iSight Camera Not Present on iMac – Troubleshooting

macoswebcam

I have an iMac 9,1 running Mavericks. I recently tried to take a photo using the built in iSight camera, but it seemingly cannot initiate the device.

Using Photo Booth just presents me with a spinner icon until it shows me this eventually:

enter image description here

Checking in System Report shows the following information (Note the spinner again when checking the Camera section:

enter image description here
enter image description here

I last used the camera less than a week ago, and had no issues. I don't even think it's been rebooted since I used it last (although I have rebooted to see if it makes a difference).

Lastly, I get the following lines constantly repeated in the console twice a second, which may be related:

19/03/2014 20:32:50.772 com.apple.launchd[1]: (com.apple.cmio.VDCAssistant[4913]) Job appears to have crashed: Abort trap: 6
19/03/2014 20:32:50.798 VDCAssistant[4914]: AVF warning: failed to get a service for display id: 4128828
19/03/2014 20:32:50.799 VDCAssistant[4914]: AVF warning: failed to get a service for display id: 4128829
19/03/2014 20:32:50.799 VDCAssistant[4914]: AVF warning: failed to get a service for display id: 4128830
19/03/2014 20:32:50.799 VDCAssistant[4914]: AVF warning: failed to get a service for display id: 4128831
19/03/2014 20:32:50.811 VDCAssistant[4914]: CGSDisplayID: App trying to enumerate [0 to CGSGetNumberOfDisplays()] instead of using CGSGetDisplayList().  Compensating...
19/03/2014 20:32:50.811 VDCAssistant[4914]: Client is attempting to access a display by index (4) instead of display ID.
19/03/2014 20:32:50.860 ReportCrash[4861]: Saved crash report for VDCAssistant[4913] version 4561 to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/VDCAssistant_2014-03-19-203250-1_StuffeMac.crash

How can I get to the bottom of this and fix my camera?

Best Answer

It seems there is either a bug with OS X 10.9.2 and a framework related to the camera or the way apps integrate with the camera. This has affected numerous people, mainly those with AirDisplay (due to the integration that AirDisplay provides — it's not really using supported APIs).

Until this problem is fixed, either by AirDisplay or OS X (for those suffering with a similar problem that seems to be caused by FaceTime), uninstalling AirDisplay and/or turning off FaceTime seems to fix it.

Related Question