MacOS – Macbook Pro camera still not working (green light on) – tried heaps of suggested solutions to no avail

cameramacbook promacos

My macbook pro camera does not work in facetime, photobooth, zoom, etc despite the green light being on.

What I've tried so far to solve it which hasn't worked:

  • sudo killall VDCAssistant & AppleCameraAssistant command (returned "no matching processes were found")
  • Rebooted macbook in safe mode (opened Facetime and it said "No Camera
    Available")
  • Repaired disk using Disk Utility
  • Reset the SMC

I have a feeling that it is a hardware failure. When I leave my laptop 1/3 the way open and tap the screen, the camera starts working properly (sometimes). However, when I then fully open it, the image freezes and returns back to a black screen.

My camera was working fine in January, however in February I updated from High Sierra to Mojave. But it was only until March I realised my camera no longer worked. Last week I updated from Mojave to Catalina, camera still doesn't work. I don't think updating my macbook was the reason but I just added this incase..

Is there anything to try short of hardware repair?

Best Answer

No, you have exhausted the typical steps and if you can send it in for repair or feel you won’t break it worse by opening it yourself, a repair is in order.

Before a repair, make a backup of everything and wipe and reinstall the OS. You need that to start the repair and if it fixes things, you’ll save the cost and time of the repair.