Bluetooth earbuds mic stops working after a few minutes

There is a potential solution: Check your Sound settings, Input, and look at the input volume for your BT earbuds. I was in a Zoom meeting and I saw that the mic volume decreased almost to ZERO. Hence, nobody could hear me. As soon as I increased the mic volume, everything was OK. This happened while I was in the meeting.

I solved the issue (at least with Zoom) by turning off the "Automatically adjust microphone volume" in Zoom Settings -> Audio.

I have the same issue with galaxy buds live+ and from what I figured when you go to the "System preferences > Sound" and select "input" tab you will notice that while you will be talking the "input volume" will slowly decrease to 0... when you move volume slider back to 100% you will be able to use your microphone from your headphones and ppl will hear you but it won't stop it from decreasing all over again...

This is because there is an app (eg: Zoom, Teams) that has the microphone auto-level enabled. Disabling this "feature" fixes the issue with the buds headset microphone being phased out.

The other issue stands though, where the bluetooth mouse (Logitech MX Master) will become laggy once I connected the bluetooth galaxy buds to the Mac. Maybe they are sharing the same channel or something, but this does NOT happen on a Windows machine with the same setup, so it seems as a Bluetooth bug in Monterey 12.2.x

Exactly. It seems to be an issue between MacOS and any other application that makes use of microphone and somehow applies a AGC effect (Auto Gain Control, or mic auto-level).

It is not exclusive to Zoom or Meet... It affects any program that takes input of the microphone.

I kept the Sound Preferences tab open while I was on a call (google meet) I could notice the input level slider decreasing every time I spoke on the mic. More specifically at the beginning of a sentence.

My opinion is that MacOS AGC might be conflicting with other applications AGC.

There are plenty of threads on Reddit where users report the same issue with other earbuds/headsets as well.

But there's an stackexchange topic that brings more details into the technical bits of the problem:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/430038/macos-monterey-bluetooth-mic-issues-when-mute-adjust-input-volume

brandt179,

Thanks for answering those questions. We'd like to narrow this down more.

Does the issue also happen in safe mode? How to use safe mode on your Mac

Did you have a chance to test the issue in other apps as well? If the issue only occurs in the Zoom and Google Meet apps, and they're already updated, we'd suggest reaching out to the app developers for further assistance: How to contact an app developer

Take care!

Good morning, I have a work around in place via a Chrome extension which disables microphone gain adjustment.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/97810/mac-osx-microphone-input-volume-level-auto-adjusts-can-it-be-disabled

It's this extension:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/disable-automatic-gain-co/clpapnmmlmecieknddelobgikompchkk

Works fine with Google meet, now I can use my bluetooth buds again.

But still a temporary fix, of course...

Hope Apple will fix this issue asap.

brandt179,

Thanks so much for letting us know more about the issue.

Just to confirm, do you show any available updates for the apps the issue is occurring with? Keep your Mac up to date

When the issue happens in the Zoom or Google Meet apps, do the applications ever seem to stop responding, or is the issue only with the microphone? If apps aren't working or responding as expected, these steps may help: If an app on your Mac stops responding, closes unexpectedly, or won’t open

Thank you!

I'm facing exactly same issues after I did the upgrade to Monterey. Even more, I have the same issues using other communication applications like Whatsapp and Viber.

During this issue with the microphone on my Galaxy Buds, if I switch to classic wired headphones, continuous working using that mic. Same is happening if I switch to the Mac mic/speakers - everything works good.

As additional note, everything with my Galaxy Buds works as expected with BigSur.

To remediate any mouse lag when using the Buds+, I ran the following command

sudo pkill bluetoothd

So far today, this has resolved the issue through five Zoom meetings. There has been no mouse lag.

I have the exact same issue. Galaxy Buds+ on MacOS Monterey 12.0.1. This issue did not happen on Big Sur.

Hi brandt179,

It seems like your Bluetooth headphones aren't working with your Mac as expected, is that correct? We'd love to help however we can.

To help us get a better understanding of the issue, we’d like to ask a few questions.

1. Do any errors appear prior to when the microphone stops working? If so, what does the error say?
2. Since you mentioned that this seemed to happen after updating, would you mind confirming the exact macOS version your device is running at this time? Find out which macOS your Mac is using
3. Since noticing this issue, have you had a chance to go through these steps? If a Bluetooth headset doesn’t work with Mac If so, did those steps help at all?
4. Does this only happen when using Zoom or Google Meet?

Thanks!

I have exactly the same problem. Updated yesterday to Monterey and now my Buds plus are loosing microphone functionality after 1 to 30 minutes, every time different. Very annoying! It is related to Monterey OS, I am 100% sure.

Apple please fix this for us, on Big Sur I have been working with the buds 9 hours a day. I need them for work!

Same issue, mic drops out after 1 minute in Zoom call. Seems to be the ambient microphones on the headphones themselves that are turned off, as ambient sounds are no longer transmitted to the ears either. Makes headset microphones useless, worked excellently one day prior, then Monterey update, no longer working.

That was the Issue. I will never ever proactively update my MacBook. It's clear this Issue was happening for months in beta versions. You can find people reporting the same behaviour. Apple was Ignoring it. Now I spend a day on fixing my mic on multiple calls. And again, there is no fix and even after release. Is the bug there by purpose? Is it because it's not AirPods?