Dota 2 is a game that relies on teamwork and for this reason, players get the option to communicate through text chat and audio chat via a mic. Whether it’s to form a strategy to destroy the enemy ancient. Or if it’s a plan to set up an ambush to win a team fight it is vital that the whole team is in communication with each other.
Yet many players report that their mic is not working in Dota 2 and instead is crossed out with a red slash. Yet their mic works fine (2) outside the game. Using text chat is fine as an alternative to voice chat. But when players are in the heat of battle they may not find the time to use the text chat. Communication without disruption of gameplay is why voice chat is important.
Most likely your mic is set to mute or you might not have given the game access to your mic. It could also be that the mic is being used by another app in the background which is causing the mic problems in Dota 2. If you’re facing any of these mic-related issues then try our fixes mentioned below.
How To Fix Mic Not Working In Dota 2 PC
1. Check To See If Your Mic Works Fine
The first logical step would be to check if the connected microphone device is working as intended. A user on Steam has confirmed that disabling all other input devices except the microphone to be used is known to fix the mic not working issue in Dota 2. Here’s how to check and fix that.
- Open Control Panel.
- From the top right corner under in View By select Large icons
- Select Sound from within the Control Panel menu.
- Under the Recording tab, you can test your mic to see if it picks up any audio from your end. If it works then you should check Set as Default Device however if it doesn’t then you may need to invest in a new mic.
- Finally, you should disable all of the other input devices except the microphone that you set as default to use in Dota 2 because they can interfere with the main microphone.
- Lastly, click Apply then OK.
2. Enable Mic Access
After that is checked we can proceed to see whether Windows is allowing apps like Dota 2 access to the mic. To do this follow the steps below:
- Open your Windows Search Bar.
- Type in “Microphone privacy settings” and press enter.
- Switch on “Microphone Access”.
- Right below this also turn on “Let apps access your microphone”.
3. Enabling Your Mic In Dota 2
After we have enabled microphone access through Windows it’s now time to see if the mic is enabled in Dota 2’s settings. To check it follow the steps mentioned below.
- Open Steam.
- Launch Dota 2.
- Open the Settings in the top left corner.
- Go over to the Audio tab.
- Under the Audio options to the right side open Sound Device.
- Select the correct microphone device that you want to use.
4. Enabling Push To Talk
Many Dota players have reported that they have fixed their mic being crossed out by enabling Push To Talk instead of Open Mic. This fix is suggested by a Redditor so you should also apply it.
- Open Settings in Dota 2 from the top left.
- Head over to the Audio tab.
- Under the Voice settings set your desired key in the Push To Talk for communicating solely with your party and with your team respectively. The keys set for Push To Talk must not be the same keys used by Steam for its Push To Talk feature.
5. Configuring Open Mic Settings
If you are facing issues with Open Mic then one known fix is to lower the Open Mic Threshold to 6% or below it. According to the user who reported this fix the threshold level must not go above 7% or Dota 2 will stop detecting your audio. This setting can be found under the Voice section of the settings and can be adjusted using the slider.
6. Close Background Apps with Microphone Access
Apps like Discord, Skype, etc. can sometimes take exclusive control of the mic and cause Dota 2 mic not working issues. You can check to see if this is the problem by shutting down these apps and restarting Dota 2 to see if the problem has been fixed.
If the problem has been fixed by closing these apps then you may want to switch to Push To Talk mode in these apps. This will prevent these apps from having access to your mic exclusively at all times.
7. Reinstall Microphone Drivers
If none of the above fixes worked for you then as a final effort you can try to reinstall the mic drivers either. This can be done by Device Manager or by using a 3rd party driver updater app known as Driver Easy. Reinstalling audio drivers fixes many issues Including the saved settings of previous drivers which may be causing the mic to not work in Dota 2. This is also completely reset upon new installation.
