If you have issues using your camera in Restream Studio and get a "Permission Denied" or "The camera is used by another app" error, we may not have permission to use your webcam in your web browser.
Below we have some steps to take based on our requirements and supported browsers:
Restream Studio Requirements
At this time, Restream's Studio officially supports the latest versions of Firefox or Google Chrome as recommended browsers to stream with. Some browser extensions can often prevent Restream Studio from functioning correctly (i.e., Adblock or anything similar). If you are facing issues, try temporarily disabling your extensions or attempting to access Restream from an incognito window on your preferred browser.
Note that while mobile devices are supported, there are certain limitations (e.g., screen sharing). We encourage the use of a computer directly wired to the internet for the best experience.
Missing Permissions
Google Chrome
When you first try and launch Restream Studio, Google Chrome should prompt you and ask if you want to grant Restream access to your webcam and microphone.
In order for Studio to work, you will need to click “Allow mic/cam access” and then "Allow" on the Chrome pop-up that will appear.
If you’re not seeing this prompt, there should be a camera or microphone icon in the URL bar of Google Chrome. Click that icon and make sure you are allowing Restream access to your webcam and microphone. After you’ve allowed the permissions, click "Done" in the prompt and then refresh the Studio page.
Pro tip: Alternatively, you can click on "Manage" in the above pop-up and access all of Studio's permissions under your Chrome settings.
Firefox
When you first load Restream Studio, Firefox will ask if you want to grant Camera and Microphone access to Restream. Click “Allow” in the pop-up and Restream Studio will begin to work.
If this prompt is not showing, try refreshing the page and checking again.
If the prompt is still not there or if you accidentally blocked the camera the first time you launched Restream on Firefox, click the camera icon in the URL bar and make sure to remove any blocks like the ones shown below by clicking on "X". If you refresh the page, you should then get the pop-up asking you to allow permissions.
Safari
The first time you open Restream Studio on Safari, you will see this pop-up to allow access to your camera.
If you don't have camera access, check Safari Preferences and make sure you allow studio.restream.io to access the Microphone and Camera.
If none of the above helps, you can clear the browser cache for Restream and refresh or restart the browser to access Studio again. Permissions are reset now, so you will be asked to grant permissions once more.
The camera is being used by another app
If you see the following message, it usually means that your camera is currently being used by a different application that is running on your device.
Make sure you close any other application running in the background and using your camera (such apps can be OBS, Zoom, etc.), then restart your browser and access Restream Studio.
🌟 Pro tip: If you have an advanced setup with an external DSLR camera, make sure to check out our blog post for useful tips and tricks:
👉 Next steps
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Can't find the right answer?
Contact the Restream Support team via our 24/7 Live Chat.