MicTester

Microphone not working on Windows 11? Start with what the browser says

Press start. Either your voice draws a waveform — in which case Windows is fine and the fault is in one app — or the browser rejects the request with a specific name, and that name narrows the cause to one of seven things. Everything below works whether or not you allow the prompt.

Sample trace

A drawing, not a recording — nothing here came from a microphone yet.

Spectrum

low → high frequency

Level (dBFS)

Peak -12.3|RMS -21.3|Hold −∞

−50−20−9−0.5−600

Reading: On target — that is the sample trace’s own peak, not yours.

Before the browser asks

  • · Your browser will ask for permission. Nothing happens until you allow it.
  • · The page then reads three things: the waveform, how loud you are, and the device list.
  • · No recording starts on its own. The recorder has its own button below.
  • · Audio is processed in this tab and never uploaded — there is no server to upload it to.
  • · The most permissive request a page can make, so that if this fails the problem is upstream of the browser rather than a constraint you asked for.

The seven ways a browser can refuse a microphone

A web page opens a microphone with one call, and the web platform specifies exactly which failures that call can produce. There are seven, no more, and each one points somewhere different. If the tool above rejected you, it printed the name — find it in this table.

Rejection names and the conditions that produce them, from the W3C Media Capture and Streams specification, Candidate Recommendation Draft of 09 October 2025, section 10.1 and section 7, read directly on 2026-08-15. The last two columns are this site’s interpretation for a Windows 11 machine, not specification text. The set is complete: the specification text was searched for each name rather than recalled.
Rejection Specified trigger What it means on your PC What to do
NotAllowedError Permission Failure You said no, or the browser said no on your behalf — a remembered "block", an insecure page, or a permissions policy on an embedding site. Clear the site permission and reload. This is also the error you get when the OS has taken the decision for the whole browser.
NotFoundError NotFound Failure No device of the requested kind exists as far as the browser can see. Plug the microphone in, unmute it at the OS level, and check the browser is not blocked from the microphone system-wide.
NotReadableError A hardware error such as an OS, program or webpage lock preventing access, leaving no candidate device The device exists and you allowed it, but something else has it open exclusively — the classic "another app is using your microphone". Close the other conferencing app or browser tab holding the device, then retry. On Windows this is the single most common cause.
OverconstrainedError Constraint Failure You asked for something no available device can deliver — an exact sample rate, an exact channel count, a deviceId that has gone away. It carries a `constraint` property naming the offending one. Drop the exact requirement and ask for it as ideal instead.
AbortError Device access failing for any reason other than the listed ones The catch-all. Access failed and the spec has no more specific name for it. Restart the browser, then the machine. If it survives both, suspect the driver.
TypeError An empty set of requested media types, or a required constraint whose name is not allowed for device selection The page asked wrongly. Nothing is broken on your side. Nothing you can do as a visitor — this one is a bug in the site.
InvalidStateError The document is not fully active The page was in the back/forward cache or otherwise not the live document when it asked. Reload the page rather than restoring it from history, and ask again.

The rule that makes “permission denied” untrustworthy

There is one detail in that algorithm worth knowing before you troubleshoot anything, because it invalidates the obvious conclusion. The specification defines a check called getUserMedia specific failure is allowed, which reads the microphone permission state and returns false when it is already denied. Both the NotFound failure step and the Constraint failure step then say: if that check returned false, jump to Permission Failure instead.

In other words, once a site is blocked, NotFoundError and OverconstrainedError are both reported as NotAllowedError. This is deliberate privacy design — a blocked site should not be able to enumerate your hardware by watching which error it gets. But it means a “permission denied” message on Windows 11 does not prove you denied permission. It might equally be that no microphone exists. Clear the site permission first, then read the error again; only then is it diagnostic.

Microsoft’s own order of operations

If the browser cannot open a microphone that Windows claims to have, the settings below are where the fault lives. Every path is taken from Microsoft Support, “Fix microphone problems” (Applies To: Windows 11, Windows 10), read directly on 2026-08-15 — including the tab it appears in, since the article’s Windows 11 and Windows 10 instructions genuinely differ.

Paths quoted from Microsoft’s article, which lists “Applies To: Windows 11, Windows 10”. Where a step exists only in the Windows 10 tab it is marked as such rather than presented as a Windows 11 instruction. Interface wording changes between builds; the goal column is the durable part.
Goal Path Detail Documented for
Let anything use the microphone at all Start → Settings → Privacy & security → Microphone Turn on Microphone access, then Let apps access your microphone. Microsoft notes that desktop apps do not appear in the per-app list and are covered by the separate “Let desktop apps access your microphone” switch, which cannot be set per app. Windows 11
Choose which microphone Windows hands out Start → Settings → System → Sound → Input Under “Choose a device for speaking or recording”, select the one you mean. Browsers follow this default unless a site has been given a specific device. Windows 11
Test the microphone in Windows itself Start → Settings → System → Sound → Input → “>” beside the device On the properties page, use Start test under Microphone test, speak, then Stop test and Play under Recorded sample. If this fails, no browser is going to succeed. Windows 11
Raise a quiet microphone Start → Settings → System → Sound → Input → the device’s properties page Adjust the Input volume slider under Input settings, retesting as you go. Windows 11
Raise a quiet microphone, older layout Settings → System → Sound → Input → Device Properties → the Levels tab Microsoft’s Windows 10 instructions put Microphone and Microphone Boost sliders here. OBS Studio’s own guide adds a useful trick for this dialog: right-click the percentage value and choose decibels, then aim for about 0.0 dB for the least clipping. Windows 10
Run the built-in troubleshooter Settings → System → Sound → Advanced → Troubleshoot common sound problems → Input devices Microsoft lists All sound devices under Advanced for further options. Windows 11
Reinstall the audio driver Right-click Start → Device Manager → Sound, video and game controllers Uninstall device with “Attempt to remove the driver for this device” ticked, restart, then Scan for hardware changes and Update driver if Windows does not do it itself. both

