If you have audio issues in meetings, it can affect the flow of conversation. To resolve these issues, follow the troubleshooting steps to restore clear audio.
Verify these settings
- Make sure you’re not in Companion mode, where the microphone and speaker are unavailable.
- If you’re in Companion mode, leave and rejoin the meeting. Learn about Companion mode.
- You can’t share audio from mobile devices. To share audio from a presentation on your computer, share a tab.
- Select the correct microphone or speaker. Learn how to connect your video and audio.
- When you use a monitor, make sure it's not your selected audio output.
- Turn on your device’s Bluetooth and connect to the correct audio device.
- Make sure you’re unmuted.
- At the top right of the video tiles, make sure that the blue indicator is on when someone speaks. If it doesn’t turn on for:
- Other participants: It’s because of their microphone or your speaker.
- Your tile: It’s because of your microphone or another participant’s speaker.
To fix your audio issues, you can:
- Check the microphone access
- Update your browser
- Unmute yourself in Meet and in your device settings
- Troubleshoot other audio issues
Important: If you have microphone and speaker issues but still hear some audio, learn how to troubleshoot video and audio quality in a meeting.
Check the microphone access
To use your microphone in Meet, you must provide microphone access to:
Allow Meet to access your microphoneTo use your microphone in Chrome, Meet needs permission. When you join a video meeting for the first time, you’re asked to allow access.
- On your computer, open a meeting link or meet.google.com.
- In the address bar, click View site information
.
- Turn on Microphone.
Tip: You can allow all sites or the specific site you’re on to use your microphone. Learn how to change site settings permissions.
If you use the Chrome browser:
- On your computer, in the address bar, enter
chrome://settings/content/microphone. - Under "Default behavior," select Sites can ask to use your microphone
.
If you use other browsers:
To use a microphone, you must allow microphone access to your device.
- Learn how to allow microphone access on your Chromebook.
- Learn how to allow microphone access on your Windows device.
- Learn how to allow microphone access on your macOS device.
If you use a Linux device, the steps to allow microphone access depends on your distribution. For specific instructions, refer to the documentation from your distribution provider.
Update your browser
To get the latest software fixes, learn how to update:
Restart Chrome browserWhen you close Chrome after you update, it doesn’t fix the issue because it doesn't reset apps or extensions that use your microphone. To reset these apps or extensions, restart Chrome.
- In your browser, enter
chrome://restart.- When you restart Chrome, your tabs and windows reopen.
- Turn on your microphone and camera.
- Rejoin the video meeting.
Unmute yourself in Meet & in your device settings
To unmute yourself in a meeting, at the bottom, click Turn on microphone .
Tips:
- To reduce background noise, other participants can mute you, but they can't unmute you.
- For meetings organized with a personal Google Account, only the meeting host can mute other participants.
- On your Windows device, go to Sound settings.
- Click Recording.
- Double-click Microphone.
- Select Levels.
- Make sure the microphone is on.
- To increase the volume, move the volume slider.
- Click OK.
- On your macOS device, go to System Settings.
- Click Sound
Input.
- Make sure the microphone is on.
- To increase the volume, move the volume slider.
- The volume setting saves automatically.
- On your Linux device, go to Sound settings.
- Click Input.
- Select the microphone device setting.
- Make sure that the microphone is on.
- To increase the volume, move the volume slider.
- Click OK.
Important: You must have admin privileges on your computer.
You can disconnect your computer’s microphone from other apps or extensions.
- On your macOS device, go to Applications
- Double-click Terminal.
- In the Terminal window, enter
sudo killall coreaudiod. - Press Enter.
- Enter your password.
- Press Enter.
- In the Terminal window, enter
- Rejoin the Meet video meeting.
Troubleshoot other audio issues
- Reduced sounds in Windows while in a meeting: A Windows feature, not Meet, reduces noise from other sources.
- Other participants hear your device’s background audio: Based on your operating system and audio devices, sounds from other tabs or applications are audible. To avoid this, use headphones.
