How to disable orange microphone icon in Sonoma? [SOLVED]

[dubfish]

Not specifically a Logic question, but since I always have input monitoring turned on, there's a constant orange microphone icon in my menu bar. I could ignore the small orange dot, but this is a little harder to ignore. Any way to turn it off?

[Maestro777]

System Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Microphone

Locate the app you suspect as using the microphone and turn it off. That should do it. I'm not running Sonoma but the location should be similar given they haven't changed too much from the norm

Edited September 27, 2023 by Maestro777

[polanoid]

4 minutes ago, Maestro777 said:

'm not running Sonoma but the location should be similar given they haven't changed too much from the norm

Yes that works (unless you want to use the internal Microphone to record in Logic, of course, but I guess we can safely rule that out 😉 ), and the location is the same.

[dubfish]

It seems that the Microphone switch in Privacy & Security is not only for the internal microphone, but also external audio interfaces. 

After toggling it off, I don't get any audio input in Logic. And an "Allow access" button appears in Logic's audio settings. Of course, once I allow access, the orange microphone icon reappears in the menubar.

[fisherking]

it's a sonoma issue, and i've reported it to apple over the early beta cycle. i don't see it in logic because i don't do any audio recording at home (and the studio mac is not on sonoma). but it is annoying in general...

[Maestro777]

1 minute ago, fisherking said:

it's a sonoma issue, and i've reported it to apple over the early beta cycle. ...it is annoying in general...

An issue?? But of course..... we all expect those brand spankin' new OSX releases to have those or there would be something wrong. 😉 🙂

[fisherking]

7 minutes ago, Maestro777 said:

An issue?? But of course..... we all expect those brand spankin' new OSX releases to have those or there would be something wrong. 😉 🙂

every version of every OS has issues; OS development is a never-ending story of improvements, enhancements, bug fixes, unfixed bugs, and... new bugs. just life

[Maestro777]

Oooh...kay @fisherking My post wasn't with intention of being taken offensively. You're correct, but we weren't speaking of every other OS 👍

[des99]

I don't have Sonoma yet, but isn't this a similar thing to the orange dot - a persistent visible indicator that something on your system is able to (in the case of the dot) record your screen, and in the case of the mic, record audio on your system (eg for spying/surreptitious monitoring), so anything active that's got permission to access the microphone, and other audio input, you're aware of? Presumably why the mic indicator is also orange.

In other words, it's likely an intentional security feature, rather than an "issue" as such...

Edited September 27, 2023 by des99

[fisherking]

4 minutes ago, Maestro777 said:

Oooh...kay @fisherking My post wasn't with intention of being taken offensively. You're correct, but we weren't speaking of every other OS 👍

did not take offense! just saying that this OS is, in that respect, like every other OS...

Edited September 27, 2023 by fisherking

[dubfish]

28 minutes ago, des99 said:

I don't have Sonoma yet, but isn't this a similar thing to the orange dot

Yes that seems to be the case. Although now there's still the orange dot and a new icon. What's new is that clicking on the icon opens a menu where I can turn on "Voice isolation" for each app using an audio input. I've no need to apply voice isolation to my guitar though! 

Probably just a case of getting used to it like I already ignore the orange dot.

[des99]

7 minutes ago, dubfish said:

Although now there's still the orange dot and a new icon.

Yes, because they are monitoring/showing different things, independently.

(And yes, I find the orange dot a little annoying too, especially when you're doing full screen presentations. I understand the security reasons for doing this, and I'm happy with it being enabled by default, but I wish there was a least a power-user feature to turn it off, like a defaults write command or something, for people who understand the implications and need to do so.)

Is the new icon moveable? (eg, into Bartender's hidden area)

Edited September 27, 2023 by des99

[fisherking]

11 minutes ago, des99 said:

Yes, because they are monitoring/showing different things, independently.

(And yes, I find the orange dot a little annoying too, especially when you're doing full screen presentations. I understand the security reasons for doing this, and I'm happy with it being enabled by default, but I wish there was a least a power-user feature to turn it off, like a defaults write command or something, for people who understand the implications and need to do so.)

Is the new icon moveable? (eg, into Bartender's hidden area)

it's hopeless (for now). if i move it into the bartender area, it just pops back where it was...

[dubfish]

1 hour ago, des99 said:

Yes, because they are monitoring/showing different things, independently.

Unless I'm missing something, both the orange dot and orange microphone now indicate that audio input is being used. Sonoma has new icon indicators for camera (green) and screen recording/sharing (lilac?)

