✅ Common causes and fixes
| What might be wrong | How to fix it |
|---|---|
| Speaking too softly or inconsistently | Speak at a normal conversation volume (60-70% of your maximum volume) directly toward the microphone. Maintain consistent volume—don’t trail off at the end of sentences. Position yourself 6-12 inches from the mic for built-in laptop mics, or 4-8 inches for external microphones or headsets. |
| Too far from microphone | Move closer to your microphone, distance significantly affects speech detection even if overall audio levels are adequate. For built-in laptop mics, sit directly in front of your device at a normal viewing distance. For external mics or headsets, ensure the mic is positioned near your mouth, not off to the side or below your chin. |
| Background noise overpowering your voice | Move to a completely quiet room with no background noise: turn off fans, AC, TVs, music, and ask others to be silent. The system needs your voice to be significantly louder than ambient noise. |
| Incorrect microphone input device selected | Windows: Right-click speaker icon in taskbar > Sound settings > Input > Select your microphone from the dropdown (ensure it shows green bars when you speak). Mac: System Settings > Sound > Input tab > Select correct microphone > verify Input level meter responds to your voice. Make sure you’re selecting the mic you’re actually using, not a disabled or disconnected device. |
| Browser doesn’t have microphone permissions | Grant microphone access when prompted. Chrome/Edge: Click lock icon in address bar > Site settings > Microphone > Allow. Firefox: Click lock icon > Permissions > Microphone > Allow. Safari: Safari > Settings for This Website > Microphone > Allow. Refresh the page after granting permissions and try speech detection again. |
| Microphone volume or sensitivity too low | Increase your mic input volume to 75-90%. Windows: Settings > System > Sound > Input > Device properties > Volume slider to 75-90%. Mac: System Settings > Sound > Input > Input volume slider to 75-90%. Low sensitivity prevents the system from detecting speech even if audio is present. Test the meter, it should show strong response when speaking normally. |
| Operating system speech services not responding | Restart your browser first, then restart your device completely to reset all speech detection services. Windows: Speech recognition services can hang—restarting clears them. Mac: Ensure Dictation is enabled in System Settings > Keyboard > Dictation (even if not using it, the underlying services support speech detection). |
| Accent, pronunciation, or speech pattern issues | Speak slowly and clearly, enunciating each word. Speech detection systems are trained on standard pronunciation, heavy accents or fast speech can cause issues. Pause briefly between words. If repeatedly failing, try speaking slightly more formally and deliberately than normal conversation. The system improves recognition with clear articulation. |
| Network latency affecting real-time detection | Ensure you have a stable internet connection. Speech detection often processes in real-time or sends audio to servers, poor connection causes delays or failures. If on Wi-Fi, move closer to your router. Check that no other applications are consuming bandwidth (streaming, downloads, video calls). |
| Speech detection timing out too quickly | Some systems expect responses within a certain timeframe. When prompted to speak, respond immediately without long pauses. If the detection times out, try again promptly. Don’t wait more than 1-2 seconds after the prompt to start speaking. Speak for 2-3 seconds minimum so there’s enough audio to analyze. |
Additional tips:
- Test your speech detection before your assessment using the system check or practice run to identify issues with time to resolve them
- Use a headset with a built-in microphone rather than laptop built-in mics, headset mics are closer to your mouth and pick up speech more clearly with less background noise
- Speak in complete, clear sentences during detection tests, avoid single words or very short phrases which may not provide enough audio data for recognition
- If speech detection repeatedly fails, close all other applications that might be using your microphone (Zoom, Teams, Skype) and restart your browser
- Ensure your testing environment is genuinely quiet, background noise you’ve tuned out (refrigerator hum, computer fan, air conditioning) can still interfere with detection