If Zoom is crashing your Mac

I contacted Apple support regarding this issue. They told me to reboot in recovery mode and reinstall Mojave (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314). Conveniently, the reinstall does not mess with user files or applications.

After reinstalling Mojave I had a couple of 30'-long FaceTime video calls without any problems.

Fix is to get the BridgeOS version updated to 1037.0.78.0.0 (iBridge: 17.16.10572.0.0,0)

If you are not ready to upgrade to Catalina (because let's face it, it breaks a lot more than it fixes for most), do the following workaround:

1) Download the latest Catalina installer (but DO NOT run it to your internal SSD).

2) Get a 32GB flash drive that you can attach to your Mac and format it into APFS format (in Disk Utility you must change the view to "Show All Devices" rather than just "Show Only Volumes" which is what it defaults to)

3) Shutdown your Mac

4) Boot up into Recovery Mode (Command+R)

5) Go to Utilities>Startup Security Utility

6) Choose to Allow booting from external media

7) Quit and reboot your Mac

8) Launch "Install macOS Catalina"

9) Change your drive destination to your APFS formatted flash drive

10) Click Next and let Catalina install on the flash drive

11) When the Mac completes the install it will come to the Welcome Setup Assistant

12) Reboot your Mac and disconnect the flash drive

13) Your internal drive with macOS Mojave will boot back up

14) Go to About This Mac

15) Go to System Report

16) Confirm your Boot ROM Version is now 1037.0.78.0.0 (iBridge: 17.16.10572.0.0,0) or something similar rather than 220.270.99.0.0 (iBridge: 16.16.6571.0.0,0)

And the bug is fixed! The reason... I am not at liberty to show Intel ;-)

Thorbjorg Helga--there is nothing to be done with your computer until Apple releases a fix--probably not until Catalina is released. The only work-around that I and others have found is to use a blue tooth external video camera, as per the YouTube advice here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Icp8ljJ_No

I am now using an external camera and have had no crashes since. But it is a super pain that a new MacBook Pro's camera has become unusable! Be that as it may, don't waste your time or money erasing and reinstalling OS. It won't fix the issue. A $20 external camera is much less hassle and eliminates the crashes.

Good news everyone! I just got this from a friend who works in Apple’s enterprise support dept:

> They (Apple) are aware of it and are working on a fix.

Can confirm. This has good visibility internally, FYI. Can't give schedule on fix, sorry. And yes - only affects 2018+ MBP 15" when doing internal video camera. Temp workaround is to plug in an external USB camera to bypass the internal camera.

As noted earlier, I have gotten confirmation from Apple that a fix is in the works and they have confirmed that this is a bug in all variant builds of 10.14.6 that was missed affecting all 15" 2018 and 2019 MacBook Pros. From my friend at Apple Enterprise:

> They (Apple) are aware of it and are working on a fix.

Can confirm. This has good visibility internally, FYI. Can't give schedule on fix, sorry. And yes - only affects 2018+ MBP 15" when doing internal video camera. Temp workaround is to plug in an external USB camera to bypass the internal camera.

FYI, you can install Catalina beta on an external drive --- you don't even have to boot the the new install. As part of the catalina beta install, it installs a updated firmware (T2 / iBridge). So just installing it on an external drive and then booting back to your internal drive fixes the issue.

https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac-software/macos-external-drive-3659666/

External drive must be formatted with "APFS formatted drive"

https://www.macworld.com/article/3405588/how-to-install-the-macos-catalina-beta-in-its-own-apfs-container.html

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255

PepsiGuy, thanks, great hint!

Another workaround is to switch off encryption, I believe. See below.

But to be honest, Apple for me is a complete worry-free solution provider and I don't want to play with workarounds. For playing tech I have much cheaper ultrabook with my beloved Linux. So my strategy was to talk to Apple to help them to recognize the problem, not the single laptop malfunction, because it takes time to find correlations, investigate and fix the problem.

Anyway, bad things always happens on a large scale and in general Apple's solutions works good for me.

Now, summary of my current knowledge:

• There is a guess, told by Apple person, that issue correlated with encrypted drive (T2 used for this). I switched encryption off while re-installing MacOS and problem gone on my laptop! Tried to reproduce for a few hours.
• Supposed issue fix is to replace logic board (Apple person)
• It seems that issue affects laptops without T2 (reproduced once), but T2 makes the problem much-much-much worse (my observation)
• On T2-enabled, issue can appear in minutes or in hours (my observation)
• Issue affected some T2 laptops only (confirmed)
• Issue is not affecting some newer laptops (unconfirmed)
• It seems that Apple is aware about this problem and working on a fix

Using an external monitor also seems to prevent the issue, my guess is that it switches permanently to the discrete GPU / Radeon Pro in this situation.

