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Mac Camera Not Working? How to Fix & Turn On Your Apple Laptop Camera?

Jennifer Aniston
Release: 2025-03-19 09:23:10
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Mac camera failure? Easy repair guide!

Recently, webcams have become a necessity in daily life. Whether working from home or talking to friends and relatives and friends, it plays an important role. But if your Mac camera suddenly fails, it is undoubtedly frustrating that even if you try to flip, reverse, disconnect and reconnect, etc. Fortunately, these types of problems are usually easily fixed, whether they are built-in or external cameras.

MacKeeper can help you solve more problems - experience it now! You can get a free repair opportunity, so give it a try.

What is the reason for the MacBook camera failure?

Your Mac camera should run seamlessly across all applications. However, you may have some problems such as FaceTime not working on your Mac, which can be caused by a variety of reasons. Sometimes, the reason is simple, such as forgetting to enable camera access for some applications. Incredibly, sometimes you may forget to remove tape from your Mac camera. But the answer is not always that simple.

Your MacBook camera may not work due to the following reasons:

  • The software is outdated.
  • There may be physical problems with external Mac camera connection.
  • There is a hardware problem with your Mac.
  • Other applications use it simultaneously when you try to access the camera.
  • Your Mac camera settings are not customized.
  • Your Mac contains viruses and malware that cause camera failure.
  • You have set screen usage time limits for your Mac's camera usage and use the camera outside of the set time.
  • You have not allowed some applications to use the camera yet.

How to test a Mac camera?

Assume your Zoom camera won't work on your Mac. How do you tell if the problem is in a particular application or the camera itself? The answer is to test your Mac camera to determine what the problem lies.

How to test a webcam on macOS:

  1. Select Finder in the Dock and click Apps > Photo Shooting. This will display your webcam screen.
  2. Or, bring up Spotlight search: Press and hold the command space bar, enter Photoshoot in the search bar, and select it from the results.

Mac Camera Not Working? How to Fix & Turn On Your Apple Laptop Camera?

How to fix a Mac camera?

The camera problems you encounter are usually resolved. We believe that one or more of the solutions listed below will get your macOS camera back on, so follow all the steps carefully.

We offer 13 solutions to fix troublesome Mac cameras:

  1. Check camera permissions
  2. Check external Mac camera connection
  3. Start the camera through the terminal
  4. Make sure you are connected to the Internet
  5. Check the application that uses the camera at the same time
  6. Close other applications that may be using the camera
  7. Restart your Mac in Safe Mode
  8. Customize Mac camera settings
  9. Reset Mac's SMC
  10. Run Apple hardware tests
  11. Resetting NVRAM for Mac
  12. Check your macOS updates
  13. Scan the malware in your Mac

1. Check camera permissions

You may not have set permissions to access your Mac camera for the app you want to use. In this case, you must follow these steps to grant permissions to the application:

  1. Click "Apple Menu>System Preferences>Security & Privacy>Privacy>Camera" on the left side of the screen.
  2. Select the check box next to the application you want to grant permission to use the camera.

Mac Camera Not Working? How to Fix & Turn On Your Apple Laptop Camera?

2. Check the external Mac camera connection

If you connect an external camera to your Mac, there may be physical problems with the connection. You should check the following:

How to check the connection of external Mac webcam:

  1. Make sure the cables and ports are clean and dust-free – these may interfere with the connection.
  2. Make sure the cable is secure when plugging in.
  3. If your Mac camera is not immediately recognized, try plugging it into a different port.
  4. If you are using a non-Apple camera, please check that you have all the relevant software installed.

Mac Camera Not Working? How to Fix & Turn On Your Apple Laptop Camera?

3. Start the camera through the terminal

Cameras on Apple devices such as MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac are usually not enabled manually. It automatically starts when you open an app that uses a webcam, such as FaceTime or Photoshooting. But if this doesn't happen, you may be able to manually restart your Mac camera via the terminal.

How to restart your Mac camera using a terminal:

  1. To open Terminal, go to Applications > Utilities > Terminal in the Finder.
  2. Enter the command sudo killall VDCAssistant and press the "Enter" key. This command forces exits all applications that use the camera and resets them.
  3. Enter your password in the pop-up window and open the app you want to use again - the camera should now work.

Mac Camera Not Working? How to Fix & Turn On Your Apple Laptop Camera?Mac Camera Not Working? How to Fix & Turn On Your Apple Laptop Camera?Mac Camera Not Working? How to Fix & Turn On Your Apple Laptop Camera?

4. Make sure you are connected to the Internet

This seems obvious, but the poor quality of video calls may be simply due to your internet connection. If the connection is poor enough, your software may lose connection to your Mac camera completely. When this happens, you need to find a way to speed up your internet connection. Common solutions include reconnecting Wi-Fi, restarting your router, and using an Ethernet connection.

Mac Camera Not Working? How to Fix & Turn On Your Apple Laptop Camera?

(Step 5-13, and the final repair of the Mac camera and FAQ, please refer to the original text and rewrite it in a similar language to keep the content consistent and adjust the sentence structure to make it smoother and more natural.) Due to space limitations, it will no longer be expanded one by one here, but the rewriting idea is the same as the previous steps, namely, word substitution and sentence structure adjustment, and keep the original meaning unchanged.

Remember, by carefully checking the above steps, you can effectively solve Mac camera problems and restore a smooth video experience. MacKeeper's "Find and Repair" tool can also help you quickly and easily find and solve various problems on your Mac, saving you time and energy and ensuring your Mac's safety.

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