USB Microphone recognized under System Report but not available as audio input

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Level 1

4 points

USB Microphone recognized under System Report but not available as audio input

Hi everyone,

I’m running macOS 26 (Tahoe) on a Mac mini M1 and noticed that my USB microphone (AKG Perception 120 USB) stopped working right after upgrading.

The mic shows up correctly under System Information → USB with manufacturer ID, product ID, etc.

However, it does not appear in System Settings → Sound → Input and is also missing from Audio MIDI Setup. It used to work perfectly under macOS 25 (Sequoia).

I already tried:

Resetting CoreAudio (killall coreaudiod)
Deleting audio prefs and caches
Removing other USB devices and hubs
Fresh reinstall of macOS 26 (clean system)

None of these steps solved the issue.

Other input devices (like my webcam mic) appear normally. Only the USB microphone is ignored by CoreAudio even though the USB descriptor is present. This seems like a possible CoreAudio / USB Audio Class 1.1 driver regression in macOS 26, since the device is fully class-compliant and doesn’t require any third-party drivers.

Has anyone else experienced this issue with class-compliant USB microphones after upgrading to Tahoe? Any workarounds until Apple fixes this in a future update?

Thanks in advance!

Posted on Sep 30, 2025 6:11 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 30, 2025 10:28 AM in response to Dilbert82

Dilbert82 wrote:

Hi everyone,

I’m running macOS 26 (Tahoe) on a Mac mini M1 and noticed that my USB microphone (AKG Perception 120 USB) stopped working right after upgrading.

Other input devices (like my webcam mic) appear normally. Only the USB microphone is ignored by CoreAudio even though the USB descriptor is present. This seems like a possible CoreAudio / USB Audio Class 1.1 driver regression in macOS 26, since the device is fully class-compliant and doesn’t require any third-party drivers.

re: <AKG Perception 120 USB>

For third party device—if in doubt search the developers website or contact their: Support/Help/FAQ/Known issues/compatibility/updates…

Contact a third-party vendor - Apple Support

To be proactive you can file a bug report / submit your Apple Feedback here: Product Feedback - Apple

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Answer 2

Oct 9, 2025 3:20 AM in response to Dilbert82

I'm also having this issue, I have an external Mic and Spark Mini Amp that I used to be able to DI into my iPad, but now they're not recognised as inputs, only as outputs. I've been through all the steps with Apple Support, but pretty much told I have to wait for an iOS update.

This all worked perfectly before the update.

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Answer 3

Dilbert82 Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 30, 2025 12:52 PM in response to leroydouglas

Thanks for your reply.

Just to clarify: the AKG Perception 120 USB is a class-compliant microphone – AKG does not provide any dedicated driver or software for macOS.

It has always worked out of the box on macOS in the past (including Sequoia and earlier versions). The problem only appeared after upgrading to macOS 26 (Tahoe).

So this is not a case where I could install or update a third-party driver – the device should normally be handled by Apple’s built-in USB Audio driver.

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