I’ve had a Blue Yeti microphone for about 7 years and it’s a brilliant piece of equipment. On a Mac it works without any drivers – just plug it in. But all may not be the same if you’re trying to use it on a M1 powered Mac.
I had my M1 MacBook Pro a few weeks before I noticed an issue – the microphone was shown as plugged in and selected as the input device but no sounds was being shown as being received. I tried everything, including a replacement cable, but it remained the same. Trying it on a Windows desktop, all worked normally. A quick Google search and it turned out I wasn’t the only person having an issue, and it seemed to be down to that new M1 chip. My particular experience seemed pretty unusual, though, as most people were finding that the sound was simply garbled. But, whether distorted or just not there, something was amiss – especially as other microphones appear to work just fine.
Why doesn’t the Blue Yeti Microphone work on M1 Macs?
Blue was bought by Logitech last year, so support is via them and, well, they remained pretty quiet on the subject – in the forums anyway. When I raised a support ticket, they quickly admitted there was an issue with M1 Macs.
Please note that we are currently working on a fix for issues with the Apple Silicon M1 processor . Unfortunately we do not have an ETA at this time.
Bearing in mind how long the M1 processor has been available, it doesn’t seem great that there’s still no ETA on this, especially as Logitech have been aware of this problem for at least 10 months.
Some other users suggested using Logitech’s G HUB application, which works with various Logitech hardware, including Blue microphones. This appears to use its own driver, which has worked successfully for some users. However, I found a terrible delay introduced into the microphone. Zoom was particularly bad with a second of lag between video and audio.
Is there a solution?
A few weeks later I received this update from Blue…
Please update G HUB with the release from yesterday (2021.10.8013).
The latency/delay you were experiencing should be fixed with this update.
I’ve not had a chance to try this but it appears this is the solution for now – using Logitech’s own software and drivers, rather than relying on the default Apple versions.
Other users have found alternative solutions, including making sure the microphone is plugged in and powered on before rebooting your Mac – when it comes back on, the microphone should be working. However, this only appears to work if you’re not using the Logitech software.
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Hi, I was wondering is your blue yeti now working on your M1 with Apple driver, without any workaround and that fuss?
Thanks
A good question Andreas. I switched out to another microphone (a rather nice Audio-Technica model) but still have my Yeti – I’ll re-try it sometime soon and report back on the results.
I have a similar issue but it now works intermittently. I was on a zoom call and had to unplug and replug in my Yeti several times before it started working. I also had to plug directly into my M1 rather than using a hub which used a USB port
Plugging the microphone in directly, rather than a hub, is one solution that I’ve seen mentioned online. However, it appears to only work for some people and, indeed, some have found that using a powered USB hub is actually the fix for them.
Happy New Year David! Did you get a chance to re-try the yeti on your M1 please? Thankfully saw this before I bought but was really hoping to use Blue Vo!ce so very interested to see if the issues are fixed. Thanks again!
I’ll update the article once I do.
Running into this issue in Monterey on a new M1 Mac Mini, regrettably, and there appear to be some lingering issues beyond simply getting the mic recognized. Getting it recognized required altering some security settings. On my older Intel-based Mac running Catalina, I was able to use my AirPods Pro for audio output and my Blue Yeti for input without an issue. After getting the mic driver/extension allowed with the system, it seems I can’t split the audio duties between the AirPods and the Yeti. If I use the Yeti on its own after booting up, it appears to work fine. If I connect my AirPods, the system automatically changes the input/mic to the AirPods, and if I go into system settings and dedicate the Yeti for input, the OS (or AirPods?) switches it back to the AirPods and then the mic disappears from the list of inputs, which seems to only be fixed with a fresh reboot, as disconnecting and reconnecting to the USB to a powered hub or a dedicated connection does not resolve the issue. Tried different USB cables, same issues. Blue is going to be taking a beating in the Mac market if these issues occur across its mic devices or simply don’t get resolved reliably for the Blue Yeti, still a vastly popular device.
Thank you loads! The simple restarting of my Mac worked!
Thanks for the info. First, I had no idea Logitech had bought Blue. Second, I too have an M-1 Mac and tried the G-Hub fix with excellent results. Thanks!