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My FaceTime camera is not working in El Capitan (Thunderbolt Display)

Anyone know how to activate FaceTime camera on my Thunderbolt Display, every time I try, it says "No Camera Available - To use FaceTime Turn on the camera"??

I do not see an option to "turn on camera" anywhere?

Any help??

Posted on Oct 2, 2015 12:06 PM

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Posted on Oct 24, 2015 3:58 PM

When I do this I got "No matching processes were found".

Didn't work. No camera.

46 replies

Oct 5, 2015 10:16 AM in response to applelover1118

I have this exact same problem - the Thunderbolt and internal cameras are not being detected.


This has started to happen only since installation of El Capitan. I also use a pair of MM-1 USB speakers and they are also not detected.


I have found that this seems to occur only if after the MacBook has been disconnected from the Thunderbolt. If you reboot your MacBook everything will work normally, including all cameras and audio devices. Then disconnect from the Thunderbolt and when you reconnect - everything fails - until you reboot again.


Gotta be a bug in El Capital related to Thunderbolt and USB/audio/multimedia.


See also my own post here: El Capitan intermittent USB multi-media

Oct 8, 2015 1:16 AM in response to tbrumleve

Hi tbrumleve - you're right about the PITA. At the moment I'm rebooting my Macbook every time I reconnect it to a Thunderbolt display. I have one at my home office and one at work and I run a fair few virtual machines so rebooting is not as quick as you might expect. This is a big PITA for me - going from having a portable workhorse that I can disconnect and move around wherever I need, to having to perform a fairly major series of reboots every time I want to relocate.


And for me it isn't just the camera problem - audio and other USB peripherals are also being affected by the Thunderbolt disconnect issue.


You're right that a quick for at least for the video is to just reselect the camera, but for some of the problems I'm seeing there seems to be no quick fix - nothing I can do at the command line, no service I can restart. I just have to reboot the whole platform.

Oct 13, 2015 7:54 AM in response to applelover1118

I had the exact same problem on my 2011 MBP 15'', as soon as I upgraded from Yosemite to El Capitan, the built-in FaceTime HD camera did not activate both in the FaceTime application and Photo Booth.


This worked for me:


Go to: Applications > Utilities > Terminal and type the following (without the " " ): "sudo killall VDCAssistant" hit enter, type your password and hit enter again.

Restart your mac.


This should fix your problem with the built-in FaceTime HD camera.

Oct 26, 2015 10:59 AM in response to applelover1118

This has been working well for me.

I've since applied the latest 10.11.1 patch to El Capitan and now the workaround is doing nothing.

I was hoping that the patch would fix the problem but it seems to have broken the workaround!


C'mon Apple - we need this to be fixed. I currently have to reboot my Macbook overtime I disconnect from the Thunderbolt display.

Oct 26, 2015 12:41 PM in response to bigdave1357

As a new user, please understand that you are NOT directly addressing Apple here. For more info about Apple discussions, start here: http://discussions.apple.com/static/apple/tutorial/etiquette.html


You can send feedback directly to Apple via http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html


You will not get a response, but you can be certain that the responsible Apple people will see your input for consideration in future product development.


(If you bought your Mac locally, your retailer may be able to help you with your issues.)




Message was edited by: EZ Jim


Mac OSX 10.11.1

My FaceTime camera is not working in El Capitan (Thunderbolt Display)

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