Troubleshooting USB Webcam or PiCam Not Being Shown in SimplyPrint

This guide will help you troubleshoot the issue of your USB webcam or PiCam not being shown inside SimplyPrint. Before diving into the specific steps for OctoPrint, Mainsail, or Fluidd, it's important to verify that your SimplyPrint gateway is set up correctly.

For OctoPrint-powered printers (if you don't know what OctoPrint is; you're probably using it), the issue is most often the lack of the "Snapshot URL" setting; while the webcam stream in OctoPrint might work, this does not mean the stream in SimplyPrint will, as we don't use the OctoPrint "mjpeg"-livestream, but rather take a series of pictures ("snapshots") from the camera instead. Keep reading to learn more.

Step 1: Check the SimplyPrint Gateway

First, ensure that you're using one of the following platforms as your SimplyPrint gateway:

OctoPrint
Mainsail or Fluidd (Moonraker powered)

If the webcam is working in your chosen gateway, it should also work in SimplyPrint. If the webcam is not working in the gateway, follow the appropriate troubleshooting steps for your platform.

Troubleshooting camera not working for OctoPrint

For OctoPrint, we use the "Snapshot URL" setting within the OctoPrint > Webcam settings to take a picture, and send that picture to SimplyPrint.
Your camera needs to be an "MJPEG"-supported camera, that can produce a single snapshot.

This section requires you to access OctoPrint: don't know how to? You gotta go to the Raspberry Pi's / OctoPrint's IP address in your browser. See how to find the IP address here: https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/find-the-ip-of-your-raspberry-pi-t2318c/

First step: check the OctoPrint > Settings > Webcam > Snapshot URL:
Is the snapshot URL set? If not, the value would usually be; http://localhost:8080/?action=snapshot, or http://[local-ip-of-device]/?action=snapshot
If the value is not set in the OctoPrint settings, try setting it. More here: https://community.octoprint.org/t/what-are-the-default-webcam-urls-in-octoprint-on-octopi/208

Second step: ensure the Snapshot URL works:
By the Snapshot URL setting inside OctoPrint, there's a "Test" button. When you click this, it'll either keep spinning - indicating an issue - or show a snapshot (a picture) from the webcam. If it shows a picture; you're good to go! If not; this means that when the SimplyPrint plugin tries to grab a snapshot from the webcam to show you within our platform, it also won't work.
OBS: make sure you don't put the " ?action=streaming " URL in the Snapshot URL field; that won't work.

If you're still having issues, we recommend going through the OctoPrint setup again, or seeking help in the OctoPrint community (https://community.octoprint.org/), as this is not directly an issue with the SimplyPrint software, and therefore a bit out of the scope of our services.

Other steps to try:
Verify that the webcam is correctly connected to the Raspberry Pi or whichever device you're using
Check if the webcam is supported by OctoPrint. A list of compatible webcams can be found here.
Ensure that the octopi.txt configuration file has the correct settings for your webcam. Follow the instructions in the quoted section below for setting up the camera for OctoPrint on a Raspberry Pi.
Restart the OctoPrint service using the following command: sudo service octoprint restart

Once OctoPi’s up and running, it’s time to move to the webcam. Here’s how to configure OctoPrint to use the correct settings for your webcam.

Locate a file named “octopi.txt” in the boot partition and open it using a text editor such as Notepad++ on Windows. If you’re running MacOS, open “octopi.txt” with TextEdit and go to “TextEdit > Preferences” at the top left of the screen. Select “Plain text” and uncheck “Smart quotes” before editing the file.
After opening the file, uncomment the line camera_usb_options="-r 640x480 -f 15" by removing the # symbol in front of it.
Replace the -r 640x480 -f 15 with the settings that are specific to your webcam model. You can look at the settings in the OctoPrint camera guide.

Uncomment the lines at the bottom of “octopi.txt” file by removing the ‘#’ in front of them and edit them to read as follows:

camera_http_weroot=''./www"
camera_http_options=""

Insert the SD card in the Raspberry Pi and connect the webcam to it. Once you’re through the setup process, you can see the webcam feed under the Control tab of OctoPrint’s interface.
Refer to the quoted section below for webcam troubleshooting steps in OctoPrint:

In theory, things should work. In practice, sometimes they fail. Here are some steps to follow in case your webcam doesn’t show up on OctoPrint:

Double-check your webcam model and make sure that it’s listed as compatible with OctoPrint. Note that the PlayStation Eye isn’t.
If your webcam is compatible and is still not working, try plugging it into a different computer to make sure it works. If it doesn’t, you should try another webcam.
If the above steps don’t work, open OctoPrint through the web browser and click on “Settings”. Next click “Webcam & Timelapse”. Make sure that “Enable webcam support” is checked, and try changing the aspect ratio and press “Save” to see if that fixed the issue.

You can also try plugging the webcam into a different USB port on the Raspberry Pi.
And last, perhaps the most obvious troubleshooting tip to try is to restart the Raspberry Pi, which can also be done in safe mode. To restart in safe mode all you need to do is click the power button at the top of the web interface, and you should see “Restart OctoPrint in safe mode”.

Troubleshooting Mainsail or Fluidd (Moonraker-powered)

Do you have a newer Creality printer, like the K1/K2? You may need to enable the camera module; https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/creality-k1-k1c-k1-max-camera-not-working-how-to-fix-1fvuuz4/

Verify that the webcam is correctly connected to the Raspberry Pi.

Check if the webcam is supported by Mainsail or Fluidd. A list of compatible webcams can be found here.

Ensure that the moonraker.conf configuration file has the correct settings for your webcam. For Mainsail, refer to the Mainsail Webcam Configuration Guide and make sure the "Snapshot URL" is set up correctly. For Fluidd, follow the Fluidd Webcam Configuration Guide and ensure that the "snapshot url" is set.

Restart the Moonraker service using the following command:

sudo systemctl restart moonraker

If you have followed the appropriate troubleshooting steps for your platform and your webcam is still not working in SimplyPrint, please contact our support team for further assistance.

Updated on: 31/03/2025