Why isnt my webcam working on a Mac?

Firstly, make sure your mac’s operating system is up to date. You can check for any software updates by going to System Preferences > Software.

If your Operating System is all up to date, and your webcam is still not working, this may mean that you’ve not allowed webcam access on the browser you’re using for your lesson. To enable the webcam, you can go to Apple menu > System Preferences, click Security & Privacy, then Privacy.

Select Camera, then select the checkbox next to your browser(s) to allow them to access your camera.

If you’re still not able to connect your webcam, we’d recommend switching to an alternative browser, once again ensuring that the browser permissions are set to allow the webcam access.

Still having trouble? There may be third party security software on your  machine which is blocking this - be sure to check for any such software or firewalls which automatically block your webcam within the browser.

If it looks as though your webcam security is configured correctly, but you’re only seeing a black screen where your webcam image should be, there may be an issue with the camera itself. You can check this by opening an app like Photo Booth on your machine - if you can’t see yourself, this suggests that the fault lies with the camera itself.

We always recommend following these steps to make sure you’re getting the most out of your tutorials when they’re happening and to improve the quality of your lesson recordings. This also helps us maintain the highest levels of safeguarding on the site, which is really important to us.

If you're still having trouble, please reach out to our support team on livechat or book in a quick tech support session with our tech team here.