Built-in iSight Activates (green light) regularly -- I'm not using it!

Can anyone tell me how to determine what is accessing my built-in iSight camera? The green indicator light flashes on for about 4 sec every 10 minutes. I am not running anything that should be using it, no browser-based webapp chat, etc.

Jonathan_mm82 wrote:
Can anyone tell me how to determine what is accessing my built-in iSight camera? The green indicator light flashes on for about 4 sec every 10 minutes. I am not running anything that should be using it, no browser-based webapp chat, etc.
Your 4 second "flash" is probably nothing more than your Mac's OS polling the USB bus to monitor these services.
In addition to the good things you have already considered, you can check for:
• System Preferences.... > Accounts > Login Items,
• camera-capable widgets, and
• camera-capable applications open in the Dock.
If you have verified the above and have not installed, activated, and authorized Apple Remote Desktop or some other software specifically designed to allow remote operation of your Mac, you can be confident that your webcam is not being used without your permission.
If you want to try more, consider the reset suggested in http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2090 to see if that might stop the "flash". You might also want to test another user account to see if the problem is user account specific.
EZ Jim
Mac Pro Quad Core (Early 2009) 2.93Ghz w/Mac OS X (10.6.2) MacBook Pro (13 inch, Mid 2009) 2.26GHz (10.6.2)
LED Cinema Display G4 PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11) iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9) External iSight

Similar Messages

Isight camera green light blink

My isight camera green light blinks every two seconds, when I try to use facetime or any other application of isight. And of course, the camera is not working.
I'm using a Macbook Pro, just bought it a month ago.
Does anyone have the same problem or have a way to solve this annoying issue?

Xiunei wrote:...Macbook Pro, just bought it a month ago.
Does anyone ... have a way to solve this annoying issue?
Yes. Your retailer does. He can either: (1) determine whether your new Mac needs repair or replacement, or (2) show you how to make your camera work correctly.

ISight camera green light keeps blinking.

using a macbook pro with retina display.
The green light keeps blinking when not in use.
The camera is still able to function.

If you are concerned about the blinking although your camera works, contact Apple Support or an Apple Authorized Service Provider for service.
Message was edited by: EZ Jim
Mac OSX 10.10.1

After upgrading to Lion, my Macbook Air's built in iSight camera has disappeared. I'm not sure how to get it recognized again.

After upgrading to Lion, my Macbook Air's built in iSight camera has disappeared. I'm not sure how to get it recognized again. Help -Sami

Well, if you did then you may be able to track it, if you did not it's not possible.

HT3275 The Green light is on my time capsule the air port also has a green light but it will not back up all i get is the following message.The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/iMac-D49A20D0AE94.sparsebundle" is already in use.

The Green Light is on, on my time capsule and airport but it will not back up all i get is the following message below please help.
The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/iMac-D49A20D0AE94.sparsebundle” is already in use.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
First, restart your iMac and your Time Capsule. In most of the cases, this should solve the problem.
If it doesn't work, read > http://pondini.org/TM/C12.html

2011 Macbook Pro 13, green light on magsafe, but not charging, not powering on

Hi there, I have a Macbook Pro 13 early 2011 i5, and it's stoped working, when it's on the charger the green light comes on, when i pres battery indicator on the side of mbp there is only one green light flashing. when i press power button nothing hapends, mbp wont turn on, i have tried to do the reset, did not helped. Maby someone had, the same problem and knows how to fix it, or knows if its completle dead, and not worth to fix. Thanks

Take the machine to an Apple Store or an AASP and have them run diagnostics on it. They will give you a quote on how much it would cost to fix your machine. Then you can decide if it's worth repairing or if its just time to replace it.
I'm assuming that you didn't buy the extended AppleCare warranty? Too bad - if you had the machine would likely be repaired free of charge...
Clinton

