CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascripthtmlgetusermedia
Tomáš Zato
Tomáš Zato

Reputation: 53255

NotReadableError: Failed to allocate videosource

I get this error in Firefox 51 when I try to execute the following code and when I select my laptop's camera:

navigator.getMedia = (navigator.getUserMedia ||
  navigator.webkitGetUserMedia ||
  navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia ||
  navigator.msGetUserMedia);

navigator.getMedia({
    video: true,
    audio: false
  },
  function(stream) {
    if (navigator.mozGetUserMedia) {
      video.mozSrcObject = stream;
    } else {
      var vendorURL = window.URL || window.webkitURL;
      video.src = vendorURL.createObjectURL(stream);
    }
    video.play();
  },
  function(err) {
    console.log("An error occured! " + err);
  }
);

Error:

NotReadableError: Failed to allocate videosource

Can someone elaborate what this means? Is my webcam broken? I used it from the script just yesterday without problems. It's not allocated to other application.

Upvotes: 34

Views: 69298

Answers (10)

octavn
octavn

Reputation: 3285

NotReadableError is the spec compliant error thrown by Firefox when webcam access is allowed but not possible.

Most commonly this happens on Windows because the webcam is already in use by another app. Firefox will throw this error on both Windows and Mac even though only on Windows processes get exclusive access to the webcam.

The error can happen for other reasons:

Although the user granted permission to use the matching devices, a hardware error occurred at the operating system, browser, or Web page level which prevented access to the device.

Chrome throws TrackStartError instead. It also throws it for other reasons. Chrome tabs can share the same device.

Source: common getUserMedia() errors .

Upvotes: 51

DXM
DXM

Reputation: 4543

Tl;dr; - Check device drivers for any "funny" camera drivers

I just spent an hour on a call with a user who kept hitting this error, no matter what we tried and that includes go down every answer to this question. And we found another cause which I will now add here for the next poor soul to stumble on this.

In his case, he had installed an app called ChromaCam (which I exited almost as a first diag step) and this app installs a device driver called "Personify Virtual Camera Universal" Web search for that driver name will show a whole bunch of people having camera problems and the solution seems to be somewhat universal: uninstall the device driver. He didn't even know what ChromaCam was or why it was on his laptop, so we removed it, uninstalled the driver and everything started working perfectly!

There was another person in a different thread who had similar problem and for him it was some custom HP (?? - I think that's what he said) camera driver instead of normal generic one that Windows would have chosen.

Upvotes: 1

Miku
Miku

Reputation: 597

There is another solution to this problem. I had it with camera not working in Firefox and Skype, but working with the Camera app.

The solution was to give access to camera for "classical apps" (I do not know how it's called in English). It is in the same place access can be given or taken for all other apps, just bellow them make sure the classical apps are allowed as well. And not just giving for the app in question, like Firefox, all classical apps need to have that enabled

Upvotes: 1

tmighty
tmighty

Reputation: 11399

The NonReadableError: Could not start video source is also thrown during a session (not local only!) if the camera change happens too quickly.

I don't know the solution yet, but I will edit my post accordingly once I got it.

Upvotes: 0

Shashank
Shashank

Reputation: 447

Please make sure your camera is not been used by some other application (chrome, ie or any other browser). I wasted half my day searching for a solution, and in the end, found out my camera was used by other application.

Upvotes: 16

Nihal Sargaiya
Nihal Sargaiya

Reputation: 79

I have searched everywhere for the solution at last found this. Basically in my case camera permission was turned on and Mozilla firefox can access web cam but chrome can't. Infact older versions of chrome like 74.x can use webcam but latest 84.x cannot. I thought the problem is with chrome but at last, I tried turning on my microphone access from windows 10 settings. Now chrome can access webcam too.

Solution: Please check you camera and microphone access both are turned on from windows settings.

Upvotes: 0

Yanjan. Kaf.
Yanjan. Kaf.

Reputation: 1755

If you are here after or in December 2019 i would like to tell you few things

  1. This feature navigator.getUserMedia() is deprecated.
  2. Successor of this feature in the browsers will be window.navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia.
  3. The new feature may not support in many browsers, since its still in the experiment mode few days ago chrome released its chrome 79 and its still not supporting in chrome 79 for me, and other than chrome and IE its working in all the browsers for me
  4. Here is a quick code 

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="ie=edge">
    <title>Jello</title>
    <style>
        video{
            width: 30%;
            height: auto;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <video autoplay controls></video>
    <button>Open Cam</button>
    <script>
    function getCam(){
        window.navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia({video:true}).then((stream)=>{
            // let videoTrack = stream.getVideoTracks()[0];
            // console.log(videoTrack);
            document.querySelector("video").srcObject = stream;
        }).catch(err=> console.log(err.name))
    }
    // getCam();
    document.querySelector("button").addEventListener("click", getCam);
    </script>
</body>
</html>

Edit => if you are using in windows 10 make sure give chrome access your microphone and camera, otherwise it won't work

Upvotes: 1

baptx
baptx

Reputation: 3906

The message getUserMedia() error: NotReadableError was displayed for Chromium but not Firefox web browser. I also noticed that WebRTC examples using getUserMedia function without microphone access worked correctly in Chromium.

In fact, I had to make sure my microphone is enabled and select the correct microphone in Chromium / Chrome settings. Then WebRTC with audio and video access worked correctly.

If it is not a microphone problem, it may also be a webcam problem so you have to make sure your webcam is enabled and selected correctly in Chromium / Chrome settings.

Note that only one app at a time can use the webcam / microphone.

Upvotes: 2

MartinM
MartinM

Reputation: 509

I've encountered same issue on Windows 10, no other apps using my video device. The problem was that in Windows 10 in Settings->App permissions (in left column) there is a setting for microphone and camera (Allow apps to access your mic/camera) which needs to be turned on. It does not matter that you don't find your browser in app list below this setting, just enable it here and voila.

Upvotes: 6

Pierre
Pierre

Reputation: 263

Can someone elaborate what this means? Is my webcam broken? I used it from the script just yesterday without problems. It's not allocated to other application.

I've encountered exactly the same issue!

Shame on me! Because, in the meantime I'd added a beforeunload event, including the event.preventDefault as reported in the example.

After removing this event.preventDefault, everything worked fine - as expected.

Upvotes: 0

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