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Macbook Pro camera doesn't work. "No Video".

For some months already, I have been facing a problem where I can't use the Mac built-in camera. It doesn't work with Facetime, Skype and either Photo Booth.


The message that I get after opening Facetime is "No video. FaceTime has not received any video from the connected camera. Restarting your computer may fix this issue". Only green light is blinking every couple of seconds.



I have been using this laptop for 2 months and it doesn't have any damages that could affect the hardware. Camera and other minor problems started in January 2020 after additional Catalina updates.


I have Googled solution for this problem and tried different solutions but none of them didn't work. Here is the list of solutions that I have tried:


  1.  Kill VDCAssistant in Terminal. It didn't work because I even can't find VDCAssistant from Activity Monitor which should control the camera.
  2. Simply restarting my Mac.
  3. Done all software updates.
  4. Run First Aid option in Disk Utility


Could anybody suggest any other solutions that can be done at home buy general user?


Thanks in advance!


MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on Mar 15, 2020 9:06 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Mar 15, 2020 9:42 AM

Hello, Laurii112.


Sorry to know you're having this problem with your MacBook Pro.


If you haven't rebooted into safe mode anytime recently you should try that to see if it helps. Let the Mac OS do drive directory repair, cache clearing and other misc housekeeping. Often just booting into safe mode and logging in, then immediately rebooting normally will resolve an issue.  You should do this with all your external peripherals disconnected but the keyboard and mouse.


Booting into Safe Mode… 

Use safe mode to isolate issues - Apple Support


What Safe mode does:

  • Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed
  • Loads only required kernel extensions
  • Prevents startup items and login items from opening automatically
  • Disables user-installed fonts 
  • Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files


Restarting in Safe mode can often eliminate a problem or help identify the cause.


You can verify that you have started in Safe mode by clicking the Apple () menu > About This Mac > System Report. Then find >Software< in the left column and look at >Boot Mode: Safe vs Normal< in the right pane.


Note– starting up in Safe mode could take 10 minutes or more. Be patient.


Does the problem persist while in Safe mode? 

Restart your Macintosh and re-evaluate the issue.

399 replies

May 20, 2020 3:43 AM in response to lauri112

Hi Lauri, Unfortunately this has become an 11 page thread, and I’m unsure if you will get the response here. If system settings software solves your problem, but only once, you may have a malware that is rewriting caches. Mackeeper, Advanced Mac Cleaner, macpaw software and zeobit software can all do this. Please start your own thread, and ask how to get Etrecheck results posted if you don’t know.

May 20, 2020 9:43 AM in response to NealBader

After reading your post and watching your videos, I tested this on my laptop. SAME THING HAPPENED. With the lid way down, the camera opens and turns on. As I lift the lid, the camera display turns off once it's close to open. So then in my case as in yours, it sounds like a cable connection issue between the base and the screen. I'm relieved to have found the source and likely cause. Now to get it fixed.

May 25, 2020 1:58 AM in response to NealBader

Hey everyone! Wanted to give a small update on my status.

As I expected from other users here in this thread, my camera has appeared disconnected to my mac since today, maybe yesterday.

Because I have read this happening to other users, I went ahead and took screenshots of my camera information, as it isn't showing up as of now.

Also, I got a small hint that my camera was about to disconnect, because the green light wasn't going on when I started up Photo Booth.


It also appears that my keyboard light sensor isn't working correctly anymore.


And possibly a small problem with my display, but I'm not sure.

I put my mac in a dark room, with its display dark but not off, and the colors started to look weird.


So that is my status. Still have to contact apple support about this, although the time I did try to, I wasn't able to. Possibly due to corona, possibly because the site reported that I'm not "eligible to get free apple support".


TO BE CONTINUED!

May 25, 2020 2:50 AM in response to JohnGroves

Good Morning Everybody,


Surprise Surprise, after having weeks of frustration, and not being able to join MS Teams from my MacBook Pro from 2015 with Catalina - 10.15.4 I was surprised yesterday when I was able to join MS Teams without any problem directly from my Computer. The last weeks I have joined MS Teams via my ipad-mini, which was difficult when trying to present something.


