iPhone Continuity Camera goes black and disappears from device list (macOS Sequoia)

[dancumberland]

When using an iPhone as a camera via Continuity Camera, the preview goes black after a short time, and sometimes the iPhone disappears entirely from the camera device list. Restarting Cap temporarily restores it, but the issue recurs.

Environment

• Cap version: 0.4.3
• macOS version: 26.2 (Sequoia)
• iPhone: 14
• iOS version: 26.2.1

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open Cap
2. Select iPhone (via Continuity Camera) as the camera source
3. Camera preview works initially
4. After some time, preview goes black
5. Sometimes the iPhone disappears from the camera dropdown entirely

Potentially Related PRs

I noticed several camera fixes merged to main since 0.4.3:

• PR feat: Numerous camera fixes (pausing, stopping, UX bits, etc) #1391 - "Numerous camera fixes" - automatic reattachment on channel disconnection
• PR feat: Add camera preview timeout and improve camera cleanup #1436 - "Camera preview timeout and cleanup improvements"
• PR query for continuity camera properly #962 - "Query for continuity camera properly"

Request: Could a new release be published that includes these camera stability fixes?

[linear]

CAP-628

[tembo]

You've done good detective work identifying those PRs. Here's what I found:

All three PRs you mentioned are already in v0.4.3:

• PR query for continuity camera properly #962 (Continuity Camera detection) - merged September 1, 2025
• PR feat: Numerous camera fixes (pausing, stopping, UX bits, etc) #1391 (camera reconnection handling) - merged November 17, 2025
• PR feat: Add camera preview timeout and improve camera cleanup #1436 (camera preview timeout/cleanup) - merged December 7, 2025

However, there have been 25+ camera-related commits merged to main since v0.4.3 was released on January 15th. Several of these look directly relevant to your issue:

• 8381790 - fix(recording): clear camera feed senders on input removal - This specifically addresses cleanup when cameras disconnect
• 96adc4b - feat(desktop): add camera preview pause/resume and lifecycle management
• 447929f - feat(desktop): add camera window close gate and operation lock
• 82c35dd - feat(desktop): improve camera window cleanup and panel state handling
• d6c2d2b - Improve WebSocket state handling in camera preview

A draft release v0.4.5 exists (dated January 30) that should include these fixes. It hasn't been published yet.

In the meantime, if you're comfortable building from source, these fixes are available on the main branch. The camera feed management code is in crates/recording/src/feeds/camera.rs with a 4-second initialization timeout, and the preview rendering with 5-second startup timeout is in apps/desktop/src-tauri/src/camera.rs.