Webcam Not Working on RDP - Easy Fix

Editorial Team Jul 24, 2023

You’ll need sufficient support to perform critical functions on peripheral devices when using remote desktops. For example, if you’re a remote worker, you should be familiar with peripheral devices like the webcam.

Over time, webcams have become a common and efficient method of communication between users in different locations. With the rise of remote work, peripheral devices have gained more popularity. Nonetheless, if the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) configurations aren’t perfectly in place, these devices can cause problems, especially accessing webcams on a remote desktop.

In this article, we’ll guide you on how to monitor RDP configurations easily.

Configuring the Remote Desktop Connection manager

The first thing to check is to verify that the Remote Desktop Connection Manager is correctly configured. If it isn’t, you won’t be able to get the webcam to work on remote desktop sessions.

Select Remote Desktop Connection.
Expand “Show Options”.
Navigate to the “Local Resources” tab and then click the “More…” button.
Expand the Video capture devices by selecting the + to the left and select the webcam that you want to use. Finally, click OK.
Furthermore, you can enable additional options like Other supported Plug and Play devices and the Device that I plug in later to create a seamless RDP session. Another reason why your webcam may stop working is because the GPO settings aren’t configured properly.

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Editing Group Policies

If the webcam is not showing up in remote desktop after the configuration has been verified, you may need to modify the Group Policy setting on your Windows machine.

1. On the PC you are connecting to, update the setting in Edit Group Policy as follows:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Device and Resource Redirection > Do not allow supported Plug and Play device redirection: Disabled

Do not allow supported PnP device redirection

2. Reboot the remote computer.

You also need to enable the following policy when connecting remotely to a physical workstation.

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Remote Session Environment > RemoteFX for Windows Server 2008 R2 > Configure RemoteFX: Enabled

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Checking the camera privacy settings

If you still can't use the webcam when connecting over RDP after making the preceding changes, you may need to look at the camera privacy settings.

Use the following steps to ensure the settings are correct on a remote Windows 11 computer.

Search for and open “Camera privacy settings”.
Allow access to the camera on your device and flip the "Let apps access your camera" switch.
Also, make sure that the "Let desktop apps access your camera" switch is enabled.

Note: You may also have to enable these settings on the local computer to resolve the problem of the webcam not passing through RDP.