[ARCHIVED] WebCam?

[meredith_kleman]

I am trying to video myself within an assignment.  My microphone is working, but I am unable to access my camera.  I have enabled flashplayer in Chrome.  I have also allowed flash and the camera within my Canvas settings.  Attached is the picture that continues to pop up.  

Any recommendations?  Much thanks!

[kblack · Accepted solution]

Hi  @meredith_kleman  Welcome to the Canvas Community, and sorry to hear you are having this vexing issue! First, a bit of technical clarification: Chome does not require Flash; in fact, this feature of Canvas uses HTML5 rather than Flash for both Chrome and Firefox, as outlined here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10627-how-do-i-record-a-video-using-the-rich-content-editor...   (You did not indicate if you're doing this as an instructor or as a student, but no matter...the information is just as valid in either case.) This is just as well, since Flash is on its own out.

Obviously, this is tricky to troubleshoot remotely, but a few things that have worked for me in the past are:

-Check that your webcam is working and being recognized in other programs that use them. For example, if you have Zoom, Skype, Facetime, or another application like those, see if they work.

-If not, then you know it's an issue with the computer itself not recognizing it. If on a Windows machine, make sure that you have not enabled the many various privacy settings that exist.  (Start>>Settings icon>>PRIVACY.)  There's one specifically for the camera that I myself enabled once on a sudden burst of trying to "lock down" my own computer, only to then be puzzled by why Zoom was no longer working for me about a week later!  I'm not sure how this is done on Macs, but there is likely a similar setting.  (Heaven forbid that Windows would give me a useful error message when using the program, but I digress....)

-If the camera IS working for other programs, try using the Firefox browser instead.  Sometimes simply changing the browser--for WHATEVER reason--can solve some issues.

-Again, this is hard to troubleshoot; so if you continue to have issues you may want to check with  your institution's support and/or ask for assistance from Canvas.  (Help>>Report a Problem.)

Hope this helps a bit, Meredith.