As it turns out, using a webcam at this age has become important as more work depends on your computer. There are quite a few reasons due to which the webcam that you have may not be working, some of which we slightly touched on above. However, to give you a better brief of the issue at hand, let us first go through the different causes of the problem before jumping into the various solutions that you can use to circumvent the issue for yourself. With that said, let us get started without any further delay. Privacy Settings — One of the reasons that the problem may occur is when some applications on your system are not allowed access to your camera. Thus, if you are encountering the issue while trying to use the webcam on a browser or any other app, this could very likely be the cause behind it. Third-Party Antivirus — Another possible reason for the issue at hand is the third-party antivirus program that you have installed on your system. This can happen when the security program is blocking the camera due to which it does not work. Camera Drivers — As it turns out, in case you are missing the drivers required for your webcam or the drivers installed are damaged, the device will fail to work. If this case is applicable, you will have to either update your drivers or simply reinstall them.Corrupted Camera App — Finally, the Camera app on your Windows machine can also cause the issue when the app itself is facing some problems. In such a scenario, you can easily reset and repair the app to get the issue resolved. Now that we have gone through the possible list of causes of the issue, let us get started with the different methods that you can use to fix the issue. Before you begin, make sure that you have tried the basic troubleshooting i.e. checked your camera for any switches as well as unplugged and plugged the camera back in. If you have done that, go ahead and start with the methods down below.
Run Camera Troubleshooter
The first thing that you should do when you encounter the problem in question is to run the Windows Camera troubleshooter. As it turns out, Windows comes with a bunch of built-in troubleshooters that you can use to diagnose certain issues with your system. To run the troubleshooter, follow the instructions that are given down below:
Allow Camera Access
As we have mentioned, one of the reasons that the problem may occur is when the apps that you are trying to use your webcam on do not have access to do so. This happens when you have not allowed camera permissions to other apps in the privacy settings of your Windows machine. In such a case, you can resolve the issue pretty easily by changing the privacy settings. To do so, follow the instructions below:
Disable Third-Party Antivirus
As it turns out, security programs are pretty common and as such, they are widely used for security purposes. While the programs do a job at that, there are various scenarios where they can cause issues with your system by preventing access or blocking certain apps. If you have a third-party antivirus installed, the security program might likely be blocking the camera app due to which the webcam does not work. If this case is applicable, you will have to disable the third-party antivirus program on your computer and then see if the problem persists. Windows Defender has gotten good over the years and we would even recommend simply relying on the built-in defender instead of going for a third-party option.
Reinstall Camera Drivers
Another reason that your webcam may not work is when it is missing the drivers required on your system. In addition to that, corrupted or damaged drivers are no good either and as such, you will have to reinstall them to fix the issue. Device drivers are really important as they are used by the operating system to communicate with the devices installed on your motherboard. In this case, we would recommend uninstalling the generic drivers that are installed by Windows automatically and then download the specific drivers for your webcam from your manufacturer’s website. If you have a built-in webcam, you can check the drivers page on your manufacturer’s website and see if there are any drivers listed. In case there aren’t, you can simply reinstall the generic drivers. Follow the instructions given down below to do this:
Reset and Repair Camera App
Finally, if none of the methods above have fixed the problem for you, then it is very likely that the problem is being caused by the Camera app that comes with Windows. This can happen when the app is running into some issues which can be due to the cache or the app files themselves. In such a scenario, you can simply reset and repair the app from the Settings window to resolve the problem. To do this, follow the instructions down below:
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