How do I turn off the iSight camera?

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Level 1

41 points

How do I turn off the iSight camera?

I've checked earlier discussions here on this and am not getting help with my specific question. The problem is that periodically, seemingly randomly, I notice that the iSight camera is on. At the moment it appears that no iSight-using application is running. How in that situation do I turn the camera off.

And while I'm at it, it's occurred to me in the past that someone/something else has got control of my camera. Is that possible? I mean, they're not gonna get anything very interesting on me, but thought that that could be what's going on is a little unsettling.

Thanks.

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.6.7), 2.4 GHz, 2 GB SDRAM, 233 GB HD

Posted on May 31, 2011 8:20 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

chrisfromhopewell

Level 4

1,085 points

May 31, 2011 8:32 AM in response to EricWeir

If you want to turn the camera off check out this link http://osxdaily.com/2007/03/26/how-to-disable-the-built-in-isight-camera/

If you think that someone is controlling your computer you should go to System Preferences > Sharing and uncheck any boxes that you aren't using. Especially Remote Management, Remote Login, and Screen Sharing.

Turning on Firewall should keep other people from viewing stuff on your computer.

If you think that they are using a program that is installed on your computer to do stuff on your computer, open activity monitor and see if there are any applications that you aren't using.

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Answer 2

May 31, 2011 8:37 AM in response to EricWeir

a) Could be a hardware problem

b) Could be a software problem:

There are many Applications like iChat, Skype, PhotoBooth, Adobe Flash etc, that could access the iSight. You could have a look in the Activity Monitor (Applications -> Utilities) if there's anything strange that's running.

You can also start the computer in safe mode (Holding down "SHIFT" immediately while staring the Mac). In this mode the extensions are disabled so you could have a look if the iSight is still switching on without that extensions. After that testing restart your Mac in normal mode.

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Answer 3

May 31, 2011 8:48 AM in response to chrisfromhopewell

Also try the apple hardware test

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Answer 4

EricWeir Author

Level 1

41 points

May 31, 2011 4:14 PM in response to chrisfromhopewell

chrisfromhopewell wrote:

If you want to turn the camera off check out this link http://osxdaily.com/2007/03/26/how-to-disable-the-built-in-isight-camera/

Thanks, Chris. I've bookmarked this for future reference, but I don't want to disable iSight, just turn if off when I can't find an app that's using it. I use it relative frequently with Skype.

If you think that someone is controlling your computer you should go to System Preferences > Sharing and uncheck any boxes that you aren't using. Especially Remote Management, Remote Login, and Screen Sharing.

Thanks again. Didn't find anything. Only printer, scanner, and Bluetooth sharing. And Bluetooth is turned off.

Turning on Firewall should keep other people from viewing stuff on your computer.

Didn't know OS X came with a firewall. How do you turn it on?

If you think that they are using a program that is installed on your computer to do stuff on your computer, open activity monitor and see if there are any applications that you aren't using.

Again, didn't find anything that wasn't an app or that didn't look like a process, though I wouldn't know a process from a bot if I saw one.

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Answer 5

EricWeir Author

Level 1

41 points

May 31, 2011 4:25 PM in response to Stress Test

Stress Test wrote:

There are many Applications like iChat, Skype, PhotoBooth, Adobe Flash etc, that could access the iSight. You could have a look in the Activity Monitor (Applications -> Utilities) if there's anything strange that's running.

Skype was running. It's set to turn the camera on only when I initiate a call. Shutting it down had no effect on the camera.

You can also start the computer in safe mode (Holding down "SHIFT" immediately while staring the Mac). In this mode the extensions are disabled so you could have a look if the iSight is still switching on without that extensions. After that testing restart your Mac in normal mode.

Thanks. I may give that a try, though I'm not sure what you mean by "extensions" and "that extension."

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Answer 6

EricWeir Author

Level 1

41 points

May 31, 2011 4:27 PM in response to chrisfromhopewell

chrisfromhopewell wrote:

Also try the apple hardware test

What's that?

I recently made a trip to the local Genius Bar in connection with another problem, and they ran a hardware test before they did anything and didn't find anything. Of course, we weren't working on this problem.

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Answer 7

Dave Stowe

Level 5

5,180 points

May 31, 2011 4:36 PM in response to EricWeir

I have had the iSight camera come on for no apparent reason a couple times....try an SMC reset..

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

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Answer 8

EricWeir Author

Level 1

41 points

Jun 1, 2011 5:31 AM in response to Dave Stowe

Dave Stowe wrote:

I have had the iSight camera come on for no apparent reason a couple times....try an SMC reset.. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

Thanks, Dave. I noticed that in my reading about the issue before posting here. I've bookmarked it for the next time this crops up. For today at least the problem has disappeared. The camera didn't come on when I booted the system this morning.

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Answer 9

Aug 17, 2013 12:05 PM in response to EricWeir

Hey Eric,

These guys are correct in that Skype, Linphone, FaceTime, Google+ and many other conference or chat programs / apps will turn on your built-in iSight or FaceTime camera if it is available.

You may want to read https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5248432

Just keep in mind if you disable it with permissions, simply running the disk-utility "Repair disk permissions" will make the camera work again.

If you are able to use the terminal program with root privilege enter the following lines using Mac OSX 10.6

chmod 000 /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreMediaIOServices.framework/Versions/A/Reso urces/VDC.plugin/Contents/MacOS/VDC

chmod 000 /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreMediaIOServicesPrivate.framework/Versions /A/Resources/VDC.plugin/Contents/MacOS/VDC

chmod 000 /System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeUSBVDCDigitizer.component/Contents/MacOS/Qui ckTimeUSBVDCDigitizer

Or these if at 10.8

chmod 000 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreMediaIO.framework/Versions/A/Resources/VDC.plugi n/Contents/MacOS/VDC

chmod 000 /System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeUSBVDCDigitizer.component/Contents/MacOS/Qui ckTimeUSBVDCDigitizer

chmod 000 /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreMediaIOServices.framework/Versions/A/Reso urces/VDC.plugin/Contents/MacOS/VDC

--------------------------------------------------

To make it work again you can change the 000 to 755 and run the commands or simply run the Disk permissions repair.

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