home-assistant
Mac Audio Input In Use and Active Audio Input incorrectly activated
Device model, version and app version
Model Name: MacBook Pro 16-inch, 2019 macOS Version: Sonoma 14.7 App Version: 2024.9.2 (2024.881) Safari Version: 18.0.1
Home Assistant Core Version 2024.10.1
Describe the bug When I play any kind of audio output (open chrome, play youtube, etc), while my USB Headphones are plugged in, the Home Assistant app reports both Audio input and audio output as active, both using "USB Audio Device", but there's no menu "microphone in use" icon from the host OS.
To Reproduce In my particular case, these are MSI DS502 USB Gaming Headphones, but it may well affect other USB headphones as well.
Expected behavior When you play music on USB headphones, without using the microphone, I'd expect the Audio Input in Use and Active Audio input to be false and inactive, respectively, but the Audio Output in use and active audio output to be true and USB Audio Device respectively
Screenshots Happy to collect these, or other sanitized logs if there's other kinds of debug information or tests I can collect.
Additional context The fact that there's no menu icon showing microphone usage implies that the OS does in fact know the difference and can identify that the microphone isn't active, but whatever method the companion app is using to identify input audio devices usage perceives these USB headphones as actively using the microphone anytime the output device is pointed at the headphones and playing sound.
ok, so I have something similar (I think).
I have the HA App installed on my Mac mini M1 Pro. The audio from my mini is routed through my external audio interface (Universal Audio apollo x6 for reference). If I play music on e.g. Spotify, both sensors "Rob’s Mac mini Active Audio Input" and "Rob’s Mac mini Active Audio Output" change state from inactive to "Universal Audio Thunderbolt". It's a PIA because now my automation, to automagically pause Spotify when a Teams call comes in, doesn't work. As a quick check, routing everything through the mini, the sensory behave correctly. :(
I have the same issue, Mac Studio M1 Ultra with external USB Audio Device.
Behavior is as expected if routing audio through analog "External Headphones" but sound quality drops. compared to a digital output, so need correct microphone reporting behavior.
I came across this issue today as well. Using a USB digital interface (https://community.home-assistant.io/t/macos-active-audio-input-incorrect/893624). I will also note that Mute-Me properly detects that my microphone is in use when using an external device, so this is possible in MacOS:
% tail -f Muteme-Client_operations.log | grep "Mic Usage"
2025-05-22T18:30:23.532Z + 252,135.6 [MonitoringService]***: "type": "info", "eventName": "Mic Usage Start", "muteable": "mic"
2025-05-22T18:30:25.579Z + 2,047.0 [MonitoringService]***: "type": "info", "eventName": "Mic Usage End", "muteable": "mic"
^C
% /opt/homebrew/bin/switchaudiosource -c input
Scarlett 2i2 4th Gen
% /opt/homebrew/bin/switchaudiosource -c output
Scarlett 2i2 4th Gen
