Today almost all laptops and mobiles come with a built-in camera, HD or UHD. In the current work-from-home culture, it comes especially in handy. Virtual meetings and video calls require cameras. Many people relied on video calls to stay connected to friends and family away from home in lockdowns.
During the pandemic, all activities turned digital, like online games, escape rooms, etc., which again required a good camera for video conferencing. Without a built-in camera, one would have to purchase it separately for video calls or conferences. Apple is known to have great camera quality, and the MacBook also has a good camera.
So one would wonder why one would want to Disable Camera on Mac such a useful application.
Reasons to Disable Camera on Mac:
- Privacy – There have been many privacy breaches and raising concerns with regard to built-in cameras. Some individuals might want a bit of privacy and maintain it, especially when at their house. At these moments, they might not want their cameras switched on.
- Comfort – Again, everybody has their own comfort level, people might not want to reveal themselves to everyone, and they could be shy or simply not comfortable enough. The level of comfort varies from person to person or depends on what the video conference is about.
- Space and Battery Consumption – keeping the camera on all the time requires a lot of battery. It will drain your battery, and hence shutting it off for some time will help in conserving the battery of your MacBook. Further, it could also eat into your MacBook space with many pictures and videos getting added to it.
- Cyberattacks – the growing concern with built-in cameras has led to the conclusion they might not be particularly secure. Taping the built-in cameras on your MacBook is one solution to this problem, and it is cheap and will keep cyberattacks at bay.
Some efficient ways to turn off or disable the built-in cameras of your MacBook have been listed below:
Switch the Application of.
The simplest method is to turn off the camera application itself, and all you need to do is go to the application and close it. The green light next to the built-in camera will stop, which signifies it’s turned off if the green light persists, press Command q, which will effectively shut down any application.
Through Security and Privacy Settings.
For this, go to your system preferences select system settings from the menu next to select Security and Privacy. Another menu will open, go to the camera and deselect all the privileges given, and it will deny any access to the camera for the Mac.
Taping or using stickers
The cheapest way to block your camera is using tape or a sticker. It must be opaque and not transparent. This effectively stops your camera without any technical expertise required, and it can easily be undone by removing the tape when the camera is needed.
Disabling the Hardware
Hardware disabling is a great way to turn your camera completely off or shut it down temporarily. Your camera won’t function unless this process is reversed manually, and thus it is not recommended unless and until you know what you are doing.
You have to be a bit more careful about this process since you could easily cause some kind of malfunction.
Step 1
First, create a backup file using the terminal.
Step 2
Now open the terminal console on your mac and type this command
“mkdir /System/Library/QuickTime/ .iSightBackup”.
Step3
Next type the following command as it is “sudo mv /System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeUSBVDCDigitizer.component”
Step 4
You need to type another command “sudo mv /System/Library/QuickTime/ .SightBackup/”.
Step 5
Now reboot your MacBook.
Step 6 (to enable it)
Search and put the file named as QuickTimeUSBVDCDIgitizer.component in the directory “/system/library/QuickTime”
Step 7
Reboot your Mac
Conclusion
iSight camera for the macOS is one of the default hardware and software that is used by Apple in their computers (Macbooks). As one of the most integral and important components of the MacBook, it offers a lot of features and is present in almost all the models (except the Mini Mac). With these four methods, you shall be able to disable your camera on your Mac easily
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