A black screen is displayed when I activate my camera

[Christian1]

I have a particular problem. I used to participate in meetings on Zoom and I could display my video without having a personal zoom account. A few months ago, I opened a zoom account and created a meeting. By mistake, I checked the "Stop my video when joining a meeting" box in the camera settings. After that, when I activated my camera during a meeting, the camera was considered activated but only displayed a black screen. In Windows 10, in the camera privacy settings, my camera (an integrated webcam) was seen as currently being used by the Zoom app.The problem remained after of course unchecking "Stop my video when joining a meeting" in the camera settings, restarting the computer, downloading the latest version of Zoom, stopping my Zoom account. I have left the problem alone by joining Zoom meetings with a black screen as video while the video works using other applications like Teams.

Has anyone experienced the same problem? I would appreciate any help.

Christian

[ManvithVanga]

to make video not look black you have allow access to camera to zoom if not allowed it will look black if not it won't

[Christian1]

Hello, sorry for my late reply. In fact, the access to the camera is allowed to Zoom in the privacy settings of the camera. Even, the last access through Zoom is noted. When I attend a Zoom meeting, the camera is turned on as if it were working... but only a black screen is visible in the camera window.

[Ronsanders]

me too

[DebraFoxx]

How do you do that? How do you allow access to Zoom with an integrated webcam?

[Christian1]

Hello, sorry for my late reply. In fact, the access to the camera is allowed to Zoom in the privacy settings of the camera. Even, the last access through Zoom is noted. When I attend a Zoom meeting, the camera is turned on as if it were working... but only a black screen is visible in the camera window.

[JessicaAnnel]

I have the same problem, everybody can see me, but I can only see a black screen for myself, and every other participant. The video camera is active. 

[yunsun]

My problem is my camera light on my laptop is turned on and video is too turned on (not muted) in Zoom and all I see is black screen on my part. I can see other people but they cannot see me. It is just black. 

[RenaGroot]

Have you resolved this issue?

[WRichter]

Same here iMac2020. Light is green video black. All other apps and browsers work as expected.

Gues we have to move on. I have the impression the native zoom client gets worse with every release. Crashes while screen-sharing are also very common. Not cool if you have 100 physicians only.

Guess we have to move on to something else.

[DrJD]

I have the same issue for the last 2 months at least. Used to work fine prior to that and I have not changed settings or added any apps/programs that could have a compatibility problem. My guess is that it's an incompatibility between the latest and even more degraded Zoom client and the the latest/next and more degraded Microsoft system updates that either company doesn't want to address given how few people complain about it. Not a problem with the phone app, which is why I think it is a Zoom/desktop operating system irreconcilable difference. 

[RenaGroot]

I think you are right. I upgraded my desktop and now the Zoom doesn't work. Not cool. Now what? Does anyone have any idea how to resolve this?

[HH57]

Help ! My video screen is black, fine yesterday. I have everything ticked. Presentation tomorrow!!

[Sherrin_Larson]

As of the last windows update, I believe, my laptop camera comes on but it shows a camera with a slash through it and no one else can see me. I've checked everything and done everything including looking for updates for drivers. I've uninstalled, reinstalled, restarted etc.

[Kburnett]

Try using F10 key

[Ronsanders]

I have spent hours on this same problem. I have downloaded new drivers, etc.  Can anyone give some guidance

[DebraFoxx]

I am having the same problem now. I am stumped as to what to do at this point. 

[HenryG]

Sorry, I cannot help. But I will note that I have the same problem but only on one particular WiFi network.  The problem does not occur on my home network.  While on that network, the camera will work in other apps, but no longer works in Zoom. 

[RenaGroot]

The screen is black on my desktop but not on my laptop. I need the desktop for my Zoom meetings because I have to show course materials that are only on my desktop. Any idea why the screen is black? So weird. Also, it's not cool we can't contact anyone for help at Zoom.

[RenaGroot]

Have you figured it out? I have the same issue...

