Imagine you are in between an important office meeting or online lecture and your laptop’s camera or the camera attached to your computer keeps turning on and off. We can only imagine the amount of tension you’ll have to go through when your boss or lecturer would give you their piece of mind when it’s a technical snag that’s hit your way.
Word of advice – If you have sensed one such situation coming, check your webcam or USB camera once and if your PC’s camera keeps turning off and on, try out the solutions mentioned in this post.
Things You Can Do If Webcam Keeps Turning On And Off Again and Again
1. Update Windows
Haven’t updated your Windows PC? Maybe now’s the time to update your Windows, as outdated Windows OS is prone to issues like the webcam turning off and on. We have already enlisted steps to update Windows 10. If you have Windows 11, here’s how you can update your PC –
1. Press Windows + I to open Settings.
2. Click on Windows Update from the left-hand pane.
3. From the right-hand side, click on Check for updates and fetch any pending updates.
Additionally, you can also update your BIOS version. Once you have updated both your Windows and BIOS, restart your computer and see if you have been able to resolve the issue.
2. Reset and Repair Your Camera App
If your camera app is turning off and on, there might be some technical glitches. One of the easiest ways to deal with it is to first try to repair the Camera app and then reset it. The steps shown below are applicable for Windows 11 PCs –
1. Open Settings as shown above.
2. Click on Apps from the left-hand side.
3. Next to Camera, click on the three dots and click on Advanced Options.
4. From the right, under Reset, first, click on Repair. If repairing the app doesn’t fix the issue, click on Reset.
3. Disable Camera Access
It could be that a process or application is using your webcam in the background and hence it is turning off and on. Here, you can disable access to the camera and then check if the issue is fixed or not. To do that, follow the steps mentioned below. These are the steps for Windows 10 PC –
1. Open Settings by pressing Windows + I.
2. Click on Privacy.
3. From the left, click on Camera.
4. From the right-hand side, control permissions as per your need.
In Windows 11 –
1. Open Settings.
2. From the left, click on Privacy & Security.
3. Under App permissions, click on Camera.
4. Toggle off the switch next to the Camera access or choose individual apps for which you want the camera access.
4. Update Webcam Drivers
Outdated webcam drivers can be the culprit behind why your webcam is malfunctioning and turning off and on for no apparent reason. Here are ways to update drivers manually. The easiest way to update drivers is to use a third-party drivers updater tool. Advanced Driver Updater. For instance, is one of the best tools that can help you update your outdated webcam drivers.
How To Use Advanced Driver Updater To Update Webcam Driver?
1. Download, run, and install Advanced Driver Updater.
2. Click on Start Scan Now to scan for drivers.
3. Locate your webcam driver and click on the Update driver button on the right and follow the on-screen instructions.
Why Else Do We Prefer Advanced Driver Updater?
- You can take a backup of drivers before updating them.
- In case of an emergency roll-back of a driver to a previous version using this backup.
- You can schedule driver scans at your chosen time and date.
- Exclude drivers that you don’t want to update.
You can check out this review of Advanced Driver Updater, to gain a better insight into its features.
5. Delete/ Disable Problematic Apps
Has the issue surfaced after you had installed a particular app? To check this first, operate your Windows PC in safe mode. If your PC’s working fine in this mode, quickly head back and uninstall the problematic app. We’d urge you to uninstall the app in a way that no residue files are left behind. Here are ways to uninstall programs completely from your PC.
If it’s an app that you can’t seem to uninstall, disable it for a moment and check your PC for malware and other malicious threats as we have discussed in the next point.
6. Check the PC for Malware
Up until now if your webcam still keeps turning off and on, it could be that your PC’s hit with malware and it would be a wise move to identify and remove threats before they extend to the other data in your PC. Here are some of the best Antivirus apps that can help identify and remove viruses in real time.
7. Disable Power Saving For Your Camera’s USB Port
This step is applicable if your system is configured to power off your camera’s USB port. In such a scenario you may run into a situation where your webcam keeps turning off and on. To fix this, you can try to disable power saving for your camera’s USB port. The steps for the same are mentioned below –
1. Open the Run dialog box by pressing Windows + R keys.
2. In the Run dialog box, type devmgmt.msc.
3. When the Device Manager opens, double-click on Universal Serial Bus controllers, and locate the USB port to which your camera is attached.
4. Right-click on it and click on Properties.
5. Click on the Power Management tab and click on the checkbox that says Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
6. Restart your PC and once the PC reboots check if your camera is working fine or does it keep turning off and on.
Wrapping Up
We hope that by now your webcam has stopped turning off and on. If yes, do share with us a solution that helped you out in the comment section below. For more such content, keep reading WeTheGeek.