Most, if not all, of the newer Mac machines come with a built-in camera so that you can easily use FaceTime to communicate with your family, friends or colleagues. However, there is one weird bug with Mac OS X that shows the “No Camera Available” error occasionally when you open up FaceTime or other apps that require camera usage.

If you are having this problem, the fix is easy:
1. Close all the applications that are using the camera (such as FaceTime and Skype).
2. Open a terminal (Launchpad -> Terminal).
3. Type the following command:
sudo killall VDCAssistant
4. Re-open your application. You should see that the camera is working now.
The reason for this hack is because Mac OS X launches a background process called “VDCAssistant” when an application that requires the camera is launched. When this background process is not closed properly when the application is closed, it will hog up the resources and prevent other apps from accessing the camera. By force closing this background process, you are freeing up the resources to make the camera available again for applications.
This hack should fix the “No camera available” issue 99% of the time. For the remaining 1%, you might just need to restart your Mac or make sure the driver is installed properly (for external camera). Alternatively, check if the camera is spoilt or if you have plugged in the USB cable properly.
Let us know if this trick works for you.

this worked for me
It did not work for me. I tried everything: no VDCAssistant process running; restarted several times. That makes me thing that the hardware is damaged… is there a way to test it? To see definitely that the camera is broken?
In my case I am working on a iMac from 2011, with Yosemite (10.10.4).
I am in the same position as Lubia. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I have the same problem:
System information
iMac 10,1 with OS X 10.10.4
Audio and Camera: There was an error while gathering this information.
Thanks a lot – the fix worked for me.
Excellent! Worked like a Charm! Thank you so much!
Worked perfectly.
Unfortunately it did not work for me too.
I’ve tried this and all I get is “no matching processes were found” and the camera still doesn’t work. It worked fine yesterday, the laptop has not taken a bump or anything, so why does it not work? I have tried restarting multiple times and still no avail. Please respond as this is urgent.
yah im in the same boat with last post.. can’t figure this out.. I did install an SSD recently.. can’t think of anything else ;/
Thanks a lot! Worked!
Worked!
I have done this several times and it hasn’t worked is there anything else that I can do? It was working fine until I installed the upgrade, I was wondering maybe if I uninstalled the upgrade it would work again but, I don’t know how to go about that.
I’m sorry, but this did not work at all. I tried typing the command in Terminal, and all I get is this message,
“No matching processes were found”
I think this solution is a dud.
didn’t work for me either
Worked for me. Thank you!
if “sudo killall VDCAssistant” does not work for you, instead, try
sudo killall AppleCameraAssistant