Microphone works intermittently on video calls

Question

Level 1

8 points

Microphone works intermittently on video calls

On our 2016 MacBook running Big Sur and Chrome Browser, we've started to have intermittent microphone issues.

Sometimes, nobody can hear us at the beginning of a call. Sometimes folks stop hearing us after 5-10 minutes. This is reproducible fairly reliably on Zoom, sometimes on Duo, sometimes on Google Meet. It happens on every video call service we have tried, and with many different people on the other end.

Cannot trace this clearly to a system update or any other change to the computer, but we mostly only use chrome and have few other apps.

Any suggestions? This essentially makes the computer unusable for work.

Thank you!

Posted on Aug 6, 2021 7:41 PM

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Answer 1

SnickZ.

Community Specialist

Aug 7, 2021 1:51 PM in response to BrianSR7

Hi Brian,

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!

We are happy to help with the issue you are having with intermittent microphone issues. First you want to make sure you have installed all available updates for macOS. Learn How to update the software on your Mac here. Are you using the built in speakers?

Can you test a second browser like Safari? Does the same thing happen?

You can also try to Start up your Mac in safe mode and see if the same thing happens.

You might also want to create a new user and test there as well. Learn how to Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac here. Let us know exactly what happens when trying these steps.

We recommend you check for any profiles you might have installed and remove them if you do not recognize them. Check out the section "Remove a configuration profile from your Mac" in Use configuration profiles to standardize settings on Mac computers.

Cheers!

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Answer 2

jdo_apple

Community Specialist

Aug 13, 2021 8:44 AM in response to BrianSR7

Hi BrianSR7,

You are welcome. You should test in a completely new user. It would be a good to test FaceTime.

We recommend you try to Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac.

If the same thing happens across multiple users, and only with the third party apps, you would need to check with the developers of the apps. Learn How to contact an app developer here.

Good luck!

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Answer 3

BrianSR7 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 13, 2021 8:13 AM in response to SnickZ.

Thank you for helping.

The same thing happens in Safari - we tested. We have also tried this across multiple users and the same thing occurs, but there aren't any additional beside just myself and my wife. We'll try safe mode, but assuming we still see this issue, what else should we try?

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Microphone works intermittently on video calls

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