EpocCam connectivity problem

On macs with a case sensitive file system, the EpocCam daemon will not start at all, because of an error in the installation routine for the EpocCam 2.0 drivers. One of the directories is called EpocCamPlugIn.plugin, but all the configuration files refer to the directory as EpocCamPlugin.plugin (with a lowercase i). This causes a spinning wheel of death, where the iPhone app will say "Connecting..." and the macOS driver will only show a spinning wheel.

The fix is simple:

$ sudo mv /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL/EpocCamPlugIn.plugin /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL/EpocCamPlugin.plugin

On my computer, the iPhone connected instantly upon entering the above command, and Activity monitor now shows EpocCam, which it previously did not. Note that the daemon is called EpocCam, not EpocCamDaemon as mentioned in their FAQ.

I have reported this to Kinoni.

You should actually see the a dialog box popping up to install the xcode command line tools when you run the “xcode-select — install” command.

You can also double confirm it by running

xcode-select -p

if its installed, you will see the path where it’s installed

/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools

When you have that, you should be able to run the codesign utility.

Try updating with the latest MacOS driver. Kinoni just released a v2.0 (Download macOS drivers) of it that is supposed to be a lot more stable.

Also, Finally found a fix if you can't see EpocCam on Zoom anymore. Posted on my blog here (https://www.atpeaz.com/kinoni-epoccam-not-working-with-zoom-and-snap-camera-heres-the-fix/) to keep a reference. TL;DR: you need to unsign the zoom app to allow it to load unsigned modules. It works for the latest 5.0.1 update of Zoom too. EpocCam now also works for me on Snap Camera using the same method.

By the way: what put me on the right track was noticing that the uninstall script tried to delete a folder that didn't exist, and the Launch Agent script also tried to reference a file that didn't exist:

$ cat /Library/LaunchAgents/com.kinoni.epoccam.daemon.plist
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.kinoni.epoccam.daemon</string>
    <key>LimitLoadToSessionType</key>
    <string>Aqua</string>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>/Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL/EpocCamPlugin.plugin/Contents/Resources/EpocCam.app/Contents/MacOS/EpocCam</string>
    </array>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
  </dict>
</plist>

Perhaps not exactly specific to EpocCam, but just to share that I’ve since moved on from using EpocCam to turn my iPhone as a webcam. If you don’t mind always having the iPhone plugged in via USB to your Mac, you can actually use either CamTwist or OBS to use the iPhone as a video source. Both CamTwist and OBS can then broadcast its video stream via its virtual camera plugin.

One of the main reason why I went his route is because I’ve found that EpocCam is generally quite unreliable. It doesn’t always work. Secondly, I’m now using a green screen to hide my background. This works way better than a purely software one like the one on Zoom. https://www.atpeaz.com/virtual-background-for-google-meet-on-macos-using-obs/

If you're referring to this command:

sudo mv /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL/EpocCamPlugIn.plugin /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL/EpocCamPlugin.plugin

then ensure that you did not include the leading "$" sign when you copied and pasted.

The command that you're trying to execute is "mv", to rename the file.

Weird indeed. But glad it’s working for you now!

Yes. We would need to keep unsigning Zoom every time it updates itself. This is because the update would overwrite the zoom app with a signed version again. Which we then need to unsigned again.