MacOS Big Sur Safari 14 Google Meet wired EarPods poor audio

Hey there cshaddock,

It appears that you are experiencing some issues with using Google Meets in Safari on both your Mac as well as your wife. We would love to assist you with resolving this issue.

Let's try testing out Google Meets in Safari when starting the Mac up in safe mode: How to use safe mode on your Mac

You can also check out the Google Meet Support section of Google Support: Google Meet Help

If the issue continues and no troubleshooting is working, you can consider backing up both Macs and reinstalling the macOS using the steps below:

• • How to back up your Mac
  • How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery

Hope these resources you out!

Best wishes to you and your wife.

As a workaround, this issue appears to be resolved in the latest Safari Technology Preview.

I used google meet with Release 116 and did not experience any problems.

https://developer.apple.com/safari/technology-preview/

What worked for me is to install Safari Technology Preview.

https://developer.apple.com/safari/download/

Install the second one, it's for free. It solved the crackles. However as it is a separate browser, you will need to re-log in to everything. (I didn't want to use Chrome as it is slow.)

I think they will later solve it in the main Safari also.

Unfortunately, a clean install of Big Sur did not fix the problem.

My method:

• start up the MacBook Pro 13" i7 in Recovery mode
• Delete Macintosh HD
• Re-Install Big Sur
• Start Google Meet inside Safari

My findings:

• Audio-In seems to work fine. This means conference attendees are able to hear me crystal clear.
• Audio-Out is distorted and crackly. That means I am unable to understand anything anyone is saying.

My solution as previously mentioned by others above:

• Use Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, etc. They all work fine.

My Conclusion:

• This is a Safari bug. :-(

My ask:

• apple please help!

# Correction

I've had the meet.google.com window open in the background for about 10 minutes. For some reason the audio problems have fixed themselves. I'm not sure why this would be the case but everything is running fine now.

# Question to the crowd:

Could anyone else confirm leaving the session open eventually leads to clean audio?

EXACTLY the same problem here also, same setup. My findings:

• Audio-In seems to work fine. This means conference attendees are able to hear me crystal clear.
• Audio-Out is distorted and crackly. That means I am unable to understand anything anyone is saying.

Same problem here. I originally thought this was a problem with the bitrate that the audio is broadcast as and I started messing about with the audio output settings in Audio MIDI Setup. This was a bit hit and miss and I've come to the conclusion that this doesn't have any effect.

This definitely seems to be a Safari bug since Chrome does not exhibit this problem.

I've experienced issues using the following audio output devices:

• Apple iPhone headset earphone connected directly to the headphone socket of my 2020 MacBook Pro
• Desktop speakers connected via optical out of my CalDigit TS3+ dock
• Desktop speakers connected via Bluetooth
• Apple 27" Thunderbolt Display

No issues at all when using Chrome for Google Meet or other web-based VoIP services. Lots of issues in Safari. No issues when using Zoom directly.

Steve

I've had fewer problems with this since I installed the macOS 11.1 update. In fact, I don't think I've had any issues since upgrading to macOS 11.1 on my 2020 13" MacBook Pro. I'm now on macOS 11.2 now and can't say I've noticed any issues at all.

I don't know if it makes any difference but I find changing the output format in Audio MIDI Setup improves things for me. I'm using a pair of quality hi-fi speakers connected via the optical output on my CalDigit Thunderbolt dock and these are the settings I'm using:

Might be worth having a play with these settings in Audio MIDI Setup, depending on the input/output device you're using for your Google Meet meetings. Google Meet does seem to exhibit more audio issues than most other remote meeting products I've encountered. I use Zoom daily with no issues. Somebody else suggested disabling IPv6.

Steve

We are experiencing the same issue. Our company runs tons of scheduled Google Meet events throughout the course of each week and it has been a complete nightmare. We have exactly the same issue as described above. Apple needs to solve this ASAP.

I too am having the same issue with Safari and Google Meet. I'll try doing a clean install of Big Sur. See if that helps.

For me the audio crackling happens with or without a headset, using safari and the internal microphone and speaker of my MacBook Pro 2020 13" (Intel-i7).

Sound in Safari is cracky, Chrome is ok. Basically the same as others.

But the weird part is, that it looks like to be related to speaking person.

In Safari, sound is always cracking at the beginning while using google meet. When person A starts talking, it's cracking for a while, and then it suddenly stops and I can hear clearly the person A. But then when person A starts conversation with person B, I can clearly hear person A, but I can hear just cracking from person B.

Experiencing the same issue here. I have noticed that after 30 seconds to a minute though, it miraculously resolves itself. Other people on the call can here me fine. Almost sounds like a crackling Dalek sound :-).

Chrome is fine and I am running the latest Big Sur (11.0.1) and Safari Version 14.0.1 (16610.2.11.51.8) on my 2019 16" MacBook Pro.

Exact same audio issues. I was not sure what the problem was and initially thought it was with the other participants. I use 2 different platforms (doxyme and phone.com) for tele conferencing and when I found issues with both I realized it was probably due to the Big Sur update. With doxyme audio would sometimes resolve after 30 seconds to 1 minute but not always. I switched browser to chrome and had have zero issues. I am just waiting for the bug to be fixed with Safari.

I have had the exact same issue since upgrading to Big Sur - when using Google Meet in Safari, the first 30 seconds or so the sound is unintelligible, and then it miraculously fixes itself - this is the same whether I use wired or wireless headphones or the internal MacBook speakers. This isn't unique to Google Meet - I just used a site called SchoolCloud (which is used for online parent/teacher conferences at my sons' school) and had the same problem. If I use Chrome, I have no issues at all. Clearly, I'll be doing that until Apple fix this!

I have a MacBook Pro 2020, 13 inch, 32Gb Ram, i7 2.3Ghz Quad-Core, running Big Sur 11.0.1, and I have 350Mbps fibre broadband. (ie this is not a system or network performance issue)

Same here. Its happening since the first public beta of BigSur in the worst moment ever. A lot of people around the world need it working properly to keep there work by distance. Please, fix this ASAP.

I am having same issue with safari , any google meet or even blackboard collaboration, the audio is all static in Safari . if i use chrome or firefox there is no issue. Someone please help me solve it. I do not wanna use Chrome.