For many of us, BYOD (bring your own device) means having the flexibility and choice of your “daily driver”. Well, what if you want to connect a couple of monitors, docking station, and an external camera to that machine? You start a webex, only to find that your nice, new USB camera is showing a black screen!!! “Wait a minute, is it using the built in camera???” you wonder as you open the lid, and then you force yourself to use said camera and give the audience your best side/sideways/upside-down view!!! If this has happened to you, then check out this guide to learn how to change your default camera to your external camera.
Full credit for this knowledge goes to VMware’s knowledge base. (Here’s the link). I will summize it in a TL:DR below. There are also links to linux and windows instructions to be found there. Thanks VMWare!!!!
How I did this:
- Open terminal, and do
cd ~/Library/Logs/VMware/ - do
ls -lart vmare-RTAV*, and note the name of the last file listed. This is the file you want to look at. - do
cat vmware-RTAV-17903.log | grep Name= | grep Camera, replace that number with the name you got from the last step. You should now know the name of your external camera! (Mine was USB Camera #4) - do
defaults write com.vmware.rtav srcWCamId "USB Camera #4" - Exit Vmware Horizon, and re-launch it. Now, your external camera will be the default, and you can keep your laptop closed!!!