big sur 11.2. the camera isn't working in facetime

Hi esquire53,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We understand that you're having an issue with your FaceTime camera on your Mac. We'd like to help.

Is the correct camera chosen for FaceTime when you start a call? If you're not sure, this can help: Choose a camera or microphone for FaceTime calls on Mac

Then, since you mentioned that the camera is still working in Skype, booting up in safe mode can help you isolate this issue a bit more.

How to use safe mode on your Mac

Finally, closing FaceTime and reopening it while holding the Shift key may allow your camera to load correctly too. Holding Shift, while opening apps, can remove their saved state.

Hope that helps!

I and my husband have the same problem. We have iMac and MacBook Pro. When we use Facetime:

• Green light is on
• I can see myself in self-view
• my friend on the other side cannot see me... the screen shows poor connection... video will resume when connection become better
• however, we use iphone and ipad on the same wifi network.. it works just fine
• I tried using my mobile hotspot on my Macbook and it didn't work as well
• it happened since we upgraded Big Sur a week ago
• I click Video from Facetime menu and there is no option for me to choose camera...

I have exactly the same problem as Esquire53 & Raina_b22

I have a brand new MacBook Pro from 11/2020 for which FaceTime worked perfectly until Big Sur update 11.2. I was hoping Big Sur update 11.2.1 would resolve it but it didn't. FaceTime works fine on iPhone & iPad. Skype, Zoom and Teams work fine on the MacBook Pro. I have seriously good internet & wifi so I believe poor bandwidth messages are misleading as they don't occur with iPad & iPhone.

It seems to me that looking through these community messages the problem is more likely to be with the 11.2 update. Can we not ask Apple to look into this instead of twiddling about with our systems to no effect?

Thanks both. To keep you in the picture yesterday I called Apple Support & they spend 1hr+ on fruitless efforts (diagnostics, alternative users, etc etc) to solve FaceTime problem. Always ended with same problem we have all described. I showed them this discussion strand but operative wanted to concentrate on trying to solve for me. Ended when final procedure proposed was to rebuild my new MacBook (November 2020) . I didn't have enough time for this and frankly I'm not keen as I've spent some time setting Mac up as I've always used Windows PCs previously. I believe its a problem with 11.2 not my MacBook. Anyway if I backup my MacBook I can resume process with Apple Support if I wish. It may be the price I need to pay to get the problem solved, but I think its a bit of sledgehammer approach. Any Community Specialists out there who might be able to talk to Apple for us?

Nijinsky55,

I can report that I had the exact same result with my 16" MacBook Pro (late 2019) when dealing with Apple Support. FaceTime camera works fine on iPad, iPhone, and MacBook Pro (late 2013) running OS 10.15.7. By the way, using an external Logitech webcam did not solve the problem so I am firmly convinced that it is a software system issue. I also am unwilling to devote the hours necessary to install a new Big Sur and restore my computer. Apple tech admitted that he has seen this problem with other people. For a little bit, I am willing to work around this glitch as FaceTime is not a huge part of my life.

Thanks Stanfuger for posting on this problem, it’s helpful to know there are others out there with what might be the same problem. Would you confirm when the problem manifested for you? Was it after Big Sur 11.2 update or did you mean late 2019? Cheers Nij55

Thanks for the update. I was asked also to reinstall big sur and one of the agents was even suggesting to make a new partition on my hard drive to ‘isolate’ the problem. I just gave up. And now using zoom instead until the problem is solved. 😟

Not sure exactly when problem started. I first noticed it after upgrade to 11.2.2 but since I do not use FaceTime on the computer all that often, it may have existed earlier. It certainly was there for 11.2.2. The Late 2019 fevers to the Macintosh MacBook Pro that i am currently using. It is a MacBook Pro 16,1.

I was also asked to wipe my hard drive and reinstall a clean Mac OS 11.22. I have declined to do so because it makes for a lot of work to get back up and running where I want to be. Purpose of a computer, Macs in particular, is to be a labor saving device.

To update you I just had another session with Apple Support on this after Big Sur 11.2.3 failed to resolve the issue. I spoke to a senior who assured me Apple are aware of the problem and are working on it. I refused again to have a MacBook rebuild to resolve it. The senior says that, should it be resolved, Apple will release the fix on a future update and it will be flagged in the update log that it includes a FaceTime fix. He did say though that the priority given to fixes depends on the known extent of the issue so progress may depend on how many other users have notified Apple. Cheers.....

The fix was simple, at least for me. It seems that Norton 360 was blocking the camera from being used. I disabled the Internet Security functions and the camera was magically restored. There must some conflict between the Big Sur operating system and Norton. Not happy with disabling that feature of Norton, but at least I can have all functionality restored.

PS I've just checked the Norton Community Forum and there are many more posts on this there. Apparently Norton are expecting to issue a fix via an update to be issued tomorrow 18 March, so make sure your Norton updates are turned on.