Photobooth unable to use camera

I don't have a fix.

I do have the same problem.

And… I'd like to share some quirky observations.

Reinstalling 11.0.1, which Apple recommend, didn't help, merely elevated my frustration. If you're thinking about going that route, you may want to hold off.

I created a new user account— from within which Photo Booth worked as it should. But why? Inspecting as thoroughly as I could, which apparently isn't good enough, I couldn't find the answer.

Back within my normal user account, tried to drag Photo Booth to the trash. Being that's it's part of the OS, it wouldn't budge. I tried dragging it with various modifier keys, and when I did the old "option + drag," a copy of Photo Booth wad deposited right there within the Applications folder. When I opened the copy… it worked correctly, displayed the camera's output.

Tried the original version of Photo Booth, but it stubbornly refused to follow in the steps of its copy, continued not to recognize the camera. Tried the copy: worked fine. Why? What's going on here?

Worked in alternate user account. Copy worked in my normal account.

Sorry that you're having this issue, but glad to have found you.

I really don't know, but seems this is a permissions issue.

FWIW, even when rebooting with CMD+R, running CSRUTIL DISABLE in terminal, then rebooting back to my user account (admin), am unable to modify PB's behavior.

I surrender.

WOW! so easy! This has been bugging me for so long! and all you need to do is to go to applications, find Photo Booth, Make a copy, open the copy, and now both the original app and the copy works and will turn on the camera! - afterwards you just throw away the copy and you are good. What an annoying bug to let sit in the system!

I don't have a suggestion other than a restart or possibly a SMC reset. Works fine on my iMac Pro and M1 MacBook Air.

How to reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

Agree with the frustration- such a basic program, totally non-functional in latest version of BigSurly...

neither internal or external Logitech cam shows up in Photo Booth' whereas it always worked before.

Hint, from one other source- if you select "Apps" in SysPref / Security & Privacy / select "Camera"

Photo Booth doesn't even show up in the list. No way to add? What's the deal Apple fixers?

yes, this is the dambdest- tried the CreativeSmith 'OPT-CMD drag,' made the app-copy, and now BOTH the copy and the original work. Yo, Apple - pay attention. Thanks also to iggipop for verifying the fix.

It was your suggestion, reported above, which gave us the OPT + CMD drag fix; several including me found it worked. In my case both the app-copy and the original have worked since then, but keeping the copy in case. Apple says they are “passing it up the chain” for whatever that means. Thanks for sharing the info.

I had the same problem before, It would just show a black screen for me but the camera light would be on.

To solve it, I first made sure my Mac was updated to the latest version, I then made a copy of the app in the application folder, then I launched the original and the copy and both were working. Then I got rid of the copy and everything was working fine :)

I hope this method helps you..

This thread seems to have originated around Nov 15, 2020. In trying to track down the problem, I had Apple "support" on the line for about 1:30 total. No help or explanations, seemed totally unclear about issue (which must have originated with the BigS OS). When I finally found the solution of "subbing" the app-copy for the original, I recontacted Apple and gave them a detailed description of the fix. He sounded quite surprised, and promised me he would push it up the ladder of tech support for a permanent fix. So here we are at the end of January 2021, no response from Apple. They must have some really BIG problems to fix with this OS, since we don't rate even a response.

I thought I had resolved this issue yesterday by switching off FaceTime and I posted a comment in Apple Discussions to that affect. I now stand corrected because the same issue occurred again later.

However, I persisted and this morning I got PhotoBooth working again by simply Force Quitting all applications and Finder. I then opened PhotoBooty again and it started working. I don't know why it did because I am not a techie, but I hope my simple solution works for you and others.

BTW, I am telling as many people as I can not to upgrade to BigSur or buy a new Mac until Apple has found solutions to BigSur issues, including for me 2nd Display and slow restart after shutting down. Oh yes, upgrading from 11.1 to 11.2 had made no difference for me.

Thank you for this simple solution, it worked for me, well done IrishCanadian! I have done several reboots and it continued to work so I hope the fix holds as I've been disappointed in the past with previous fixes that stopped working after a short while.

I am glad it worked for you, too, Johndore. I sent the fix to Apple, but I am note sure they will read it and pass it on. There has to be a clue there for them to permanently fix the issue. I wonder if I might help them fix the Display issue as well. Stay well!!!

I force quit all open apps, although you can't force quit Finder. I found PhotoBooth worked straight away after the force quit procedure, and still worked after rebooting. One further finding, I have an app by McPaw, CleanMyMac X Version 4.7.4 which I run about once a week to clean out junk etc. I have found that after I run it PhotoBooth stops working again. However, using the force quit method PhotoBooth is restored. I will report this to McPaw for their information. Thanks again to IrishCanadian for discovering this recovery method for this problem which had frustrated me for weeks!.

I am glad my solution worked for you, as it has for others. I am wondering if the "Force Quit" solution might offer a clue to Apple concerning the Display issues so many people are experiencing. I am no techie, but.

BTW, I sometimes have to Force Quit Apps twice to get PhotoBooth to work.