The camera failure issue on your Lenovo laptop can stem from anywhere ranging from a minor software error (i.e. an outdated or erred camera driver) to major hardware failures (i.e. device’s firmware issues or a faulty camera, etc.).

Apart from that, if the camera is not showing up on a specific app like Zoom, Skype, etc., then you’ve possibly got some sort of privacy or camera settings issue on that software. But you don’t break a sweat as I’m just about to teach you all the causes and fixes for this headache.

Why Is My Lenovo Laptop Camera Not Working?

Lenovo has always had a focus more than anything on ditching the belief – “privacy intactness in this digital age is almost impossible”.

Laptops here feature multiple autonomous built-in privacy-keeping specs which upon sensing some threat or anomaly can automatically turn off the camera and other such sources showing about you in real-time.

So while a Lenovo laptop’s utmost surveillance system can be easily held responsible for making the camera stop working without any notice, that’s not the only reason all the time. There are a lot more other things as well, and here’s a list of all the possible reasons why such problems may happen.

1. Obviously, your laptop’s inbuilt privacy settings can absolutely disallow the camera to work due to so many different reasons.
2. An outdated or somehow stumbled camera driver may be the cause.
3. Your device’s OS may also, at times, fail to recognize the camera as intended.
4. The issue might be with the video conferencing app, etc. that you are using i.e. it’s not recognizing the webcam or maybe some other program is already using it.
5. Or it may be a result of some sort of hardware failure, most probably in the camera element only or in the whole in-line firmware.

How to Do the Troubleshoot?

With their effectiveness varying from one another based on the root cause of the issue, there are multiple solutions you can try to get this odd scenario fixed. Here are all of them discussed for you.

Note though, if you’ve not given your device a fresh start/reboot for quite some time, give it a formal restart. Completely rebooting may also solve lots of such unusual bugs and glitches and draw all the device configurations back to normal. If that doesn’t work, proceed down.

#1. Tweak and Turn Off the Camera Privacy Settings – Windows 10 Guide

The topmost reason for your Lenovo laptop’s camera not working may definitely be the privacy settings, and the first thing you ought to do is to tweak these settings to see if the camera starts working. Here’s stepwise how to troubleshoot Lenovo laptop camera not working (Windows 10) issue:

1. Go to your system settings (shortcut: press Windows logo + I both keys at once).
2. Select Privacy and then Camera from the left-side panel inside the Privacy settings.
3. Finally, turn the toggle button ON under Allow apps to access your camera or Let these apps use my webcam.

Or You Can Do This in Lenovo Vantage App

Lenovo Vantage is a downloadable ease-of-access type of application allowing you to check and make different device adjustments from one place. If you have this app already installed on your device, follow the below-given steps to tweak your privacy priorities:

1. Press the Windows logo key, type Lenovo Vantage in the search bar, and hit enter to get into the app. (If you don’t have the app, you must download it first).
2. Once you are in, navigate to the Device section in the header above, tap on it, and select Display & Camera from the dropdown (or choose My Device Settings under the Device section and proceed).
3. After that, select Camera under the Jump to Settings heading.
4. In the new (Camera) interface, set the Camera Privacy Mode toggle OFF.
5. Make sure the changes get saved and the toggle color turns gray. Then come out of the Lenovo Vantage software, and your camera will hopefully start working now.

#2. Enable the Camera in Device Manager

1. Press the Windows logo + X both keys at once and select Device Manager from the list.
2. Inside the Device Manager, point to the Imaging devices/Cameras category and double-tap to expand it.
3. If you see a downward facing arrow with what drops down (i.e. Integrated Camera, USB 2.0Camera, etc.), means the camera has been disabled. So right-click on it and select Enable.

#3. Update the Drivers

Repeat steps 1 and 2 of the previous method and follow:

1. Right-click on the camera (i.e. Integrated Cam or USB 2.0Cam, etc.) and tap Update driver from the list.
2. Go with Search automatically for updated drivers option if you want Windows to automatically search for and install the updates.
3. If the device prompts that there is no update available, visit the Lenovo official website, put your laptop’s exact name/model, and install the latest camera driver from there. And you can then manually install the update by choosing the second option i.e. Browse my computer for drivers.

Lenovo Vantage can help you in this regard, and you can easily update all the outdated drivers on your device with just one click using that app.

#4. Make Sure There Is No Conflict Between Multiple Apps on Camera

The camera can obviously be used by only one program at a time so make sure there is no clash between apps as regards this thing. Whatever app, etc. you are using now and if the camera is not coming live, chances are that it may already be in use by some other application.

So you need to find out that program and close it before you set out to use the camera on the current program.

Or you may need to review the settings of the current program you want your camera live with because it might be that you’ve not allowed the app to access and use your laptop’s built-in webcam.

#5. It Might Possibly Be Some Hardware Failure

Although it’s not that easy to catch a hardware fault yourself, you may still get an idea about that from your Device Manager. Simply get to the Device Manager and seek out the Imaging Device/Cameras category as discussed in the two methods above.

If you can’t find this category in the Device Manager interface, you may safely assume that there is some sort of firmware configuration issue or camera hardware failure on your laptop. If so, I’d recommend reaching out to a computer technician to get the exact answer to your question “why is my Lenovo laptop camera not working?”.

And that’s all I could manage to say in this regard.

FAQs

Q1. Why is my camera black on my Lenovo laptop?

Ans. If it’s the first time you’ve got a Lenovo laptop and you don’t know much about things here, the slide-over camera shutter may be the major reason for you why you’re seeing your camera black. Almost all newer models of Lenovo laptops come with physical privacy shutters on their webcams which you must slide open first before using the camera.

But if the shutter isn’t closed and the camera is still black, you might have got one of the five camera-related issues discussed above. What? How to fix the scenario? Scroll above to learn.