Ever been in a web conference call, and frustrated because your mic isn’t working?
You had something important to say and half way through you find out nobody can hear you.
Perhaps you've joined an online meeting and wondered why everybody is so quiet. Are they giving you the silent treatment on purpose? You start to wonder, maybe they're all muted. Is that an accident? Did the moderator forget to unmute their mics?
You can avoid those situations. Before your next Zoom meeting be confident they can hear you, and you can hear them.
In this guide, we'll explain the right speaker and microphone settings. Learn how to select the audio devices on your computer. Find out how to change input and output volumes. When you’re ready, test your settings.
We’ll show you how to test your audio in less than a minute.
Things You'll Need:
Microphone, such as the built in microphone, a USB microphone or an inline microphone on headphones
Speaker or headphones
Supplies You'll Need:
Zip ties
Any other consumable supplies
Comment out supplies section if no supplies are necessary
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Before You Begin:
You must have access to a computer with iTunes installed.
You must have that thing for the other thing so you can do the thing.
Each individual prereq should have its own box like this. Not all will contain multiple links.
Comment out prerequisites section if no prereqs are necessary
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2. Test Audio Before Joining a Meeting
If you haven't enabled the setting to automatically join a meeting by computer audio, you can test your speaker or headset and microphone before joining a meeting.
Windows |
Mac
If You Don't Have a Zoom Account
After joining your meeting you'll be asked if you want to join with computer audio or test your speaker and microphone. Click Test Speaker and Microphone.
A pop-up will display to test your speakers and a ringtone will sound. If you can hear the ringtone, click Yes and move to step 4. If you can't hear it, click No.
If you selected no you can use the drop down menu to select another speaker in the list until you hear the ringtone.
If you selected yes then the test will move on to your microphone.
Say something into your mic. Make sure your mic is not physically muted by a button if it has one. If you hear a playback of what you said, click Yes. If not, click No.
Like the speakers, if you clicked no, you'll need to cycle through available microphones until one works. When you hear your replay, click Yes.
Once your speaker and microphone are working, you can click Join with Computer Audio.
If You Have a Zoom Account
Having a Zoom account gives you a little more in the way of testing and settings to control your experience.
Log into your Zoom Account.
Click your Profile Picture and then Settings.
Select Audio.
The Audio settings page contains settings for both Speakers and Mic. Let's start with speakers. Click Test Speaker.
If you can't hear the speaker tone, select another speaker from the drop down or adjust the volume. While this will adjust software volume, you should check your physical speaker if possible.
Now onto the microphone, click TestMic.
Zoom will start recording so you can talk into your mic. When done, click Recording to begin playback. Like with your speakers, if you don't hear it, you should cycle through available devices and adjust the volume.
Linux
If you don't have a Zoom account after joining your meeting you'll be asked if you want to join with computer audio or test your speaker and microphone. Click Test Speaker and Microphone.
If you do have a Zoom Account log in and click your Profile Picture and then Settings.
Click TestSpeaker. If you hear the test tone you can adjust the volume if it's too loud and move onto testing the mic. If you don't hear the test tone, select another speaker and try the test again.
For the mic there's no test button but you can check your microphone by watching the input levels as you speak. If the input level isn't moving, there's no audio being picked up. Try cycling through the available microphones until one works.
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