Internal Mic Not Working - Except with Siri

[ericgoner]

Having a strange issue with my MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017) running Monterey 12.3.

My internal mic is not working. When I go to sound preferences, I see nothing.

Can't use for podcasting or zoom calls or anything.

BUT if I open Siri, Siri can hear me and I see the levels moving in Sound Preferences.

When I shut down Siri, mic is back off.

Any ideas? Thanks

 

[IWT]

Firstly, a warm welcome to Mac-Forums. Thank you for your post.

What you could do before anything else is to update macOS 12 - Monterey to it latest version which is: 12.3.1

This update did, apparently, address some sound problems so that might solve your problem.

Try that first. Then open System Preferences > Sound and tell us what you see under "Output" and "Input", please.

Also confirm that the "Output Volume" slider is well to the right and that you don't have "Mute" ticked.

On the "Input" section, again input & output volumes are well to the right and "Mute" is not ticked.

Ian

 

[ericgoner]

Hey! Thanks for the welcome and response.
I have updated Monterey to 12.3.1
Unfortunately my sound problems have not changed.
My mic is not muted and my slider should be to the right.

Siri is still able to access the mic and levels in the sound input panel change when siri is listening.
Input goes away when Siri is closed.

Screenshots of my sound panels attached.

Any suggestions appreciated!

 

[ericgoner]

I have
Zapped PRAM
Stuck headphones into the 1/8" jack
Disabled the coreaudio driver
Disabled the VB Cables audio driver
....
other suggestions?

 

[Groovetube]

out of curiosity, I think Monterey requires each app have permission to use you microphone, I think the list of apps granted access is in system prefs security/privacy under privacy> microphone. This may be a permission issue?

 

[ericgoner]

I looked there, and unclicked and reclicked permission to various apps.

Nothing seemed to be blocked or not allowed permission that would block the mic being used in finder or whatever the default state is.

Then went back to sound preferences and tried the mic on Siri and it worked, clicked out of Siri and the mic works in general now!

Back in action!

No idea what exactly the problem was. Probably one of the permissions, but I have no idea which one.

Thanks for the tip Groovetube! It got the result, even if I don't know exactly how we did it.

Thanks to everyone for reading and helping. I can read to the kindergarteners tomorrow using my laptop and not on my phone. Excellent!

 

[Groovetube]

The old turn it off and on again trick (permissions). Sometimes that’s all it takes

 

[ericgoner]

Yes!

 

[ericgoner]

Aaaaaand.... it's gone again. Have not been able to trick it back into action. This is weird.