Windows 10 Camera Problems

Hey Dan,

I'm sorry to see that you've crossed an issue with the Camera app. I can't come up with a definitive solution at the moment, but I am willing to go through a few troubleshooting steps and see if any change comes of it.

Go into Device Manager and uninstall the driver. When you're uninstalling the driver, do not delete the device software, keep that checkmark, if prompted, unticked.

Now go to your Privacy settings and back to your Camera settings. Disable "Allow apps to access your camera".

Now, click Home on the top left. Go into Apps. Scroll down until you see Camera. It should expand, click Advanced options. Scroll down until you see the Reset header. Go ahead and click Reset.

After the reset process, go ahead and reboot. Once Windows is logged in, it might reinstall the camera drivers.

If you still don't see the webcam driver installed in Device Manager, click the computer with the magnifying glass on the top of the toolbar to look for hardware changes.

If it confirms that it reinstalled the driver, or if you see the driver installed in Device Manager, go ahead and open Camera. If it's still prompting permission, go ahead and reenable "Allow apps to access your camera". Back to Home and the Apps menu item, then Advanced options for the Camera app. Be sure that the Camera permission is set on, and rerun the Camera app.

Let me know how it goes Dan, good luck.

Ethan,

Thanks for the quick reply. I followed your instructions but unfortunately the camera app still doesn't recognize the camera permissions. I did notice that uninstalling the USB camera device caused an error when the camera app is run (device not found). This proves the camera app is looking for the USB camera device. This seems suspicious since the camera is built-in to the display and is not a USB device at all. Upon reboot, the driver reinstalled automatically and the error condition reverted to privacy settings. The driver file is usbvideo.sys dated 4/11/2018. Since my update history has been deleted, I can't tell which update this refers to but the last time the camera worked was prior to this date.

Thanks, Dan

Dan,

Thanks for letting me know. Another thing I could have you do is reinstall Camera.

Right-click the Start button, then click on Windows PowerShell (Admin).

Copy the following, and paste by right-clicking: get-appxpackage *camera* | remove-appxpackage

Now head over to the Microsoft Store and look for Windows Camera, then reinstall it.

Keep me posted.

Hi,

Is there a solution to his problem? I'm facing exactly the same issue here. I'm using DELL Inspiron 13 7353 2-in-1 laptop. The OS is Windows 10 Home version 1803 with build 17134.48.

I tried both the above said options but no luck to me! There was an interview scheduled for me and when I opened camera app to test, it's all blank. I can't see my video. I didn't notice it till then.

Microsoft has to fix this or at the least provide steps to fix it temporarily. It's the basic utility and we can't take video calls etc. 

And Please let me know if you need any further details.

Thanks

Naveen K Reddy

Hi

Same problem. Tried both options and still "We need your permission".

I have an ASUS X205TA notebook running Windows 10 Home version 1803 OS build 17134.1 32-bit OS. Upon launching Camera app the camera display is blocked with message "We need your permission"... with launch button for camera settings. The problem is the camera privacy settings are already enabled:

Camera access for this device is ON

Allow Apps to access your camera ON

Camera App ON

Photos App ON

I cannot get the camera App window to display camera image.

More Info:

In Device Manager I see no driver listed under either "Imaging devices" or "Sound, video, and game controllers". I see a driver under "Camera" for USB Camera indicating the device is working properly. The driver is Microsoft v 10.0.17134.1. However, this appears to be a USB camera driver but my camera is a built in notebook camera and not a USB device.

I had been able to operate the camera device successfully with the Camera App as recently as 3/4/1018 prior to the most recent Windows Cumulative Update but was already broken before the Windows Feature Update to 1803 available now. The installation of Feature update to Windows 10, version 1803 on 5/4/2018 wiped out my update history so I am no longer able to determine which update caused the camera feature to break.

Any help resolving this issue is extremely appreciated. Thanks!

Had the same problem. The trick is to also give permissions for Camera to access the Microphone. Camera app will only work if both Camera and Microphone permissions are granted.

The best advice I can give at this time is to do a factory reset according to your manufacturer's instructions. This will reset your notebook to original factory settings which may resolve the problem. The procedure may vary by make and model of your notebook. Also, it may wipe out any data or installed programs not part of original configuration. Contact the manufacturer for details before you try this. You may also need to reinstall the manufacturer's device driver or chip set firmware. Again, contact the manufacturer for more information including detail instructions and risks involved.

I believe this to be an issue with a Windows 10 cumulative update but I can't prove it.

By all means, post your results for everyone to view. I also have a Reddit posted for the same issue. The more views and comments, the higher the score and visibility it will receive. I am hoping eventually a Microsoft customer support engineer will weigh in.

Good luck!

Thanks for the response. As it turns out YOUR RIGHT!

In my case, the microphone had not been enabled for any apps even though it had been enabled for the camera app. I know I hadn't changed this setting so there must have been a policy update in one of the recent Windows 10 updates. Personally I think it is a bad one.

Anyone who is having this problem, before attempting my previous instructions, please attempt the following:

Open settings application.

Go to Settings -> Privacy page and scroll down to Microphone

Set "Allow apps to access your microphone"  to ON

Under "Choose which apps can access your microphone" Set Camera to ON

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the comment. I have tried the factory reset which formatted and reinstalled the OS and chipset drivers freshly. The first thing I did after that is opening the camera app with no luck!

Post from factory reset, I tried below.

1. Reinstalling camera app from store
2. Resetting the camera to its defaults
3. Reinstalled the integrated hd webcam drivers which Windows did automatically after I uninstalled it

Also, microphone access is enabled and  it has access to camera too. 

I'm not sure where it is going wrong but I'm completely stuck here with no idea on what to do next. :(