Isight camera is suddenly not detected anymore on my macbook air with Mountain Lion.
I have reset PRAM, restarted 10times, removed Skype.
It is still not working. The green light is never coming on at starting up the MBA, it is not detected by FaceTime, Photobooth or Messages.
MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)
Select Apple menu > About This Mac > More Info... > System Report... > Hardware > USB. A "Built-in iSight" should be listed.
What to do if it is not listed?
Standard hardware test says all is OK, even the manual hardware test says all is OK.
But nowhere is anything to be found of Isight camera.
Now realizing that actually also auto-light of the screen and keyboard is also not working since ML, I assume that these functions are using the web-cam to messure light.
I will go to an Apple Reseller and ask, otherwise will do an recovery installation (although that makes me feel I am back at Windows95 again).
Reinstalling the OS won't help. There's a slight chance this will:
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
Been there, done that and some other things that people said with the same problem but nothing works.
MBA is 1 year young, orginally had Lion, then recently upgraded to Mountain Lion and I am pretty sure that I tested all functionality after that. But very recently installed the update for ML and it looks like actually since then the camera is not working anymore.
And doing a search on internet it seems I am not the only one having this problem.
If your warranty is about to expire, take the machine to an Apple Store for testing.
Great service from Apple Thailand ..... although one could find numberous of reports of problems with Isight / FaceTime Camera after Mountain Lion update and although some people say that they did speak about it with Apple service ... here in Thailand Apple service has never heard of it before.
The nearest Apple service centre is 500km away and they just say "O why you not come the service center" and "O I think your macbook broken and need repair?
What after extended hardware test says all OK and that with an macbook air of 15months young?
O yes I could send my MBA to them .... would take not more as 20 days to check. What 20 days! Your nuts?
I thought a computer of that price would work a bit longer as 15months at least all my others brandname laptops did for the half of the price.
I'm having the same problem all of a sudden with my latest-model 11-inch MBA (128 GB SSD / 4 GB ram). Camera is listed in System Report, but already did the SMC reboot and still nothing.
As of update on the missing Isight camera
It is still not working.
I have reset PRAM and SCM (at least I think so)
I have re-intsalled Lion but it was still not working
I have then upgraded again to Mountain Lion, still no camera
I did an Extended Apple Hardware Test, nothing wrong with the hardware
System Report (USB) still does not report the camera, and so of course does not does any app.
I even tried making a new user ... still no camera.
I still can not believe that the camera of an 15months young MBA just dies and all hardware is still fine.
So is there any genius that knows if there are other ways to check the status of the camera or other ways to reset SCM?
It actually looks like the camera has been put to sleep and does not wake-up anymore.
I have the exact same problem, have tried all the same methods. Nothing helps. Sure would like a input from a genius right about now!
I thought I was crazy when I realised no camera was detected by the laptop 😀. The same with my MBA (2011-128GB) and Mountain Lion...
Same thing is happening to me as well. I have a Macbook Pro Retina and ever since Mountain Lion I have been facing this issue (I think this is cos of some bug in Mountain Lion). Normally a restart helps but this is just plain stupid of Apple to not care.
Edit: Also I have my Macbook connected to thunderbolt display and it doesn't detect either of the two cameras.
Hey guys. I've had the same problem you've all been experiencing and I'd like to share my experience on how I eventually got the issue fixed. My computer is a MacBook Air 11' mid-2011 that I bought immediatly after its release. Like many of you, my Facetime camera suddenly started not to detect after upgrading to Mountain Lion. Since I had a video chat on Skype just fine a day before I upgraded, I thought it was a software issue that would be resolved in subsequent updates. I did try SMC+PRAM resets and a clean install but with no results. With 10.8.1 & 2 not resolving the issue, I took my MBA to the Apple Store in IFC Mall, Hong Kong. The Geniuses tried booting up from both ML and Lion with no luck. They did a hardware diagnoses and concluded that the Facetime camera had a hardware issue. Since I told them the FT camera worked fine under Lion, they claimed that it couldn't be a software issue and that I'd have to get the entire screen unit (display+camera+lid) replaced for around HKD $3,300 (about USD $425) (my 1 year warranty has already expired). Despite the void warranty and the hardware diagnostics, I was able to convince them to replace my display free of charge. The manager of the store seemed understanding of my situation and to that I'm very grateful of. 2 days later I picked up my MBA and the FT camera is working just fine under 10.8.2. So maybe it was a hardware problem after all! But I still doubt it as the issue happened immediately after upgrading, and from the many similar reports by other users like you guys.
If you have a 2011 MBA, I suggest you immideatly go to an Apple Store to get it checked out before your warrently runs out!
Hope this helps!
Thanks for your reply, unfortunately I have not been yet in the oppurtunity to go to the nearest Apple Customer Service (500km away) but what about this idea ....
The Isight camera in mine MBA (mid'11) is not an HD camerea, but Mountain Lion supports HD camera for the new models macbooks. What if an software bug would overheat the USB-port or the Isight camera and with that create an hardware problem?
Other thing I noticed is that when I insert an USB-stick or memeory card I never see that in the hardware-profile, although I can use them. Like actually an all USB-port is working strange. The Isight camera is connected to the USB-port, so it is just an USB-device.
Ivo
Are you serious ! you get an 14 months old computer... upgrade it to the manufacturers os update... and BOOM 500 $ of work on a 1500$ computer ... you got to be kidding me!
Reading this thread I see that it's not an isolated case... So if anyone has a fix for this issue... please share it here and to Apple... please look into this, Come on I didn't pay 1600$ for this computer so that just over a year later I have to repay nearly 1/3 of that price to get a camera back to work.
I'm from Thailand and facing the same problem as your and there are many topics about this problem here.
My MBA is mid 2011. The built in camera was broken after upgrade to Mountain Lion.
I've tried PRAM, SMC reset, cleaned install, and time machine back to Lion but the problem still persisted.
iStudio in Thailand told me I need to check hardware inside and it will cost some money and if the hardware is broken, it will cost a lot of money.
The camera was broken immediately after the upgrade so I thought Mountain Lion cause it.
My MBA has already ran out of warranty and I don't want to pay any maintainance cost which occurred from the software bug.
For those who got this problem, could you suggest me what should I do between waiting for a new software update or sending my MBA to change the camera hardware?
Isight camera suddenly not detected anymore on MBA Mountain Lion. How to fix?
