When you’re trying to use your mic on your computer and it doesn’t pick up your voice, it could frustrate you so much. If it’s tested normal on other devices, then you can follow the troubleshooting tips below to fix it.

  1. Make sure that the Microphone is enabled for all applications
  2. Run the Mic Troubleshooter
  3. Update your microphone drivers
  4. Check that your mic is set as default

Before we start, please make sure your microphone jack is firmly seated and there are no hardware issues on both your computer and your mic. Otherwise, you’ll have to ask for a repair or a replacement from the manufacturer. After that, proceed with the steps below.

1. Make sure that the Microphone is enabled for all applications

If your microphone cannot be detected and cannot pick up voice after Windows Updates, you may need to check that all your applications have access to your microphone.

Here’s what we can do:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and I together to open Windows Settings.
  2. From the left sidebar, click Privacy & security. Then, scroll down the page and click Microphone.
  3. Make sure Allow apps to access your microphone is turned on.
  4. Make sure Let apps access your microphone is turned on, and you can choose which apps have access. (Also, you can turn on Let desktop apps access your microphone if you wish.)

Check if your microphone starts working and picks up voice. If not, move on to the next solution.

2. Run the Mic Troubleshooter

If your microphone still doesn’t pick up voice, you can run the mic troubleshooter to detect and fix the problems. The microphone troubleshooter is one of the prebuilt repair tools in Windows 11. Follow the steps below to invoke it:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and I together to open Windows Settings.
  2. From the left sidebar, select Windows Update. Then, click Advanced options from the right.
  3. Then, select Recovery >> Fix problems without resetting your PC >> Other troubleshooters.


  4. In the troubleshooter list, find the Recording audio option and click the Run button. Then, follow the on-screen instructions and wait for the process to complete.
  5. Once complete, restart your computer.

Check if the microphone troubleshooter fixes the problem for you. If it doesn’t, try the next method.

3. Update your microphone drivers

When your mic cannot pick up voice, another thing you should do is to update your microphone device driver, since an up-to-date microphone driver always ensures the best audio recording performance and fewer bugs.

To update your microphone driver, here’s what you can do (please note that the following screenshots are taken on Windows 11, but the instructions work on Windows 10 as well):

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows key and X at the same time, select Device Manager.
  2. Double-click to expand the category Audio inputs and outputs. Then right-click your microphone driver and click Update driver (the name of the device can be different on your computer).
  3. Then click Search automatically for updated driver software.
  4. Wait for Windows to find the latest driver available for you.
  5. When the driver update is done, restart your computer for the change to take effect.
  6. Then check and see if the problem is fixed.
    (We also recommend you update your audio drivers, which can be found in the category of Sound, video and game controllers in Device Manager.)

If Windows says that it’s already found the latest driver for you, so no newer drivers are found, then you should consider updating your microphone driver in a different way with the help of Driver Techie.

Its ever-growing driver database allows you to always have access to the latest device drivers that you need. More importantly, Driver Techie simplifies the driver update process, so all it takes is just 3 clicks (for Pro users), and all your drivers are updated.

To use Driver Techie to find you the latest drivers:

  1. Download and install Driver Techie, then launch it.
  2. Click Scan Now.
  3. After the scan, select all the drivers you need to update and click Update All. Then all your drivers will be updated automatically without you having to do anything else.

Please note that Update All is available for Pro subscribers only, otherwise, you can only manually update the driver one at a time. To see how to manually update the drivers one by one, please check this post.

If you’re a Pro user of Driver Techie, and need our technical support to help with the microphone not picking up voice problem, please feel free to contact <support@drivertechie.com>.

4. Check that your mic is set as default

Furthermore, checking the microphone settings is also recommended. If your microphone is not the default recording device, it definitely won’t pick up any voice. So here are the steps:

  1. In the taskbar, right-click the speaker icon and select Open settings.
  2. Scroll down the page and select More sound settings.
  3. On the Sound setting wizard, click the Recording tab from the top menu, and check that Microphone is set as default. (If any other microphone devices that you don’t want to use are listed, right-click each of them and select Disable.)
  4. Click Apply and OK to save changes.

Check if the problem is resolved. Hopefully, one of the solutions above should work for you. If you have any other questions or workarounds to share, please feel free to leave a comment below.