Continuity Camera Chimes constantly

Question

Continuity Camera Chimes constantly

Since updating to Ventura and the latest iPhone OS, my iPhone 12 has been periodically chiming. It will flash a message that indicates it's trying to connect the camera, but often that message disappears before I have time to respond to it. I did manage to choose disconnect one time, but it continues to keep connecting and chiming. Sometimes several times an hour. It's really irritating b/c I keep my phone switched to silent mode all the time, letting the haptics on my Apple Watch notify me of things.

How do I make this stop?

iPhone 12

Posted on Nov 9, 2022 1:21 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

mario49

Community Specialist

Nov 13, 2022 11:32 AM in response to Jennifer Carr

Hey Jennifer Carr,

Got it. That information helps isolate the issue a bit more.

Sounds like the Mac is looking for the iPhone to use as a microphone. Let's have you follow these steps to remove your iPhone as an option: Use your iPhone as a webcam on your Mac - Apple Support

Use your iPhone as a webcam or microphone

1. On your Mac, open any app that has access to the camera or microphone, like FaceTime or PhotoBooth.

2. In the app’s menu bar or settings, choose your iPhone as the camera or microphone.

The Continuity app opens on your iPhone and begins capturing audio or video from the rear camera.

Note: In order to use your iPhone as a microphone on a Mac without a built-in camera, the iPhone must be in landscape orientation and stationary.

3. Do any of the following:

* Pause the video or audio: On your iPhone, tap Pause, or swipe up to unlock it.

* Resume the video or audio: On your iPhone, tap Resume, or press the side button or Sleep/Wake button to lock it.

* Stop using your iPhone as a webcam or microphone: On your Mac, quit the app.

* Remove your iPhone as an option: On your iPhone, tap Disconnect. Your iPhone is removed from the camera and microphone lists in apps, and also from the list of sound input devices in Sound settings.

To add your iPhone back, connect it to your Mac with a USB cable.

If you need to charge your iPhone while Continuity Camera is turned on, use a USB cable for best results.

Let us know how that goes.

Cheers!

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Answer 2

ColleenD1

Community Specialist

Nov 13, 2022 2:47 PM in response to Jennifer Carr

Hi Jennifer Carr,

Thanks for keeping us updated. We're glad you found that one section we were pointing out about removing the iPhone as an option. Since it didn't work, let's work on this another way.

Depending on the frequency of this alert, it can be helpful to try to boot into safe mode to see if it happens then. This mode will check your computer for errors and block login items from loading. You'll want to stay in this mode until you think enough time has passed that you would have heard an alert.

How to use safe mode

Determine whether you're using a Mac with Apple silicon, then follow the appropriate steps:

Apple silicon

1. Shut down your Mac.

2. Turn on your Mac and continue to press and hold the power button until you see the startup options window.

3. Select your startup disk, then press and hold the Shift key while clicking “Continue in Safe Mode.”

4. Log in to your Mac. You might be asked to log in again.

Intel processor

1. Turn on or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key as your Mac starts up.

2. Release the key when you see the login window, then log in to your Mac.

3. You might be asked to log in again. On either the first or second login window, you should see ”Safe Boot” in the upper-right corner of the window.

The following resource will go over what the next steps are after your determine if the issue does or does not happen while in safe mode. How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

If you're unclear on if safe mode helped or not, you can also try to test this issue using a test user. This can help you determine if this issue is user based or computer wide These steps can help you create that new account as a test: Change Users & Groups settings on Mac - Apple Support

If you continue to have issue after these steps, contacting Apple Support for additional help may be best: Contact - Official Apple Support

We're here if you have additional questions.

Take care!

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Answer 3

Dec 7, 2022 7:01 AM in response to ColleenD1

Seems like the next step is to call support, but for the purpose of others reading this thread, I wanted to note that I spent about a half hour working in safe mode (very difficult) and this situation didn't occur. As soon as I rebooted into normal mode, the chime and message appeared within seconds of my desktop loading back up.

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Answer 4

Missy5937

Community Specialist

Nov 11, 2022 2:55 PM in response to Jennifer Carr

Hello Jennifer,

Thanks for posting in the Apple Support Communities. We're happy to look into this with you. We've got a few questions to ask, that may help us isolate the cause. Are you working or using another device linked to your account when this occurs? If so, what model? Also, have you been able to catch the exact wording of the message that appears? This would be a great help in narrowing down what feature or app is causing this to happen.

If you haven't heard of it, there is a new feature called Continuity Camera which allows your Mac to use your iPhone or iPad camera. You can read more about this feature here: Continuity Camera: Use your iPhone or iPad to scan documents or take a picture on your Mac - Apple Support Do you think this could be what you're seeing happen?

There's also another new feature that allows you to use your iPhone as a webcam for your Mac. You can see full details about this here: Continuity Camera: Use iPhone as a webcam for Mac - Apple Support

Best regards.

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Answer 5

Nov 13, 2022 8:28 AM in response to Missy5937

Yes, this is related to continuity camera. It's driving me crazy b/c it chimes all the time. It even started chiming in the middle of the night the other night when I wasn't on the phone or the computer.

What I'm getting is a connection notification:

Connect to X's iMac

You can discover to remove this iPhone from the iMac microphone list.

[Pause]

[Disconnect]

It happens when I'm working on my iMac without any connected devices (other than keyboard and mouse) and also when I am using AirPods.

I tried disconnecting, which triggered a confirmation on the iMac, which I confirmed. I thought this would stop it from trying to reconnect in the future, but that's not the case.

My guess is that the phone and iMac are losing a connection at some point and then re-establishing it.

I don't actually care that it's doing that IF it were doing it in the background. But it chimes even though I have the sound switch turned off. It's very distracting when I'm on work calls (zoom on iMac), not only for me but also for the people on the call b/c the AirPods pick up a lot of ambient noise anyway. My only option is to put the phone in another room, which isn't always feasible.

Since I can't find any setting to turn off the notification or mute the Chime, I'd love to know how to turn off Continuity Camera since I don't need it.

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Answer 6

Nov 13, 2022 12:08 PM in response to mario49

With the exception of the last item in the list, these instructions indicate how to use the iPhone as a microphone, which I don't want to do.

But I can tell you this: it tries to connect even when the phone is not in landscape mode. I have chosen the disconnect option several times when this message has come up on my phone. The first time, it triggered a prompt on my iMac which I confirmed. It's still trying to connect and the phone keeps showing up in various microphone preferences. Even though it says it would remove the phone from the input devices in Sound Settings, it hasn't. I see it as an option when I open the Sound Settings.

Secondly, now when that connection message shows up, I tap "disconnect," and nothing happens. It ignores the gesture. If I tap "pause," the message goes away, but I can't tell if anything happens,

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Answer 7

Dec 7, 2022 3:37 AM in response to ColleenD1

My wife and I are having this same issue. We can have our laptops in a room upstairs and the phones will be chiming downstairs. This is incredibly annoying and happens several times per hour as Jennifer stated.

None of the suggestions worked for me unfortunately

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Answer 8

Dec 7, 2022 7:00 AM in response to z33herman

Yes, I'm also noticing it can happen when my phone and computer are nowhere near each other and I'm not using either of them.

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Continuity Camera Chimes constantly

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