Hardware Access Error - Messenger - Webcam and Mic

Anonymous
2018-10-31T15:37:39+00:00

Hello,

For the past week, I've been getting this pop up when I want to make a Messenger video call.  Been using this for over a year without a glitch.  Both camera and mic work fine with Skype and Zoom but not with Messenger.  Checked all settings in FB and Google Chrome to make sure mic and webcam are 'allowed'.  Tried a couple of troubleshooting YouTube vids.  Even did a whole recovery process, going through the pain of reinstalling apps...ugh..., with no results.  The only thing I remember that may - or may not- be related is that I connected my laptop (where I use Messenger) to my Samsung bluetooth speaker.  After that, Messenger video calls went kapout!!!  Please HEEEEEEEELP!!!! 

Thank you!

MC

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Settings

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-05-28T05:37:06+00:00

    Thank you so much! Disabling the IR camera didn't immediately solve the problem - but it led me to notice that Messenger was auto selecting a certain camera from the options within Chrome itself. The camera and microphone drop down menu within the Messenger call was unselectable, so I couldn't change the camera Messenger was attempting to access - so I looked in the Chrome settings, and, alas, a camera option by the same name was there. By activating that camera option (instead of the normal camera that was selected previously) and restarting the browser, everything is working now!

    Interestingly, now, in the Chrome settings, there is only one camera option, just the normal camera (which was selected before...). So I don't have any record of what I changed it to to fix the problem, unfortunately.

    Thanks very much for your help. Now I can delete the Messenger app from my computer... which I'm not a huge fan of!

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-05-26T22:02:17+00:00

    I had this same issue. The root of the problem seems to be your (by your I mean you the reader in general and not just the O.P.) system having multiple devices that fall under camera/microphone. For example someone here mentioned having a bluetooth device with a microphone that they removed as having solved the issue for them.

    In my case, under device manager I have two devices under cameras: the regular camera and an IR camera/sensor. After disabling the IR camera I stopped receiving the error.

    So with that being said the solution I would suggest if none of the other suggested solutions worked for you is to check to see if you have more than one camera and/or mic sensor, then try disabling whichever ones you don't need.

    Something to point out though, this issue only occurred on Messenger with Chrome. Messenger worked fine in Edge and and a a call in the web version of Skype worked fine on Chrome. I didn't try other browsers but based on that it seems that the issue is specific to Messenger on Chrome (or perhaps Chromium based browsers).

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-04-24T17:40:31+00:00

    I am using this on a browser.

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-04-24T13:53:30+00:00

    Когда я звою кому то то мне пишет что надо разрешение микрофона и камеры пожалуйста помогите

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-04-16T22:56:35+00:00

    the setting app will always crash whenever i click on camera or microphone . please help.

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