Windows Hello compatible camera can't be found anymore

Anonymous
2019-07-29T19:16:01+00:00

Hey,

a couple of days ago my Windows Hello compatible camera stopped working all of a sudden. On the Windows lock screen I see a message "Sorry, something went wrong. Please login with your PIN" and in the Sign-in options in settings I see "We couldn't find a camera compatible with Windows Hello". I didn't install any Windows Update right before that happened and I also didn't install any tools or updated drivers or anything. It really happened all of a sudden. It worked on one log-in attempt and did no longer after another log-in attempt.

The camera itself is okay. I re-installed the SSD that came with my PC with a (nearly) straight from the factory Windows and the camera works perfectly fine there, so I'm pretty sure it's not a hardware problem here. My computer is an ASUS Zenbook Pro 14.

I'm running Windows 10 with the 1903 Update, Build 18362.267 and as I mentioned, it just stopped working all of a sudden. I'm pretty sure I haven't installed any software or drivers or updates right before it stopped working (I might be wrong though).

I cannot even remove the Windows Hello Face Recognition because the button is disabled (see screenshot below).

Long story short: my Windows Hello compatible webcam is no longer recognized as such and I have no idea why. Appreciate any tips!

// edit: I already uninstalled the camera driver in the device manager and I also tried to install newer drivers using Driver Easy, both without success.

// edit 2: I also tried “Sfc /scannow” and "dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth" now. Everything seems to be fine. Except ... it's not.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows Hello, lock screen and sign-in

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Anonymous
2019-09-01T20:16:21+00:00

I got it working again, yes! I don't know if this was how I fixed it, but I'm almost sure. I had two files HelloFace.inf and HelloFaceMigration.inf in C:\Windows\System32\WinBioPlugIns\FaceDriver. I right clicked them, selected "Install", restarted and now it's working again!

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Anonymous
2019-08-01T09:39:35+00:00

Hi,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

I understand that you get an error when using Windows Hello Face, we will look into this for you. However, in order to help you with the appropriate troubleshooting steps, please reply with the following details:

  • Are you able to use the Camera through Camera application?
  • When you say, “I re-installed the SSD that came with my PC with a (nearly) straight from the factory Windows and the camera works perfectly fine” were you able to use Windows Hello Face after installing the old SSD?

I see that there are multiple models for Asus ZenBook Pro 14, I suggest you to help us with the exact model of the laptop that you are using. To find the details type msinfo32 in the search bar on the Taskbar and hit Enter. Share the System Model along with System SKU.

However, you can try resetting the Windows Hello Biometric Database and check if that helps. Please follow the steps mentioned below:

  1. Press Windows key + R, to open Run dialog box.
  2. Type services.msc and click on OK.
  3. Look for Windows Biometric Service, double click on it and click on Stop.
  4. Now, go to C:\Windows\System32\WinBioDatabase, take a backup of all the files inside the WinBioDatabase folder.
  5. After taking a backup of the files, delete all the files.
  6. Now, open Services by following step 1 and 2, and restart the Windows Biometric Service.
  7. Go to Start >> Settings >> Accounts >> Sign-in options and register the Face data again.

Please reply with the status of the issue, we will be glad to help you further.

Regards,

Nikhar Khare

Microsoft Community - Moderator

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59 additional answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-12-21T21:21:09+00:00

    How can i fix this problem please??

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-12-01T16:36:51+00:00

    Worked. Thank you! Last time it happened, tech support had me reinstall Windows. This was much simpler. I'm bookmarking this page.

    Jay Luczak

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-09-29T14:12:53+00:00

    I actually managed to resolve this despite having deleted the relevant drivers.  The steps are, roughly:

    1. Open up Optional Features, and remove Windows Hello Sign-In.
    2. Uninstall both the Hello driver in the biometrics group in device manager, *and*, the Microsoft Front IR Camera in the system group -- don't delete the drivers if you haven't done so, refer to step 3 if you have.
    3. Re-start.
    4. Go into Optional Features again, and add Windows Hello Sign-in.
    5. Reboot twice. (start checking to see if your issue's been resolved with each step below).
    6. Download the Hello software drivers from here: https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AP%2DAd5EyC3Kj7Dw&id=2BC46EA1B007D99%21157&cid=02BC46EA1B007D997. Extract the zip and place the contents into somewhere that they can stay (it's probably **not** a good idea to put them into Windows\System32\WinBiometricPlugins, or whatever).
    7. Right click each .inf file in from the archive and "Install".
    8. Reboot, twice for good measure.
    9. Check to see if Hello works.
    10. If still not resolved then go back into device manager and uninstall (but DO NOT delete) the Microsoft Front IR Camera and biometric Hello Software Device.
    11. Reboot twice, and check again.

    It's not clear what order things have to load, but my thinking is that order matters -- possibly some service needs to see some driver during it's start up, etc.  There might be other ways of achieving the same ends, but I got this resolved after about an hour of iterating, so this is my best guess at a reliable process.

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