As the name suggests, Google Meet is one of the video communication services from Google itself that has been released in 2017. It’s a combo of Google Hangout and Google Chat which works free of cost and also offers a browser-based video conferencing experience. However, it seems that some users are reporting that the Google Meet Microphone is not working on their Windows or Mac computers unexpectedly.
Well, that’s quite obvious for a video conferencing software or platform that works cross platforms just like some other competitors like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Therefore, you’ll definitely gonna experience some kind of errors or bugs or glitches in some scenarios or quite often while using Google Meet on the computer.
Now, the problem is specific to the microphone that doesn’t work in Google Meet. It’s also worth mentioning that the particular microphone not working issue may occur in both cases whether you’re hosting the video conference or joining into it.
Fix: Google Meet Microphone Not Working
To be very precise, there are a couple of reasons that can be found behind such an issue and we’ve managed to provide you all the possible workarounds to easily resolve it. So, without further ado, let’s jump into it.
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1. Ensure that the Microphone is turned on
One of the most common mistakes that computer users do is that they forget to turn on or connect the microphone to the PC. Later they start getting confused about why the microphone isn’t working.
Once your microphone is connected, you can see the microphone icon at the bottom of the screen in the calling bar as an indicator. If the icon isn’t appearing then make sure to cross-check the connectivity.
2. Unmute meeting at your end
The second thing you can do is to simply mute/unmute meeting at your end on the Google Meet interface to check if that works properly or not. Just take a quick look at the bottom of the screen during a meeting (a red-colored microphone icon). Either the icon is fully visible if turned on or a slash over the icon should be visible that means the microphone is muted at your end.
If that’s the reason, just click on the icon once to unmute the microphone audio. As we’ve already mentioned, you can also check the microphone status in the Google Meet preview pane but this time before joining a meeting so that you won’t get late for the conference.
Alternatively, you can also ask the host to simply unmute your microphone remotely if the number of participants is at least five or higher.
3. Enable Microphone Permission
Well, the chances are also high that somehow your web browser doesn’t have access to a connected microphone while running the Google Meet program on the PC. Although it’s really good to turn off the microphone by default due to privacy & security measures, if you’re in an office or educational meeting then you’ll have to turn it on from the permissions section of the browser.
If you’re using Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge Chromium to run the Google Meet application then make sure to click on the padlock icon placed left to the URL bar.
Now, click on Microphone and set it to Allow.
Also, make sure that the Sound is set to Automatic (Default).
Once done, just refresh the Google Meet page by pressing Ctrl + F5 keys and check if that helps you or not.
4. Select Active Microphone
If in case, you haven’t selected the currently connected or active microphone device on your computer then the chances are high that you may gonna experience several issues with it. To do so:
- Open Google Meet > Click on the three-dots icon from the bottom-right corner.
- Go to Settings > Under the Audio section, make sure to select the correct ‘Microphone’ that you’re using right now.
- Once selected, click on Done to save changes.
- Finally, restart Google Meet, and check for the issue.
5. Restart Google Chrome Browser
Sometimes even restarting the Google Chrome browser can also help affected users to easily fix the microphone or audio-related issues whatsoever. Although some of the users may not find it useful in several cases, it’s recommended to do so to at least check if that helps or not.
6. Reboot your PC
Similarly, rebooting your computer may help the system to clear the temporary glitch or cache data issue from the background. It also helps Google Meet to fix the microphone-related issue (if any).
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7. Update Google Chrome
Similar to the Windows OS build, it’s also necessary to keep updating your installed apps and games to run the programs properly. So, you should also update Google Chrome to fix the issue.
Open Google Chrome > Click on the Menu (hamburger menu) from the upper right corner.
Go to Settings > Click on About Chrome from the left pane.
It’ll automatically check for available updates. If yes, it’ll automatically download and install the update.
Finally, close and restart your Chrome browser to apply changes.
8. Reboot Windows Audio Service
If your Google Meet doesn’t fix the issue with the microphone then make sure to restart the Windows Audio Service on the Windows computer to try resolving the issue. To do so:
- Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
- Next, make sure to type services.msc in the dialog box and hit Enter to open the Services window on your PC.
- Then scroll down the page and search for ‘Windows Audio’ in the list.
- Now, right-click on the Windows Audio service and click on ‘Properties’.
- Click on ‘Stop’ and the service will be stopped.
