Why isn't my microphone working on windows?

It’s really important to us that you have high quality, stress free tutorials and free meetings. Making sure your microphone is working helps you get the most out of your sessions when they’re happening and impacts the quality of your session recordings.

When you enter the lesson space we’ll run a quick set up test to check your internet, camera and audio to make sure you’re ready for your session.  After you’ve completed the internet test, the first check we make is on your microphone, just to make sure it’s working okay for your session.

If your microphone isn’t working, you’ll have seen one of these two screens.

Either it will appear as blocked:

Or the blue bar won’t be moving:

If your microphone appears as blocked, try the following steps:

Make sure the browser is allowing the lesson space to access your microphone.

For Chrome, check that your browser is set to ‘allow’ on the permissions section shown below, you can open this by clicking the padlock icon.

Make sure Microphone is set to allow. If it isn’t, change this.

In Firefox, click the padlock icon to see the permissions.

If it isn’t set to allow, click the arrow on the right of that panel, and then click ‘More Information’ to open a new window. Navigate to the Permissions tab, and scroll to the bottom. Untick the ‘Use Default’ box next to ‘Use the Microphone’ and then change the other selection to ‘Allow’.

1. If the above doesn’t work, open the lesson space in an incognito browsing window. This temporarily clears out information stored in your browser in case it’s clogging things up.
   
   You can open one by pressing Ctrl + Shift + P for Google Chrome, or Ctrl + Shift + P for Firefox.
   
   
2. If that doesn’t work, try an alternative browser. We support Chrome and Firefox, so try whichever one you aren’t currently using. To check the permissions in the new browser, return to step 1.
   
   
3. If you are still unable to use your microphone, you will need to check your Windows Privacy Settings. Open ‘Settings’ on your PC and navigate to the section called ‘Privacy’.
   
   On the left panel, find the entry for ‘microphone’, and select it. Then scroll through the page on the right, and make sure both the ‘Allow apps to access your microphone’ and ‘Allow desktop apps to access your microphone’ switches are both set to ‘on’.
   
   Now refresh MyTutor and your microphone should be detected by the browser. 

If the blue bar isn’t moving, try the following steps.

1. If your microphone has a mute switch on it, check that this hasn’t been pressed.
   
   
2. Check your microphone is properly connected to your PC.
   

If your microphone is connected properly, open ‘Settings’ on your PC. Navigate to the ‘System’ section, then select ‘Sound’ on the left panel.

Scroll down to the ‘Input’ section, and check that the correct microphone is selected. If it is, verify that the coloured bar moved when you speak or make sound by the device.

If this moves, it means your device is functioning, so click the ‘Troubleshoot’ button, which will allow Windows to check what might be wrong. Ensure the troubleshooter selects the right device, and continue through until it is finished.

The bar should now be moving in the setup test.

We always recommend following these steps to make sure you’re getting the most out of your tutorials when they’re happening and to improve the quality of lesson recordings. This also helps us maintain the highest levels of safeguarding on the site, which is really important to us. If you’re having any trouble, just let us know and we’d be happy to help.