MacBook M1 camera grainy after upgrade to macOS 15.1

5 min read Original article ↗

After the upgrade from 15.0.1 to 15.1 yesterday, the video from the built-in camera on my M1 Max MacBook Pro 16“ has become extremely grainy. It’s definitely related to the macOS upgrade. I had several video calls just before the upgrade, and everything looked fine. However, immediately after the upgrade, the video is almost unusable.

I’ve confirmed that this issue is also affecting some other M1 Mac users. Could you please verify if you’re experiencing the same problem on your devices? It seems that primarily M1 series MacBooks are affected.

I confirm, I have the same on my Macbook Pro M1 Pro and on my mom's Macbook Air M1.

It's happening on my M1 Pro Macbook 14''. It was working fine before the upgrade.

I recorded a short YT video to illustrate the issue. Apologies for the quality, I'm not a professional youtuber, so treat this just as an amateur video to show the problem.

the same for me (MBP 14 M1 Pro)

I would expect that to be fixable. Has anyone tried the 15.2 Beta?

I recorded a short YT video to illustrate the issue. Apologies for the quality, I'm not a professional youtuber, so treat this just as an amateur video to show the problem.

Good work @Mikolaj this is very helpful and it's exactly what is happening on my end.

It's happening for me as well.

@Mikolaj Just curious if you reported it to Apple with the video?

I filed a report, but didn't make a video.

It's happening for me as well.

@Mikolaj Just curious if you reported it to Apple with the video?

I filed a report, but didn't make a video.

Yes @Mikolaj It will help if you file a report with your video, I also reported it btw @brerlappin

@svn-mac , @brerlappin ,

Happy to do so, but need some guidance where to start.

I found the Feedback page, but it doesn't support attachments, if I'm not mistaken.

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I am also having the same issue 😢

@svn-mac , @brerlappin ,

Happy to do so, but need some guidance where to start.

I found the Feedback page, but it doesn't support attachments, if I'm not mistaken.

@Mikolaj You can search for an app called Feedback Assistant on your Mac, it is one of the pre-installed apps these days. You can go ahead create a report within that app and add the necessary information.

After the upgrade from 15.0.1 to 15.1 yesterday, the video from the built-in camera on my M1 Max MacBook Pro 16“ has become extremely grainy. It’s definitely related to the macOS upgrade. I had several video calls just before the upgrade, and everything looked fine. However, immediately after the upgrade, the video is almost unusable.

I’ve confirmed that this issue is also affecting some other M1 Mac users. Could you please verify if you’re experiencing the same problem on your devices? It seems that primarily M1 series MacBooks are affected.

Exactly the same issue here... MBP16 M1 Max

@randomgeeza,
can you, please, report this to Apple via Feedback Assistance? We need to make them aware of this issue, if we want it to be fixed.

@randomgeeza,
can you, please, report this to Apple via Feedback Assistance? We need to make them aware of this issue, if we want it to be fixed.

Yes I have done patch will come in a week or 2.

Bring back Bertrand Serlet.

Yea mee too. It feels like a 2015 webcam now.

I reported it too, hopefully a fix will come soon

I actually quite like it, and I hope it was intentional! A slightly noisy image is way better than soapy nonsense. It's the way it used to be on some older models. I'm all for a setting of some kind of course since people here tend to have a different opinion

i have same issue, on MBP14 2021

Same here (m1 macbook pro), and it feels to me more like the previous version of the camera had a heavy smoothing filter that got rid of the noise and this is just the "raw feed". It's annoying mostly on the darker areas in backgrounds because the dots dance like crazy, but I sort of prefer it on faces, it feels more real.

After the upgrade from 15.0.1 to 15.1 yesterday, the video from the built-in camera on my M1 Max MacBook Pro 16“ has become extremely grainy. It’s definitely related to the macOS upgrade. I had several video calls just before the upgrade, and everything looked fine. However, immediately after the upgrade, the video is almost unusable.

I’ve confirmed that this issue is also affecting some other M1 Mac users. Could you please verify if you’re experiencing the same problem on your devices? It seems that primarily M1 series MacBooks are affected.

Facing same issue after update

Does anyone know if this is fixed in the macos 15.2 beta?

Happening on my MBP 16 M1 Max running 15.1 too. Really annoying.