I'm just preparing this iMac for sale and I can't get its camera to work. It seems very unlikely to be an electrical failure and I don't think it's anything to do with permissions because the light comes on when I start FaceTime or Skype, but I get the message shown in the screenshot. I've tried a complete wipe and reinstall of Catalina. The previous owner might well have disabled it somehow?
Just because the camera LED light up does not mean the camera is working. I've had cameras fail where the LED was lit. If you performed a clean install and the camera does not work, then there is some sort of hardware fault. Of course with macOS 10.15 Catalina you must also configure the System Preferences to allow apps access to the camera.
Yes, it seems to be hardware - how unlikely within a sealed unit with no hinge! A clip-on webcam is much cheaper than repair but I'm trying to get the best price for the widow of the owner. Camera so vital nowadays.
I'd like to try a firmware update but the utility iSightUpdater103.dmg offered at macreport from Apple won't install with the amusing message that the developer, Apple, can't be trusted! Any ideas?
The Apple chat engineers hadn't heard of it.
Where did you acquire the iSightUpdater103.dmg file? Are you even sure it is meant for your iMac? Most Apple patches and firmware updates usually only work with the exact version of macOS that was current at the time of the software's release.
iMac 14,1 built-in camera bust
