Flutter macOS Duplicate Camera Plugin Fix

Problem

Flutter macOS builds fail when both camera_macos and camera_macos_plus packages are present in pubspec.yaml. Both packages define the same CameraMacosPlugin class, causing Swift registration ambiguity.

Context / Trigger Conditions

Error message:

Ambiguous use of 'CameraMacosPlugin.register(with:)'

Symptoms:

• macOS build fails during Swift compilation
• iOS build may still succeed (different plugin implementations)
• Error occurs in the generated plugin registration code
• May be accompanied by Xcode build system crashes or "stat cache file not found" errors

Common scenarios:

• Project has camera_macos for basic camera support
• Added camera_macos_plus for additional features
• Transitive dependency pulled in duplicate plugin
• Copied pubspec.yaml from another project with different camera requirements

Solution

1. Identify the duplicates - Check pubspec.yaml for both packages:

   # Look for these:
   camera_macos: ^0.0.9
   camera_macos_plus: ^0.0.3
   

2. Choose one to keep - camera_macos_plus is generally preferred as it's a more feature-complete fork of camera_macos

3. Remove the duplicate from pubspec.yaml:

   # Keep only one:
   camera_macos_plus: ^0.0.3  # macOS camera support
   

4. Clean thoroughly - The Xcode build system may be in a corrupted state:

   flutter clean
   rm -rf build/
   rm -rf macos/Pods/
   rm -f macos/Podfile.lock
   rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Runner-*
   flutter pub get
   

5. Rebuild:

   flutter build macos
   

Verification

After the fix:

• flutter build macos completes successfully
• No "Ambiguous use" errors in build output
• The macOS app launches and camera functionality works

Example

Before (broken):

dependencies:
  camera_macos_plus: ^0.0.3
  divine_camera:
    path: packages/divine_camera
  camera_macos: ^0.0.9  # DUPLICATE - causes conflict

After (fixed):

dependencies:
  camera_macos_plus: ^0.0.3  # macOS camera support (replaces camera_macos)
  divine_camera:
    path: packages/divine_camera
  # camera_macos removed

Notes

• camera_macos_plus is a community fork with additional features
• If you specifically need camera_macos instead, remove camera_macos_plus
• Check transitive dependencies with flutter pub deps if duplicates reappear
• The Xcode build system can get into corrupted states after this error; thorough cleaning (including DerivedData) may be required
• This is specific to macOS - iOS uses different camera plugin implementations

References

• camera_macos_plus on pub.dev
• camera_macos on pub.dev
• Flutter macOS plugin registration