Taking webcam photos and screenshots with Prey
Pictures will be included in the reports you receive when marking your device as missing on your Prey account. From computers you will receive photos and screenshots, while from mobile devices you will only get photos.
Important note: There are specific cases in which privacy policies may be far more strict than others. Especially for Educational Institutions and Enterprise accounts. Hence this feature can be disabled on demand.
In the particular case of iOS, photos can’t be taken by an app alone without any user interaction. This is why we created a
Feel free to try this out by setting your device to
Troubleshooting
I am getting dark green or black pictures
If reports contain very dark pictures, it is possible that the webcam is covered or the device is in a dark room.
I am getting no pictures from my mobile device at all
In this case, it is highly likely that
I am getting no pictures from my computer at all
If this happens randomly and the camera isn’t broken, it is possible that the executable file that triggers the webcam isn’t working and needs a reboot. This can start working again at any moment, but if you’re using Prey as a control measure and have access to it, please try executing the following command:
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On Windows
Open a Command Prompt as Administrator and enter:
C:\Windows\Prey\current\lib\agent\providers\webcam\windows\prey-webcam.exe
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On OSX
Open a terminal and enter:
<gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15867861785401915802601">sudo</gwmw> -<gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-2" id="gwmw-15867861785406264625681">u</gwmw> prey /usr/local/lib/prey/current/lib/agent/providers/webcam/<gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15867861785404630292541">mac</gwmw>/<gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15867861785408137340576">imagesnap</gwmw> -w 1 /tmp/test.jpg
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On Ubuntu
Open a terminal and enter:
sudo -u prey /usr/lib/prey/current/lib/agent/providers/webcam/mac/imagesnap -w 1 /tmp/test.jpg
Photos should start arriving afterwards.
Friendly reminder
We only provide official Linux support for Ubuntu systems. It is only a tiny fraction of our users, and most of them run Ubuntu. Let us know if we can help you with anything else by reaching us at help@preyproject.com.