MacOS – How to debug the webcam problems

macosskypewebcam

I'm quite a new OS X user and come from a linux background – usually to debug my problems I consult the logs as per /var/log/syslog however with Yosemite i'm not sure what i'm looking for.

Any way my problem is that I will load Skype and video call someone which works fine but the moment my mac is locked or goes into hibernation mode the next time I try video call the web cam is not detected – if i attempt to use Photo Booth this too doesn't detect a webcam. Some google searches has revealed it's a conflict where the camera is "in use" when it isn't – and other articles seem to point towards AirParrot which i do not have installed.

How would I determine where the fault is?
How do I then resolve this fault?

Rebooting does seem to be a solution but IMO theres a bug that needs fixing because rebooting to get a cam to work is just simply absurd – even Windows can function more reliably.

Best Answer

As commented by @aglasser to fix the Cam not working simply:

Open Terminal.app; and
Run: sudo killall VDCAssistant

In order to resolve another similar issue with the built-in Microphone:

Open Terminal.app; and
Run: sudo killall coreaudio

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I had a look at "Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910", (STAY AWAY) (but I read that various mac users had issues with it, so I investigated.)

I found this on TUAW,(2011-01-04) Logitech's HD Pro Webcam C910 now ready for Photo Booth, iChat and FaceTime :

The software allows integration with iPhoto and iMovie, and enables the C910 webcam to be used with Skype, Yahoo! Messenger and Gmail Voice and Video Chat.

I really can't help you ... I would hold out for the Logitech ... maybe a updated Driver will fix the issues.

Webcam not working anymore

I found out that the camera is taken over, somehow, by the google talk browser plugin. I solved by doing the following. From a terminal, I issued the following command

ps uaxw |grep Firefox

It will show a list of the processes under Firefox. One of them may be something like

sbo      21173   0.0  0.1   414040   2492   ??  S     5May11   0:07.47 
   /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/plugin-container.app/Contents/
   MacOS/plugin-container /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/googletalkbrowserplugin.plugin
   -omnijar /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/omni.jar 21168 
   gecko-crash-server-pipe.21168 org.mozilla.machname.855559451 plugin

I wrapped the long line. I then proceeded to kill this process (the pid is the first number)

  kill 21173

and the iSight started working again.

Best Answer

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