Teams camera will stop working mid meeting

Hi @Maria 

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum. 

Thank you so much for reaching out, and I’m really sorry you’ve had to deal with your camera freezing during meetings recently. I know how disruptive that can be, especially when you’re in the middle of an important call and suddenly need to restart everything just to get video working again. 

Based on your description, the camera freezing issue in Teams could be due to several underlying causes, such as driver issues, hardware acceleration conflicts, or local cache errors. Below are a few steps that have helped other customers resolve the issue and get their cameras working properly again: 

1/ Update your camera driver 

Outdated or corrupted camera drivers are one of the most common triggers for the camera freezing mid‑meeting. Updating the driver often stabilizes the video feed.  

• Open Device Manager (type in the Search bar) 
• Expand Cameras 
• Right‑click your camera/webcam > Choose Properties 
• Go to Driver tab > Update driver 

2/ Turn off GPU Hardware Acceleration in Teams 

We’ve seen situations where Teams’ GPU processing conflicts with webcam output, leading to a freeze. Disabling this setting has been a reliable fix for many users. 

• Open Teams > Settings > General 
• Enable Disable GPU hardware acceleration 
• Restart Teams 

For more information, please refer to the following link:" 

• MS Teams Freezing When Camera Sharing Starts - Here are the fixes 
• Teams crashes or freezes when turning on camera 

Please note that this information is being provided by the moderator solely for your convenience. The referenced sites are not managed or overseen by the moderator, and therefore we cannot guarantee the accuracy, security, or suitability of any software or content available there. We recommend reviewing all information carefully and ensuring you understand any associated risks before following suggestions from the provided link. 

3/ Turn off “Soft Focus” and “Adjust Brightness” 

Some users found that these enhancements caused the camera feed to freeze unexpectedly. Switching them off can improve stability. 

Go to: Teams > Settings > Devices > Camera 

4/ Clear your Teams cache 

If some of the local cache files become corrupted, it can cause the camera to blank out or freeze during meetings. Clearing the cache forces Teams to rebuild clean data.  

You can find more details here: Clear the Teams client cache - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn 

Note: I appreciate your understanding regarding the scope of support available through this forum. As moderators, my role is to provide general guidance and assist with common troubleshooting steps. While I do not have access to internal systems or administrative tools required to resolve account-specific or backend-related issues but I’ll continue doing our best to support you within the scope of our responsibilities.   

I hope this information is useful. As other users will also be searching for guidance in this community, clicking “Accept Answer” would be a wonderful way to amplify your impact. Your action not only helps others with similar questions find the right solution faster, it also highlights your role in shaping a more helpful and informed community.    

Thank you again for your time and for raising this important usability concern. If you have any further questions or need additional assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out. 

I look forward to your thoughts on this.

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If your camera in Microsoft Teams is freezing or going blank during meetings, there are several troubleshooting steps you can take to resolve the issue:

1. Check Camera Connection: Ensure that your camera is properly connected to your device. If it's a USB camera, try unplugging and re-plugging it.
2. Update Drivers: Make sure that your camera drivers are up to date. Outdated drivers can cause performance issues.
3. Disable Frame Server Mode: There is a registry key that can help resolve webcam issues by disabling Frame Server Mode, which may interfere with camera functionality. You can set the registry key EnableFrameServerMode to 0. Remember to reboot your system after making this change.
4. Check for USB Issues: If you are using a USB extender, try connecting the camera directly to the computer instead. Sometimes, USB extenders can cause connectivity problems.
5. Test in Other Applications: Verify if the camera works in other applications. If it does, the issue may be specific to Teams.
6. Reinstall Teams: If the problem persists, consider reinstalling the Teams application to ensure you have the latest version and that all components are functioning correctly.

If none of these steps resolve the issue, it may be beneficial to reach out to Microsoft support or your hardware manufacturer for further assistance.

References:

• Camera fails in Teams - Microsoft Q&A
• Known issues with Teams Rooms on Windows