All the crashes I experienced were without an external monitor, when the MacBook switches dynamically from the Intel UHD Graphics to the Radeon Pro.

Waiting for 10.15 Catalina, you might want to try to disable the Graphics switching in the energy saving preferences. This will drain your battery faster though (but Hangout/Meet is anyhow a disaster on this aspect).

You can also try to disable hardware acceleration in Chrome (I didn't test long enough to confirm an improvement)

Yeah I was hopeful too but 18G103 does nothing to the Boot ROM/BridgeOS which is where the issue lies. I’ve been going around with a 16GB flash drive with the latest Catalina Beta installer on it and a 256GB flash drive that’s wiped in APFS format and “installing” Catalina to it on afflicted Macs. This forces the internal BridgeOS to upgrade which fixes the issue. It’s about a 30 minute process but it’s a solid fix

It has nothing to do with Zoom, nor with your MacBook camera. It is an issue with Mohave 10.14.6. If you review previous posts in this thread, you will find this confirmed with more details. Apple is aware, but has not shown any interest in fixing Mohave. You have two options, both of which worked for me. First is to use an external USB camera. Sucks, but Zoom will then work. Second is to upgrade to Catalina. Once I installed Catalina, camera works fine with Zoom.

For what it’s worth, in Mohave 10.14.6, using any app with the camera will cause the crash—FaceTime, GoToMeeting, etc. Any Apple tech blaming it on Zoom is really irresponsible.

Click on the Apple icon in the top left corner of your Mac screen. Then click on ‘About This Mac’. A window will appear that describes your MacBook. In the bottom right hand corner of the window, there is a ‘Software Update...’ button. Click that button and another Software Update window will pop up, checking if there are any updates for you MacBook. You should then be shown that the Catalina update is available for your computer, asking you if you want to install the update. If you choose to do so, you press the button and follow instructions.

MAKE SURE YOU ARE BACKED UP BEFORE INSTALLING THE UPDATE.

I gather that some folks have had some issues with Catalina. Certainly there are some old apps (like Aperture) that will no longer work. But I did the update and have had no difficulties. And no more camera crashes.

I just installed the latest security update for Mojave 10.14.6 which updated my Boot Rom and Bridge OS to 1037.60.58.0.0 (iBridge: 17.16.12551.0.0,0). So far I am able to run Zoom meetings with video without the system crash that always happened within a few minutes...I am cautiously optimistic. I know that upgrading to Catalina is a known fix, but my company is not ready to authorize that until they finish compatibility testing with our enterprise systems.

Hi edgonz305,

Thanks for coming to Apple Support Communities for help with your MacBook Pro. It sounds like the video camera causes your Mac to either crash or hang.

Reinstalling was a good process. It sounds like you may have even erased the hard drive and reinstalled macOS. Since the issue is continuing, that can indicate a hardware issue. You can even test the camera in a new user account and to verify that further: How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac.

If the issue continues, please contact support.

Have a fantastic day!

edgonz305 Said:

"I'm considering bringing my laptop to the Apple Store and have them replace it - the laptop is not even two months old. Any suggestions?"

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Faulty Devices

Seems you have a faulty device. If it is more than 14 days old, it is non-returnable. But, you do have a one-year out-of-the box warranty. And if this is a faulty device, then Apple will fix this in whatever way possible, perhaps leading unto a full replacement. So, contact Apple and setup a Genius Bar Appointment at your local Apple Store.

Contacting Apple:

Contact Us - Choose Locations

USA: 1(800)MY-APPLE

I'm having the exact same issue with my 2018 Macbook Pro 15 after upgrading to Mojave 10.14.6 (crashing computer on anything that uses the built-in camera, such as Facetime, Zoom, etc). The only workaround I have been able to find so far is connecting an external webcam (Logitech C920) before making any video calls. I was on a Facetime call today for over 2 hours and didn't have any issues so it seems to have alleviated the problem for now. Obviously not a long term fix, but at least my computer is usable again for the time being. Please keep us posted. Thanks!