Camera not working in Big Sur

Hi,

Quick background. Bought a refurbished Macbook Pro, arrived yesterday. Had Big Sur already installed. We didn't check camera at first. Updated to 11.2 - discovered camera not working. Followed all reset advice, eg SMC and PRAM, no joy.

I've been through this whole thread - we appear to have the Type 2 problem as described earlier, ie the camera is not detected in the System Report, and at first there were no apps listed in the Security and Privacy.

We followed the steps to add the AppleCamera.plugin from another Mac. This solved the apps being listed in Security and Privacy issue, but we still have no camera listed in System Report. So basically the apps are still not using the camera.

Model is:

MacBookPro13,3

15-inch 2016,

2.9ghz,

Quad-Core Intel Core i7

Going to switch to webcam, hope this gets fixed soon.

Suffice to say, I have another MacBook Pro, exactly same model. That's still running on Mojave and there's no camera problem on that - I was thinking of upgrading, but might now hold off until this is fixed.

Feeling disappointed with Apple as they seem to be significantly slow in fixing this properly.

D

I have the same problem and I see a multitude of others do as well. After reading through so many posts, there seems to be some variations on the problem. In my case, the Big Sur upgrade removed Facetime from the camera's allowed apps list (System Preferences/Security and Privacy) so I can't check its box. Additionally, there is no "+" available there for me to add the Facetime app back in (this is true for other services as well). I have tried all the suggested remedies such as resetting NVRAM/PRAM/SMC with no success.

MacOS sees my camera. It works in Zoom. I suspect it would work for me in Facetime if I could ADD Facetime back in. Apple has screwed something up here and is not being forthcoming about the existence of the problem nor seems to be actively addressing it. Given the number of people who are dependent on remote connection at this time of pandemic, that is just pathetic.

I am including my system info here for those collecting data. I have placed feedback for MacBook Pro in Apple's feedback system. APPLE, WAKE UP!!

FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in):

 Model ID: UVC Camera VendorID_1452 ProductID_34304

 Unique ID: 0x1410000005ac8600

Hardware Overview:

 Model Name: MacBook Pro

 Model Identifier: MacBookPro14,2

 Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Core i5

 Processor Speed: 3.1 GHz

 Number of Processors: 1

 Total Number of Cores: 2

 L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

 L3 Cache: 4 MB

 Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled

 Memory: 8 GB

 System Firmware Version: 429.80.1.0.0

 SMC Version (system): 2.44f6

I have a MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)

Firmware is 429.80.1.0.0

After installing macOS Big Sur System report says "No video capture devices were found."

Apple support took me through all the 'solutions' (SMC & NVRM resets etc.)

Diagnostic Test says something like "there may be a problem with the camera".

No fix, worse still, no admission of the problem.

I won't waste more time rolling back the update. I'll manage without the camera

Me: MacBook Pro 13" 2016, Big Sur 11.2.2; camera not working for Facetime, unable to add Facetime or any other app to camera; other services also unable to have apps added. Camera works for Zoom.

I spent about an hour on the phone with Apple yesterday. where I was able to explain my issue, share my screen, and share my perspective. Took a screenshot of the error received by those with whom I attempt to FaceTime and captured and uploaded logs of both my device and the target iPad I was trying to FT test with. Apple rep was not a tech but was gathering info that he claimed would be sent directly to the engineers. The experience was solidly positive in that it was used to gather information for troubleshooting the root issue and at no time was there even a hint of wanting to explain the issue away as a problem with the camera.

Hope abounds.

I GOT MY EXTERNAL CAMERA TO WORK.

Somebody commented “plug your camera directly into the laptop, rather than trough a dock bar.”

I could not as the the 2019 MacBook only has the USB 3 ports. Camera is regular USB. Wompwomp.

Went to BestBuy. Bought a USB to type C adapter. Ten bucks.

Attached. Plugged directly. Works.

(Still dumb and ruins my “aesthetic” wire management.)

There is light at the end of the tunnel. After the last update of Big Sur (11.2.2), my external camera (Logitech, which I purchased because my internal camera stopped working after the update) is working again. Because I need a USB adapter to connect to the thunderbolts, I sometimes replug the adapter for the camera to start.

Has anyone taken their MacBook in for Apple service? I took mine in twice to an authorized service depot and had problems fixed, no charge. Admittedly, the problems didn’t include the webcam not working. If you haven’t done so, it may be worthwhile to explore this. If someone has had their camera problem fixed by Apple, please post so others know.

You may have been lucky that the restart after the update temporarily made your camera work. Mine starts working after 1 or 2 restarts. Again, maybe my camera problem has a different root cause, but it has the same symptoms as most people in this discussion (black preview, green light blinks, camera disappears from system report, etc)

Same problem on MacBook Pro Mid 2016 13". I installed Big Sur when it came out, clean install (boot USB, format drive). Since then the camera doesn't work. System Information shows "No video capture devices were found". No update fixed it. Am running the latest 11.2.3 right now. Have no Antivirus installed, tried the NVRAM as well as the SMC reset, tried Safe Mode, all to no avail.

Talked to Apple Support via Chat, showed them this thread, told them it's a common problem. They escalated it to Engineering, told me I would receive a call from them in 5 minutes. Haven't heard back from them ever since. Now it's been more than 1 week.

It would be VERY interesting to see what exercising your warranty would do for you. Please let us know what they do to fix the problem (and be on alert for your device to fail shortly after proven to be working).

Totally disappointed. I took the computer to technical support ... and they ask me for almost 700 euros without giving me the option of the quality program ... the diagnosis has verified a hardware failure ... seriously Apple? more than 500 people with the same problem due to a quality defect?

Yesterday I went with a fresh installed Big Sur on a MacBook Pro 13" (Late 2016) to a German Apple Store: The technician had not yet heard of our problem. He did a system analysis: Everything was green including the Display check.

So I just called the German support hotline: The guy had not yet heard of our problem, too. I was instructed to press some keys while booting, but that didn't solve the issue.

Since I updated to Big Sur back in Dec 2020, I thought "Well... there are enough others customers who report the issue to Apple, so I don't have to." That seems to be an incorrect assumption :-(

So please, at everybody who suffers from this issue and as this thread isn't obviously enough: Call the support hotline.

Same issue for me. After Big sur update my external Aukey webcam stopped working, it works great with other PC and i had no problem with previous Catalina OSX. Also tried other Logitech webcam and same problem.

I have a Mac Pro 2013 with:

Versione firmware di sistema: 428.140.7.0.0

Versione SMC (sistema): 2.20f18

Big Sur: 11.5.2

Big Sur detects my webcam as audio device but not as video device, probably a driver or firmware fault.

Come on apple...you have to solve it!!!

If it is one computer, may be a hardware failure, but my 2017 MBP with Touch bar has the same issue.

Simple USB web cam from Amazon was my solution (works fine with Zoom no FaceTime though). 😞