Even though Discord is generally a reliable old friend to work with, occasionally things can go frustratingly wrong.
One thing that seems to cause more suffering than it should is when your microphone refuses to work within the program.
Now while Discord is also a text-based chat server system, one of it’s popular points is it’s ability to be used as a voice over internet service with your friends when you are playing a game, rather like Teamspeak.
This obviously means when your mic packs up this is bad news and may find you leaving your Call of Duty comrades in the middle of a heavy firefight without you while you are fiddling around with your USB ports.
There definitely seems to be a bug hiding in there at the moment that stops your teammates hearing you but allows you to hear them calling you every name under the sun while they try to work out where you have vanished too.
It is worth noting that this error seems to be, in the main, only apparent when you use Discord’s own application. If you are playing through the browser it is a lot less common.
What to try first to get your mic working in Discord
Well, have you tried turning it on and off again? No, we are not kidding. Completely close down Discord and reload it. You would be surprised how many times this works. It’s as if Windows has somehow tripped itself up with Discord and just needs a moment to get all it’s treasure aligned on the same shelf.
No luck with that, assuming you are using a USB microphone, quite out of Discord, unplug the mic and plug it back in again.
You can use your sound control panel to ensure that your PC is picking up the audio from your mic. If it is not it’s always worth checking to see you haven’t accidentally muted it via a button on the mic itself. Maybe the cat has brushed against it. If you are using a Blue Yeti microphone there is a big old button on the front that is easily pressed that mutes it. It flashes when it’s muted so make sure you check for that.
If all that still isn’t bringing you joy it’s time for I.T Dept part two. Reboot your entire PC. This will generally fix things up.
It is also worth making sure you are running Discord as an Administrator – instead of just double-clicking it to open it, right click on its icon and select Run as Administrator. This will elevate its privileges within Windows (don’t worry about it, nerd stuff.) and sometimes that is the best way to get problematic programs to run as intended.
Use the correct microphone in Discord
If none of the above is working for you, well it must be something else obvious. It sounds crazy but make sure your Discord is trying to get your dulcet tones from the correct microphone. Now you may think you only have one microphone but in reality your webcam may have a mic, your gaming headset may have a mic. Don’t assume Discord has automatically picked the one you want to you, because invariably it won’t have.
To double-check this isn’t your problem hit the Settings cogwheel at the bottom of the app
Click VOICE & VIDEO and look for the option marked Input Device. Click on this and check if your correct microphone is selected. If it is not, simply select the mic you want.
While you are here, just double check the input volume to ensure it is fully to the right.
Resetting your Voice Settings in Discord
Once more head to the Settings cog wheel, and as above select Voice & Video. Have a bit of a scroll all the way to the bottom and you will see Reset Voice Settings. You will know that this must be important as it is in its own box and red text. Scary, do not push type stuff.
Push it.
A confirmation box will appear, hit okay on that and see if that has fixed the issue.
Other things to check
By now we are confident you will have got things working again, but on the off chance you are still struggling have a quick check to ensure you haven’t accidentally turned on Push to Talk – if you have your mic will only activate when you hit the trigger button.
Again, you will find the option tucked away in the Voice & Video section of the Settings.
Good luck!