AX green light, but airtune does not work

I just bought an AX. The main purpose is to use airtune and to share printer at home, and to bring it to create wireless network when I am on business trip.
When I first set up the AX, or later do a reset, the setup program can find AX. I use airport admin utility to set up the following:
Airport tab:
Wireless model: join an existing wireless network (wireless client)
Wireless network: I choose the current wireless network I have at home.
Internet tab:
Configure: Using DHCP
I clicked 'Update' button. The status light became green, but airtune does not work. I did not see the button show on iTune for me to choose the speaker. I went back to Airport Admin Utility, but could not find AX at all.
I googled for possible solution, and saw concern regarding DHCP, so I tried:
Internet tab:
Configure: Manually
IP address: 192.168.0.30. My wireless router assigns IP from 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.33
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Router address: 192.168.0.1
DNS server: 192.168.0.1
After updating the information to AX, I have still the same issue: green light, but no airtune, Airport Admin Utility cannot find the AX.
My wireless is a gigabyte. Please help. Thanks.
Message was edited by: sfmech

Sadly I can't help, but i can confirm: I am having the same problem. AirTunes was working fine, up until I went away for a month -- have just returned, and now am getting the same problem with TWO Airport Express units, which makes me think it is some kind of software update issue?
Will keep looking into it, and will let you know if I find anything.

Time Capsule has green light, but I can not connect to the internet. Help please

Just got a new Time Capsule. After a few tries, I finally got the green light. But I now can not conect to the internet. Help please.

Problem Solved.....call ATT and they gave me the information I needed....account is a PPPoE. Use your ATT email address as the username, and then ATT provided the network password. Enter the information, update, restart. Now, internet access is achieved.

Help!!! My macbook pro is not charging. Flat wont switch on green light on charger but not charging. What can I do???

Hi my macbook pro will not switch on, charger is green led light not orange. It will not charge back up been switched on all day and still nothing. What can I do???

Perform a SMC reset
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Power
The battery does not appear to be charging properly.
The MagSafe power adaptor LED doesn't appear to indicate the correct activity.
Also see this
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS1713

Built in iSight always on

My built in iSight's green light is always turned on, even when sleeping. Sometimes it will turn off, but not often. It started doing this recently, maybe after I installed Parallels but couldn't say for sure. I tried an iChat video chat one day and I got an error message that I can't start a chat because the camera was in use by another application, but I couldn't see any application running that might be using it. Any advice?

Now, I haven't used Parallels, only VMware Fusion, but it should practically be the same;
Start up your virtual OS in Parallels. Then, through the Parallels menu, there should be an option to attach/deattach USB devices and such. Deattach the iSight, and shut down the OS.
Hope this short and concise answer helps!

External iSight Powers Up (Gets Green Light) Then Stops

I have one of the first iSights I can confirm worked up until two years ago. At that point I unplugged it and never plugged it back in. It stayed mounted on the computer. Today, I decided to re-plug it back in but I can't get it to stay on. I've followed all the step in the troubleshooting guide (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2090) and I've even plugged it into three other Macs. Same results:
The device turns one
Green light comes on
Then there's a quick noise
Green light goes off
Device is not recognized by the machine.
Is it simply old and unusable now?

Jonathan Healey wrote:
... I can't get it to stay on.
Green light comes on
Then there's a quick noise
Green light goes off
Do not be concerned that the little green indicator light atop your iSight illuminates for a few seconds and then goes dark when you first connect your iSight or power on your Mac. Neither should you be concerned that you hear a soft whir as iSight attempt to focus either. Both these occurrences are normal.
On its own, the fact that the green light goes out will NOT prevent your iSight's proper function with applications that can use your iSight. (Test with only one app at a time.)
Note that iSight can be picky about sharing your Mac's Firewire, so be sure you have NO other Firewire devices connected while you are trying to get iSight working. Also disconnect any other A/V devices you might have such as game boxes, TV, audio, or video converters, etc., while you are troubleshooting iSight.
... followed all the step in the troubleshooting ... plugged it into three other Macs.
... Device is not recognized by the machine.
You have done some great troubleshooting. Failures on other Macs is particularly informative.
If you have considered all of the suggestions I offer for testing your external iSight in
http://www.ralphjohns.co.uk/EZJim/EZJimpage4.html but your external iSight is still not recognized as a Firewire device in System Profiler, you almost certainly have hardware trouble. However, your problem may be repairable.
Is it simply old and unusable now?
An Apple Authorized Service Provider may be able to repair your iSight. Some local, phone, web, and third party repair possibilities are identified here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9530142&#9530142
If you need or want to use a different camera, some alternatives are discussed in Ralph's user tip:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2018211
EZ Jim
G5 DP 1.8GHz w/Mac OS X (10.5.8) PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11) iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9) External iSight

Built-in iSight - how do you know for sure it is off?

