Access Denied error when opening camera

[Mark_Yedinak]

Recently I have encountered a strange problem on my computer. Though not strictly LabVIEW related I am wondering if anyone else has encountered this and if so, were you able to resolve it.

The crux of the issue is that when I try to open a camera from LabVIEW I get an Access Denied error. Things had been working fine up until last week. I suspect a Windows 10 update is what is causing this issue but I cannot seem to find a way to grant permissions to applications to be able to access the camera. I get this error with multiple cameras and they all work fine if I use the Windows Camera, or one of the approved applications to access the camera. So, this does not appear to be a driver issue.

I have submitted a support request to Microsoft regarding this issue and beyond the canned responses of "check your driver", run hardware diagnostics and the basic stuff they have been useless. In fact, when I have directly asked how to give applications of my choice access to the camera they simply stopped responding. I have Googled this same issue and it seems many others have encountered it. On the Microsoft forums those posts also get ignored by Microsoft.

Does anyone know how to give access to the cameras for specific applications. The Windows Privacy settings only provide a list of their applications and there is no way to add your own. I should also note that several other video applications that were working with the cameras also stopped working. They also report a access denied error.

I apologize for asking this question here as it is not necessarily a LabVIEW or NI specific issue. However I am completely blocked from working while this is happening and I am trying to find a resolution anywhere I can.

Thanks

[Kyle97330]

Can you provide more information about how you use the camera?  Is it just a USB device you connect to directly or is there some sort of ActiveX, .NET, or other DLL you use?

If in general you suspect a Windows update, can you try rolling back to an earlier build or uninstalling some of the incremental updates?  I do remember hearing that one came out very recently that was intended to be a patch for the recent CPU vulnerability you might have heard about, and that it was causing issues by changing various settings in Windows 10.

[Ben]

I can not offer any specifics but it almost smells like a security issue enforced the Anti-virus and security software.

The systems logs may reveal some hints... maybe.

Ben

[Mark_Yedinak]

I have tried with the laptops built-in USB camera as well as a Jevois Smart Machine Vision camera (really nice camera for low cost vision processing) that is a generic USB camera. Both cameras function fine if I use the Windows Camera application. I have tried disabling my virus scanner completely and that did not seem to change anything.

I haven't tried rolling back the last update. I will give that a try. However, I don't necessarily want to skip security patches and potentially leave myself vulnerable to something.

I would love how to find out how I can specify when applications have access or not. At the moment it looks like Windows wants to be the only one in control of that. 

[Ben]

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@Mark_Yedinak wrote:

I have tried with the laptops built-in USB camera as well as a Jevois Smart Machine Vision camera (really nice camera for low cost vision processing) that is a generic USB camera. Both cameras function fine if I use the Windows Camera application. I have tried disabling my virus scanner completely and that did not seem to change anything.

I haven't tried rolling back the last update. I will give that a try. However, I don't necessarily want to skip security patches and potentially leave myself vulnerable to something.

I would love how to find out how I can specify when applications have access or not. At the moment it looks like Windows wants to be the only one in control of that. 

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With all of the talk about applications taking over cameras to spy... it was only  mater of time until they "protect us from us".

Did you check the system logs? Sometime there will be a log entry speaking of failures to do something...

Sorry I can not be of more help,

Ben

[Mark_Yedinak]

System logs don't show anything. I checked that. I don't mind if there are settings to deny access or even if those are set to restrict access by default. All I ask is that I can change them and have control over the settings.

[Ben]

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@Mark_Yedinak wrote:

System logs don't show anything. I checked that. I don't mind if there are settings to deny access or even if those are set to restrict access by default. All I ask is that I can change them and have control over the settings.

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This link looks lively.

Ben

[Mark_Yedinak]

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@Ben wrote:

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@Mark_Yedinak wrote:

System logs don't show anything. I checked that. I don't mind if there are settings to deny access or even if those are set to restrict access by default. All I ask is that I can change them and have control over the settings.

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This link looks lively.

Ben

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Been there, done that. The issue with the privacy settings is that the only applications you can control are the ones Windows puts there. You can't add your own applications to the list.

[natasftw]

It sounds like the error I'd expect to see if the camera was open in MAX for quick configs and I left it open, forgetfully, before running the VI.

It looks like you're on the path to trying to reserve it for LV rather than whatever is using it.  Have you been able to try to force kill any processes that may be using the camera without your desire to see if that frees it up?