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Fix For OBS Virtual Camera Not Working In Discord On A Mac

Discord's auto-updates tend to break the ability to use the OBS virtual camera. This post offers two ways to fix the issue. The first is by running these two commands from the Terminal app:

The terminal commands listed on this page use `sudo``. That's the top administrator level that has ultimate control over a mac. It's dangerous to run a `sudo`` command you find on the internet unless you know exactly what it'll do. This terminal command uses `codesign``. You can find out more about it here before running it.

Code

sudo codesign --remove-signature \
"/Applications/Discord.app/Contents/Frameworks/Discord Helper (Renderer).app"

Code

sudo codesign --sign - \
"/Applications/Discord.app/Contents/Frameworks/Discord Helper (Renderer).app"

The second way is to create a script that's detailed in the "Double Click Script Fix" section below

Details

The OBS Virtual Camera often doesn't show up as one of the options in my Discord camera list. The problem usually occurs after an auto-update. It has to do with some of the security certificate signing that's required by apple. It's possible to fix this by removing the existing signature and re-signing with a new one.

Running the two commands in the TL;DR section do just that.

Double-Click Script Fix

Running the commands in the Terminal isn't that bad, but it's a little nicer to have something to double-click on. You can do that by saving this script to a file and setting it up so that it opens with the terminal when you double click on it.

discord-camera-fix.bash

#!/bin/bash 

sudo codesign --remove-signature \
"/Applications/Discord.app/Contents/Frameworks/Discord Helper (Renderer).app" \
&& \
sudo codesign --sign - \
"/Applications/Discord.app/Contents/Frameworks/Discord Helper (Renderer).app"

Here's some instructions on how to do run the file when you double-click it.

Other Stuff

Notes

  • Because `sudo`` is so powerful, it'll ask for your password before actually running the command

  • The paths to the "Discord Helper (Renderer).app" might change in the future. If they do, you'll need to replace them in the commands

  • You'll need to have some XCode tools installed before you can run these. They can be installed by running this command: `Xcode-select --install``

  • It's not just the OBS virtual camera that's the problem Discord tends to have problems with any non-native hardware after it updates. This same fix should work for most things

  • I originally got the details for this fix on the OBS Project Wiki. The page has since been moved or removed