Facetime for OS X - cam always on

Question

Facetime for OS X - cam always on

Hi Folks,

Is it just me of is your built in camera on your iMac or MacBook, or MacBook Pro always on when you are logged in to Facetime for OS X? I find that annoying and weird. I mean the camera should come on when you accept a call, or when you place a call, but not be on all the time as soon as you log in to facetime. That is - strange. Or is it just me?

Anyway, If you want to try it, install facetime for OS X, then log in, and you will see that your green light by your camera will be on and you will see yourself. I think that this needs to be fixed pronto, or I won't use facetime on my Mac - period.

Does anyone know a way to turn the camera off and only have it come on when you accept an incoming call or place a call? Please advise.

Thanks,

Martin

PS: Also portrait format and full screen options are grayed out. I don't like it when Apple tries to tell me that my camera is not HD or whatever and that I can't look at a picture at a slightly diminished quality. That needs to be fixed to, or if anyway knows a work around or hack for that please let me know too.

MacBook Pro 17, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Jun 3, 2011 11:52 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

JoeyR

Level 6

8,305 points

Jun 3, 2011 12:24 PM in response to Martin R. Lerch

As this is the way Facetime is intended to work, what you are experiencing is not a malfunction, so there isn't anything to fix. Feel free however, to post feedback:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html

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Answer 2

Jun 3, 2011 1:59 PM in response to JoeyR

That is not good. If the cam always on when logged in is as designed then that design is flawed. Apple, I don't think that you would design the OS X version of FaceTime this poorly?

The cam must be off when no chat is in progress.

Until this us fixed I am forced to continue to use skype I guess.

Thanks,

Martin

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Answer 3

Jun 6, 2011 9:54 PM in response to Martin R. Lerch

Ok.. so I found out something interesting and I am closing my own post with that. So, some genius over at Apple thought the following: "Let's make an app that is actually really cool, but let's make it a bit convoluted so that people will have problems using it".

So, In order to receive a call on your OS X laptop of desktop or iMac you would have to initially launch FaceTime and then sign in. Then ... Quite FaceTime! That's right! Quit FaceTime. You wouldn't want your camera to run all the time and your cpu being stressed by FaceTime and the camera constantly running. So, just quit FaceTime and wait.

Now when someone calls you, like magic it will ring. When you accept FaceTime launches, and you are on. If you are not there and the other person gives up you will see a little red circlie/star with a number of missed calls in the dock icon of FaceTime (if you have such icon in your dock that is).

If you want to make a call, easy.. just launch it and select who you want to call. Do your little chat and when done, you guessed it - just quit the app. Done deal.

I still consider that somewhat a design flaw and I wrote Apple about that. Why can't FaceTime be on (to make it easy for my mother in law so that when she logs in that Facetime automatically starts). Just so that it is there when she want's to call her grand kids, but the cam is off when no call is in progress. I think it would be a bit more intuitive only because all other video chat clients work THE SAME WAY! But no, it's different here. Oh well. Maybe someone will fix it down the road.

Thanks for listening to me rant.

TTYL

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Answer 4

Lockfoot

Level 1

8 points

Jun 28, 2011 9:40 AM in response to Martin R. Lerch

That took me FOREVER to find out. I'm right with you, Martin. It's an obvious design flaw to not mention this in the app. You would think they would have a little popup window, or even explain it on the facetime page: http://www.apple.com/mac/facetime/

Thanks for posting your answer.

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Answer 5

Nov 19, 2011 8:16 AM in response to Martin R. Lerch

Thanks for explaining this. What a very strange, strange design.

It's interesting that merely closing the window (cmd w) does the same thing. Camera goes off (which made me think that the stupid thing stopped working. I guess the camera is on so you can make sure you like what it see's. But the simple addition of a big button that says "Make me available for calls" that did the same thing would be a way out that preserves their "experience".

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Answer 6

Oct 5, 2014 5:13 PM in response to JoeyR

The code (apparently) works as designed, so you're correct in the sense that there's no bug to fix. But it's an annoying design, and Apple can fix the design.

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Answer 7

Hatweeo

Level 1

1 points

Oct 20, 2014 11:25 AM in response to Martin R. Lerch

Hi Martin,

I absolutely agreed with you and can't understand why the video camera on the Mac is on on default. And when that is 'as designed' than it is a bad design.

Just switch it off on default and turn it on when hou actually want wo make a video call instead of a voice call ... Especially now where you can make phone calls from the Mac via your iPhone.

Only reason I can guess for this mistake is that they want to 'tease' you to use video calls more often ...

Regards,

Hessel

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Answer 8

Oct 22, 2014 4:33 AM in response to Martin R. Lerch

Hey Martin,

I have noticed this same problem recently since upgrading to Yosemite. In order to receive calls from my iPhone FaceTime needs to be booted from the start or its pointless as my iPhone just rings and rings as FaceTime boots up which makes me just want to answer the phone before someone rings off! However the shock at booting straight into FaceTime each time my machine starts up isn't nice (early mornings? NO!)

Its a shame that unless you're in a call you can't turn the camera off (as far as I know). However, if you minimise FaceTime window to the toolbar you'll notice the cam light turns off and (I presume (hope)) disables the camera.

~ Hope this helps!

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Answer 9

Dec 31, 2014 7:19 AM in response to Martin R. Lerch

If you "Minimize" the window with

* yellow dot

* Window --> Minimize, OR

* Command-M

.. the camera shuts off.

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Answer 10

Aug 31, 2015 5:07 AM in response to Daniel MacKay

Just bought a new MacBook Pro. Woke up this morning, opened the laptop and I had messages on my FaceTime. Went to see who called and now the camera won't shut off. Can't minimize the screen, go to preferences or anything else, I just get the spinning wheel. I even tried to shut it down, when I turned it on 5 minutes later, it says that FaceTime didn't quit. Now what? I've had this laptop for only a week because I thought moving from Windows would be better...not feeling that so much now.

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Answer 11

Aug 31, 2015 6:53 AM in response to 1husband2sons

Hello

so as you probably read, I was the one who started this thread. So what I learned is that apparently a) the camera will be on when FaceTime app runs. (The cam apparently does shut off when one minimizes the app, but I have not tried that). b) you should be able to receive calls even though the app is off. So I have been leaving the app off and only open it when I take or make a call. Regarding the error message - I have not gotten this message before. Since you just bought your mac you should be under warranty and for sure take it to your nearest Apple Store, or call the Apple Care support line. if the error message was an isolated incident then i wouldn't worry too much about it and use it until it happens again? Or you can call and see what they say. Is it working now, or are you still getting error messages?

Best of luck

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Answer 12

Dec 22, 2016 7:25 AM in response to Daniel MacKay

Uh-uh. Not on my MBPr. Perhaps it's MacOS 10.12.2, I think it used to, but not any more. Why has this changed? Is there a workaround other than turning FaceTime off completely? With Facetime off, BTW, calls no longer appear on screen as notifications and the app does not open by itself. I'm sure this is a setting but not in FaceTime that I can find. Is it somewhere other than Facetime>Preferences?

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Answer 13

Jan 27, 2017 8:55 PM in response to Henry-In-FL

I think I found a workaround. close FaceTime. open your address book. Dial a call from the address book.

** do not touch face time at all **

No video.

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