Video cant be started

[Arty86]

I have been seeing an error on multiples machine (Windows/Mac) completely up to date where you start zoom and the video starts (built-in webcam on laptop) but if you switch it to a different camera that you know works, it says video cannot be started, so if you switch it to yet another source it will still say video cannot be started but if you try to switch it back to the built-in webcam it will not longer work. you will need to end the meeting, quit the app and start again just to get it working again.

i have not seen this posted anywhere else

mind you these are plug and play Webcams, (no additional software or drivers needed) do work.

[pizzalover28]

Is your zoom up to date.

[Supulflounder]

I have the same problem.  And it only happens some times.  Last night I had a Zoom meeting, no camera problems.  Today I had a Zoom meeting, camera problems.  Two days ago I had a Skype meeting.  No camera problems.  I have only one WebCam, which Zoom can see exists, yet it can't start it.  It does not say why.  If it was "access denied" or "no such device" or whatever, this would be more informative than the meaningless statement "it doesn't work".  There is a reason it doesn't work, and it is an insult to the intelligence of the user to not reveal that reason, and an insult to also say, "Nyahh, nyahh, it doesn't work, and it's my secret and you have to guess the reason."  I've had programs come out and say, "Access denied; device is in use by <program>" so this information is clearly available.

[Arty86]

it is, still see the problem from time to time. OS is up to date as well

[QtrInchSeam]

I have the same problem.  Brand new PC, fairly new phone.  I've tried both and cannot get the video to work but I know they both work because I've used them for other things.  I've spent hours online with Dell and they say nothing is wrong with my computer--which I know is true.  I get the annoying message of "can't start video, try another camera".  BS!  My on-board camera works fine.  I have tried my Facebook login and my Google login on both devices and nothing works.  In 4 days, I haven't heard any options from the Zoom team on what to do.

Super frustrating.

[parveson]

I have had the "Failed to start video camera" problem frequently.  It is INTERMITTENT and happens on different Windows 10 computers with different cameras.  This implies that the problem may not be in the devices or the OS, because then it would either always work or never work.  A lot of the suggested solutions are therefore irrelevant.  The most promising suggestion was that there is a loose connection in the USB cable or some other such intermittent event.  The Event Viewer shows an error with event code 28 that might be related.  If you get this problem, note the time and later go back through the event viewer to see if any errors occurred then.  Search Google for this error and then report back to the community.  We may have to track this down ourselves.  

[Arty86]

i won't rule out that it's possible that the cable is somehow loose but it's hard to accept that when we see this with more than one machine on a number of occasions. we know the equipment is working fine because we're able to use the equipment. we even tried different external cameras with the same results. i have never considered looking at event viewer to see if there were any problems being reported by windows but it wouldnt hurt. this also wouldnt explain what I'm see though, because as i have mentioned built-in webcams work 100 percent of the time but once we switch the source and the problem occurs with the external camera then we lose access to the main camera until we close the program entirely.