Why the Respondus webcam check fails
LockDown Browser (and Respondus Monitor, which records you through it) needs the camera to itself. Respondus’s help center traces most failures to three causes:
- A blank picture: webcam utilities, virtual camera software or security software. Respondus lists Cyberlink YouCam, OBS Virtualcam, ManyCam, DroidCam, Camo Studio, ArcSoft Webcam Sharing Manager and webcam splitters, and states that virtual cameras aren’t supported. Uninstall the utility on Windows (Control Panel, Programs, Uninstall a program), or quit it in Activity Monitor on a Mac. Antivirus camera protection can do the same: pause it for the exam and turn it back on afterwards.
- A spinning wheel: another program, a background process or a privacy setting is keeping the camera from LockDown Browser. On Windows 11, open the camera privacy settings, turn on Let desktop apps access your camera and check that LockDown Browser is listed. Then close whatever holds the camera: press Ctrl + Shift + Esc for Task Manager, or open Activity Monitor on a Mac.
- No camera detected: update LockDown Browser (the i icon in its toolbar, then the button that checks for a new version), restart, and close background apps; Respondus names Dropbox, Skype, messaging clients and Spotify. If a camera driver update started the trouble, roll it back. Respondus’s last suggestion is an external USB webcam.
Using this page first
The checklist above can’t run inside LockDown Browser, but it answers the questions that come before it. Does the camera send a live picture at all? Is it the real camera, or a name that looks like a virtual camera or splitter? Is your face lit and inside the frame for Respondus Monitor’s recording? A camera that shows no picture here won’t show one there either. If the picture works here and the Respondus check still stays blank, the camera itself is fine: look at permissions, another app holding the camera, or the software Respondus names, meaning webcam utilities, virtual-camera software or security software installed on the computer.
At the time of writing (September 2026), Respondus supports Windows 10 and 11, macOS 12 or later, iPadOS 15 or later and Chromebooks, with a built-in or external web camera and a broadband connection. It doesn’t publish a minimum resolution, so the resolution line uses a general 640×480.
Before the exam
Open LockDown Browser, go to a course and use the Help Center icon to run the System Check and the Webcam Check; the change my webcam link there switches cameras. Respondus says never to choose anything labeled splitter or filter. Then close this tab so the camera is free.
Check your microphone as well. Taking an exam with another service? See the Honorlock check or the Proctorio check.