstalling OS X with or without erasing your startup disk.
     

    Best Regards.

  • by vasrani,

    vasrani vasrani Jan 7, 2016 7:58 PM in response to jeremy_v
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 7, 2016 7:58 PM in response to jeremy_v

    I have a similar issue with an external camera.

     

    Did this camera work on your Mac before upgrading to El Capitan?   Yes
    Does the camera appear in System Information when connected to your Mac?  Yes under USB

    Is it recognized when connected to other computers? Yes (on a newer machine with an older OS)

    Are other cameras or USB devices recognized by your Mac? I have tried a second camera (same manufacturer) which is also not recognized. Other USB devices like keyboard/mouse/printer work fine. A scanner is also not recognized by Image Capture even though I am able to use it using VueScan

    What kind of camera is it, and what kind of media is on the camera? Canon point and shoot with an SD memory card.

     

    I am not sure what is happening between Image Capture and System profiler - why does Image Capture not "see" the device while System Profiler is able to "see" it.

  • by vasrani,

    vasrani vasrani Jan 7, 2016 8:10 PM in response to vasrani
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 7, 2016 8:10 PM in response to vasrani

    I seem to have found a link which at least tells me something more about the issue though does not solve it.

     

    My interpretation is that Apple just has not yet come up with a driver for the camera that I have i.e. this camera is unsupported on El Capitan. List of supported cameras can be seen here.

     

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205272

  • by vasrani,

    vasrani vasrani Jan 12, 2016 9:24 AM in response to vasrani
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2016 9:24 AM in response to vasrani

    On looking further, I am not entirely convinced about the explanation I provided. I am looking at the RAW formats supported on Yosemite and Mavericks (on both of which ImageCapture was able to "see" my camera)

     

    Digital camera RAW formats supported by OS X Yosemite - Apple Support

    OS X Mavericks: Supported digital camera RAW formats - Apple Support

     

    and

     

    Digital camera RAW formats supported by OS X El Capitan - Apple Support

     

    I'm still wondering whats going on. I guess a "reader" might be the best solution that I can find for now.

  • by vasrani,

    vasrani vasrani Jan 13, 2016 11:51 AM in response to vasrani
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 13, 2016 11:51 AM in response to vasrani

    missed adding that the camera I have is not included in the lists supported on Yosemite or Mavericks.

  • by Chewrag,

    Chewrag Chewrag May 8, 2016 11:35 AM in response to vasrani
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 8, 2016 11:35 AM in response to vasrani

    THis problem appears to be common in El Capitan. I, too, had no USB connection to my external point/shoot camera since upgrade. Mine is a Panasonic DMC-S27 and worked fine since new, several years, 2 different iMacs, and several Mac system upgrades. Suddenly, in El Capitan, camera just sits there "trying" to "connecting to PC", but no sign of connection. My camera does NOT show up in the System profile as a USB device, so there is simply no connection.

     

    The good news was one replay indicated inserting SD card directly into the iMac, and my Imac does have the slot. So yes, it worked. I am disappointed this has not been found nor corrected by Apple. Any idea as to whether they will try to fix??