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Released in November 2020, the 13" MacBook Pro features Apple's Arm-based M1 SoC with both an 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU. (Model A2338 / EMC 3578 with two Thunderbolt 3 ports)

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Camera does not work and the green light stay off

Hi everyone,

Essentially, my Macbook Pro M1 16GB 2020 (A2338) camera has stopped working. Not sure why. If I open Photo Booth, the screen is black but there is no message/warning. The camera light does NOT switch on either.

Tried the following:

  • Restarting
  • sudo killall VDCAssistant and AppleCameraAssitant but it says No matching processes.
  • Reset the laptop (factory reset using iTunes)
  • Took off the bottom cover to confirm the 4 ribbon cables were still connected from the screen

If I go to my system information, then go to my camera, it says "No video capture devices were found".

Everything else works perfectly fine so not sure why it would be the camera hardware itself.

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The root cause of your problem is related to the thin ribbon cables which connect the display with the T-CON logic board within the main case. What tends to happen is between the flexing of these cables with either grit or physical damage from a damaged chin plate along the bottom of the display (glass) damages or cuts the ribbon cable.

Block Image

So while swapping the display gets you partway, the lack of access to the needed calibration tool messes up both the TrueTone and lid sensor in this series. Apple has you over a barrel! Forcing you to buy a new display from them at a much higher cost. Review the link I provided above to gain the needed color displays P/N and then go here Apple’s Self Repair portal

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Thank you for your help @danj - Sent the laptop back to work to make it their problem, but had a shop look at it so I could post the final answer here for confirmation for someone in the future. It was indeed the connector, your photo was very helpful.

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@jordan63460 - No problem, sorry you got hit with it.

Here in Boston we don’t encounter the issue that often as we don’t have sand/grit being blown about. So it took awhile to get a handle on this issue.

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Have you tried running apple diagnostics? Power+D at boot, then follow the prompts.

If possible try to clean and re seat the cameras connector on the board, they can be found in Step 23 of the guide below.

If still no luck then it can be possible that the cameras hardware has failed, or something on the board has popped.

This maybe a tricky fix and will need to refer the MacBook Pro 13" Two Thunderbolt Ports Late 2020 Display Assembly Replacement guide.

If the cameras hardware has indeed failed then it will be a monster of a job to find a replacement part and would require removing the screen glass if at all possible. @danj maybe can provide some additional help. SMC & PRAM reset may also be worth a try.

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I have a spare Macbook of the EXACT same model, just less RAM (same code A2338, same year, chip, screen size, etc.). Am I able to simply replace my macbooks screen with the spare one? A donor mac as such.

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That is a good question, @danj for some input

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Sadly, swapping displays messes up Apples required calibrations! As stated here MacBook Pro 13" Complete Display, from TheBookYard


Display Compatibility

Due to Apples practice of calibrating certain parts of the display, replacing the display or logic board will result in the 'True Tone' functionality of the display no longer working. It can also cause issues with the ambient light sensor and on MacBook Pro models the Lid Angle Sensor will also no longer function. This prevents the machine from going to sleep when the display is closed. The only way to rectify this is to run Apple's 'System Configuration' tool which is only available as part of Apple's 'Self Repair Service'.

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iFixit really needs to implement a flag or location on users profiles, so we can direct them to where they can either find parts or repair specialists....

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Accepting this answer, took the Mac to get looked at, the hardware in the Camera failed, but not going to bother getting them switched due to the calibration issue, sent the laptop back to work to make it their problem. Thank you for both your help @livfe and @danj

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Your MacBook Pro’s camera issue may be a hardware failure if macOS doesn't detect it. Since resetting and checking cables didn’t work, try booting into Safe Mode, updating macOS, or reinstalling macOS. If "No video capture devices were found" persists, the camera module might need replacement-contact Apple Support.

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