"There is no connected camera"

Hi, I just purchased a Macbook Pro 13-inch (mid-2012) about a month and a half ago. Since, I bought it, I've had issues with the built-in Facetime HD camera working when it wants to. The built-in camera works right away once I turn on the computer, but if it's been on for more than a day, or at least on standby during the day, I'll get an error message saying "There is no connected camera" when I try to launch programs like Photo Booth or Facetime. However when I reboot the computer, I have no issues.

-Also, I looked in "System Information" to see if the computer was recognizing the camera on the list of USB interface, and it is.

-I upgraded to OS X 10.8 - Mountaing Lion in hopes that it would fix this issue, but it didn't.

-After careful research, I came across some posts about an "SMC" reset. I went ahead and performed one, but it didn't do anything that rebooting the computer didn't already do (make it work for a day)

All help is greatly appreciated. This is my first mac, and if this is a serious problem, I wanna get this computer to an apple store asap. Thanks again!

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Jul 30, 2012 9:32 AM

51 replies

jhjofcs

Level 1

4 points

Apr 27, 2016 8:45 AM in response to itsbgilbro

It happens to me as well, after I upgraded my Macbook Air, my camera just not work anymore. I have tired all of solutions above but none of it could help.

EZ Jim

Level 7

22,590 points

Apr 29, 2016 9:39 AM in response to jhjofcs

jhjofcs wrote:

It happens to me as well, after I upgraded my Macbook Air, my camera just not work anymore. I have tired all of solutions above but none of it could help.

One of these will fix your camera problem:

(1) If restarting your Mac doesn't fix the problem,

(2) use Apple's http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2090.

(BTW - The Troubleshooting article calls the camera an "iSight". However, after the article was published, Apple has changed the built-in camera's name on newer Macs from "iSight" to "FaceTime" and then to "FaceTime HD." Regardless of the name of your built-in camera, the same info and troubleshooting applies.)

Be sure to test more than one Apple app (Photo Booth, FaceTime, iMovie, QuickTime Player, etc.) in more than one user account. Do NOT use the "Guest" account for this test. If you do not have more than one user account for the testing, create a new one now. If you need help, how to do it is explained in http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201754.

A "Standard" user account is all you need for testing.

(3) If your cam won't work properly even with Apple apps, use OS X Recovery to completely reinstall your Mac OS from the Recovery System stored on your startup drive. Don't bother testing Skype or other third-party apps until you have your camera working with Apple apps.

(4) If none of the above suggestions resolve your trouble, contact Apple or an Apple-Authorized Service Provider to have your Mac professionally serviced. Be sure to backup your Mac and deauthorize iTunes before tendering it for service.

Message was edited by: EZ Jim

Mac OSX 10.11.4

Jun 15, 2016 2:52 PM in response to isurftheturf

Thank you thank you thank you. Pls contact me when you are in Manhattan for a free Starbucks. Was afraid of terminal because of dire warnings (like your life support might be disconnected if you fool with sudo). Less scary to do it the GUI way.

P.S. Thanks a lot!

udfalkso

Level 1

4 points

Dec 12, 2016 7:55 AM in response to itsbgilbro

Killing VDCAssistant fixed it for me as well. Does anyone know how to stop this from being a recurring issue?? I suppose I'll set up a nightly cron job for this and see if that helps, but it's not ideal because it will kill any ongoing video if I'm in the middle of using it.

Jan 9, 2017 6:07 PM in response to madams end

Thank you, this was extremely helpful!!

rv4life

Level 1

4 points

Apr 4, 2017 9:46 AM in response to pennbank

Thank you!

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"There is no connected camera"