Sometimes our USB range of devices will function better on certain USB ports of Mac systems when using video calling software.

Macs that have an iSight camera, will share the USB bandwidth of one port with the iSight. This can cause problems when using video calling applications like Skype or FaceTime. Therefore we recommend that our USB interfaces should be plugged into another USB port, in order to get the best performance.

You can check which port to use by checking in the System Profiler / System Report application of your Mac. Under the USB header, you can check whether your interface is on the same USB bus as the iSight camera. If it is, then simply move it to another available USB port. As per usual, we don't recommend the use of external USB hubs with our products.

Most Macbook Pro models share the port closest to the screen with the iSight camera, so with these Macs we recommend using any other available port. This is not always the case though, so it's still worth checking on your particular Mac.

Here is an example of the correct way the USB interface should be listed in System Profiler / System Report:

This applies to all of our USB interfaces including the Scarlett range, the Saffire 6 USB and the VRM Box.

Further to Skype and Facetime, this info is relevant if you are experiencing issues with any other software that may be utilising the built-in camera (e.g. Quicktime).

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us through our Support Contact form and we will be happy to help.