Zoom audio not working? Here’s how to solve it

Zoom is one of the most popular remote collaboration apps out there. The service is being used by many companies during this time of lockdown, and chances are, if you are working from home then you’ve probably used it too.

Apart from offering the ability to experience HD audio and video, Zoom also comes with tons of features like virtual backgrounds, screen sharing abilities, and a comprehensive whiteboard.

Yet, even with its glorious repertoire of features, Zoom is not a flawless service. Like every other service out there, Zoom, too, is susceptible to bugs of all kinds — auditory included. If you have been using Zoom for a while and have recently started encountering audio issues in Zoom then you have landed at the perfect webpage.

We have compiled a list of some of the most common reasons that cause audio issues on Zoom and all the possible fixes for them. So without further ado, let’s get started.

Zoom Audio not working?

If the other participants in a Zoom meeting cannot hear you, here are a few solutions you can try. Basically, it is making sure that you haven’t accidentally muted yourself during a meeting, and that the microphone is enabled and working on your device.

Share Audio

Here’s how to make sure Audio is enabled on your device while in the meeting.

On PC: Click the ‘Join Audio’ button in the bottom left corner of your Meetings screen.

On Phone:

Step 1: During a Zoom meeting on your mobile device, tap on the screen to bring up the calling options at the bottom of your screen. Now select ‘Join Audio’ in the bottom left corner of your screen.

Step 2: Now select ‘Call via Device Audio’.

This will enable the app to use your device’s microphone which should solve your audio issues.

Unmute yourself

Check if you aren’t accidentally muted in the meeting that you have joined. To do this check the microphone in the bottom left corner of your screen on your Zoom meeting screen, whether you are on a PC or phone.

If there is a red slash running over the icon then it means that you are muted during the meeting. Simply click on the microphone icon again to unmute yourself. The red-colored icon shown in the former picture will be gone.

Fix Zoom Computer Audio

If the above solution does not work for you, then chances are that the proper input device has not been selected on your system. This could especially be the case if you are using an external microphone on your PC or Mac. To check if the correct audio input device has been selected, follow our simple guide below.

For Windows users

Step 1: Open Audio settings. If you are in a meeting, you can click on the upward-facing arrow beside the microphone icon in the calling bar of your Zoom meeting, and then select ‘Audio Settings’.

If you are not in a meeting, open the desktop app, click on the gear icon near the top corner in the right, and then select the Audio tab from the left pane.

Step 2: You will now be taken to the audio settings of your Zoom desktop client. Click on the ‘Test mic’ icon beside the microphone settings.

If you are able to use your microphone then the correct device has been selected. You can verify this by looking at the Input level bar which will respond to your audio levels when you are testing the microphone.

Step 3: If your input level does not respond to you testing the microphone then click on the drop-down beside the ‘Test mic’ icon and you will see a list of all the available input microphones for your system. Select the one that you plan on using in your meetings and test your mic again.

You should now be able to use your microphone in your Zoom meeting. Also, be sure to check out the Advanced settings by clicking the ‘Advanced’ button in the bottom right corner of the Audio settings screen.

For Mac users

Step 1: Click on the ‘Apple icon’ in the top left corner of your desktop and open ‘System preferences’.

Step 2: Click on ‘Sound’ and select ‘Input’.

Step 3: Now make sure your mic is turned on and adjust the volume using the slider below if needed.

Step 4: If you are unable to get any response, then select a different input device and try again.

You should now be able to use audio during your Zoom meetings.

Confirm microphone permission

Head over to your settings app and navigate to the settings for the Zoom application. Open the permissions menu and ensure that Zoom has the permission to use your smartphone’s microphone.

If it does not, then grant this permission and try connecting to your Zoom meeting again. You should now be able to use your microphone easily in case the permission was not granted before.

Disable ‘Always Mute My Microphone’ on your phone

Zoom has a failsafe feature that disables your microphone every time you join a meeting. If you are unable to pass audio through to your meeting members then this setting could be enabled on your device. Follow the following steps to ensure that ‘Always Mute My Microphone’ is toggled off in Zoom settings.

Step 1: Tap on the ‘Settings’ icon in the bottom left corner of your screen and select ‘Meeting’ from the settings menu.

Step 2: Now ensure that ‘Always Mute My Microphone’ is toggled off. If it is toggled on, simply tap on the switch to toggle it off.

Can’t get audio from the Zoom meeting?

Here’s a list of common solutions if you are unable to hear anybody on a Zoom meeting.

Make sure Speaker is ON

Tap the screen during a Zoom meeting and you will see a speaker icon in the top left corner of your screen. If it shows that the speaker is disabled, then tap on it again to enable your speaker.

