Start here: does the microphone work outside Zoom?
Open our mic test in your browser and speak normally. This takes Zoom out of the picture.
- The meter moves: the microphone and your computer are fine. The problem is inside Zoom, so start with fix 1.
- The meter stays flat or no microphone is found: the problem is the device or your system settings. Start with fix 4, then fix 6.
Zoom keeps its own microphone choice, separate from the one your browser or system uses. That is why a microphone can work everywhere except Zoom.
1. Make sure you joined audio and are not muted
Zoom can put you in a meeting without connecting your audio at all.
- Look at the meeting controls toolbar. If you see Join audio, click it and join with your computer’s audio.
- If the Audio icon shows a line through it, click it to unmute.
- If you stay muted after clicking, the host may have muted you. Ask them in the chat to unmute you.
- Check for a mute switch or button on your headset, the cable or the microphone itself.
2. Choose the right microphone in Zoom
Laptops, webcams, monitors and headsets all add their own microphones, and Zoom may pick the wrong one.
During a meeting: click the small upward arrow next to Mute on the toolbar and select your microphone from the list.
Before a meeting:
- In the Zoom desktop app, click your profile picture, then Settings.
- Open the Audio tab.
- Under Microphone, pick your device from the drop-down menu.
- Click Test microphone and speak. Zoom records a few seconds and plays them back, and the input bar should move while you talk.
You can also check this on the way in: on the join screen, click Test speaker and microphone. If you don’t hear your voice played back, click No, Try Another Microphone until you do.
3. Raise the input volume
If people say you sound faint, go back to Settings, then Audio. Drag the input volume slider under Microphone to the right, or turn on Automatically adjust microphone volume and let Zoom set it for you.
4. Allow Zoom to use the microphone
Windows and macOS can block the microphone for an app even when the device works.
Windows 11
- Go to Start > Settings > Privacy & security > Microphone.
- Turn on Microphone access.
- Turn on Let desktop apps access your microphone. The Zoom desktop app is a desktop app, so it does not appear in the app list above this switch.
macOS
- Choose Apple menu > System Settings, then Privacy & Security.
- Click Microphone and turn on the switch for Zoom.
- If Zoom is open, it asks to restart so the change takes effect. Let it.
If you clicked Don’t Allow when Zoom first asked, you have to turn the switch on here yourself. Changing this needs an administrator account on the Mac.
5. On Windows, change how the audio driver processes sound
Some microphones work in other apps but sound wrong or go silent in Zoom because of processing in the Windows audio driver.
- In Zoom, open Settings, then Audio, then Advanced.
- Find Signal processing by Windows audio device drivers.
- Set it to Off. This puts the driver into raw mode, so Zoom receives the sound before Windows processes it.
- Test the microphone again. If nothing changes, set it back to Auto.
6. Reconnect the microphone
- Unplug a USB or wired microphone and plug it back in. Make sure the plug is fully in the right port.
- For a Bluetooth headset, check it is switched on and connected to this computer, then select it again in Zoom.
- Zoom recommends a supported USB device if a headset keeps causing trouble.
After reconnecting, open the Zoom microphone list again and select the device by name.
Check that it worked
Run Test microphone in Zoom’s Audio settings once more. Then run the mic test on this site. If both hear you, the next call should too. If the mic test hears you but Zoom still doesn’t, repeat fix 2 with each microphone in the list, since the right one is not always the first.