Every time I open a link for a Microsoft Teams meeting, the Teams app opens with the default audio configuration of my speaker being the system default (computer speakers) and the microphone being my headset. Each and every time I switch it to using the headset for speakers as well as microphone.
I’m unable to open Teams and simply set Preferences when a session link hasn’t been clicked — first it demands I pick an account (which I do) and log in with a password (which I do) then it tells me
… whereas if I click a link that’s been sent to me, it “just works” (no demand that I log in first, it knows who I am, etc); once I’m IN the session, I have access to the applications Preferences from the menu, and I’ve attempted to set the audio preferences there to make them permanent and not per-the-session, but they don’t stick.
Anyone know how to boss MS Teams around better than I do?
I just checked: I can do this, see description below which I added just in case you made a mistake somewhere. I get the impression that you know all this and try to do it in the correct way, and that your Teams set-up is restricted by the administrator of your Teams server or so. In that case we can’t help you and you would need to ask the administrator.
For reference, this is how I manage to change the settings.
If I start Teams myself (not from a link) I also need to login. Once Teams has started, the upper right hand corner shows my initals/login, and to the left of that are further options (three full stops: …). Clicking on that opens a pull down menu, on which the first item is the settings menu (with a gear icon). Note: there is also a gear icon a bit lower, to the left of the button for becoming member/making team. I presume you didn’t use that by mistake.
In the settings menu I can select the Devices menu, which allows me to change my audio device settings.
Is there something you can change, not in Teams, but in your computer’s settings to make the default the headset rather than the speakers when the headset is plugged in?
Yeah, but Teams is not the only application I run that uses sound. When I’m watching the required training videos I want my web browser to use the computer speakers. The entire Windows environment I remote into, i.e., Microsoft Remote Desktop, should use computer speakers too, for system beeps and whatnot. Some applications have their own Preference settings that are independent of the global System Prefs for overall sound — including my softphone app, which rings using computer speakers but uses the headset audio for microphone and speaker for the actual phone call unless I switch to speakerphone mode (all very convenient and tailored to what I want) — but Teams appears to also have that granularity, it just isn’t working correctly.
Can you clarify something. You mention that you are using Microsoft Remote Desktop (RDP) to access Teams in a Windows environment, and that the error message you get when trying to change the audio device settings contains " is restricted by your admin". Is this correct?
If so, then it is possible that whoever set up the remote Windows environment that you RDP into has configured a policy in the environment that prevents users from changing some of the Teams settings. I don’t know why anyone would want to restrict their users ability to manage audio or video settings, unless it’s to adopt a lowest common denominator strategy in the hope that it will limit support calls.
I suggest that you open a support ticket with your IT department and see if they can fix the issue.
I am using Microsoft Remote Desktop to access my Windows environment which is my environment supplied to me by my employers. I don’t use it for everything I do during my workday; I use Mac apps in the surrounding native MacOS environment that owns Microsoft Remote Desktop as one application among many. My employers know this. The version of Teams I use is the MacOS version of Teams, not the Windows version within Microsoft Remote Desktop.
It is still possible (probably?) that whoever set up the configs of the remote Windows environment has a policy that won’t let me manage the settings, BUT if so they picked a weird weird default, which is to assume the end user has a microphone to speak into as part of a headset but that the audio out to speakers should use the end user’s main speakers. See what a weird setup that is? Well, I think I set that up: I was getting awful feedback over the headset (loud static) and switching to the regular computer audio got rid of the feedback, so I listened and still spoke into the headset microphone. And then somehow that got mortared in as the default setting. I don’t know how I did that. I didn’t set out to do that. And I can’t figure out how to switch it back except session by session, having to do it every time.
In this case then I agree with @scudsucker that settings in the Windows environment should have no effect on the Mac version of Teams, except for one caveat.
When you log in to the Mac Teams app are you using credentials and a license from your employer? In that case it is again possible that your employer has configured their Teams environment to disable some user actions, however I just did a quick search through this list: Teams settings and policies reference - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn and couldn’t find anything that looks like it would cause your issue.
I do suggest that you contact the employer’s IT group for assistance.
[edited to add] Do you participate in any Mac user forums? If so then that may be another place to ask for help.
I did open an IT Ticket. So far they’ve advised me to see if I can disable system-level access to my computer speakers and thereby make it default to headphones. But as I told you folks here, that would affect all my applications and is not a solution.
I do participate in some Mac forums and that’s a good suggestion.