I have a new iMac with built-in iSight. I have been checking into security software for my iMac and came across the program called Undercover by Orbicule. One of the functions of that program is that is utilizes the built-in iSight camera to take pictures of the room/person who potentially stole your computer. So that caused me to wonder how do I know for sure my built-in iSight camera is turned off and not accessible by some program outside of my control? I know the green light comes on if I use it in iMovie or something like that, but how do I know it isn't being hacked and used without my knowledge?

Black electrical tape.

Built-in iSight not working-black screen with every application

I have a MacBook laptop version 10.6.2 and just recently my built-in isight stopped working. i've had this laptop for about 2 years now and there have never been problems with the isight. i downloaded skype because i tried using ichat and my friends computer wouldn't video chat when i used ichat, but when i used skype it worked. so i've been using skype for about a month now... and just recently, i'd say like 2 weeks ago i went to use skype and the screen was completely black. the sound works, my friend said she could hear me she just couldn't see me. so i went into photo booth to see if the camera worked with that, and its a black screen on that app too! and when i take a picture it counts down like it normally would, but it doesn't even produce a picture, just a blank in the line of pictures at the bottom.. i also went into ichat and it has the same thing-black screen. i think the computer detects the camera, because it never said that it didn't... just the screen is always black.
just some other info.... when i go to use an application that uses isight, the green light on the right side of the camera lights up.. nothing else really happens though.
any information or diagnostic would be most appreciated!! thank you!

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2090
my isight camera is not working-not recognized with photo booth or ichat

Once upon a time, I shun down the camera(built-in isight) on my Imac, now I don't know how to restart the camera.

I can see the built-in iSight at the device manager, and its property is "normal". But how can I get it work again?

From apple help:
Using your Mac’s built-in camera
If your Mac computer or display has a built-in iSight, FaceTime, or FaceTime HD camera, you can use it to take pictures or videos with the Photo Booth application, create movies with iMovie, or video chat with your friends and family over the Internet.
The microphone (see A above) transmits and records sound. The location of the microphone may vary depending upon your computer model. The camera (see B above) takes pictures in Photo Booth or captures video in iChat or iMovie. The indicator light (see C above) glows when the camera is on.
To turn off the camera, close the active application window. The green indicator light turns off, showing that the camera is off and video has stopped.
So open the application you want to use the camera with. The program will control the camera. TRY: Open PhotoBooth. Click the red button. Watch for the green light next to the lens (C above)

Built In iSight camera has stopped working on 27 inch iMac and 27 inch LED.

The camera's on my 27 inch i7 imac and 27 inch cinema display all of a sudden just stopped working. I checked in the system profiler, and both show that
they are connected. When I try video chat in iChat the green light comes on and connects like it's a one way video chat... when I try and switch to the display monitor's iSight the green light switches to the other monitor, but the camera is still black... I tried this with Facetime, Skype, and Photobooth, all nothing... Any insght into this would be great. I'm thinking that it could be an internal hardware problem with the machine... Logic or Motherboard....
Any info would be helpful
thank you
F

Built-in iSight cameras
These steps are for iSight cameras that are built into a computer, such as the iMac G5 (iSight) or later, the MacBook, or MacBook Pro.
See if the issue is application-specific.
Try another application (iSight works with applications like iChat, PhotoBooth, and iMovie HD 6) to see if the iSight camera exhibits the same behavior in all applications. If it only happens in one application, try reinstalling that application.
See if the issue is user-specific.
Test your iSight camera in another user account. If the issue only occurs in one user, the issue would be isolated to user settings.
Find out if the computer recognizes the iSight
Check System Profiler (in the Utilities folder, inside the Applications folder). Under the USB header, check to see if the iSight camera is detected.
Reset SMC or PMU
Reset your computer's SMC or PMU, and then check System Profiler again. (SMC reset instructions for iMac G5 (iSight), Intel-based iMacs; PMU reset instructions for MacBook and MacBook Pro.)
source: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2090

Built-in iSight Activates (green light) regularly -- I'm not using it!

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for