It wasn’t our first choice and we actually resisted shipping this fix, hoping Apple would fix the bug. If you’re a technical Mac user and know anything about audio apps on macOS, you might be wondering why we went with such a bananas solution. If we can’t find a mic we can mute (hopefully this won’t happen often), we show an error: the Mac mini & Mac Pro) will likely have a webcam attached. Most Macs have built-in microphones that are actually quite good, and those that don’t (eg. This may sound bananas, but it’s actually the most reliable solution we could find, after several long weekends spent building more and more elaborate Rube Goldberg machines just to get the damn mic to mute.

Our fix? We just ignore Bluetooth entirely and force users’ machines to use the built-in microphones on their Mac instead. This is a bug deep in the operating system and there’s no way around it. (It’s possibly ideal if you’re tired of hearing your co-workers though.) Our awful awesome workaround Not ideal if you’re trying to mute yourself in a meeting but, you know, still want to hear what other people are saying. This is bonkers-and very clearly a bug-because it means that you can’t mute your input without all audio cutting out. Muting or unmuting either channel also mutes or unmutes the other.

Why this app is still called “Audio MIDI Setup” is anyone's guess.

You can see this in action using Apple’s own Audio Devices app. This no longer works in macOS Monterey! Now the input and output channels “mute” settings are linked. If an app-like Mic Drop-muted your microphone, you could still hear the audio in your meeting. If you muted your speaker, your mic still worked. In every previous versions of macOS, you could mute these devices separately. This is how you can have a phone call or Zoom meeting using your AirPods. Many Bluetooth headphones, including all of Apple’s own AirPods and Beats headphones, come with input (tiny microphone) and output (tiny speakers) channels.

Why Bluetooth headphones can’t be muted anymore Like anything involving audio on macOS: it wasn’t pretty. Obviously, we couldn’t count on Apple to fix the problem. It affects every app that controls the microphone, including Apple’s own apps. Apple hasn’t even acknowledged the issue we filed yet, and multiple versions of Monterey have been released to the public with the same bug.

Mac microphone not working with zoom