Q: El Capitan iSight

At first I thought the iSight camera in my LED Cinema Display wasn't working under El Capitan. However, per a suggestion earlier in this thread I tried various apps that use the camera and found that with Photo Booth it worked normally. Then I figured out it's now a menu item in the FaceTime app, and got that turned on. Still working on Skype. - LJ

Had this problem too.

Update 10.11.2 seems to have resolved it.

I am on 10.11.2 and my camera still does not work.

same here... MB Air 11" (2011) with EC 10.11.2

Under hardware/camera AND USB is no camera shown....

desmo111 wrote: ... Under hardware/camera AND USB is no camera shown....

If your Mac's System Information still does not recognize the camera after you've tried all of the other suggestions offered in this thread, you almost certainly have a hardware problem. Contact Apple or an Apple-Authorized Service Provider to have your Mac professionally serviced. Be sure to backup your Mac and deauthorize iTunes before tendering it for service.

Message was edited by: EZ Jim

Mac OSX 10.11.2

Thanks for Your suggestion Jim.

But it´s from 2011, the next apple service point 120km to go and I´m afraid of an expencive repair.

So I go on with this issue and let it be like it is

Understood.

Message was edited by: EZ Jim

Mac OSX 10.11.2

>

Hi EZ Jim,

Came across this form and took advice from you on my isight Camera problem.

iSight was working fine a week ago but now on iMovie and Quicktime player its stopped working...

I've created another USER account and tested it in this, the camera works fine in all these Apps so i'm wondering whats going on and how i'd solve it.

Seems very odd.. I don't particularly want to reinstall OS from Recovery or Back Up from Time Machine as i've done quite a bit of work since last BU.

I've deleted Playlist Prefs which hash't helped, should i try SMC reset or is this dangerous?

Many thanks for any advice you can offer,

Best wishes

Paul

PDHand wrote:...created another USER account and ... camera works fine in all these Apps so i'm wondering whats going on and how i'd solve it...

If everything works greatly a new user account, it would seem that your old one is damaged.

The easiest way to fix it, is to simply begin using your newly created, working, user account as your normal start account.  Is it long enough so that you aren't convinced that you have access to everything that your Mac needs to do. Once you are convinced that all is working in the new account, you can trash your old (damaged) user account to save space if you like.

PDHand wrote:... I don't particularly want to reinstall OS from Recovery ... as i've done quite a bit of work since last BU...

Properly reinstalling the OS from "Recovery" will not do anything to the work you've done since your last backup.  However, if I understand you correctly, simply changing user accounts should obviate the need for reinstallation or restoration.

PDHand wrote:... I don't particularly want to reinstall OS from ... Time Machine as i've done quite a bit of work since last BU...

If you have good Time Machine backups, you should be able to use them to restore any work you lose by restoring the system from a working Time Machine backup. If you are concerned about that you can actually make a separate backup of your current document folders for restoring have to get the system working correctly.

However, as noted above, if I understand you correctly, simply changing user accounts should obviate the need for reinstallation or restoration.

PDHand wrote:...took advice from you on my isight Camera problem...should i try SMC reset or is this dangerous?...

If you taken the advice I offered in my first response is this topic, you are ready done the SMC reset. It's not dangerous, but, in your case, it seems from your posted information that your problem is not with SMC but rather with your user account.

Message was edited by: EZ Jim

Mac OSX 10.11.3

Vernao wrote: Reset the SMC solves for me....

That is the most common fix for most of us.  That is why Apple includes SMC Reset in its iSight Troubleshooting article as one of the first things to try.

However, other readers should understand that resetting SMC cannot repair a damaged user account like PDHand describes above.

Message was edited by: EZ Jim

Mac OSX 10.11.3

Hi EZ Jim,

Thank you for taking the time to respond and offer your fantastic advice.

I will go ahead and work with a new user account and get that running for a while, if all is good with that i'll go ahead and trash my old account.

I've never heard of User accounts getting corrupt or errors in them, does this happen often?

As my iSight works in my current account in Photo Booth and FaceTime but not in iMovie and Quicktime then this shows that the iSight does work so probably an SMC reset is not needed like you say.   I will go ahead and try the New User Account advice. 

Thank you again for your expertise. Much appriciated.

Best wishes

Paul

You're welcome, PDHand.

PDHand wrote:... if all is good with that i'll go ahead and trash my old account.

If you haven't already backed up the documents, photos, movies, software, iTunes purchases, etc.,  from your old user account, do so now in case you miss something needed before you delete your old account.

PDHand wrote:...I've never heard of User accounts getting corrupt or errors in them, does this happen often?...

If you use your Mac properly, not often.  I have experienced two or three damaged user accounts on the ten different Macs I have used in the past thirty years.

PDHand wrote:...my iSight works in my current account in Photo Booth and FaceTime but not in iMovie and Quicktime ...

This is new information to me. It is possible that reinstalling Mac OS X, QuickTime, and iMovie might correct your problem.  I did not see which Mac and Mac OS X versions you have.  Depending on which Mac  & Mac OS X version you use, reinstalling OS X may also reinstall QuickTime and iMovie.

Try reinstalling your software and then test your old user account again to see whether all your camera apps work properly after the reinstall.  If they do, you need not change user accounts.

Message was edited by: EZ Jim

Mac OSX 10.11.3

Ez, no one of this solve for me

I'm running 10.11.4 (15E65) and since I update I'm having this issue

I live in Brasil and allready cal the Apple support here, but Apple here is not the same Apple in USA, as my MacBook Air 13-inch, Mid 2013 is not in the garantee anymore they say I have to fix and pay in a store I choose

No app, Apple or not can connect with câmera

I've allready restart, and a lot of other things that Apple support told me and nothing

In the Terminal app I've try sudo killall VDCAssistant and....No matching processes were found

Can you give me some other path to try?

tks and sorry for my english

ALNN73 wrote:...Can you give me some other path to try?...

One of these will fix your camera problem in Brazil.  Try them in any order you like until you find the one that works for you:

(1) If restarting your Mac doesn't fix the problem,

(2) use Apple's http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2090.

(BTW - The Troubleshooting article calls the camera an "iSight".  However, after the article was published, Apple has changed the built-in camera's name on newer Macs from "iSight" to "FaceTime" and then to "FaceTime HD."  Regardless of the name of your built-in camera, the same info and troubleshooting applies.)

Be sure to test more than one Apple app (Photo Booth, FaceTime, iMovie, QuickTime Player, etc.) in more than one user account.  Do NOT use the "Guest" account for this test.  If you do not have more than one user account for the testing, create a new one now.  If you need help, how to do it is explained in http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201754.

A "Standard" user account is all you need for testing.

(3) If your cam won't work properly even with Apple apps, use OS X Recovery to completely reinstall your Mac OS from the Recovery System stored on your startup drive.  Don't bother testing Skype or other third-party apps until you have your camera working with Apple apps.

(4) If none of the above suggestions resolve your trouble, contact Apple Brazil or a Brazilian Apple-Authorized Service Provider to have your Mac professionally serviced.  Because your Mac is no longer covered by AppleCare warranty, it is normal for you to pay for any needed testing and repairs.

Be sure to backup your Mac and deauthorize iTunes before tendering it for service.

Message was edited by: EZ Jim

Mac OSX 10.11.4