So for me it looks like the issue is cleared.

May 25, 2020 3:56 PM in response to lauri112

Okay. So I've been following this chain which felt like to go on forever! Tonight I wanted to FT which I did a couple of days ago fine. I've followed everyone's steps. Noticed someone say if you close the lid slowly it comes back on. It worked. I opened the lid to the max too. It stayed on. Then I changed sides where my charger was connected and I've kept the screen open as normal. I've turned it on 6 times now and they've worked as normal. Not sure what's going on there, but maybe something to try?

May 26, 2020 2:56 PM in response to lauri112

Been chasing the same tail (going round and round) as everyone else without getting a lasting solutions but just before going down another full restore ++... checked the release notes for today's upgrade 10.15.5 which includes : Resolves an issue where the built-in camera may not be detected when trying to use it after using a video conferencing app.


Here's hoping, if not - back to try and catch that bloody tail!

May 26, 2020 7:15 PM in response to a brody

I have been on 10.15.3 since my whole ordeal happened and getting it working again. .4 didn’t appear to have a fix but now .5 seems to be the resolution we all have been pining for. The funny thing about it is the speaker popping issue that affected almost 10.15 vanilla rears its head once in a while... very odd since that was fixed but so is this whole cam thing. I’m curious about what other users have encountered with the .5 update.

May 27, 2020 1:06 AM in response to modelck

So the latest update for me didn't work unfortunately. I don't know if NVRAM reset may help now? I am not the tech guy but super tired of this whole topic. System still recognises the camera, but Facetime shows the same error message. I don't know what about others but my Facetime is running super slow and it even doesn't show the left panel of recent and missed calls. How the f it's related to camera issue?


Apple should really get its things together and take real actions on this problem. It's one of the most followed thread and still nothing. Curious to hear other experiences about the recent update.

May 27, 2020 2:35 AM in response to NealBader

Problem on MBP13 + 2 mac minis. Ran the update last night for MCP +1 mini, and as with all updates, had to restart numerous times to get the system back up and running to somewhat normal. MBP13 - Took 2 re-starts for the system report to show the camera. Minis: Took 3 re-starts for the system report to show the camera.

Subsequently opened facetime + skype twice - both occasions camera started without a problem. Haven't tried a video conference - Zoom/Skype yet to see if it drops off again afterwards. Have a day of conferencing - will update with progress.

Updating second mini - will see if this has the same issues.

May 27, 2020 8:08 AM in response to NealBader

HI!

THERE IS A LITTLE BIT OF IMPORTANT INFO

SO, first of all: Safe mode doesn't work, no suprise


I STARTED LOOKING AT THE CONSOLE APP, while I tried the killall command for VDCAssistant


Nothing happend in Photo Booth, BUT

The console shows the following error / problem for the process "VDCAssistant"


*

DeviceArrived  Found a camera (*MY CAMERA'S UNIQUE ID CODE*) , but was not able to start it up (0xe00002c0 -- (iokit/common) no such device)

*


I DON'T KNOW WHAT Y'ALL THINK, BUT I THINK THIS IS AT LEAST SOMETHING


(FYI: I saved my camera's unique id code)

May 27, 2020 8:40 AM in response to NealBader

Also, this in the VDCAssistant process:


[guid:**Camera's unique id code**] Found Camera with VID: **4 numbers** (**0x;2numbers;2lowercaseletters**), PID: **5 numbers** (**0x;4 numbers**), release: **0x;4 numbers**



This, and the post above remain consistent upon a killall of VDCAssistant


(I did my input with ** for this one and for that VID and "release" ones, to make it more clear I put the ; inbetween, but they aren't there actually)


Don't know what I can / should 'uncensor'

Macbook Pro camera doesn't work. "No Video".

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