Zoom sees microphone but doesn't hear it

[frombrandon]

When I am in Zoom and choose my external USB microphone, Zoom sees the microphone but can't hear it—there is no audio input. The microphone works in any other app, but in Zoom there is silence. I can restart my computer, reinstall Zoom, and nothing. Until...something just starts working. And then it works for a while and there is no explanation.

Just this morning it wasn't working. I reinstalled and it was working. I unplugged and replugged and restarted the computer and it kept working. Then about an hour later, I unplugged the USB and plugged it back in and now it doesn't work again. Again, Zoom sees the microphone, but doesn't hear it.

I have been dealing with this issue for months. I never know when I'm going to have good audio, and as I teach online, this is a major pain. I thought at first it must be a mic problem (maybe a weird firmware quirk with my operating system), but a new mic brought the same problems. 

I've been teaching on Zoom for a couple years and this problem only showed up a few months ago. Can anyone please help?

I'm running Ventura 13.4 on 14" M1 MacBook Pro on Zoom 5.15.11.

I have experienced this problem with both a Samson Q2U and Rode Podmic. However, I went months using the Q2U with no problems before this suddenly started happening.

[EmHarding]

I've had the exact same problem! It must be zoom right?! 

[andrewafloat]

I have the same problem which has just started with my HP laptop, using the laptop's microphone.  HP updated its BIOS the day before . . .!   The laptop says the microphone is testing OK.

[MDK-2023]

While running Zoom, there is the option to select which camera, and which microphone, that Zoom will use.

Have you clicked on the bottom row of Zoom's window, to make a selection?