Thunderbolt Display Camera freezes with High Sierra

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Level 1

61 points

Thunderbolt Display Camera freezes with High Sierra

I have seen a few discussions on this but they don't have all the details so not sure if exactly the same or not, therefore am posting with my details and scenario.

A have a MBP (15-inch, 2017) running High Sierra 10.13.1 connected to my Thunderbolt display.

I noticed when i had FaceTime open, the video image captured by the Thunderbolt camera would freeze after a 'random' amount of time - i couldn't work out any pattern to it. I wondered if it was when opening the internet or other files and leaving it open in the background and monitored system resources but couldn't see anything obvious going on. I could open FaceTime and leave the room for half an hour and it was fine, or i could open it ands mess around on my MBP and it would freeze within seconds or minutes.

I noticed when using my MBP undocked and on battery that FaceTime would go in to powersave mode when opening an other application so wondered if this might be something to do with it sticking in powered mode...

I had a look in the logs at the times that the issue had occured and noticed some words around frame rate and other items so again started investigating the issue when docked.

Now, by trying many different things i think i can recreate the issue on demand. I have created a short video but my attach video option is greyed out which is a shame.

I open FaceTime and can see the video image moving in real time and if i then put my thumb on my Thunderbolt display just under the camera and slowly move my thumb up to cover it - not so it is pitch black, but more so it's an orange colour but completely covering the camera, i can get the image to freeze.

What's more, i can also get it to happen in Photo Booth.

Thoughts?

MacBook Pro TouchBar and Touch ID, macOS High Sierra (10.13.1)

Posted on Nov 10, 2017 12:46 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

alemiele

Level 1

8 points

Nov 16, 2017 4:47 AM in response to hoooverman

Hey hey hoooverman,

I tried following your (not-at-all-difficult) steps to reproduce the issue, but as you can imagine it was not showing up in my case.

I had anyway collected some movies which records the issue for me.

One big thing: the issue showed up yesterday on another MBP my wife owns and she didn't upgrade yet to High Sierra.

Now, if you are still facing the issue, may I ask you to try the following as soon as your video freezes: as reported here My FaceTime camera is not working in El Capitan (Thunderbolt Display) can you try to run this in the Terminal windows

sudo killall VDCAssistant (it'll require your password)

I had to run this multiple times during a call using Skype for Business and it worked every time. So it's totally still unclear what initiate the issue, but running the kill command on the VSDCAssistant let it start again. I didn't even have to restart the call or close/reopen the video sharing: just video started to work again.

I'd like to hear if this is reproducible for you.

THanks

AM

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Answer 2

ajkerr

Level 1

9 points

Dec 12, 2017 1:41 AM in response to hoooverman

I am no longer seeing this issue after upgrading to High Sierra 10.13.2! I can't reproduce the issue with your "thumb trick" any longer either.

Hopefully this isn't a fluke and the issue is indeed fixed!

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Answer 3

hoooverman Author

Level 1

61 points

Nov 13, 2017 2:27 AM in response to hoooverman

Been in touch with Apple over the weekend and here are some more things to add:

On another MBP running Sierra i was not able to replicate the issue. I then upgraded it to High Sierra and now can recreate the issue.

I created a guest (non admin) account and was able to reproduce the issue.

I cannot reproduce the issue in safe mode.

I can only recreate this issue on the Thunderbolt display camera, not the MBP inbuilt camera.

I can recreate this issue on TB display even when my MBP is lid opened and mirroring.

I can't recreate the issue if mirroring on MBP but using the MBP camera.

So i'd say definitely an issue between TB display camera and High Sierra.

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Answer 4

hoooverman Author

Level 1

61 points

Dec 12, 2017 1:41 AM in response to ajkerr

Hi all,

Apologies for the silence, i have been away!

I concur that 10.13.2 also seems to have fixed the issue, i can't seem to reproduce it so i'm hoping too that the issue was acknowledged and fixed.

