MacOS Tahoe’s FaceTime won’t connect to Mac mini’s 3rd party webcam

In case this helps anyone with this Facetime bug, I did testing with my friend on his mac mini and external webcam. His camera does not work in Facetime, it displays as just a black screen for me though he can see his own camera preview.

The moment he ALSO opens Photo Booth, his camera appears for me and everything works. He can close Photo Booth then and the camera in Facetime keeps working, though once it did revert back to not working, though that time it said "connection unstable". He reopened Photo Booth and instantly everything worked again.

I’ve too have been experiencing significant issues with external cameras on my 2024 Mac Mini running MacOS 26. My Logitech webcam appears very jittery, and when I connect my DJI Osmo Pocket 3 as a webcam, it’s not recognized by any other programs except Safari and Zoom. Other applications don’t detect it until I after I open Photo Booth, which seems to match what others have reported. I hope Apple is able to look into this and release a patch for macOS 26 to improve compatibility and resolve these problems.

It certainly looks like it is an issue specifically with FaceTime on MacOS26 Tahoe and external cameras.

I'm trying to help a friend in France with the same sort of problem. He has a Mac Mini M2 and a Dell S2422HZ monitor which worked fine with FaceTime before the macOS 26 Tahoe update. He is currently up to date with macOS 26.0.1.

When he calls on FaceTime, he correctly sees the thumbnail of himself in the corner of the FaceTime window and he sees the recipient's image as normal but the recipient of the call sees only a logo with his initials like you see in Contacts.

In the Video menu in FaceTime, the Dell monitor is not listed.

Sound is normal in both directions. PhotoBooth, etc., works as expected. The wiring between the MacMini and the Dell monitor has not been changed.

Any thoughts or suggestions much appreciated.

John

I have MacMini M4, since the update of OSX26.01, when I facetime someone the person cannot see me, it says "Connection instable" (Instable connection). I am home withe wired connection. Even if I try with someone on my network same issue. I tried my macbookpro on Sequoia and it works like a charm. I am on the same network.

Seems to have issues with Tahoe.......

I rebooted, both Mac, router, etc.... Always the issue with Tahoe.....

Since updating to Tahoe my 3rd party camera isn't working. Works when I open Photobooth. But when I open facetime (while photobooth is open) everything freezes. I've done all the things... nothing.

It’s probably due to wires. Double check to see if something is in the wrong spot, or to see if your device is supported.

Having exactly the same issue on my 2023 Mac mini, glad I’m not going mad! It’s not just FaceTime though I can’t use my camera on google meet or teams either so clearly a bug somewhere. Here’s hoping it gets fixed asap

I'm having a similar problem with a different configuration. FaceTime connects to my OBSBot no problem and works as expected, but when it connects to my iPhone 14 (wireless) I get no video whatsoever. I get the connection sound, I get the confirmation on my iPhone that it's connected to my Mac, but no video is displayed.

iPhone 14 Pro: iOS 26.0

2022 Mac Studio: Tahoe 26.0

In my case, my Mac Mini 2 (Tahoe 26.0.1) is connected and displaying to my 2 x 27" Thunderbolt displays, but is not connecting either of their internal webcams in Teams or FaceTime.

System Report doesn't list them either - it's like they've disappeared.

It is definitely not a connection issue – nothing physical had been changed with the connections between the Dell screen and the Mac Mini in the situation I am investigating with a friend in France. The problem only started after he updated to macOS26 Tahoe.

John

[Edited by Moderator]

I have a Logitech C920 webcam. It works with Photo Booth but only has a black screen and no audio in FaceTime on a Mac Mini M2.

For me also same issue with the third party webcam on Mac Min. Kindly provide the fix as soon as possible

Same issue. After updating my M2 Mac Mini to macOS Tahoe, my Kensington W1050 Webcam no longer works in FaceTime. Photo Booth works fine.