macOS: Video Device In(Webcam doesn't work)

I remembered about this new security feature in macOS Mojave where you need to grant application access to the camera before they can use it. Perhaps this is the problem in your case?

This is found in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy

I’m using latest macOS (10.14.6) and granted permission to access FaceTime HD camera. :cry:

I also have issues with my laptop camera. Sometimes does work, sometimes doesn’t. I just keep rebooting my computer, turning off and on TD and turning off and on the video TOP till it randomly works again. Sometimes after a reboot, sometimes after the other things, you never know…

I am using mojave 10.14 on a macbook pro 13inch, 2017. i5

Thanks for the continued reports, it seems a number of you are experiencing this. We can’t reproduce it on any of our laptops unfortunately, but we will continue to try to.

Can you all share the details of your Macbook model, a screengrab of your “About the Mac” dialog would really help us narrow down the suspects.

Screen Shot 2019-07-29 at 12.54.09 PM.png

I report the detail of my machines.
MacBook Pro 13’, 2018 reproduces this issue.
MacBook Pro 15’, 2018 works fine. This machine switches graphics automatically between Radeon and Intel.


My specs
Screenshot 2019-08-02 at 10.49.48.png

I got the same problem. Did you guys solve the problem?

@christopher.neumann No luck on this, we don’t have enough macs to reproduce it, all of ours work fine. Is your machine also using a Intel Iris GPU like the others effected above?

I just downloaded TouchDesigner for the first time to use it specifically with this TOP on my MacBook Pro. All my cameras show up black using build 2020.20020 Screen Shot 2020-02-28 at 11.31.48 PM

@whistlegraph Did you confirm that the macOS security and privacy settings allow TouchDesigner to use your camera? This was mentioned above.

Yeah the problem isn’t in permissions. It’s that the camera hardware is activated, but no video feed shows up in the TOP preview window or in any of the nodes that are connected to it, for any of my video devices, and I’m using the default CoreVideo API.

But anyway, this is why I downloaded TouchDesigner to begin with and I can’t be the only one who has a Mac and wants to use TouchDesigner specifically for this.

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Can you confirm that the Video Device In TOP is set to “AVFoundation (macOS)”, we do not have anything in the menu called CoreVideo API. We have tested on all our Macs here and they do not have issues with the Video Device In TOP, so we need to find out what is specifically different in your system so that me might be able to reproduce the issue. Once we can do that we can fix it.

Oh sorry yeah it’s AVFoundation and I’m using the FaceTime HD camera but it also doesn’t work with other cameras. I got confused with the API on macOS named CoreGraphics, sorry! Well is there a way I can send you some more information to help?

Hey I’m pretty sure the problem is with the Intel Graphics chip on my 2019 13" MacBook Pro. I just downloaded the latest build on a new 2019 iMac with a Radeon GPU and Video Device In TOP works perfectly.

Thanks for the feedback. We will try to find some local with such a spec laptop, these Intel Iris on macOS have a number of issues, other things like rendering with the Line MAT also don’t work.

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Hi, any update on this issue?

I’m seeing the same issue on a late 2018 mac mini.
Screen Shot 2020-06-12 at 10.28.28 PM

However, it is working on my late 2013 macbook pro (Intel Iris 1536MB) - the forum won’t let me post more than one screenshot, but I guess it’s not necessary for the one that works :slight_smile:
Thanks for all your work!

EDIT: When it fails it always works if I start the timeline and then enable the camera.

Same issue here on my early 2013 MacBookPro BUT I simply shut down all apps & restarted TD and it works. I wonder if something else had a lock on the camera.? Here’s my specs, CPU & GPU as it real-time composites the built-in camera w/noise & an image:

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Same issue with mine, 2019 13’’ MacBook Pro. I usually restart the application or my machine and the issue resolves itself, but sometimes it doesn’t :frowning: Any update on this?

Same issue with mine too, it start with black screen while all settings are just the same with moderator above.

Same Problem here.
Have you any experiences with an update to 11.2.3 Big Sure?