What is corecaptured?

corecaptured appears in Activity Monitor when you use the camera or record your screen.

What is corecaptured?

corecaptured is the Core Capture daemon. It manages capture sessions on macOS, both camera and screen capture. It makes sure hardware is properly shared between apps and released when no longer needed.

What does it work with?

• Camera capture: linking camera hardware to apps that want video
• Screen capture: managing screen recording for apps with recording permission
• Continuity Camera: using your iPhone as a webcam
• Screen sharing: providing video for screen sharing sessions

How does it fit into the camera system?

The camera system on macOS has several layers:

1. Hardware driver (appleh13camerad / appleh16camerad) talks to the sensor
2. VDCAssistant makes the camera available as a device
3. corecaptured manages capture sessions and resource sharing
4. Apps (FaceTime, Zoom, and others) use the video

corecaptured sits in the middle. It makes sure the camera is properly freed when an app closes or crashes.

Does it use many resources?

During active sessions (video calls, screen recording), it uses a fair amount of CPU. When nothing is being captured, it sits idle.

Should you worry?

No. It is a standard macOS process. If it is running when you are not using the camera or recording, check which app has started a capture session.

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