How Do I Enable My Webcam And/Or Mic For Catalyst?

Catalyst requires webcam and camera access to work properly. This page shows how to allow or block access to your computer's webcam and microphone for use with Catalyst.

First Time Popup

The first time you use Catalyst, you will see a message pop up in the Browser address bar asking you to give "SITENAME" access to your microphone and camera. Click Allow.

If you accidentally clicked Block, see below for how to unblock your camera and microphone.

Unblock Access To Your Webcam

If you try to use Catalyst and it isn't working, or you see an error popup stating "Failed to activate your webcam. Check your webcam/privacy settings", access to your webcam has been blocked in your browser.

To Unblock or Re-Block Access:

Click the lock icon to the left of your address bar, and select Allow for both Camera and Microphone in the dropdown. Then refresh your page.

Once you've given access Catalyst should begin working properly!

If you'd like to instead block camera access, click the same lock symbol, change the dropdowns back to Block, and refresh the page. Catalyst will stop functioning.

Help! It's Still Not Working!

If you gave Catalyst permission to access your webcam and mic and nothing has changed, attempt to switch the webcam in the options menu in the bottom left of your recording window, as there might be more than one camera available.

Webcam access can also be blocked if you have another app or browser running in the background on your computer that is accessing the camera (e.g. Zoom, Skype, Discord, or WebEx). Try closing down other apps that might be accessing the camera and refreshing the page or restarting the browser.

Some plugins and browser extensions can prevent Catalyst from accessing your webcam. If you have such a plugin installed, disable it and see if the webcam access works afterwards.

If none of the above resolves the issue, you can contact either the developer of the site you're using, or the Catalyst team via team@catalyst.chat

Based on ClipChamp's awesome post on this topic.