# Audio in problem with Mac OS Catalina

**URL:** <https://discourse.processing.org/t/audio-in-problem-with-mac-os-catalina/28897>\
**Category:** Processing\
**Created:** [March 27, 2021, 9:12am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/audio-in-problem-with-mac-os-catalina/28897 "2021-03-27T09:12:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![yannisky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3e96dc/32.png) [@yannisky](https://discourse.processing.org/u/yannisky)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2021, 9:12am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/audio-in-problem-with-mac-os-catalina/28897/1 "2021-03-27T09:12:27Z")

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Has anybody else encountered problems with getting the built-in mic to work with Processing with a new OS update? Same patches were working fine until I upgraded to Catalina. Somehow Processing can’t access the microphone. Is there a solution for this?

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**Author:** ![everythingability](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/everythingability/32/937_2.png) [@everythingability](https://discourse.processing.org/u/everythingability)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 10:33am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/audio-in-problem-with-mac-os-catalina/28897/2 "2021-03-28T10:33:50Z")

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> [@yannisky](#):
>
> with a new OS update? Same patches were working fine until I upgraded to Catalina. Somehow Processing can’t access the microphone. Is there a solution for th

My guess, is that with every update macos gets more “hidden” security features. Go to System Preferences\>Security\>Privacy and ensure Processing can access the mic.

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**Author:** ![yannisky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3e96dc/32.png) [@yannisky](https://discourse.processing.org/u/yannisky)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 11:13am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/audio-in-problem-with-mac-os-catalina/28897/3 "2021-03-28T11:13:48Z")

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I tried that but Processing does not appear as an option there - and I don’t know how to add it there. Perhaps via Terminal - But I don’t know how.

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**Author:** ![svan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@svan](https://discourse.processing.org/u/svan)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 12:59pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/audio-in-problem-with-mac-os-catalina/28897/4 "2021-03-28T12:59:07Z")

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Are you connecting an external microphone or device to your system or trying to use the internal microphone?

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**Author:** ![yannisky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3e96dc/32.png) [@yannisky](https://discourse.processing.org/u/yannisky)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 3:26pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/audio-in-problem-with-mac-os-catalina/28897/5 "2021-03-28T15:26:01Z")

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Hi Svan - trying to use the internal. I haven’t tried with external audio device - will check that tomorrow. But just wanted to check with the internal mic if it worked. Some old patches using audio in to trigger graphics just didn’t work anymore because of that.

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**Author:** ![svan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@svan](https://discourse.processing.org/u/svan)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 3:49pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/audio-in-problem-with-mac-os-catalina/28897/6 "2021-03-28T15:49:44Z")

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Are you able to see the internal microphone in SystemPreferences/Sound/Input? The only way I see anything to select is to plug in an external microphone; internal microphone is not even a choice. According to this URL some models don’t have one:[Change the sound input settings on Mac - Apple Support](https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-the-sound-input-settings-mchlp2567/11.0/mac/11.0)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![yannisky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3e96dc/32.png) [@yannisky](https://discourse.processing.org/u/yannisky)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 7:47pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/audio-in-problem-with-mac-os-catalina/28897/7 "2021-03-28T19:47:37Z")

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I’ve found a workaround that was suggested by another person on the forum:

> [@Give Mic access to Processing Sketch (Mac Catalina)](https://discourse.processing.org/t/give-mic-access-to-processing-sketch-mac-catalina/17953):
>
> I/m looking for a way to give my sketch access to my mic in Mac Catalina. I know you can manage your mic access in the System Preferences, but I can’t manually add apps. I already found this link: [macOS Mojave and Catalina TCC trigger](https://github.com/processing/processing-sound/issues/5) where they talk about Processing not asking for permission (mic and cam) when needed, but after reading everything 6 times I have NO idea what they are talking about. It seems like they offer a work-around, but I’m really not sure how or where to implement. So, i…

It involves: opening the Processing 3 app through Terminal by typing:  
/Applications/Processing.app/Contents/MacOS/Processing;  
Then opening the file needing mic access - this triggers the pop-up asking to access camera and mic and then it works…  
Hopefully there will be a simpler solution in the future…but this works for now. See the github post where this was mentioned:

> <https://github.com/processing/processing-sound/issues/51>
>
> \## Description
> When launching Processing.app and a user wants to use audio inpu…t for example, the app doesn’t aks for permission to use the microphone
> 
> \## Expected Behavior
> Trigger a window asking the user for the processing.app to access the microphone
> !\[3d0e288c-9d77-4523-b1ec-bf42bca85cf1\](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2464284/73177019-2a1b4800-410e-11ea-8d33-26a422025b8f.png)
> 
> \## Current Behavior
> No tcc triggers, so there are no audio or video inputs available
> 
> 
> \## Steps to Reproduce
> 
> 
> 1. Open Processing.app
> 2. Import sound library
> 3. Open examples --\>Libraries--\>Sound--\>IO--\>AudioInput
> \<img width="1441" alt="Processing\_app-sound" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2464284/73177311-01e01900-410f-11ea-94bf-2e71d8300417.png"\>
> 
> 
> \## Your Environment
> 
>  
> 
> \* Processing version: 3.5.4 and 4.0 beta
> \* Operating System and OS version: 10.14.6
> 
> 
> \## Possible Causes / Solutions
> 
> Use the Apple provided API call to add some tags in the Info.plist file.
> \[https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/cameras\_and\_media\_capture/requesting\_authorization\_for\_media\_capture\_on\_macos\](url)