Facetime Camera Not Working.

AppleUKNW:

I was anxious to try your download for the script since, although the Unix command works, it still is not a fix. My Skype (yes, I know it is not an Apple product) still gets stuck and won't activate the camera after the next time I use it, which could be a day or a week later.

I launched the script, but was unclear what to do.

At first, the name "Disable" seems odd, but I guess that is what it needs to do - disable iSight which is still being held captive by an app. I am running El Cap, so that seems to be compatible, but I wasn't sure which button to choose, Enable, or Disable. I launched the script and chose Disable, and launched PhotoBooth. No Camera Connected. That is is ok - I would expect it would have to Disable before it could enable. I quit PhotoBooth and launched the script again, this time I launched the script 2 times - the 1st selecting Disable, and the 2nd selecting Enable, since that made sense to me. I launched PhotoBooth again, but still No Camera Connected. I tried varying combinations, but nothing worked. One combination was to launch the script, click Enable iSight, then launch it again and click Enable iSight again. However that brought up the following message:

If I select Edit, it simply opens up Script Editor, and I have no idea what to do in there. 😉

So I am still stuck with the one-time Unix command, which saves me from restarting my computer. There are still several others I know that would not want nor know how to use the Unix command, so I tell them to restart the computer.

I was really hoping this would be my cure. If your or someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong, it would be nice to know.

Thanks!

Thank you, thank you, Bibsnab! Especially for the explanation. I was hesitant to use a random sudo command that I didn't know, which kesmed2001 posted - but thanks to both of you.

My problem began after replacing my HDD with an SSD. Every time I used Skype and then Quit Skype, my camera was disabled for any other applications that wanted to use it. I would reboot the computer and that would fix it each time, but very inconvenient and annoying.

This is much better.

I have also run into another user I service and replaced her HDD with an SSD and now she can't get the camera on in PhotoBooth to take pictures of her students of the week. I am confident this will fix hers, too.

This worked for me. Before, simply restarting the computer helped, but that was not a good solution, since I would have to restart any time I would want to relaunch any application that needed the camera.

But now I am wondering for how long this will work. I've tested by launching and Quitting PhotoBooth over and over and it's been working each time. But still wonder if this is a permanent or temporary fix.

Thanks to all for this command and explanation.

I have tried this and it worked at first for me (as I commented already). I quit and relaunched applications several times and it still worked. Then I didn't use any know camera applications for a few days, and Sunday went on to Skype, and again the camera wouldn't work. Although I thought "well now I know the fix" it still took time to find the command and apply it again, which might have been better than restarting the computer, but restarting might have been faster. Still would like a permanent fix.

I spent nearly 24 hours trying to get my Facetime HD camera to work on my 27" imac....... it used to work OK..OSX Sierra.

I did all the suggestions, including reloading El Capitan from Apple, then from Time Machine.....

Then I found this...

worked a treat, I now have my camera back.

Only downside, 24 hours wasted, including updating last 3 days Spreadsheets, then for some reason having to format all my TM's to do a full backup.... 5 times !!!

Anyway..... here is the solution, that worked for me when all else failed !!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2hhjaojucvsfsu9/iSightConfigure.app.zip

I think the mistake was to initially select Disable !!

Try rebooting, followed by Enable...

All my webcam apps accessed the Facetime HD Camera no problem..... including three at the same time

Photobooth 8.0, Camwiz 3.2, Quicktime 10.4.

Resolution from 1080x720 up to 1920x1080

Then iMovie too !!

Now using Sierra on my 27" iMac.

The app Oversight showed no Camera availability, until I ran iSightConfigure. then all OK afterwards

What make and model of camera?

Jabber Video also cannot find my camera. My co-worker and I just updated our Macbook Pro's to Mavericks.

Camera:

FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in):

Model ID: UVC Camera VendorID_1452 ProductID_34057

Unique ID: 0x1a11000005ac8509

Have you run through ALL updates in the App Store?

I had the same issue today. I have a Macbook Pro 13" with 10.9. I did this, and it helped:

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

Hi,

By Jabber Video do you mean in Messages or some other Jabber capable App ?

For instance Facebook run a Chat service which you can set yourself up for.

Video chat in a Browser requires you to have Flash Installed.

Also for Google Talk via Browser you need to have the Video Plugin for Browser from Google even though they run a Jabber server for Google Talk.

The plugin for Google is very close to the Flash one (they used to use Flash) and have been known to conflict with each other in the past.

The System Info on the camera should be a little more detailed than that which has been posted including Model and Serial Number

9:48 pm Friday; October 25, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad

Same problem here after update to Mavericks. (MacBookPro with retina early 2013) Camera is detected correctly but when im trying to acces it from any application it's giving me odd pixelized screen or green screen. There was no problem before. Now i have this problem also in windows in bootcamp or in parallels desktop. I have done SMC reset and also reinstall mavericks and no changes. Do downgrade can resolve problem? I have no more ideas what to do. I dont want to take my hardware to service bc of time cost.

HI,

You do seem to have tried the usual things to solve this.

As the Mac sees the camera according to the System Information but does not seem to be able to get s pick into an app it would seem either an essential part is missing or access to it is denied by something else.

As a first step I would try Repairing Permission in Disk Utility (Applications/Utilities)

You also don't mention having tried a PRAM Reset

Shut down the computer.

Restart it holding down Apple/CMD ( or ⌘)+ALT( ⌥)+P+R Keys until you have heard three Start Up Bongs.

8:37 pm Saturday; October 26, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad

Already checked before. No luck for me.

Today with no reason it started working itself. Thats good 🙂