I will speak to my helpful support person tomorrow when she is back in the office to confirm and hopefully close this case.

Many thanks all for the participation. I'm told Apple don't formally monitor these forums though informally, who knows!!!

Many thanks

Tom

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Answer 5

hoooverman Author

Level 1

61 points

Nov 14, 2017 8:08 AM in response to marc1062

Hello,

The theory was very much it being a High Sierra issue which would be fixed either by a High Sierra patch or a Thunderbolt Display firmware update however we need to wait for a response from engineering.

The positives are that this has been recreated on multiple machines which has eliminated the thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 cable converter and hopefully excused one of my 3rd party apps being the culprit.

In my opinion I would not feel the need to make a genius appt as I’m confident the right people are already on this, though feel free :-)

I will post an update when I have one.

Cheers

Tom

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Answer 6

ajkerr

Level 1

9 points

Nov 17, 2017 9:31 AM in response to hoooverman

I think the sudo killall VDCAssistant fixes an entirely different problem. I've experienced this one too with the Thunderbolt Display in the past, but the symptom is different - the camera is not recognized at all by the Mac, and the killall command fixes this.

The killall command does *not* fix this new issue with High Sierra that can be reproduced with the "thumb test" described above.

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Answer 7

amiridis

Level 1

4 points

Jan 15, 2018 9:56 PM in response to hoooverman

I confirm this no longer happens to me after the latest update.

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Answer 8

hoooverman Author

Level 1

61 points

Nov 13, 2017 5:10 AM in response to ajkerr

Sure - the tweet is here http://twitter.com/Mrtomgreeny/status/929047666612473857

Where it ends we went into DM and then i have literally just come off a call with a helpful support guy who has taken all these details and has escalated through to engineering. Hope to get an answer soon and will share the findings.

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Answer 9

marc1062

Level 1

17 points

Nov 14, 2017 7:22 AM in response to hoooverman

Thanks for sharing this. Did the engineer think it was hardware or software related? I was going to take my Thunderbolt Display into the Genius Bar but would like to avoid that hassle if possible.

Thanks!

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Answer 10

hoooverman Author

Level 1

61 points

Nov 17, 2017 3:01 AM in response to alemiele

Hi AM,

Trust you to throw a spanner in the works :-)

Can you state what version of Sierra your wife is running where she experienced the issue? The engineers are aware of this post, they may not formally reply or acknowledge but they might reference it for troubleshooting...?

If i follow your request above:

1, I get my camera to freeze with my 'thumb trick.'

2, i enter that command in Terminal.

So, it doesn't ask me for a passsord.

I do see a very bried message flash up in Facetime that says No Camera Available (as if it's reconnecting my camera.)

But then when that message goes away, my frozen image is still displayed.

So in short, your sudo killall command does not kick my camera back in to life.

I will be chasing up on my case today as it's been 3 days - will let you all know if any update.

Tom

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Answer 11

hoooverman Author

Level 1

61 points

Nov 28, 2017 5:22 AM in response to hoooverman

Short update - sorry not a lot to tell!

Some logs were collected from me nearly 2 weeks ago and i called a few days ago to chase but still there is no update.

Guess we have to sit tight and hope it's fixed in the next patch.

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Answer 12

hoooverman Author

Level 1

61 points

Nov 13, 2017 3:58 AM in response to hoooverman

Short video i tweeted to Apple to demonstrate the issue

http://www.mobypicture.com/user/Mrtomgreeny/view/20067883

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Answer 13

ajkerr

Level 1

9 points

Nov 13, 2017 5:02 AM in response to hoooverman

Could you share a link to your tweet? If others can retweet it perhaps we can get some traction with Apple.

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Answer 14

ajkerr

Level 1

9 points

Dec 2, 2017 3:55 PM in response to hoooverman

Sorry to hear Apple isn't giving any updates. Please do keep us informed. Given how old the Thunderbolt Display is, I'm afraid Apple won't be terribly inclined to fix this.

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