Mac Microphone Not Working?

[unlikely addition]

Hey everyone! I am playing l4d2 on mac and my mic does not work ingame or the test mic menu. Did Valve really not fix this bug from the linux port, which was acknowledged in 2012? If anyone was able to fix this issue, please share your solution.

[freitag90]

have you confirmed that your microphone is working in other apps? such as skype or facetime?. I had this issue before on el capitan, but since i updated to sierra, i am good.

[unlikely addition]

Originally posted by freitag90:

have you confirmed that your microphone is working in other apps? such as skype or facetime?. I had this issue before on el capitan, but since i updated to sierra, i am good.

Then this must be a problem with El Capitan. My mic is fine everywhere else even TF2 and other Source games :P Thank you for your help! I will follow up this thread with whether upgrading the OS helped

[unlikely addition]

Originally posted by maximsmol:

Originally posted by freitag90:

have you confirmed that your microphone is working in other apps? such as skype or facetime?. I had this issue before on el capitan, but since i updated to sierra, i am good.

Then this must be a problem with El Capitan. My mic is fine everywhere else even TF2 and other Source games :P Thank you for your help! I will follow up this thread with whether upgrading the OS helped

Upgrading the OS worked. There are still 2 problems though: the OS mic level is reset to minimum sometimes and the transmit level slider is greyed out. Also for some reason there are clicks in the audio, but that is not as much a problem and may be casued by the mic.

[freitag90]

Hi! so have you solved the problem yet? yeah i guess these days apple is not really reliable on the updates of their OSs, so what i usually do, is either reinstall the OS or just wait until the new updates come up.

[Bazinga]

Originally posted by maximsmol:

Hey everyone! I am playing l4d2 on mac and my mic does not work ingame or the test mic menu. Did Valve really not fix this bug from the linux port, which was acknowledged in 2012? If anyone was able to fix this issue, please share your solution.

Go to preferences in your mac, in my experience when i change the sound of the game the mac microphone goes down with the volume. So you have to turn up the volume every ♥♥♥♥♥♥ time that you change the volume of the game. Btw make you secure to fix the microphone in preference of mac, steam and the game. 3 Steps :D

[unlikely addition]

Hello everyone! Thank you all for your answers. I would like to clarify some confusion and summarize what i found out about this problem:

1. If you are using Mac Os El Capitan, the mic WILL NOT WORK. (This was my main problem and was fixed by upgrading to Sierra; which of course is its own story of complete an utter frustration for developers)

2. If when you press the "Test Microphone" button in the game options you do not hear anything (but clicks), go to System Preferences -> Audio and

a. Make sure your microphone is selected as input device

b. Set microphone input volume to a value that is not the lowest possible setting. THE GAME RESETS THE MICROPHONE VOLUME TO MIN EVERY TIME IT IS LAUNCHED. (Figured this out by trial and error even before the Sierra upgrade, but thanks to the poster above for confirmation of this bug)

c. You should then start hearing yourself in the "Test Microphone" dialog, BUT you may hear repeated clicks. They will go away if you restart the microphone test.


Sadly, all those workarounds DO NOT FIX THE FOLLOWING BUGS:

1. If you are using an external mic, IT HAS TO BE PLUGGED IN AND SET UP AS THE MAIN INPUT DEVICE **BEFORE** YOU LAUNCH THE GAME. The game DOES NOT update input device settings on the fly.

2. The "Transmit Volume" slider DOES NOT WORK and IS GREYED OUT. The receive slider still works

3. As stated above, the game resets os-wide microphone volume to 0 every time it is launched.

4. Voice chat DOES NOT work on Mac Os El Capitan and (speculation) on other Mac Os versions. It is confirmed to work ONLY on Sierra.

If you are thinking "Oh, I am going to file a bug report on Valve's official GitHub bug-tracking-repository!" Then jokes on you. The report about microphone problems (mics not working at all) on *NIX systems was filed in !!2012!! and is STILL OPEN. At some point a person was assigned to the issue and assumedly fixed it to the point it is at now but the fact that the issue is still open means the Valve doesn't care enough to even close it if it is no longer a confirmed bug.