Turn Bluetooth off

If your device is connected to a headphone or speaker via Bluetooth, then the audio output is being played on that Bluetooth device. If the Bluetooth device is in another room or at a low volume, you won’t notice this. Hence, make sure headphones aren’t connected, or simply turn off the Bluetooth so that the output remains available to the device’s speakers.

Connect headphones

If this does not solve your issue, there might be a hardware issue with your device. You can verify this by connecting headphones to your mobile device. If you are able to get audio in your headphones then it is likely that your device is having a hardware failure.

Common solutions to all the problems

Restart Zoom

On PC:

If you are unable to solve the audio problem and are sure that your mic is working properly and are able to use audio in other applications, then there is a high chance that the Zoom application is glitching out. Simply close the application and start it again.

This will clear any leftover cache files and start the application again. Joining the meeting again will also solve any connection issues that might be preventing you from using your audio during Zoom meetings.

On Android:

Simply force close the Zoom app first under Settings > Apps > Zoom > Tap Force Stop. And then open it again.

â–º How to force close an Android app

Restart your device

If nothing seems to work for you and you are experiencing persistent audio issues during your Zoom meetings, then you should try restarting your device, whether that a compute, a mobile phone, or a tablet.

This will clear the cache of your device, delete temporary files and restart extensions, plug-ins, and startup services that might be interfering with the functionality of the Zoom app.

Once the device is restarted, simply launch Zoom again and try connecting to the concerned meeting. You should now be able to use Zoom without any audio issues interrupting your experience.

Get the latest version available

Zoom has been continually working on its desktop client and mobile apps to bring you the best experience possible. Due to this, there are constant updates being released in order to fix the bugs and get rid of any underlying issues while introducing new features. If none of the above works for you, then you should try updating your Zoom desktop client or mobile app.

If you are having issues with the mobile app and are on the latest version, then you can try uninstalling and reinstalling the app. This will perform a clean installation on your device which should get rid of any underlying issues with the app.

â–º Find the latest versions of the Zoom app for every platform here

Clear the cache of the Zoom app on your smartphone

If none of the above methods seem to work for you, then clearing the cache of the Zoom app on your mobile device might fix these issues. Let’s see how you can clear the cache for the Zoom app on your smartphone.

Step 1: Open the ‘Settings’ app on your mobile device and head over to ‘Apps & Notifications’.

Note: This could also be called ‘Manage Apps’, ‘Installed Apps’, or simply ‘Applications’ depending on your mobile device manufacturer.

Step 2: Now scroll the app list to find Zoom and tap on it to open your settings for Zoom.

Step 3: Now tap on ‘Storage & Cache’ and select ‘Clear cache’ at the top of your screen under the Zoom app icon.

Now try restarting the application again. You should now be able to use audio again during your Zoom meetings without any issues.

Restart your browser if you are using the web client

Many browsers might also interfere with the underlying function of your Zoom meeting which might prevent you from using your audio device. Simply close the application and restart it again.

A simple way to exit a browser is to use the exit/quit option under the Menu/More button of the browser. See the example for the Chrome browser below.

You can also use a special command to completely exit Chrome. Open your Chrome browser and type in ‘chrome://restart’ in the URL bar and press enter. This will restart the browser completely and reset all the extensions as well which might be interfering with your audio connection.


Let us know!

We hope these solutions help you solve your underlying audio problems at Zoom meetings. If you faced any issues, feel free to reach out to us using the comments section below.

Posted by
Mudit

Spectroscopic collection of human cells trying to pave a path via words.

23 Comments

  1. Alexandre Corrêa

    I was experiencing no audio output to my Xiaomi headphone/bluetooth. Even configuring it to be the pattern (Windows 10). All controls and settings ok, but no sound. Then I clicked the drop(up)down on the right of the microphone icon, and my FOUR output devices were listed under “Select a Speaker” menu. I then picked my “B-xiomi” option and everything turned ok.

  2. No audio from recorded Zoom meeting. I had blue tooth headphones on, is there any way to retrieve the sound?

  3. I can share audio in Zoom just fine, but it comes out in mono. Is there any way to have screen/audio sharing in stereo? and yes I’ve set up the ‘allow users to enable stereo’ in the portal but that only seems to apply to live mics. Thanks.

  4. I am having an issue where my mic works fine, but when I share screen (and yes, I’ve checked the ‘share computer sound’ box) some in the meeting do not hear the shared sound, but others do. The ones who cannot hear my sound also show that my audio is not encrypted, but on my end I have the green shield and no indication that I’m not encrypted.

    1. I have this problem too – all participants can hear my mic audio, but when I share e.g. a YouTube video (and, of course, tick the share sound box), some complain that they can see the video but do not hear its sound. When I stop screen sharing, all participants hear all audio without problem. Can anyone help?

