MacBook keeps using my iPhone as a mic

3 settings can provide a solution to this issue on Ventura:

• on iPhone/settings:
  • airplay -> handoff -> camera continuity (turn it off)
  • phone -> calls on other devices (turn it off)
• on MacBook/system settings
  • Sound -> Input -> delete iPhone from the list. Note that your iPhone will not appear in this list if camera continuity has been turned off on the iPhone. 

Another option if the above does not work:

• on MacBook/system settings
  • security and privacy
    • uncheck all the apps that access your microphone. The next time you use the apps it will force them to reset to use the internal microphone.

The way the camera continuity “feature” “works” is through your AppleID and Bluetooth. So, turning off Bluetooth during video calls on the Macbook is another option, albeit inconvenient. A combination of all these things worked for me when I ran Ventura. The big problem came after I upgraded to Sonoma. On Sonoma, I can be on a video call, and suddenly, the person on the other side cannot hear me. I then get this error in a popup box on my Macbook: “Audio Disconnected: ‘My iPhone’ microphone is not available.” So frustrating! Apple is stealing my mic even when it knows it can’t connect to it!

I’ve had 3 different calls with Apple about this, and the last thing they told me was to reproduce it with Facetime since Facetime is an Apple app. If I can’t reproduce the behavior with Facetime, it would indicate that the third-party applications have not yet updated to the changes in Sonoma. That is a pretty frustrating answer since if the third-party app behaved correctly with “camera continuity” turned off on Ventura, one could reasonably expect it to behave similarly with Sonoma.

It's hard to imagine the use case for a "feature" that cuts off voice sound in the middle of a video conference call. Apparently this "feature" is created for people who have Mac Minis or are influencers or others who need the extra resolution of the iphone camera and don't want to manually move to it. If you would like to let Apple know how frustrating this behavior is for the rest of us, here is the link to give feedback to Apple: Product Feedback - Apple

I just tried this from another thread and I’m hoping it works!

Remove the Continuity Camera feature: on iPhone to go General > AirPlay & Handoff > deselect Continuity Camera

It is an issue that is associated with the new camera continuity feature on Ventura. You can now set your iPhone to be used as a microphone for your Mac. I was dealing with this as well and ran into the same issue you were having 1-2x an hour. This article explains how you can disconnect your iPhone from this feature. https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/use-iphone-as-mac-mic-input/

Remove the Continuity Camera feature: on iPhone to go General > AirPlay & Handoff > deselect Continuity Camera

I just did this and from what others are saying it works! We’ll see as mine was doing 2-3 times an hour if not more.

Thank you!

also found this helped the problem -

Stop using your iPhone as a webcam or microphone: On your Mac, quit the app. Remove your iPhone as an option: On your iPhone, tap Disconnect. Your iPhone is removed from the camera and microphone lists in apps, and also from the list of sound input devices in Sound settings.

Give this a try: boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE 1: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

NOTE 2: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will insure a successful boot into Safe Mode.

Disconnecting your iPhone from your Mac depends on the features you're using to connect them. If you're referring to features such as calls or messages going to your Mac you can disable them using these steps:

• For calls tap Settings > Phone > Calls on Other Devices; disable the feature or
• deselect specific devices as needed.
• For text messages tap Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding, disable any devices you don't want receiving your texts.

Other features that can be linked are mentioned in the following resource and would need to be disabled if you're using them: Use Continuity to connect your Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple Watch

Lastly, there are some features that connect your iPhone and Mac via iCloud such as, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, iCloud Drive, Photos and others; you can disable these features in System Preferences > iCloud, or System Preferences > Apple ID, depending on your macOS version. If you'd like to stop using the iCloud account you use on your iPhone with your Mac, you'll need to sign out through System Preferences.

Excellent. Thanks so much Sva3478! This fix did it! The continuity camera (and microphone) kept making my Finale software crash. It was horrible. And hitting the "Disconnect" button on the iPhone was useless.

This is really annoying! But useful in a way... I just took delivery of a Mac mini, but there's no screens coming at the moment, so I've no camera or microphone on my new desktop yet - I have a second "dumb" screen that was delivered.

Anyway, I find it surprising that the controls for this feature are only single ended. There's no way to tell the MacOS device not to use a particular device as continuity camera / microphone. I had been using the camera as a higher resolution camera for my laptop, and I wanted that to continue.

And there's no way to tell either end to use the phone as a camera only or a microphone only.

It's useful, but annoyingly on by default and rather crude.

I’m having the same issue. I also did the suggested “fix” and it keeps happening.

It's working! I was suffering for week...

Hey bronx03,

Is this a speaker or a mic problem? Cause if it’s a mic then there would be no reason for your podcasts to stop…

Thank you Sva3478. This started after recent phone update. That setting should absolutely be defaulted to OFF!!! It was so hard to figure out what was going on, and happened several times when my teleworking wife was on meetings. Suddenly the person with whom she was working is getting a little tour around our home. Good grief.

Apple, if you are reading this, please make features like this opt-in. I missed an important call on my Jabber client because they couldn't hear me because my phone was in my pocket and had switched the mic.