[Mark9]

The same issue over here. We are using a Fujitsu Lifebook U Series built in Video Camera (FJ Camera).
Video is black with Zoom Client Version 5.11.11, but Camera light is on.
Any other Client (Skype, Teams, GotoMeeting, WebEx) works as expected. Just a Zoom problem.

Workaround: Join the meeting via Webbrowser (Firefox).

[Meyyappan]

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@Christian1 wrote:

I have a particular problem. I used to participate in meetings on Zoom and I could display my video without having a personal zoom account. A few months ago, I opened a zoom account and created a meeting. By mistake, I checked the "Stop my video when joining a meeting" box in the camera settings. After that, when I activated my camera during a meeting, the camera was considered activated but only displayed a black screen. In Windows 10, in the camera privacy settings, my camera (an integrated webcam) was seen as currently being used by the Zoom app.The problem remained after of course unchecking "Stop my video when joining a meeting" in the camera settings, restarting the computer, downloading the latest version of Zoom, stopping my Zoom account. I have left the problem alone by joining Zoom meetings with a black screen as video while the video works using other applications like Teams.

Has anyone experienced the same problem? I would appreciate any help.

Christian

---

Hi christian I too had the same problem but when I checked antivirus permission, in my case k7 total security the webcam permission is denied. So I disabled it permanently and it worked 

[rahmati]

Same issue here. Logitech webcam on an Apple Mac Mini with M1 chip.

The camera light turns on. I can see myself in other applications, including Logitech's own LogiTune app, but Zoom shows my video as completely black.

Interestingly, uninstalling and reinstalling Zoom seems to resolve it for a short period, but then it fails again. 

[andyarkin]

i uninstalled and reinstalled on the same computer, Mac Mini and M1 chip. that didn't work even for a moment. 

[keith000]

I have got the same problem.

Problem was resolved after I switched off zoom virtual background since the one I was using no longer exists. 

[AMJimenez]

I don't use a virtual background and I have this issue.  Camera on...but black box showing in place of my video.

[jcaicedo]

I have the same problem, what works for me was, uninstalling zoom, then install zoom (32bits) , Then go to the antivirus , in my case is kaspersky, go to trusted apps. Add zoom as trusted app. Then reboot. And it work fine. 

[eilinskaya]

I've had the same issue and this helped, many thanks 🙂

[didan]

just stop your anti virus, especially kaspersky... just pause it, and try using your cam on zoom.

[nirotem]

For me it was Avast webcam shield - for some reason, Zoom was on its block list.

[HenryG]

My problem was that was only happenings on one particular WIFI network - I could not duplicate it at home or elsewhere. So i don't think it's the antivirus on my PC (and in any case, I don't have Avast or Kaspersky.)   

- The bad news is, it finally happened to me on a second Wifi network. Perhaps if I could get technical details on those two networks, I could see what they have in common that might be the cause, but the folks at each location were not eager to share information - perhaps they thought I would use it to hack their networks?

- However,. the good news is - if I join a meeting from my browser, it doesn't happen - the camera works as expected.

So still a mystery, but at least I have a workaround (that works for now...) 

[PeterBNY]

I had the same issue where the (integrated) camera was activated and its small light was on, but Zoom would only display a black screen where my image should have been. Others on the call could also not see me.

I use both Zoom and Teams for meetings, and my camera worked fine with Teams.

What seem to have solved the issue for me was quitting Teams altogether. I did this during a call where my video was not working. I turned the video off in the meeting, force-quit Teams, then turned Zoom video back on, and it miraculously worked.

Lots of issues with Teams these days, worth a try if you are having the above issue.

[jurynelson]

Not sure if this resonates, but I've been able to mitigate the problem by opening the PhotoBooth app on my Mac. 
So here's what happens: I open Zoom, my USB Webcam stops working. 
I open photobooth, it starts working again, even for zoom.
If I open PhotoBooth first, then open Zoom, it stops working.

Why is Zoom specifically shutting off my webcam?

[jurynelson]

Update: I went into "Video Settings" and checked the "HD" box. Totally cleared up the issue.