Big Walk microphone not working: nobody can hear you at all
If the game receives nothing from your mic, the Microphone Activity meter tells you in two seconds. Here is the official check order, and why this is not the quiet-voice bug.
No patch applies here. The 1.4.8 update fixed voices that were too quiet; it does nothing for a microphone the game never receives. The official FAQ documents the check order below.
Do this first
Open Settings > Audio and talk. If the Microphone Activity meter does not move, the game is receiving nothing and no in-game volume setting will help — it is a device, a permission, or a mute switch. If the meter does move and you are still faint rather than silent, you have the quiet-voice problem instead, which version 1.4.8 fixes.
Is this your problem?
- Nobody hears you at all, rather than hearing you faintly
- The Microphone Activity meter stays flat while you talk
- Your mic works in Discord or Steam voice but not in Big Walk
- You can hear everyone else perfectly
Check the meter before anything else
Settings > Audio shows a Microphone Activity indicator. Talk and watch it. This single check splits the problem in half and takes two seconds.
Meter moves, you are still hard to hear: the game has your microphone and the issue is volume. That is a different page — update to 1.4.8.
Meter does not move: the game is getting no audio at all. Nothing inside Big Walk can fix that, so stop changing in-game settings and work through the list below instead.
The official check order
The FAQ lists these in a sensible order, from the causes that are most often the answer to the ones that are rarest.
- Check Settings > Audio > Mute Mode. If it is set to hold, you have to hold the button down to be heard — release it and you are silent, which reads exactly like a broken microphone.
- Check the moderation menu and confirm you have not been silenced in the session by the host.
- Confirm the microphone is plugged in fully. A headset jack seated halfway commonly delivers audio out but not in.
- Check the hardware mute switch on the headset or the microphone itself. This is the single most common cause and the easiest to overlook.
- Check whether your operating system is handing the microphone to the game at all — on macOS this is a per-application permission, and on console the platform has its own voice-chat toggle.
When the game has the wrong device
If you have more than one input — a webcam, a headset, a dock, a virtual audio device from streaming software — the game may be listening to a different one than you are speaking into.
Unplug the inputs you are not using and try again. That is faster than working out which entry in a device list corresponds to which physical object, and it confirms the cause rather than guessing at it.
What this is not
This page is about silence, not faintness. If people can hear you but only just, that is the quiet-voice problem House House patched in 1.4.8.
It is also not the same as a voice that fades with distance or cuts out behind a wall. Those are the game working as designed, and several puzzles depend on them.
And if the problem is that everyone hears themselves repeated, you have a feedback loop from someone's speakers rather than a microphone fault.
Frequently asked
Why can nobody hear me in Big Walk?
Open Settings > Audio and watch Microphone Activity while you talk. A flat meter means the game receives no audio, which points to a mute switch, a permission, or the wrong input device — not to any in-game setting.
My mic works in Discord but not in Big Walk. Why?
Different applications can be given different devices and different permissions. Check that the operating system allows Big Walk to use the microphone, and that the game is not listening to a second input you are not speaking into.
Does the 1.4.8 patch fix my microphone?
No. That patch raises voices that were too quiet. If the game receives nothing at all, the patch changes nothing for you.
Why do I have to hold a button to talk?
Mute Mode is set to hold in Settings > Audio. Change it if you would rather have an open microphone.
Could the host have muted me?
Yes. Hosts can silence players from the moderation menu under Session Details. Ask them to check before you take your headset apart.