No Camera Available Error on macOS Catalina

I am having exactly the same issue. I have MacBook Pro 2017 and my camera was working fine until I updated to macOS Catalina 10.15.6... I contacted Apple and tried everything but no solution. They suggested to send it in for technical service. I am pretty sure that this is not a hardware issue... If anyone finds a solution please post it in here.

Any update on this? My camera was working fine 3 days ago and suddenly stopped last night. I have done everything that every article has told me to do.

Spent at least an hour on the phone with Apple Support. The told me just to reinstall OS which Im holding off doing since it didn't seem to help others.

Need a fix for this asap.

I don't have a solution yet, but I have the exact same problem. Since Apple isn't likely to solve (let along acknowledge) this bug anytime soon, I'm open to anyone else here who wants to try to tackle it with me!

I know it can't be a hardware issue because I've been dealing with it all pandemic and every time there's a patch to can'talina (10.15.1 --> 10.15.2 etc) my camera starts working again, but only for a short time.

I just upgraded to 10.15.7 and like usual, it detected my camera again. I made a point of checking if the camera was detected as the very last thing I did before closing my laptop lid for the night, and also as the very first thing I did when I opened it the next morning, and sure enough, the camera wasn't detected anymore.

Now you might be thinking that it was closing/opening the lid that caused the problem, but I'm pretty sure I did that during the day after the upgrade and the camera was still recognized.

I checked for cron jobs but there are none for my user or the root user. I'm not sure what other processes would run overnight with the lid closed (I didn't think anything was supposed to be running with the lid closed...)

Anyway, in case it's useful to anyone else, I did find these suspicious logs from the 10.15.7 upgrade, especially the very last line:

The camera worked fine for years until just recently perhaps after using it for a zoom call a while ago. I have heard that it relates to the latest version of Catalina. If this is true, can't a revised update from Apple fix this? Otherwise a $20 webcam will have to be the solution. I certainly am not willing to spend more than that.

IrvLaskoe Said:

“Please explain why you don’t want/like security software for your Mac?”

———-

Why I don’t Use Security Software on Mac:

Based on my own personal experiences, it just gets in the way on a Mac, and it undesirably goes about performing it’s own stuff in the background. Multitasking comes up, and scanning in the background slows the Mac down. When visiting sites, the VPN dos not all me to log in to Apple, and ultimately, you’ll never find a virus on a Mac. Apple is pretty picky about it’s own product’s interactions with a Security Software. Find My does the job.

Malwarebytes for Mac:

Malwarebytes for Mac is created by longtime user of these forums, making it the only trustworthy security software on a Mac. And apps can get installed that will affect your Mac. Malware (Malicious Software) is software that makes your Mac act in a mislead manor, typically behind your back. So, I install it, scan with it, and then uninstall it. It can get on a Mac, unexpectedly.

Ultimately, it all comes down to it making my Mac run slow and disallowing connectivity.

I Use it on a Windows Virtual Machine:

On a Windows Virtual Machine (VM), though, I have Security Software. (Why? Because it’s Windows).

Awesome, I can't wait to see if the same is true for me. I'm highly skeptical if it will stick though, since every upgrade in the past has only temporarily restored my built-in camera. See my post earlier in the thread for a detailed explanation of what's happening.

Ohhh man really?? sounds a little ice on my fire... well which device u r using and r u using any adobe application, as i am a graphic designer and i want to knw the compality issues with adobe. every time i am suffring wen ever m updating to new os especially catalina. made my 1 week dead running behind on it... so really need to knw ur experience regarding the Camera and Adobe..

Is there an Apple representative that can confirm beaulm's response above? If this is the case, customers should have the right to know this. I have spent hours trying to fix this to no avail. I spoke with Apple support back in April and none of their recommendations worked. I too assumed this was a software issue, so I didn't push the issue, assuming an OS update would fix this. You would think Apple would want to fix a camera issue on their laptops, as many users use their cameras all the time. I am now hesitant to even upgrade to Big Sur after having this issue with Catalina and reading about all the other issues users are having with Big Sur (I do not want to get my computer bricked!). Apple, do you see the problem you have left your customer base in? I work in software and am well aware that bugs slip through the cracks, but it would be great if Apple could help out its very loyal customer base. I have talked numerous family members into purchasing Macs. This is just disappointing.

it’s such a wrong thing. There is clearly some issue on Apple’s side so many people’s hardware is malfunctioning because of their upgrade. It’s really annoying that they are not releasing information publicly and admitting that this is an issue generally

I have the same problem, I would like to add more information to this topic. In my case, I updated my computer to Catalina version. After this installation, I realized that my webcam didn't work. I have tried as well with an USB camera (Logitech).

This problem persisted and I can confirm that my webcams are not broken because I can use them with my Bootcamp partition (in the same computer) with Windows 10.

Like you can see I am one more for the list with the same problem, thank you so much to the community for your help.

I have this issue too and none of these fixed it. Any other suggestions?

I also encounter the same problem and did all the above. Please help.

Same with me, I tried everything at the end I updated Catalina to 10.15.5 but still no success.

Does your light sensor work? I've been trying to trouble shoot on my own and I've recently realized that neither the camera or the light sensor work.

I just upgraded my MacBook Pro 2018 withtouch bar model to MacOS Big Sur... but problem is still the same.

It's time to giveup on the inbuilt camera.