a way to use an exterior webcam with a closed MacBook

Apple has long provided a laptop choice if you happen to wish to use simply an external screen in mirrored mode and never view the interior display screen. that you can shut the clamshell lid, and your separate reveal continues to work. but what in case you wish to have external instruments energetic and don't want a monitor? One reader, as an example, wants to maintain a webcam active however shut their desktop's lid.

Apple doesn't supply a "headless' option, and that i can't discover third-celebration utility designed for customer fashions. It might possibly be undoable.

which you could keep the lid opened a bit bit and set it in order that its screen dims after a brief duration:

・In Monterey or prior, go to system Preferences > Battery, and in the vigor Adapter view, examine "evade your Mac from immediately dozing when the display is off."

・In Ventura, go to system Settings > displays, click on superior, and then allow "steer clear of computerized sleeping on vigour adapter when the display is off."

one more alternative is to connect a tiny, economical exterior monitor and set the same particulars as above. as an example, this $60 7-inch reveal designed for gaming and Raspberry methods would work.

it may seem to be a bit ridiculous to attach a $one hundred, 10-inch monitor to your multi-hundred or thousand-dollar-plus laptop to have it maintain working, but if it does the trick for what you want, your issue is solved. word you can't simply flip the vigour off on the external monitor: it'll appear as unavailable to macOS and change reveal manage back to the interior display.

This Mac 911 article is in line with a question submitted with the aid of Macworld reader Me.

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