Question
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Topic
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Webcam on older Mac
I am looking for assistance on getting an integrated WebCam to work on an older Mac. My parents are in their 80s and I would love to be able to video chat with them while they are stuck at home. They are a 5 hour drive away but I drove to their house yesterday to take a look at their computer to see if we can set it up for zoom. My mother was at one time fairly tech savvy but is at the point where she can’t remember passwords and is not a great source of information when it comes to her computer. I think her Mac is from 2009? And I have no idea if she’s ever even updated the operating system. My father barely uses email so he is not much help. I sent her a Zoom link via Gmail and she was able to click on that link and view zoom in her browser but her WebCam did not fire up. Her video icon had a red slash through it as did mine, even though on my end my video was enabled. I took a quick look through Settings but couldn’t find an intuitive way to troubleshoot the problem. I have used Microsoft products for most of my life and I’m not familiar with macs.
Also they do not have Wi-Fi so she plugs her computer directly into the wall (ikr???) I am considering sending them a Chromebook and an ethernet splitter so that we can use that. But I think an additional product to deal with will be very confusing for them to set up and there’s nobody there to help them with it. Possibly a VERY simple plug and play web cam would work? I took a few photos of her computer but I am not sure how to add them to this post. If I can I will.
I would be very appreciative of any help that you can provide. While I was there we did a Zoom chat with the rest of the family with my computer and that finally convinced them of the value of video chats, so at least that hurtle has been cleared.
