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Teams: Disable Microphone Auto Adjustment

Teams: Disable Microphone Auto Adjustment

January 24, 2021 by Madalina Dinita 4 Comments

Your microphone often seems to have a will of its own during Microsoft Teams meetings. That is to say, the app automatically adjusts the microphone volume to 100%. This issue is even more annoying if you have a susceptible mic that requires low gain.

How to Stop Teams from Adjusting Your Mic

Disable Exclusive Mode

Let’s start by denying Teams permission to fully control the microphone.

  1. Copy-paste mmsys.cpl in your Windows Search bar and press Enter.
  2. In the Sound window, click on the Recording tab.
  3. Then right-click on your microphone and select Properties.
  4. Under Exclusive Mode, uncheck the option that reads Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device.
  5. Unplug your microphone and restart your computer. Check if Teams still has full control over your microphone.

allow applications to take exclusive control of this device

Use an Audio Management App

Many Teams users solved this microphone problem with the help of different audio management apps. Some used VB-CABLE Virtual Audio Device, while others installed Voicemeeter or the NVIDIA Voice app for background noise filtering.

Feel free to start with any app you want. Then tweak the settings to block Teams from messing with the volume.

VB-CABLE Virtual Audio Device

For example, let’s say you decide to install VB-CABLE Virtual Audio Device. Here’s how to set up the tool:

  1. Download the app from https://www.vb-audio.com/Cable/index.htm.
  2. Then extract and install the virtual audio cable driver.
  3. Restart your computer and go to Sound settings.
    • Enter mmsys.cpl in the Windows Search bar and hit Enter to open the Sound window.
  4. Use the following settings:
    1. Playback: Select your speakers as default.
    2. Recording: Select your normal microphone as default.
    3. Recording: Right-click on your mic and open microphone Properties. Go to the Listen tab, and check the Listen to this device box. microphone array propertiesSelect the new ‘Cable Input‘ device, and save the Settings.
  5. Then, go to Teams and select Devices. Select the new ‘Cable Output‘ as the microphone input.

microsoft teams microphone settings

To clarify, VB-CABLE Virtual Audio Device routes the microphone sound through a virtual cable.

⇒ Quick Tip: If the Xbox game app is running on your computer, close it. Many users confirmed that closing the Xbox game app reduces the frequency of the mic auto adjustments.

Teams to Get a Built-in Option to Disable Auto-Adjusting Mic Level

This mic auto-adjusting problem has been around since 2019. Many users have long been asking Microsoft to add a dedicated option to stop Teams from adjusting the mic. The good news is that Microsoft placed this request on their backlog. The confirmation came in November 2020. The company promised to share an update as soon as one was available.

Well, until Microsoft permanently fixes this issue, feel free to use this guide to get the job done. How long have you been dealing with this problem? Let me know in the comments below.

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Filed Under: Software

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Carlin Scott says

    July 12, 2022 at 4:03 pm

    I tried VB-CABLE Virtual Audio Device, and Nvidia Broadcast. Teams. Teams kept resetting the call audio when I used Nvidia, and when I used VB-Cable it turned off my audio while in the call and then looped the ringing once I ended the call until I closed Teams.

  2. Anne Bavelaar says

    November 29, 2021 at 11:32 am

    Great tip, thank you! How can we do this on a mac?

  3. Anders says

    August 13, 2021 at 2:58 am

    That is a very complicated compared to disable automatically adjust mic sensitivity in Teams settings

  4. Michael T says

    March 19, 2021 at 12:57 am

    There is a simple fix to this. Nircmd will allow you to set the volume every 0.5 s.

    nircmd setsysvolume 65535 default_record
    nircmd loop 172800 500 setsysvolume 62000 default_record

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