Camera Not Working on Your Mac? Every Fix for Zoom, Meet, and Teams

Q: Why is my camera a black screen in Zoom but fine in FaceTime?

The camera hardware is fine, so it is app-level: another app holds the camera, Zoom lost its permission, or Zoom is pointed at the wrong device, often the iPhone via Continuity Camera. Check Zoom's Settings, Video, Camera dropdown first.

Q: How do I give Chrome camera permission for Google Meet?

Two layers: macOS must allow Chrome to use the camera (System Settings, Privacy & Security, Camera), and Chrome must allow meet.google.com (click the icon left of the address bar and set Camera to Allow). Then reload the tab, or quit and reopen Chrome if the camera still does not appear.

Q: Why does my iPhone keep taking over as the Mac camera?

That is Continuity Camera. Meeting apps often auto-select the iPhone when it is nearby, awake, and on the same Apple ID. Pick your built-in camera in the app's camera list, or turn Continuity Camera off on the iPhone under Settings, General, AirPlay & Continuity.

A Mac camera that shows a black screen, says "no camera connected", or simply is not in the list comes down to a short list of causes, and two of them cover most cases: another app is holding the camera, or the meeting app lost its permission. Work through the fixes below in order, they go from most to least likely. Each one takes under a minute.

1Free the camera

2Check permissions

3Restart the app fully

4Pick the right camera

The order that solves most Mac camera problems in a couple of minutes.

Fix 1: Free the camera from other apps

A Mac camera serves one consumer at a time in many setups, and a backgrounded app can keep holding it. If the green light is on before your meeting starts, something already has the camera.

Quit every other app that can use video: the other meeting apps, FaceTime, Photo Booth, browser tabs sitting on a call page, screen recorders.
Quit means Cmd+Q, not closing the window. Several meeting apps keep running in the background.
Then reopen your meeting app and test.

Fix 2: Check macOS camera permission

Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Camera and make sure your meeting app, or your browser for Meet, is toggled on. If you flip it, quit and reopen the app, the permission is only read at launch. If an app never appears in this list, it has never even asked, which usually means a full restart of the app or a reinstall.

One more permission layer people forget: Screen Time. Under Content & Privacy, the camera can be disabled system-wide. Rare, but it explains the desperate cases where nothing else does.

Fix 3: Fully restart the meeting app

Apps scan the camera list when they launch, not continuously. Quit the app completely and reopen it. For browser calls, quit the whole browser, a tab reload is often not enough. This single step, combined with fix 1, resolves the majority of "camera worked yesterday" reports.

Fix 4: Pick the right camera, your iPhone may have hijacked it

Since Continuity Camera, a nearby iPhone can auto-select itself as your Mac's camera. The symptom: a black screen if the phone is face down or asleep, or a feed of your desk. In your app's camera list, deliberately pick the camera you want:

Zoom: Settings → Video → Camera.
Google Meet: the gear inside the call, or the camera icon in Chrome's address bar for the site permission.
Microsoft Teams: Settings → Devices → Camera.
FaceTime: the Video menu in the menu bar.

If the iPhone keeps electing itself, turn the feature off on the phone under Settings → General → AirPlay & Continuity → Continuity Camera.

Fix 5: Browser calls have a second permission layer

Meet, and Teams or Zoom in a browser, need two yeses: macOS allowing the browser, and the browser allowing the site. In Chrome, click the icon to the left of the address bar on the call page and set Camera to Allow, then reload. In Safari, the same lives under Safari → Settings for This Website. If the camera list in the page is empty or generic, quit and reopen the browser so it rescans.

Fix 6: Restart and update

A reboot clears wedged camera states more often than it should, and it is faster than any deeper surgery. After that, update the meeting app and macOS. Camera bugs cluster right after OS updates, and the fixes ship in the point releases that follow.

Fix 7: Separate hardware from software with FaceTime

Open FaceTime. If the camera works there, the hardware and macOS are fine, and your problem lives in one app's settings or permissions, go back to fixes 2 through 5 for that app. If even FaceTime shows nothing after a reboot, it is time for Apple Support, that pattern points at hardware.

Select camera

FaceTime HD Camera
iPhone Camera
CamLoop

Deliberately picking the camera beats letting the app guess

Half of "camera not working" is the app pointing at a camera you did not mean.

FAQ

Why does my Mac say there is no camera connected? Usually another app is holding the camera, or the app never got permission. Quit other video apps, check System Settings → Privacy & Security → Camera, restart the app. If FaceTime cannot see it either, reboot first.

Why is my camera a black screen in Zoom but fine in FaceTime? Hardware is fine, so it is app-level: another app holds the camera, Zoom lost permission, or Zoom points at the wrong device, often the iPhone. Check Zoom's camera dropdown first.

How do I give Chrome camera permission for Google Meet? Two layers: macOS allows Chrome (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Camera), and Chrome allows meet.google.com (icon left of the address bar). Then reload, or restart Chrome.

Why does my iPhone keep taking over as the Mac camera? Continuity Camera auto-selects a nearby iPhone. Pick your built-in camera in the app, or turn the feature off on the phone under Settings → General → AirPlay & Continuity.

If your real cameras all work and it is a virtual camera that is missing, that is a different fix list: the virtual-camera-not-showing guide covers extension approval and the rest. And once everything works, looping your webcam is the graceful way to step away from a call without going dark.