Webcam Not Working on Windows 11
A dead webcam on Windows 11 is usually a permission toggle, a shutter, or a driver. Work through the checks in order, with the error codes decoded.
When the camera goes black in Teams, Zoom or a browser tab, a broken camera is rarely the reason. Open Start > Settings > Privacy & security > Camera and check three separate switches: Camera access, Let apps access your camera, and Let desktop apps access your camera. That last one is the one people miss, and it is the one browsers and Teams depend on.
If those are already on, the rest of this guide works through the remaining causes roughly in the order they are worth checking.
Two minutes of checks before anything else
Open the built-in Camera app first: select Start, type Camera, and pick it from the results. Microsoft suggests this to separate an app problem from a system problem. If the picture appears there but not in Zoom, the fault is in that app; if it fails everywhere, it is Windows, the driver, or the hardware. With several cameras attached, the Change camera icon at the top right switches between them.
Then look at the camera itself. Microsoft’s own troubleshooting flow includes a physical control: a sliding shutter beside the lens, a switch on the side of the chassis, a dedicated camera button, or an Fn key combination. There is no universal shortcut, so look rather than press. HP says select notebook models have a privacy switch on the side or next to the camera, plus a webcam shutter key on the action key row. Dell tells owners to check for a shutter or privacy cover and confirm it is open, and some ThinkPads have a cover Lenovo calls ThinkShutter.
Finally, close whatever else might be holding the camera. Many apps take an exclusive claim on the stream, so if Teams, Zoom, Skype or a forgotten browser tab is already running, the next app can fail with 0xA00F4243 or 0xA00F4289 — Windows saying another app or process is using the camera. Teams’ own support guidance says the same thing: close all other apps that might be using your camera, then try again.
Turn the right camera permissions back on
Windows 11 keeps three layers of camera permission, and any one of them can quietly starve an app.
Camera access is the device-wide switch. Let apps access your camera covers Microsoft Store apps, with a per-app list underneath it. Let desktop apps access your camera covers everything else, and Microsoft is explicit that desktop-app camera permission cannot be set per app. Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Teams count as desktop apps, so with that switch off they get nothing no matter what the other toggles say.
One thing that setting does not affect is face sign-in. Microsoft states that if Windows Hello is turned on, it will use your camera to sign you in even when the setting that allows apps to access your camera is off. A working Hello login is therefore not proof that app permissions are fine.
Windows 10 has the same ideas under different names, which is why copied instructions so often miss:
| What you need | Windows 11 | Windows 10 |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy page | Settings > Privacy & security > Camera | Settings > Privacy > Camera |
| Device-wide switch | Camera access | Camera access for this device, behind a Change button |
| Store apps switch | Let apps access your camera | Allow apps to access your camera |
| Desktop apps switch | Let desktop apps access your camera | Allow desktop apps to access your camera |
| Per-camera enable page | Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Cameras | Not available |
| Optional driver updates | Settings > Windows Update > Advanced options > Optional updates | Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Advanced options > View optional updates |
| Camera troubleshooter | Settings > System > Troubleshoot > Other troubleshooters > Camera | Settings > Update & Security > Troubleshoot > Find and fix other problems |
Microsoft says plainly that the Cameras page was introduced in Windows 11 and is not available on earlier versions of Windows, so treat that row as version-specific rather than a path to hand anyone on an older PC.
Match what you see on screen to the fix
These are the codes confirmed on Microsoft’s own pages. Codes that circulate on forums without appearing in Microsoft documentation are best ignored.
| What you see | What it usually means | Where to fix it |
|---|---|---|
| A black picture in every app, with no error code | Camera permission is off | Settings > Privacy & security > Camera: turn on Camera access, Let apps access your camera, and Let desktop apps access your camera |
| Works in the Camera app but not in Chrome, Teams or Zoom | Desktop-app permission, or the app’s own device or site permission | Turn on Let desktop apps access your camera, then check the app’s own camera setting |
| 0xA00F4243 or 0xA00F4289 | Another app or process is using the camera | Close Teams, Zoom, Skype and browser tabs, then reopen the app |
| 0xA00F4244 (NoCamerasAreAttached) | Windows cannot detect the camera, most often a driver problem | Device Manager > Action > Scan for hardware changes, then Roll Back Driver or Uninstall device and rescan |
| 0x80070005 | Access to the camera was denied | Recheck the privacy toggles and the app’s own permission |
| 0xA00F4246 | The camera is locked by security software | Check your antivirus suite’s webcam protection |
| 0xA00F4292 | Camera access restricted by policy | A managed work or school PC. Contact IT; this is not a setting you can change |
| Camera listed under “Disabled cameras” | Turned off on the Windows 11 Cameras page | Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Cameras, select the camera, choose Enable |
| Code 22, “This device is disabled.” | Disabled in Device Manager | Device Manager, right-click the camera, Enable device |
| No camera anywhere in Device Manager | A hardware camera switch or camera key that cuts the module off, or the camera disabled in firmware | Look for a camera switch on the chassis or a camera key on the keyboard. On Dell, press F2 repeatedly at startup and look under Integrated Devices for Enable Camera |
When Windows cannot see the camera at all
Start with the Windows 11 Cameras page: Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Cameras (the deep link is ms-settings:camera). Anything under Disabled cameras is re-enabled by selecting it and choosing Enable, which needs administrator access. Selecting a connected camera opens a subpage with a Troubleshoot button that hands off to the Get Help camera troubleshooter, and a Reset settings button that returns basic settings, camera effects and video rotation to their defaults.
