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Compatibility

Mic Drop works by muting your audio at the system level, meaning that it should work with any app and device combo out there. This is generally true, save for some pretty niche USB audio interfaces.

Most audio devices—including every Bluetooth and wired headset out there—work with Mic Drop. Webcams, AirPods, Bose headphones, and Beats Headphones are all good. We’ve also tested many popular USB interfaces—like the Blue Yeti or Corsair VOID headset—and they work well.

It’s only some niche devices that don’t play nicely with Mic Drop. This is a limitation of macOS. Unfortunately, there isn’t anything we can do to fix it.

Compatible hardware devices

  • iMac and MacBook internal microphones
  • AirPods/AirPods Pro/Beats Headphones
  • Logitech C920/C9221
  • Logitech BRIO 4K Webcam
  • Blue Yeti/Blue Yeti Pro/Blue Snowball
  • Bose QC35/700 Headphones
  • Zoom H1N
  • Any wired mic connected to your Mac’s headphone jack
  • Any bluetooth headset/headphones with mic-in

Certain audio devices don’t allow macOS to control their mute state, which means that Mic Drop has no way to mute and unmute these devices. Instead, Mic Drop will just pretend the device isn’t there. All other devices will be muted and unmuted as normal.

Mic Drop will warn you if it detects an incompatible device. If you use an exotic audio interface (like an XLR-in USB input device), you can download a trial first to see how it works.

A potential workaround

If you’re comfortable messing around with your audio setup (and, if you’re using a fancy audio device, there’s a good chance that’s you!), some users have had success using Loopback to create a virtual audio device.

Incompatible hardware

  • ASTRO Gaming A50 Wireless Headset
  • Apogee Mic 96k
  • Avid Fast Track Solo
  • LG UltraFine 5K Webcam microphone
  • Logitech H800 headset (with USB dongle)2
  • Focusrite Scarlett Range
  • Komplete Audio 6 MK1
  • RØDE NT-USB microphone
  • Schiit Audio Fulla 3
  • TASCAM US-2x2 Audio Device
  • Zoom H2N
  • Zoom H5

The above isn’t an exhaustive list—there could be other USB microphones that we can’t mute. We update this list as we encounter incompatible devices, so please send us a message if you have a device not listed here that isn’t working with Mic Drop.

Why am I seeing a “Mute error” notification?

If you’re seeing this message, it means that Mic Drop can’t mute any of the audio devices on your Mac. This only happens if you’re using Bluetooth headphones or an incompatible audio device with a Mac that doesn’t have a built-in microphone, like the Mac mini or Mac Pro.

Unfortunately, due to a bug with Monterey, Bluetooth headphones can’t be reliably muted on a system level. This is a known issue that affects all apps and all Bluetooth devices. We’re hoping that Apple fixes this issue soon.

Unfortunately this means that, for the time being, the only solution is to purchase a compatible wired microphone. Alternatively, if you have a USB device that isn’t compatible, you can try using Loopback to create a virtual audio device.

  1. The Logitech HD C920/C922 Pro webcams have a driver issue unrelated to Mic Drop. If you mute your C920/C922 webcam, then put your Mac to sleep or change microphones with the webcam still muted, it will stay muted until you unplug it and plug it back in. Unfortunately, we can’t fix this issue as it’s not caused by Mic Drop (it happens with any app that mutes the C920/C922).
  2. The Logitech H800 headset cannot be muted in USB mode, but it works fine in Bluetooth mode.

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