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Microsoft Teams Microphone Not Working

Last reviewed · fixmic team

Teams has layered audio settings — meaning more places something can go wrong. This covers the five steps that fix nearly every Teams mic problem, in the order they actually fail. Steps assume New Teams (the 2024+ rewrite); Classic Teams retired in July 2024.

Try this first

In Teams, click the '…' menu (top-right) → Settings → Devices → 'Make a test call'. The bot prompts you to speak and plays it back. If you hear yourself, audio is working. If not, follow the steps below. Note: test calls aren't available in Teams on the web or the free version.

1. Verify you are not muted

Teams has more mute layers than most apps — meeting mute, push-to-talk, and organizer-imposed hard mute.

  1. Meeting mute

    The microphone icon at the top of the meeting window. If it has a slash through it, you are muted. Click it once, or press Ctrl + Shift + M (Windows) / Cmd + Shift + M (macOS) to toggle.

  2. Push-to-talk to unmute temporarily

    If muted, hold Ctrl + Spacebar (Windows) or Option + Spacebar (macOS) to speak temporarily. This is disabled by default — enable it in Settings → Privacy → 'Keyboard shortcut to unmute'.

  3. Disabled by the organizer

    Organizers can disable mic for attendees from More options → Manage audio and video → 'Disable mic for attendees'. Your mic icon appears greyed out. Ask the organizer in chat to re-enable it.

2. Grant Teams microphone permission

New Teams runs as an MSIX/UWP package on Windows and a regular app on macOS. Each OS has its own permission gate.

  1. Windows: Settings → Privacy & security → Microphone

    Confirm 'Microphone access' and 'Let apps access your microphone' are both on. New Teams is listed as 'Microsoft Teams (work or school)' — enable it. The legacy 'Microsoft Teams' entry refers to Classic Teams (now retired).

  2. macOS: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone

    Enable Microsoft Teams. macOS requires you to fully quit Teams (Cmd + Q) and reopen it for the change to apply — closing the window is not enough.

  3. Browser Teams (teams.microsoft.com)

    Click the site-information icon (formerly the lock) on the left of the address bar → Microphone → Allow → reload the tab.

3. Set the correct audio device in Teams

Teams remembers separate device choices per audio context — meeting, call, voicemail. Changing one does not change the others.

  1. Settings → Devices → Audio settings

    Pick your microphone from the 'Microphone' dropdown. Speak — the level indicator under the dropdown should move.

  2. Inside a meeting: arrow next to Mic → More audio settings

    Meeting-level device choice overrides global settings. Confirm the right mic is picked here too.

  3. Run a test call

    Settings → Devices → 'Make a test call'. The Teams bot records you and plays it back. If you hear yourself, you're good. If silence, repeat steps 1–2.

4. Disable noise suppression (temporary test)

Teams' noise suppression can over-attenuate quiet voices, especially on the 'High' setting (which also requires an AVX2-capable CPU).

  1. Settings → Devices → Noise suppression

    Change from 'Auto' to 'Low' (or temporarily 'Off') and make another test call. If your voice now comes through, leave it on Low.

5. Clear the Teams cache (last resort)

Teams caches audio device IDs. After hardware changes the cache can get out of sync — the cached device 'exists' but no audio flows. These paths apply to New Teams.

  1. Quit Teams completely

    Right-click the Teams icon in the system tray (Windows) or menu bar (macOS) → Quit. Confirm in Task Manager / Activity Monitor that no Teams process is running.

  2. Windows — easiest path

    Settings → Apps → Installed apps → Microsoft Teams → Advanced options → Reset. This clears the cache without manual file deletion.

  3. Windows — manual cache delete

    Delete %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Microsoft\MSTeams

  4. macOS — manual cache delete

    Delete both folders: ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.com.microsoft.teams and ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.teams2. Reopen Teams and sign in again.

Still no audio in Teams?

Two final checks:

  • Run the live test on the fixmic homepage. If the meter moves, Teams is the problem — not your hardware.
  • Sign out of Teams entirely (profile picture → Sign out), then sign back in. This refreshes auth-tied device tokens.
  • On Windows 11 24H2, a known regression can reset app privacy permissions and revoke Teams mic access — recheck Settings → Privacy & security → Microphone after any major update.
  • If you use Teams on the web, try the desktop client (or vice versa) as a comparison.

Related guides

Run the test, then rejoin

Verify the mic works in the browser first. If our test hears you, Teams will hear you too.

Run the microphone test