Solution For Microphone - Low Volume or Not Working

Question

Level 1

19 points

Solution For Microphone - Low Volume or Not Working

I just read pages of forum discussions trying to fix extremely poor microphone volume on my Macbook Air. I tried to change all kinds of microphone settings, doing hardware resets, and uninstalling software. I even made an appointment to the Genius Bar because some people posted that they had to replace their microphones.

However, I finally found a simple solution. It turns out that after some time, dust gets inside of your microphone and blocks the holes through which it captures the sound. You need to take a tiny needle or a wire and poke each tiny hole of the microphone located on the left side of the macbook. After taking out some dust, my microphone began working as new.

Hope this helps to someone in the future.

Posted on Dec 24, 2013 11:35 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

PlotinusVeritas

Level 6

14,872 points

Dec 24, 2013 11:37 AM in response to slyfoxa

yes, people can grab their Macs where the mic holes are and clog them with hand oil/ dirt.

So long as one is merely removing debris and not taking a super thin needle and actually poking the microphone (bad idea) , then alls well.

😊

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Answer 2

Jan 30, 2014 9:21 PM in response to slyfoxa

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I've been scouring the help forums for several weeks now. The needle did the trick.

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Answer 3

Jan 30, 2014 9:26 PM in response to riclorenz

thats good,

dynamic and condenser microphones have very delicate diaphragms, poking a needle near one is always a very careful procedure.

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Answer 4

Jun 9, 2014 11:43 AM in response to PlotinusVeritas

Thanks a million! PlotinusVeritas!

A needle was to big as the holes are so tiny.

I took an old toothbrush and used one of its hair. They're made to be thin and quite tough.

This made the trick and my Macbook Air's microphone works like charm now 🙂

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Answer 5

Jun 30, 2014 5:59 AM in response to bartonline

Great technique 🙂 It helped.

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Answer 6

Vilander

Level 1

0 points

Sep 15, 2014 12:44 PM in response to slyfoxa

It works! Many many thanks.

I also blowed strong directly at the small holes and it works, now input from microphone is back to normal.

Regards

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Answer 7

Jun 11, 2016 7:02 PM in response to bartonline

That worked great. I made a video diagnosis and fix tutorial here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aWpC8N8W08

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Answer 8

jsml

Level 1

20 points

Jun 18, 2016 7:36 AM in response to slyfoxa

Thank you so much for posting this. I have a second hand MacBook Air 13", and I knew I couldn't afford the Genius bar to fix it. I tried the microphone needle cleaning thing.

It helped a lot! It's not nearly as good as my 5-year old MaBook Pro (both are about the same age). The Pro is still maxing out on the input volume, but the Air I just cleaned is like 4 notches below.

That's still better than it was before.

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