USB Mic stops on Zoom on new Mac Studio

Question

USB Mic stops on Zoom on new Mac Studio

New Mac Studio M1

Blue Yeti USB Mic

Hosting meetings on Zoom, successfully, no issues for 4 months since connecting the Blue Yeti to one of the Mac Studio’s USB ports.

New issue: In last two long Zoom meetings, with me as host and main speaker, all of the sudden the other participants claim they cannot hear me through the mic.

Nothing has been touched. Have not touched the on/off button mounted on the mic, nor changed any Sound setting in System Prefs, nor knocked the usb cable loose at either the mic or port ends,

If I open Sys Prefs>Sound>Input, the Blue Yeti USB still is the only mic selected and when I speak into it, it still shows input registering on the ‘meter.’

Yet for some reason, the participants no longer hear me.

Zoom itself must still be running fine, because I can still see/hear all of them, and there have been no error messages coming from Zoom. And of course, I have not selected “Mute” in Zoom’s controls.

Unplugging/replugging the mic, checking the firmness of the connection, switching to a different input source then back again, none of that helps. So far the only untenable solution is to reboot the whole computer, which of course, hugely interrupts the Zoom meeting since I am the host.

Any ideas what causes this?

Posted on Jul 16, 2022 9:42 PM

Reply

Answer 1

K_Wall44

Community Specialist

Jul 18, 2022 8:01 AM in response to Rhythm Earthsong

Hi Rhythm Earthsong,

We'd love to assist you with your USB device. First, does the issue still occur when using the device outside of the Zoom application?

Does the issue occur when you connect a different device with a mic or does the mic on the Mac work while in Zoom?

Lastly, let's complete the steps listed here: If a USB device doesn’t work with Mac - Apple Support to resolve the issue.

Take care!

Reply

Answer 2

Jul 19, 2022 10:46 AM in response to Rhythm Earthsong

Hey Rhythm Earthsong,

Test this in a new user account to further isolate this and see if it’s related to a setting. This link guides you on how you can do this:

Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac

Also, see if adjusting the sound input settings have any impact on this as well:

Change the sound input settings on Mac

Take care.

Reply

Answer 3

Jul 19, 2022 10:16 AM in response to K_Wall44

I may have found the 'cause' of the problem.

As above, while hosting a Zoom meeting, I am using a Blue Yeti USB Mic.

I am also using a Logitech Webcam, also connected to my Mac Studio through another USB port

The Logitech has its own built in mic.

On Zoom there is a dropdown menu to choose which is your Audio input device (microphone) and both the Blue Yeti and the Logitech Brio show up as choices.

The Blue Yeti is automatically selected as the default mic as soon as I plug it in, and it works fine most of the session.

At some random point in the Zoom meeting, participants said my voice was stuck looping the same few words over & over.

It would appear the loop was caused by both the Blue Yeti and the Logitech mics being on at the same time.

However, I touched nothing, made no new selections, did not turn off the Yeti mic, did not call up the audio input selection and choose the Logitech instead, etc.

This means there is a system glitch or glitch in one of these 2 devices, that signals the Logitech's mic to turn on without any prompting from me.

It happened twice but then did not reoccur, so I have not actually had a chance to check that drop down menu in 'real-time' to see which devices are checked off in the Audio input menu. Would they both be checked...I don't know?

But that is the only reason I can find for an audio loop like this, and I wish I knew what random signal was originating, and from where, to trigger any change in the mic inputs without me doing anything.

Reply

USB Mic stops on Zoom on new Mac Studio

Similar questions