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Teams randomly not recognising audio devices

Anonymous
2020-04-02T22:16:28+00:00

Hi all, 

I have a home recording studio that I have converted into a WFH office for the duration of the COVID19 pandemic. As such, I have some entry-level audio recording hardware that should be ideal for Teams calls.

Teams, on the other hand, has different ideas about this. One of two things will happen when I make a test call:

  1. The microphone doesn't work.
  2. The speakers don't work.

Point 1) happens almost all the time. It's crazy, because I can have the various Windows system utilities showing the input levels open at the time, and they are all registering input

Point 2) happens less commonly, and is far more annoying. When it does, it kills sound for all of Windows. Sometimes I can get it back just by exiting Teams, but more often than not, it requires restarting Windows.

Sometimes, these things happen in subsequent test calls. That is, on the first call, the microphone won't work, then with making no changes, the speakers don't work on a second call!

Again, I should point out that this is part of a home recording studio, and it all works flawlessly in every other audio program I've used.

What is going on here?

I am running Windows 10 Pro.

My PC is a Ryzen 9 3900X with 32GB RAM, etc etc

My audio interface is a Tascam US-16x08, connected via USB to a rear port of my PC, and only one microphone (Shure SM57) connected, to port 1.

Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Teams for business | Meetings and calls | Audio and video

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-04-14T00:55:51+00:00

    Hi Sylvie,

    I thought this may have worked - for two whole days it seemed to work fine, but then today, Teams decided my speakers didn't work. And again, it broke audio playback for my whole system.

    Exiting Teams restored audio playback to my system, and then everything worked fine again.

    So, these are the things I've done:

    • Set up a separate work user account on my PC
    • Ensured that "US-16x08" is set as both the "default device" and "default communications device" in the "recording" tab of the Sound control panel
    • Disabled all the other sound devices in the Sound control panel
    • Messed with the privacy settings as above
    • Restarted Teams numerous times
    • Restarted the PC numerous times

    Again, I should reiterate that this is professional grade recording equipment I'm using, and it works just fine in every DAW I've tried. The only thing that doesn't work 100% of the times I've tried is Teams.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-04-05T22:38:54+00:00

    Hi Sylvie,

    Even after doing this, Teams steadfastly refuses to believe my US-16x08 works as a microphone input. The problem is not within Windows, since I can have the microphone page in the Windows Settings app loaded, and I can see the levels bouncing around there even while Teams is telling my my microphone doesn't work.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-09-01T13:13:02+00:00

    You should fix those bugs instead copy-pasting default answers, and it is much more simple to restart computer then to delete all audio devices.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-04-03T05:38:26+00:00

    Hi Lindsay Freeman,

    Thanks for your detailed description, I can see the audio and speakers doesn’t work randomly in Teams. It can be fixed by restarting Teams and Windows sometimes. Given this situation, since it happens randomly, it may be related to the drivers in the computer. Please kindly try the following to see how it goes:

    1. Type device manager in the Windows search bar and open it.
    2. Click Sound, video and game controllers, delete all sound devices
    3. Click Audio inputs and outputs, delete all audio devices
    4. Then click scan for new hardware devices icon at the toolbar
    5. Restart PC

    6.Restart Teams and check the audio device in Teams.

    Best Regards,

    Sylvie

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-05-18T12:42:09+00:00

    The above is not the answer. I had to reinstall Windows due to a drive crash, and after following the above, Teams takes over audio playback exclusively (and plays silence...) and the microphone simply will not work.

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