Weird sound problem: SOLVED!

TidBITS Talk
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So…I have had a long-standing sound problem: When using the Screen Sharing app on my Mac (used to connect to friends’ screens for troubleshooting), I would get no audio. They could hear me just fine but I could not hear them. I tried adjusting every imaginable setting in System Settings. Nothing worked. I called Apple; they offered nothing useful. I eventually gave up and just learned to live it.

And then, entirely by chance, I tripped over the unlikely solution. I was using the FaceTime app (something I almost never use on my Mac, which is probably why I never spotted this before) and went to the VIDEO menu. Despite its name, the menu actually included AUDIO options for the selection of Microphone and Sound Output. And Output was somehow set to my Blue external microphone (which obviously would not work as a speaker). I corrected the setting.

And (as you’ve probably guessed by now), after making this change, the audio in Screen Sharing started working again as well. Problem solved! Pure luck. But I’ll take the win anyway.

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(graybeard_WellActually) If it’s an analog mic, you can send a signal to it and will act as a very bad, very quiet speaker. A pedantic fun fact (the best kind of Graybeard Fact) that unfortunately has gone the way of the dodo with digital connections.

PS: just checked, and I still have a copy of Sad Macs, Bombs, and Other Disasters up on my bookshelf. Thanks!

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Cool. I think I still have a copy as well. :grinning: