Windows Hello Not Working,(We couldn't find a camera compatible with Windows Hello Face)

Anonymous
2019-11-12T00:13:12+00:00

All of a sudden my Windows Hello has stopped working and on the lock screen it says, "sorry something went wrong, please enter PIN" and in settings it says We couldn't find a camera compatible with Windows Hello Face. what do I do?

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

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Anonymous
2019-11-12T00:46:07+00:00

Hi LucaMelfi, my name is Hadrien, an independent advisor and I'll do my best to help you today.

Please try the following procedures to fix your Windows Hello. Check if the issue is solved at the end of each procedure :

Procedure 1 :

  1. Open File Explorer, navigate to C:\Windows\System32\WinBioPlugIns\FaceDriver
  2. Right-click on HelloFace.inf and click "Install"
  3. If the file exists do the same thing for HelloFaceMigration.inf in the same directory

Procedure 2 :

Check on your camera manufacturer's website if there is any update available for your camera.

For example if you have a Logitech camera check on the Logitech website for any update for your camera.

Procedure 3 :

Click on Start button, type "cmd", right-click on "Command prompt" and click on "Run as administrator".

Copy-paste the following lines in the command prompt, one by one, pressing Enter after each line (to paste right-click at the top on "Administrator : command prompt" > Edit > Paste) :

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

sfc /scannow

Procedure 4 :

  1. Click on the Start button, type "run" and click on "Run"
  2. Type "services.msc" (without quotes) and click on "Ok"
  3. Find "Windows Biometric Service", double click on it and click on "Stop"
  4. With File Explorer go to C:\Windows\System32\WinBioDatabase and make a backup of all the files just in case. Move that backup outside of that folder.
  5. Once backed up delete all the files in C:\Windows\System32\WinBioDatabase
  6. Open another time "services.msc", double-click on Windows Biometric Service and restart it
  7. Go to Start, type "settings", click on "Settings", go to "Accounts", "Sign-in options" and register the Face data again

Regards,

Hadrien

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-11-13T03:57:33+00:00

    All of a sudden my Windows Hello has stopped working and on the lock screen it says, "sorry something went wrong, please enter PIN" and in settings it says We couldn't find a camera compatible with Windows Hello Face. what do I do

    @gertadardeshi

    The hello pin is set up and just the camera is not working. The below steps should fix your issue. 

    1. Open powershell in admin and run the below command
      • pnputil /enum-drivers > C:\drivers.txt
    2. This will create a drivers list in the C:\ . Open the drivers.txt file and search for hellofacemigration.inf entry and copy the publisher name for eg. oem94.inf and then run the below cmdlet
    3. pnputil /delete-driver oem94.inf ( Replace oem94.inf with the publisher you got in the above drivers.txt)
    4. run command : Stop-service wbiosrvc -force
    5. Open services.msc and start the Windows Biometric service
    6. Now you should be able to setup hello face.

    Note : The above will only work if Hello pin is working and just Hello face is having issue.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-02-10T16:48:42+00:00

    Windows Hello face requires an IR or 3D compatible camera.  My old Dell Inspiron 5378's webcam (from 2017) had that capability but my new Inspiron 5406 (from 2020) does not.

    Before trying any of these fixes, check the hardware.  In my case, even the Dell support agent wasn't aware of this - I found it in a Dell technical bulletin.

    These compatible cameras are apparently less common than one would assume.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-01-06T18:48:45+00:00

    Awesome. This is exactly what worked for me. The other steps didn't work. I think the trick was to first uninstall the helloface.inf driver.

    Also, I didn't have the HelloFaceMigration.inf, just HelloFace.inf, so I altered the commands based on that.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-01-28T09:02:53+00:00

    Hello Hadrien,

    Thank you so much for this post. After a recent Windows update on my surface pro 6, the facial recognition just stopped working. I guess not really a big deal, but it annoyed me. 

    I have been searching all over the place & as with so many things, it's how you phrase the question - what you type in the search bar. I was seeing all sorts of really drastic ideas, like 1 post said I need to do a full reset using a USB boot file. I figured there had to be a better & less drastic (more Knowledgeable) solution.

    Yours was just that. I followed the recommended steps, restarted the computer & bingo - fixed !!!

    Thanks again 

    -Richard.

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