Yeti Blue Mic Not Recognized on M1 Mac

Yeti says they only support up to ver14.0. which is obviously unacceptable

additional suggestion: try a thicker USB cable for the Mic

warning: i am now in confirmation bias territory, however i believe i found another piece of evidence to support my theory.

additional observations

• I tried the same Mic USB cable that induced a crash in the working USB-C port. this time, the Mic lights came on, but it did not show up in the Mac Sound Input list
• I used a different USB cable of similar length, and it worked.
• I noticed that the working USB cable is thicker than the non-working cable

This supports the theory that the issue is power related. Again i'm not like an electrical engineer, but to me a thicker cable indicates greater power delivery capacity. I will update the suggestion list in my original reply.

*edit: welp i guess it's too late to edit my original post. side note: the design for this forum makes it hard for me to follow discussions.

Just wanted to say I have the same exact problem as you.

I'm not sure what to point you to for further troubleshooting, but if you're looking for data points, I have a Yeti Blue that I've used for years on multiple Macs, and it is currently connected to a 16" MBP M1 Max, using a Nonda USB-C adapter, and is seen on the USB 3.1 bus no problem. The mic works in Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and other applications and works reliably. I have had no issues with it disappearing from the system. My systems are currently on Sonoma 14.4.

I have not. But I did just do a test to at least find some logs for you. If you open a Terminal window, you can check the output of "dmesg". You have to use sudo to run it, so the full command would be "sudo dmesg". When I connected the Yeti, it output the following and then some:

[277088.184982]: AppleUSBXHCICommandRing: AppleUSBXHCICommandRing::executeCommand: command[60] 0x0000000000000000 00000000 17013c01 got result 0x0000010007b003c0 13000000 17008401 after 0ms (enqueued 0ms)
[277088.185005]: AppleUSBXHCICommandRing: AppleUSBXHCICommandRing::stopEndpoint: completed with result code 19
[277088.222265]: AppleUSB20HubPort@02330000: AppleUSBHostPort::enumerateDeviceComplete_block_invoke: enumerated 0xb58e/9e84/0100 (Yeti Stereo Microphone / 23) at 12 Mbps
[277088.225205]: Yeti Stereo Microphone@02330000: IOUSBHostDevice::setConfigurationGated: AppleUSBHostCompositeDevice selected configuration 1
[277088.230426]: + IOAudioDevice[<ptr>]::init(<ptr>)

You may want to try that just after it stops working and focus on any errors related to "IOAudioDevice" or "Yeti". Hope that can shed light on it for you.

Depending on the age of the Blue Yeti, there was a vendor acknowledged USB hardware issue but that is for really old Blue Yeti that have not been sold in well over a decade. If you provided Yeti with a serial number and they told you it was a hardware issue with the microphone, then you should believe them despite its sporadic functionality.

As this is not an Apple product, your only real task left is to update Sonoma to 14.4 and see if that has a positive change for Yeti functionality. Otherwise, you may need to consider a new Mic purchase where the vendor acknowledges its compatibility with Sonoma, your applications, and current Mac hardware.

Bingo! Found an easier way than uninstalling software and drivers (at least for me). The solution is two-fold.

1. PRAM Reset. If your mic is not recognized at all (you do not see it in Sound -> Input), do a PRAM reset. It is very easy.

PRAM (parameter RAM) reset

Keep your mic plugged in before you do this (not sure if necessary but that's how I did it).

When the MacBook reboots after PRAM reset, look in Sound -> Inputs again. You should see your mic now.

2. Check MacBook Mic Mode!

This may be a new feature that has messed with a lot of people. I noticed it and found that when Standard is selected, nobody can hear me or my voice is so choppy that it is indiscernible.

Set this to Voice Isolation, and you may just be in luck like me.

The mic icon will appear on top right menu of your screen when the mic is in use. (see further below how to put mic "in use"):

To put mic "in use", either select the mic during a meeting from settings (e.g. Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or sound app), or open Sound -> Inputs:

You should see the Mic Mode icon on top right menu of your MacBook now and be able to select Voice Isolation.

NOTE! It may take a few seconds to take effect. The yellow mic icon may disappear for a few seconds, then come back. At this point your mic should work properly.

Good luck!