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El Capitan iSight

I upgraded to El Capitan last night and experienced some issues. But in whole, I am happy with this upgrade. It eliminated the bulkiness and regained more gigabytes. The first was iCloud outgoing which was easily remedied by removing it and re-adding. Now I have an issue with iSight not working. I own a 13.3'' mid-2009 Macbook. Is there a solution to this problem?


Thank you!

MacBook, OS X Mavericks (10.9), Mail App

Posted on Oct 8, 2015 8:53 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Oct 9, 2015 9:45 AM

ShawnieMichael wrote:... upgraded to El Capitan ... Now I have an issue with iSight... Is there a solution ...?



Your camera should work with EC.


The built-in cameras in all my Macs, Including my mid-09 MacBook Pro,

work with all my Apple camera apps including QuickTime Player:

OS X El Capitan: Use the built-in camera

Note that the video chat feature of Messages has not worked right

since Mavericks. The camera works in Messages' A/V Preferences ...,

just not the video chat connection.

Other than the current Messages Video Chat connection problem, one of the following will fix your 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. 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

28 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Oct 9, 2015 9:45 AM in response to ShawnieMichael

ShawnieMichael wrote:... upgraded to El Capitan ... Now I have an issue with iSight... Is there a solution ...?



Your camera should work with EC.


The built-in cameras in all my Macs, Including my mid-09 MacBook Pro,

work with all my Apple camera apps including QuickTime Player:

OS X El Capitan: Use the built-in camera

Note that the video chat feature of Messages has not worked right

since Mavericks. The camera works in Messages' A/V Preferences ...,

just not the video chat connection.

Other than the current Messages Video Chat connection problem, one of the following will fix your 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. 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

Oct 18, 2015 8:36 AM in response to rlandersen

rlandersen wrote:... same problem... SMC and PRAM reset did not work. What can I do?


Try the other suggestions offered until you have success. One of them will fix your 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. 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


Oct 21, 2015 2:38 PM in response to EZ Jim

I have the same problem.

My isight camera doesn't work after updating to OS X El Capitan on my MBA Mid 2011.

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

(2) use Apple's http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2090. - not helped

SMC and PRAM reset - not helped


The remaining way to fix it - reinstall OS X, and It's not the better way for me... Is there another ways?

Seems that it's a common problem.

Oct 22, 2015 9:44 AM in response to Shwaiger

Shwaiger wrote:... reinstall OS X... Is there another ways?...


Yes. Either restoring from a known working Time Machine backup, reinstalling OS X directly from your Mac's built in Recovery System, or using Internet Recovery is another ways to reinstall OS X.


Remember that the version of OS X Recovery that you use determines which OS X version is installed:


• The Recovery System stored on your startup drive installs the most recent version of OS X previously installed


• Internet Recovery installs the version of OS X that originally came with your computer.

You then use the Mac App Store to install related updates or, if desired, later versions of OS X.




Message was edited by: EZ Jim


Mac OSX 10.11

Oct 25, 2015 6:52 AM in response to rlandersen

rlandersen wrote: Any chance Apple releases a ...


¶2.2 of this Discussions Use Agreement prohibits speculations about unannounced products or speculation on Apple decisions.


rlandersen wrote:... fix for this problem?...


What problem? This (OPs) problem was solved by restarting his Mac.


rlandersen wrote:...Still no camera here.


Then, as a minimum, you have certainly not used suggestion (4) from my first response to OP.



Message was edited by: EZ Jim


Mac OSX 10.11.1

Oct 25, 2015 9:27 AM in response to EZ Jim

Thank you for your response.


I am sorry If I didn't pay attention to 2.2.


Good to know that a restart was enough for ShawnieMichael.

Unfortunately I wasn't so lucky.


I did call authorized service, which recommended bringing my computer there, but it's not in the city where I live.

I would have to travel to another city, which is not that convenient for me at the moment.


But thanks for your understanding.

Oct 31, 2015 9:43 PM in response to rlandersen

I hope I am more helpful then the other posts you followed. I have the same issue with my iSight and I tried restarting the computer and this obviously did not work. The camera acted as if I had low RAM I have the 4gb that came with my iMac and I added more ram. Adding more ram was nice overall but did not fix my issue. I tried the SMC and PRAM reset and this did not work. I reinstalled El Captain and this worked for 5 minutes and then it started back up. In my case i was able to narrow it down to the app iMovie (Before the reinstall Photobooth did not work either) I tried using Quicktime to do the recording and it worked just fine (I did try reinstalling iMovie and it only fixes the issue for a few minutes. I now record in QuickTime and import it into iMovie. I did order a Logitech c920 web cam and I know others who use it with out issue. The Logitech c920 does not officially support OS X but OS X seems to detect it and use it just fine; although, you may not benefit from its hardware compression ratio (unknown if its hardware compression works with out additional software aid) it should still be less grainy than the isight.


Mac (21.5-inch, Mid 2010) OS X 10.11.2

Dec 7, 2015 9:02 AM in response to Boots1982

At first I thought the iSight camera in my LED Cinema Display wasn't working under El Capitan. However, per a suggestion earlier in this thread I tried various apps that use the camera and found that with Photo Booth it worked normally. Then I figured out it's now a menu item in the FaceTime app, and got that turned on. Still working on Skype. - LJ

El Capitan iSight

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