- Once stopped, wait for a few seconds, and then click on ‘Start’ again to enable the service.
- Also, make sure that the ‘Startup Type’ option is set to ‘Automatic’ from the General tab.
- Finally, click on Apply and restart your system to change effects.
9. Update Microphone Drivers
It may also possible that the installed microphone drivers on your Windows system become outdated or corrupted somehow which are basically preventing the microphone to work properly online such as Google Meet.
Therefore, you should try updating your microphone drivers on the computer to fix this issue. To do so:
Press Windows + X keys to open the ‘Quick Access Menu’.
Click on Device Manager from the list > Now, click on the drop-down menu next to the ‘Audio Inputs and outputs’ section.
Here you’ll have to select the microphone that you want to update.
Next, right-click on the particular microphone and select Properties.
Then make sure to click on the ‘Driver’ tab > Select ‘Update Driver’ (if not greyed out).
If there is an update available, your microphone drivers will be updated to the latest version.
Finally, make sure to reboot your computer to apply changes.
This method should gonna resolve the Google Meet Microphone Not Working issue completely on your PC.
10. Check Microphone Input Level
If in case, the microphone input level on your PC is low or turned off then you should turn it on or increase the input level to the higher side according to your preference.
Go to the Windows Settings (Windows + I keys).
Click on System > Go to Sound > Click on Sound Control Panel under the ‘Related Settings’ option.
Now, switch to the Recording tab > Click to select your preferred microphone.
Click on Properties > Go to the Levels tab > Move the slider of the Microphone volume to a higher input level. Also, make sure that the sound icon beside it isn’t muted.
Once done, click on Apply and OK to save changes.
11. Troubleshoot Microphone
If in case, something goes wrong with the connected microphone on your Windows computer then it’s recommended to run a troubleshooter for the microphone. In that case, the Windows system will be able to detect what’s actually triggering such an issue and even try fixing it automatically for you. Luckily, you can run the troubleshooter from the Windows Settings menu by default. To do so:
- Press Windows + I keys to open the Windows Settings menu.
- Go to System > Click on Sound from the left sidebar.
- Click on Troubleshoot under the ‘Test your microphone’ section.
- Wait for the process to complete and if there’s a problem with your microphone, the troubleshooter will detect it most probably.
- Finally, follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process, and fix it.
If not fixed yet, you can still search for the specific reason online that the troubleshooter detects.
12. Clear Chrome Browser Cache and Cookies
Alternatively, you should try clearing the browser cache and cookies if somehow the browser is affecting the microphone usage. To do that:
Open Chrome browser > Click on the Menu (hamburger icon) from the upper right side.
Now, go to More tools to expand the drop-down list.
Here click on Clear browsing data.
Next, under the Basic tab, select the Time range according to your preference.
Then click on the checkbox of Browsing history, Cookies and other site data, Cached images and files to select them.
Finally, click on Clear data.
Once done, restart your Chrome browser to check for the issue again.
13. Sign Out and Sign Back In Again
Several affected users have mentioned that they’ve succeeded to fix the microphone issue on the PC after signing out of the Google account and signing back into it. Therefore, you should also try signing out and signing in back into the existing Google account from the profile icon at the top-right corner of the browser.
14. Update Google Meet Extension
If nothing seems working to you, make sure to update the Google Meet extension from the Chrome browser very easily. To do this:
Open Chrome browser > Click on the Menu (hamburger menu) from the upper right side.
Go to More tools to expand the drop-down list.
Click on Extensions > Enable the toggle called ‘Developer Mode’ from the top right corner.
Then click on ‘Update’ and Chrome will automatically start updating all the installed extensions on the browser including Google Meet (if available).
Once done, restart Chrome to check whether the problem is still bothering you or not.
15. Try using a Wired Headset
If you’re using a Bluetooth (wireless) headset with an in-built microphone then maybe somehow the Google Meet or the computer is having a conflict with each other. Therefore, it’s better to cross-check the issue by using a wired headset with a built-in microphone to ensure what’s actually causing the issue.
Luckily, Google Meet support is also aware of this issue because plenty of users are facing the same. Therefore, we can expect that Google will soon come up with a patch fix that may help most of the affected users. While the rest of the unlucky users can obviously follow this full guide to resolve the problem completely.
That’s it, guys. We assume this guide was helpful to you. For further queries, you can comment below.
