MacBook Pro FaceTime camera freezing regularly

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Level 1

4 points

MacBook Pro FaceTime camera freezing regularly

I am using a MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports) and since upgrading to Big Sur and now Monterey I am having regular issues with the embedded FaceTime camera.

With applications like PhotoBooth, FaceTime, Teams, etc.. the camera sometimes starts and sometimes not and in most cases it will last only a little while before the camera freezes. The kernel is showing error messages in the Console and you can see the different processes trying to restart the session with the camera which might work for a little while before crashing again.

error 16:08:45.093188+0100 kernel AppleCamIn::processTargetToHostBufferNotification - firmware passed us a buffer with an invalid tag: 0x016C0DC0

default 16:08:46.127341+0100 AppleCameraAssistant FrameReceiverMessageCallback: FrameDoneTimeout:

default 16:08:46.127502+0100 AppleCameraAssistant StopHardwareStream

default 16:08:47.082164+0100 avconferenced VCVideoCaptureServer [NOTICE] -[VCVideoCaptureServer init]_block_invoke:327 @=@ Health: VideoCapture cameraPreviewCount=89, cameraCaptureCount=89, serverPreviewCount=89, serverCaptureCount=0, frontQueueCount=89, backQueueCount=0

error 16:08:48.876499+0100 kernel AppleCamIn::ISP_deInit - releasing buffer 0x0000006A that was never passed back to the user-space client

Monterey was reinstalled using a wiped disk, no other devices connected on the USB hub.

Does this look like a firmware issue or a hardware failure ?

Thanks !

Zoé

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.0

Posted on Nov 7, 2021 7:19 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

jmoutte

Level 1

8 points

Nov 10, 2021 1:24 PM in response to 1ssmith

Hello,

For some obscure reason we cannot login on the communities forum anymore with Zoé's account, so we are using another one.

We tried safe mode, reset SMC, another account and we completely reinstalled MacOS from a fresh USB drive. This does not help.

The camera usually starts and we can see a local feedback. Then, after a few seconds or minutes, it seems to freeze, restart, freeze again. In some rare case we also had a kernel panic.

In the Console application, streaming and filtering for the "camera" keyword we are seeing errors like the one pasted in the first message of the thread.

We also have seen this one after a crash :

default	21:14:31.494116+0100	analyticsd	Aggregated. Transform: StabilityCrashNumerator3 Dirty: 1 Event: com.apple.stability.crash {"exceptionCodes":"0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000010(\n    1,\n    16\n)EXC_BAD_ACCESSSIGSEGVKERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000010","incidentID":"5E1E4756-0BC4-4FF3-9635-A49DF8BA5248","logwritten":1,"process":"AppleCameraAssistant","terminationReasonExceptionCode":"0xb","terminationReasonNamespace":"SIGNAL","timestamp":1636402471488869}

So there is obviously something wrong with the camera and I am wondering if this is due to a firmware update that we could somehow fix or if this a hardware failure that will require going to an Apple store.

Thanks and best regards,

Zoé's father.

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Answer 2

1ssmith

Community Specialist

Nov 8, 2021 9:00 AM in response to zmoutte

Hello Zoé,

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities! We see you're having an issue with the FaceTime camera on your Mac. We'll be glad to provide guidance.

Check out the steps here: If your built-in camera isn’t working on your Mac

If you're continuing to experience the same thing after those steps, try testing in safe mode: How to use safe mode on your Mac

"Safe mode prevents your Mac from loading certain software as it starts up, including login items, system extensions not required by macOS, and fonts not installed by macOS."

After completing that, restart to exit safe mode and see how the camera responds.

Does the same thing happen if you test on another user account? Use these steps to create an administrator account: Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac

Log out of your user account and in to the new one. Test and see how the apps respond while using the camera.

Take care.

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MacBook Pro FaceTime camera freezing regularly

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