Camera green light does not turn on, but camera does

Fling2387 wrote:

Hi!

The camera of my MacBook Air 13" (7.2) is working fine, and has always done so. But recently I clean installed MacOS Monterrey from my recovery USB disk, applied updates and restored my TimeMachine.

Now everything works fine, so does camera, but in MacOS Monterrey 12.6 (21G115), when camera is on, the green light that used to turn on now does not.

This Apple support page states: Don't close your MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro with a cover over the camera - Apple Support

The camera is engineered so that it can’t activate without the camera indicator light also turning on. This is how you can tell if your camera is on.

When using Ubuntu for example, with Facetimehd camera driver, camera does turn on but light does not. In MacOS camera turns on as well as light indicator.



I've reset NVRAM and SMC, as well as run an Apple Diagnostics with an "all okay" result. Secure mode does not solve the problem.

If green light is hardwared on the camera so that it does not activate without green light being on, how can you explain this behavior?

Many thanks.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/3429eb27-e0f9-4629-9b8c-24e992675d21

If you suspect software try a safeboot and test—this would be telling

SafeBoot How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

You can always reinstalll the macOS— How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

Go from there...

If a both SMC and NVRAM does not sort it —I would suspect you have a hardware issue independent of what AHT reported.

Take it in if you want it fixed or use a third party to monitor your camera connection—

resetting the SMC Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support see the details.

resetting NVRAM/PRAM Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

(get at least two-three rounds of the chimes when holding the NRAM Reset)

The user AHT/Diagnostic...not as definitive as Apple's own AST2 (Apple Service Toolkit) back bench diagnostic, but may kick out an error code.

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

third party work around—

https://objective-see.org/products/oversight.html

In or out of warranty you can get a free over the counter 'Apple Service Diagnostics' test /assessment

Make an appointment for a "hardware issue"

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

Outside the USA

Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support

Are you certain that's where the camera LED is located on your model MBA? I have an older model MBA and its LED is to the right of the camera as you are facing the screen.

The location indicated in your photo is where its ambient light sensor is located.

What my post wants to say after all is: if the green light is hardwared into the camera so that if camera is on the green light is on too, then if the light is actually not working, wouldn't the camera do so and, thus, not work?

That is the way I understood it worked. Power is fed through LED, so LED must illuminate for camera to have power. However, that was a long time ago they implemented it that way (but your Mac is old). I have no idea if that is still the case nor if it really worked that way and was not some software involved.