      1. I ran some test meetings between my computer and phone and found that when I was sharing a screen from my PC, sometimes my iphone didn’t automatically pick up the sound; When I unplugged and re-plugged my earbuds, the sound worked. I never did see a setting on my phone’s end or PC’s that would make this happen

    2. I figured out my encryption issue. Although I was using e2e, for others to see my audio as encrypted I had to switch to enhanced encryption. I believe the problems people are having with audio is on their end, not mine. fwiw

  5. IDontNeedYouToKnowMyName

    Zoom has started giving the error “Failed to Detect your microphone and speaker. Make sure your devices are properly connected.” It’s a MacBook and the “devices” are all internal. I’ve rebooted, uninstalled and reinstalled. It’s only Zoom that does this. Everything else works, so the mic and speakers WORK.

    What now?

  6. I’ve been teaching on Zoom for over a year now. Recently (like 3 months ago), I started having issues with audio when sharing my screen. To be specific, I’m using a pair of Bluetooth headphones, and they work fine during the meetings, but when I share my screen, the students can hear the video I’m playing, BUT I CAN’T. It doesn’t matter which audio I switch too, I can only hear it if I turn off my headphones and use the computer sound. I bought a new set of headphones thinking they were just getting old (they’re almost a year old), but the mew ones don’t work either. I’ve played around with the sound settings, and have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Zoom, but still cant get it to work. I teach PE, so I need to move around a lot when I teach, so I really need to be able to use wireless headphones. I’m on a pc using Windows 10.

  7. On a conference for 3 days, everything worked fine the first and second day. Using Mac desk.
    3rd day I could see the conference, no controls to see the zoomers on and they could not see me or hear me. Tried everything and ended up using an I pad to relay my messages. I only use Zoom and checked with the host if they had cut me off. The screen would not let me change the Audio icon at the botton of the left side . Newbie to all of this. frustrated

  8. I tried everything. Zoom simply couldn’t detect my speaker. No fix yet.

    1. I have the same issue, I have reinstalled twice, have you found a fix yet?

  9. Agreed, Zoom is not detecting my speaker (which works with everything else).

    1. Same issue! Only workaround I’ve found is to use the browser version to connect. The quality is pretty poor but it works for now. Thought I was going mad doing something wrong!

      1. Yep, another one here too. Was working two days ago; now total fail. Have uninstalled/reinstalled, reverted to a previous version, etc. Nothing.

  10. When my headphones are plugged in to the laptop, I am able to screen share the video with sound clearly. However, when my headphones are no plugged in to the laptop and I screen sharing a video, the audio heard by others was very bad, like glitchy. I am only able to screen share a video with sound when the headphones are plug in.

  11. We have a person who joins our zoom meeting via her land line. Occasionally she has no audio. Her phone audio and speakers are working because she phones in to tell us she can’t hear us. Is there any suggestions for this problem?

  12. I can not be heard during zoom meeting. I tested my MIC in the PC (windows) setting tab, and it works. But MIC test in the zoom app does not work.
    All permissions are OK, I am not muted. And still, other participants can’t hear me.
    How can we fix this?

  13. I’m unable to hear audio when others share a video. The audio plays for a few seconds then cuts out. I’ve tried all combinations of setting variations, including suppressing background noise, but nothing stops the problem.

    I’ve used Zoom for over two years on Android tablets and various laptops including HP and Sony Vaio, but I only have this problem on my new two laptops which are a Dell Inspiron 15 and a Dell Inspiron 16 using Windows 11 with Realtek(R) audio.

    The same problem also happens when Zoom is active and I play a video without sharing. Is there a fix for this? There are no sound cut outs when Zoom is not running? This makes Zoom unusable for my regular important weekly meetings.

  14. I seem to have fixed this now from the Optimize Dell Cinema settings for CinemaSound by disabling Remove Noise on Microphone and Speakers. This seems to be what was interrupting the shared Zoom audio.

  15. I face a problem that Zoom dose not share the sound of shared video. I was told the is it might be due to a Bluetooth connection of my keyboard. But the replacement of the wireless keyboard with a wire on made no change. In fact not solution offered was of help.
    Would be grateful to have a solution.

    Thanks

    1. As I commented above on April 27th this was fixed on my Optimize Dell Cinema settings for CinemaSound by disabling Remove Noise on Microphone and Speakers. This seems to be what was interrupting the shared Zoom audio. I have a Dell Inspiron 15, I but can’t comment about fixes for other laptops.

  16. I have an android phone. Recently, I no longer see my bluetooth earphone shown in the speaker pull down option when I have a Zoom meeting. Why? Does anyone know how to fix it?

    I know my earphone is connected to my phone because I can hear the sound from my earphone using other apps like Youtube, or Teams.

    Thanks in advance for the helps. This really puzzles me!

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