Tip Details Add a Related Tip

Rate as: Positive Negative

iChat camera in use error

If you get an error when using iChat, or any other application, about the iSight camera being in use already, here's a quick hack to repair the problem.

Open a terminal window and enter the following:

sudo killall VDCAssistant

then hit the Enter key. You'll be asked to confirm your password. Doing this will kill the process that is keeping the camera from being used. The process will start itself, and it'll then be well behaved, at least for a while. This is not a long-term fix for the problem, you may still get these errors. But when you get the error, you can repeat this command and the iSight camera will then be available for use again.
Rating: no ratings, 0 total Votes
Categories: Mac iChat errors repair iSight
Added: on Aug 11, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Added By: an anonymous user

Comments on this Tip

Add a Comment
There are no comments for this tip
Your Comment:
(how to format)
Rate This Tip:

Verify Humanity:
Sorry, we know it's annoying, but please enter the characters shown in the image to the left so that we know you're an actual person and not an evil spammer. Thanks.
       

Related Tips

Fix /home directory after installing Leopard

Categories: Leopard repair Mac
88% positive, 4 comments - last added on Apr 10, 2008 at 2:12 pm
– Tip added by Marcos84 on Nov 04, 2007 at 8:07 pm

Fixing the scroll wheel on the Mighty Mouse

100% positive, 1 comment - last added on Oct 20, 2008 at 4:00 pm
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Apr 22, 2008 at 8:16 am

Using Google Talk in iChat

Categories: iChat Mac Google Talk
100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Mar 19, 2008 at 8:07 am

Fixing Mac mail search

Categories: Mac mail search repair
100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Sep 03, 2008 at 4:05 pm

Keep Parallels from hanging

Categories: Mac parallels crash errors
100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Aug 26, 2008 at 2:08 pm

Fixing Spotlight

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Aug 19, 2008 at 12:28 pm

Stuck CD/DVD on the Mac

Categories: Mac repair CDs DVDs drives
100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Jul 29, 2008 at 6:43 am

BOOTMGR is missing

Categories: Windows Vista errors repair
100% positive, 2 comments - last added on Mar 12, 2008 at 1:16 am
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Feb 12, 2008 at 11:38 am

Troubleshooting intermittent problems on the Mac

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by matesh on Feb 03, 2008 at 9:19 am

iChat and Photobooth effects

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Nov 16, 2007 at 9:37 pm

add iChat and Photobooth effects

no ratings, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Oct 10, 2008 at 4:39 pm

iTunes 5002 error when updating

Categories: iPhone Mac iTunes repair
no ratings, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Sep 25, 2008 at 2:47 pm

iPod Nano on desktop but not in iTunes

Categories: Mac iPod repair
no ratings, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Jun 19, 2008 at 8:47 am

Be invisible on iChat

no ratings, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Jun 03, 2008 at 8:28 am

Running X11 programs from the terminal

no ratings, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Jan 28, 2008 at 8:04 am

Wii error codes 32002 and 52030

no ratings, 2 comments - last added on Sep 07, 2008 at 8:00 am
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Jan 18, 2008 at 8:14 am

uTorrent finally available for the Mac

Categories: Mac uTorrent p2p
100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user 3 hours, 9 minutes ago

Duplicate birthdays in iCal

Categories: iCal Mac Leopard
100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user 2 days, 2 hours ago

Mac discontinuous text selections in Firefox

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user 4 days, 1 hour ago

Record voice notes on your Mac

no ratings, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user 1 day, 2 hours ago