OBS virtual camera overrides FaceTime on MacOS Sequoia (M1 Max), even after uninstalling

[bwnz76]

Operating System Info

macOS 15

Other OS

No response

OBS Studio Version

31.0.2

OBS Studio Version (Other)

No response

OBS Studio Log URL

Deleted before posting

OBS Studio Crash Log URL

No response

Expected Behavior

User should be able to choose camera in FaceTime to use. Even after I uninstall OBS i expect the OBS camera to be removed and not affecting any other applications. The only choice is to use OBS Virtual Camera.

Current Behavior

The OBS camera is still loaded after uninstall, it had completely overridden FaceTime from using any other camera - OBS Virtual Camera was the only option.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install OBS
2. Grant all permissions
3. Uninstall
4. Follow camera uninstall guide: https://obsproject.com/kb/virtual-camera-troubleshooting
5. Delete sudo rm -rf /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL/obs-mac-virtualcam.plugin

I followed several threads from other websites to try and remove and used CleanMyMac and this did not resolve the issue

Anything else we should know?

I have resolved the issue by deleting the plist file for FaceTime:

Go to finder and locate ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.FaceTime.plist
Delete the com.apple.FaceTime.plist file
Empty Bin
Restart computer
Open FaceTime

It seems OBS is overriding all camera options in the preferences files when it is granted access.

I have shared this information incase anyone else comes across this problemm.

[DungAT98]

same from my side. in macos 26.0

[jcm93]

To uninstall the virtual camera on a version of macOS that uses the system extension for virtual camera functionality (macOS 13 and above), only uninstalling OBS by explicitly dragging it to the trash in Finder will remove the system extension. Unless that happens, the Virtual Camera will continue to be shown by other applications on the system. OBS doesn't control what camera devices other programs decide to show; it only creates a camera device that the system can enumerate.

The issue of FaceTime not enumerating other camera devices you have seems likely to be a problem with FaceTime itself, particularly based on your resolution steps. If you are still having this problem while OBS's camera extension is installed, I'd recommend reporting that problem to Apple via their feedback system.

(The system extension can also be explicitly uninstalled or disabled via System Settings on recent version of macOS (14 and above?) by going to General->Login Items & Extensions->scrolling down to Camera Extensions and hitting the 'info' button, which will show a menu of extensions and an interface to disable/uninstall them).