When Windows hears you and Chrome does not

A concrete and very common shape. Windows’ own microphone test under Settings → System → Sound → Input records and replays your voice perfectly. This page, in Chrome, rejects with NotAllowedError. The obvious reading is that Chrome is blocked for this site — but the masking rule above says that error is also what a missing device looks like once a block exists, so it is not yet conclusive.

The sequence that resolves it: clear the site permission in the address-bar controls and reload. Now the browser will report honestly. If it prompts and then works, the block was the whole story. If it prompts and rejects with NotReadableError, another application holds the device — and the fact that Windows’ own test worked is evidence for that, because closing the Settings page frees the device it was holding. If it rejects with NotFoundError, the browser is being denied at the OS layer, which is the Privacy & security path in the table above.

Splitting hardware from software in three swaps

  1. Second browser. Same microphone, different browser. Works there → the first browser’s permission. Fails in both → below the browser.
  2. Second port. A USB port that cannot power a device is indistinguishable from a dead device, and front-panel ports on desktops are the usual offenders.
  3. Second device. Select the machine’s built-in microphone in the picker above. If it works and the external one does not, nothing is wrong with the PC.

Once the microphone opens, the remaining question is usually about level: a device that works but is far too quiet reads as broken to everyone on the call. The quiet-microphone page turns that into a number in decibels, and if a specific app is still silent while this page is not, the Discord and Zoom pages list the in-app settings that produce silence with working hardware.

FAQ

Windows 11 microphone questions

The browser says permission denied but I never denied anything. Why?

Because the specification deliberately hides two other failures behind that one. When the microphone permission is already in the “denied” state, the algorithm’s NotFound and Constraint failure steps both jump to Permission Failure instead of reporting themselves — so NotFoundError and OverconstrainedError arrive as NotAllowedError. It exists to stop a blocked site learning what hardware you have. The practical consequence is that “denied” can mean denied, missing, or unusable, and you have to clear the permission before the browser will tell you which.

What does NotReadableError mean on Windows 11?

That the device exists, you allowed access, and something else has it open exclusively. The specification’s wording is a hardware error such as an OS, program or webpage lock preventing access. On Windows 11 that is nearly always another conferencing app still running in the tray, or a second browser tab with a live call in it. Close them and press start again — no reboot required.

Windows says my microphone works but browsers cannot find it.

Then the fault is in the permission layers between them. Microsoft’s own article covers the first: Privacy & security → Microphone, where Microphone access and Let apps access your microphone must both be on. Note the detail it adds — desktop apps do not appear in the per-app list and are covered by a separate switch that cannot be set per app, so a browser can be blocked by a setting that never names it.

Should I reinstall my audio driver?

Only after the free checks. Microsoft puts driver reinstallation last in its own troubleshooting order, after app permissions, default-device selection and the built-in troubleshooter — because those three fix most cases and cost nothing. When you do get there, its instructions are specific: Device Manager → Sound, video and game controllers → Uninstall device with “Attempt to remove the driver for this device” ticked, restart, then Scan for hardware changes.

Does this page work if my microphone is genuinely broken?

Yes, and that is the point. Everything on it except the tool itself — the failure table, the Windows paths, the explanations — needs no microphone at all. If you decline the permission prompt, or there is no device to grant, the page still reads as a complete troubleshooting guide.

How do I know whether it is the microphone or the machine?

Swap one variable at a time. Try the same microphone in a second browser: if it works there, the first browser’s site permission is the fault. Try a different USB port: a port that cannot supply a device produces the same silence as a dead microphone. Try the machine’s own built-in microphone in the device picker above: if that works and the external one does not, the machine is fine.

More from MicTester

Once the browser can hear you again

  • the full mic test with every switch on one page — waveform, spectrum, dBFS meter, recorder and device picker together, with all three processing toggles exposed.
  • fix for a microphone that is too quiet — Turns automatic gain off so the meter shows your real level, then tells you in dB exactly how much gain is missing.
  • microphone latency test — Reads the delay your own browser reports and shows the buffer arithmetic every one of those figures comes from.
  • Keyboard Tester — The same idea for the other input device: press a key, watch it light up, and see the exact event your browser received.
  • Click Speed Test — Counts clicks per second against the browser’s own timestamps, so the deadline holds even when the frame rate does not.