Webcam Keeps Turning Off In Windows 10 FIX

Webcam on Windows computers is prone to all sorts of errors, one of which is the webcam turning off and then back on. Since webcams are so widely used and are an integral part of most people's desktop setups, it's important to get this error sorted out. This error can be caused by malware entering your computer or a corrupted or out-of-date system driver. Today, we are going to discuss how you can fix the webcam turning off and on in Windows 10.

A. Check for Windows, Drivers and BIOS Updates

This is pretty basic. Outdated essential utilities like Windows and BIOS can create such problems due to incompatibility. If that's the case for you, updating your Windows Operating System, Drivers and BIOS can help you fix the problem.

Go to your System settings and inside Update and Security check if there are any pending updates. You should also make sure that you keep all optional updates up to date. Check if the problem is resolved after installing all updates.

B. Disable Power Saver for Camera USB Port

Such problems may persist if you have configured your webcam to turn off when idle. Turning off your camera's power saving mode can help with this problem.

1. Open the Quick Access menu using the Windows + X key combination and from the list of options provided select Device Manager.

2. Locate Universal Serial Bus Controllers (USB) and, when expanding it, right-click the USB port your camera is attached to. You can check/verify what that port is by disabling each port in turn.

3. Open its Properties and go to the Power Management tab.

Here, uncheck the Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power setting and save these settings.

4. After applying the aforementioned change, restart your PC and check if the problem is resolved.

C. Reset/reinstall Camera app

To reset the app to its default configuration, we will use the app settings. Search for Camera app in the taskbar's search pane.

Scroll down here a bit and click the Reset button.

If this doesn't work for you, you can also try reinstalling the Camera app. Since the camera app can't be uninstalled like other apps, you'll have to use Windows PowerShell for this to work. Follow the steps below to uninstall the Camera app:

Search for Windows PowerShell in the Taskbar search pane and select Run as Administrator.

Paste and execute the following line of code to remove the camera app.

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.WindowsCamera | Remove-AppxPackage

Once the camera app has been successfully uninstalled, you can restart your PC and visit the Microsoft Store to download it again

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D. Disable access to Camera

If this error is caused by the camera app being used by some other system process, what you can do is disable access to your camera. To do so, you must follow the steps below:

1. Open your Windows Settings by pressing Windows + I key combination and select the security option here.

2. In the App Permissions subhead on the left pane of privacy settings, select Camera.

3. Under Camera access for this device, click Change and disable the next Camera access to this device setting.

Switch off the setting under Allow apps to access your camera. This will also disable the option under Allow Desktop Apps to Access Your Camera.

Now you can restart your PC and try to operate the webcam to check if it works properly.

E. Make changes in Registry Editor

If the problem persists after doing all the fixes mentioned above, you can try to make the edits in some registry editor. Before making any changes, you should back up your existing registry.

1. Open the Run command and type Regedit

2. Navigate to the path indicated below

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Media Foundation\Platform

3. From the Directory on the left, right-click on Platform, and from the New option create a new 32-bit DWORD value.

4. Rename this key to EnableFrameServerMode and set its bit value to 0.

The process is not complete because you have to repeat the above process following the following path, then you can exit the Registry Editor and restart your PC to see if the error is fixed.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows Media Foundation\Platform

You can also try reinstalling the Camera driver or scanning for apps that may be conflicting with the camera's operation, although we believe one of the solutions above will help you.

I hope that I was able to clear your doubts about the webcam flickering between off and back on and how to fix this error.