Every MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro comes with a built-in camera for taking photos and video, including video streaming with your friends. To activate the camera, you need to select an app that uses the camera, like Photo Booth or FaceTime. With newer MacBooks, it's called a FaceTime camera, while on older MacBooks, the camera is referred to as an iSight camera.
Turning the Camera On and Off
To use your MacBook's camera, select any app that requires it, such as Photo Booth, FaceTime or Messages. On older MacBooks, you can also use iSight.
Jan 12, 2017 - Apple, surprisingly, doesn't offer a setting to disable the iSight camera. With nothing in System Preferences to help us here, we must turn to an.
When you open Photo Booth, the camera comes on automatically. If you are using a video app like FaceTime, click the 'Video' button to activate the camera. When the camera is on, a green indicator light appears beside the camera lens above your screen. You will also see the video feed from your camera in the app's window.
To turn off the camera, close the app or turn off the video on your video streaming app. The camera's indicator light turns off.
Tips
Closing your MacBook's cover also disables the video camera.
Troubleshooting Your Camera
If you are using an app that should access the camera but can't detect it, make sure no other apps that use the camera are running. For example, if iMovie and FaceTime are both open, one may interfere with the other. If there is more than one account on your MacBook, you may also need to make sure that another user hasn't left an app open that may be blocking your access to the camera.
If no other camera-friendly apps are running, restarting your MacBook usually clears up the problem.
Finally, if none of these methods work, make sure your MacBook's OSX operating system is updated.
Using Terminal to Force-Close Camera Interference
If it isn't convenient to perform an update or restart your MacBook, you can enter a command in the Terminal window to disable any apps that may be blocking your access to the camera.
- Close the app that is trying to access the camera.
- Open Terminal by pressing Command-Space on the keyboard, typing 'Terminal' and pressing the Enter key.
- When Terminal opens, enter the following command: sudo killall AppleCameraAssistant;sudo killall VDCAssistant
- Press Enter and enter your administrative password when prompted.
- Open the app you want to use with the camera.
Tips
If you have an external camera connected to your MacBook, disconnect it if you want to access the built-in camera.
Tip
- If your MacBook's built-in iSight camera does not turn on automatically when entering Photo Booth, then you may be experiencing a hardware issue and should take your MacBook to a certified technician or Apple store.
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If the unblinking stare of your MacBook's webcam has you concerned about a hacker using it to spy on you, then you may want to cover or disable the webcam when it's not in use.
The easiest and most foolproof way to stop someone from peering at you though the webcam, which Apple calls an iSight camera, is to simply cover it with a piece of tape.
If you'd rather not be left with sticky residue on your MacBook from the tape, you can disable the webcam using software, but -- disclaimer -- a hacker who gains control of your laptop may then be able to take control of your webcam. And may do so without turning on the little green light that alerts you to the webcam being active.
Apple, surprisingly, doesn't offer a setting to disable the iSight camera. With nothing in System Preferences to help us here, we must turn to an app called iSight Disabler, which you can find on the developer's website or on GitHub. The app hasn't been updated for MacOS Sierra, but a commenter on the developer's site posted a Dropbox link to a version of iSight Disabler that I can confirm works with Sierra.
I used the Dropbox link to download a Zip file, which contained a file called iSightConfigure.app. All I needed to do was launch this app and click the Disable iSight button and then enter my user password. I wish I could assign a different password for the iSight Disabler app because if someone has gained access to my MacBook, then they likely already know my password and can use this app to enable the iSight camera.
To check if your iSight camera is, in fact, disabled, you can launch Photo Booth or FaceTime. If you're staring at a black screen instead of your face, then the camera is disabled. When you want to FaceTime someone or use Photo Booth, launch the iSight Disabler app again and hit the Enable iSight button.
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