Do not read that page as a complete inventory. Microsoft documents that a camera with a missing driver, in a nonfunctional state, or disabled through another utility such as Device Manager may not appear there at all, and infrared cameras are never listed. Where two cameras share an image signal processor — common on tablets with front- and world-facing cameras — disabling one can disable the group, and some only go off after a restart.
Next, Device Manager. Your webcam may sit under Cameras, Imaging devices, or Sound, video and game controllers, so check all three before concluding it is gone. If nothing is there, use Action > Scan for hardware changes and restart. Device Manager states the problem in plain text: Code 10 is “This device cannot start. Try upgrading the device drivers for this device.”, Code 28 is “The drivers for this device are not installed.”, Code 43 is “Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems.”, and Code 45 is “Currently, this hardware device is not connected to the computer. To fix this problem, reconnect this hardware device to the computer.”
For a driver that broke recently, right-click the camera > Properties > Driver tab > Roll Back Driver > Yes, then restart. The button is greyed out when Windows has no previous driver stored, so try it but do not count on it. The fallback is the same Driver tab > Uninstall Device, with “Attempt to remove the driver for this device” checked, then Action > Scan for hardware changes and a restart. For a USB camera you can also switch to the in-box driver: Update driver > Browse my computer for drivers > Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer > USB Video Device. Microsoft warns that this generic UVC driver may not support all of your camera’s features and that Windows Hello face recognition may stop working, so treat it as a diagnostic step rather than a permanent home.
If the camera died the day an update landed, check Windows Update > Advanced options > Optional updates for a camera driver, since optional drivers are never installed automatically. As of September 3, 2026, Microsoft’s release health page for Windows 11 version 25H2 lists no open known issue involving cameras, and the older 24H2 issue where camera use could make some applications unresponsive was marked resolved in September 2025. A local driver or permission problem is the likelier explanation than a live bug, the same reasoning that applies when sound suddenly stops working on Windows 11 or when a second monitor is no longer detected: check the device layer before blaming the update.
When it only fails in one app
Browsers keep their own permission list. In Chrome, go to the three-dot menu > Settings > Privacy and security > Site settings > Camera. A blocked site appears under “Not allowed to use your camera or microphone” and is fixed by selecting it and changing the permission to Allow. The same page has a dropdown for choosing which camera Chrome uses. On a work or school Chrome profile, Google notes that only the network administrator can change camera and microphone settings.
In Teams, open Settings > Devices and use Make a test call. Teams’ guidance is to enable both “Let apps access your camera” and the Microsoft Teams toggle in Windows privacy settings, close other apps that might be using the camera, and — if the selected camera is a virtual one installed by streaming or vendor software — pick the built-in or connected physical camera instead. A virtual camera left selected in Zoom or a browser can look exactly like a hardware fault.
If one app misbehaves while the rest are fine, try Start > Settings > Apps > Installed apps > the More icon next to the app > Advanced options > Repair, and only then Reset. Not every app offers either option; the guide to an app that won’t open on Windows covers that route in more detail.
Security software is the last app-level suspect. Some suites include a deliberate webcam block. Kaspersky, for example, calls it Webcam and Mic Control; in recent versions of Kaspersky for Windows it sits under Security > Intrusion Prevention > Manage applications, with a global option to block all apps from accessing the webcam plus per-app rules. The exact wording moves between versions. Other vendors implement this differently, so look for the equivalent feature in whatever you run.
When the PC is not yours to change
On a managed work or school machine, a greyed-out camera toggle or error 0xA00F4292 means a policy, not a fault. Windows supports turning the camera off entirely through the Camera policy configuration service provider, and related privacy policies can force-deny camera access for apps so the user cannot change it. The correct move is a ticket to IT. Editing Group Policy or the registry to work around a device policy is not a fix, and on a corporate machine it is a good way to break something else. The same caution applies to other inherited privacy switches on a shared PC, such as Windows 11 location permissions.
If none of this brings the picture back, borrow a different computer. Microsoft’s advice for an external webcam is to test it elsewhere, which settles the question quickly: a camera that works on another PC points at drivers or permissions on yours, while one that fails on both is a cable, a port, an unpowered hub, or a camera module at the end of its life.