I use an app called Hidden Bar which is similar to Bartender. But these indicators exclude themselves from the hidden area. Not a big deal, just that I always have Logic running anyway so it's a tad distracting.

[dundergufs]

This free app "Recording Indicator Utility" works for Ventura and Monterey to disable the orange dot. Maybe the programmer might update it for Sonoma and that update would also work for this new audio input notifier? (Or maybe it already works, I have no idea and won't update to Sonoma or future macOSes until I'm forced up.)

https://github.com/cormiertyshawn895/RecordingIndicatorUtility

One has to disable SIPS (System Integrity Protection) to use this tool. That disables some other features, see the FAQ. But the compromise works for me, I'm using macs for live audiovisual productions and can NOT have that dot there on huge projections.

To be clear: I don't know if this would work on Sonoma. It works on Monterey for me. I haven't tested it on Ventura.

It's insane there is no official way to disable these indicators. 

[David Nahmani]

7 hours ago, des99 said:

Yes, because they are monitoring/showing different things, independently.

What's the difference? I thought they were showing the same thing. 

In Sonoma I can see both the mic icon and the orange dot in control center at the same time, they seem redundant. 

[des99]

6 minutes ago, David Nahmani said:

What's the difference? I thought they were showing the same thing. 

Maybe it is - I don't use Sonoma yet, and I thought the orange dot on Monterey was indicating the screen or camera was enabled, not the microphone thing. It's possible I misremembered that, if the orange dot also is a "microphone in use" indicator too, as I kind of "tuned it out" mentally (in which case, I don't understand why Sonoma would introduce a second, orange, permanently visible indicator for this, unless it's covering the case where the menu bar is not visible, eg in full screen mode).

In Sonoma, is the orange dot also visible in the menu bar too, like it is in Monterey? Or has that gone now, in favour of the new menu bar icon?

Edited September 27, 2023 by des99

[David Nahmani]

1 minute ago, des99 said:

I thought the orange dot on Monterey was indicating the screen or camera was enabled, not the microphone thing.

That's a green dot. 

2 minutes ago, des99 said:

In Sonoma, is the orange dot also visible in the menu bar too, like it is in Monterey?

Yes. That's the confusing part IMO. And they both turn on and off simultaneously when selecting "None" in the input pop-up menu in Logic's audio settings. 

[des99]

6 minutes ago, David Nahmani said:

That's a green dot. 

My bad. I probably need a key to get the colours right! 😉

6 minutes ago, David Nahmani said:

Yes. That's the confusing part IMO. And they both turn on and off simultaneously when selecting "None" in the input pop-up menu in Logic's audio settings.

Yup - it seems somewhat redundant, for a release version. I wonder what the thinking is there..?

Looks like the orange dot has moved too - mine's right on the extreme right, outside the clock...

Edit: S*** it, back me up Scotty, we're going to Sonoma...

Edited September 27, 2023 by des99

[David Nahmani]

15 minutes ago, des99 said:

Looks like the orange dot has moved too - mine's right on the extreme right, outside the clock...

Mine is in the same place in Monterey and Sonoma. 

This looks inconsistent: if I use both the mic and camera, I have: 

1. A large green camera icon in the menu bar,
2. A tiny orange dot in the menu bar,
3. Two small rounded icons, one green and one orange, in control center. 

[des99]

Wow, the orange icon really is huge! And my orange dot has been relocated to the position in the above screenshot...

[BCProject]

I'm getting intermittant audio dropouts and glitching after updating to Sonoma. 

The annoying giant mic icon in the menubar blinks off-and-on in-sync with the dropouts. It feels like some other app is trying to use the internal mic or these some kind of loopback happening? I've tried everything suggested with no luck. 

Again - this just started with Sonoma. 

[rltb0z]

regarding this bug (feature) I have just discovered this useful tool for disabling the horrible Orange dot (and Square)

This works fine with SONOMA 14.0 :-)

https://github.com/cormiertyshawn895/RecordingIndicatorUtility

[Dox]

Why not just Automatically Hide the menu bar Always.

Settings>Control Centre>Menu Bar Only then next to "Automatically hide and show the menu bar" choose "Always".

Then you wont see the menu bar and the orange icons at all in Logic.

[fisherking]

On 9/29/2023 at 3:18 PM, BCProject said:

I'm getting intermittant audio dropouts and glitching after updating to Sonoma. 

The annoying giant mic icon in the menubar blinks off-and-on in-sync with the dropouts. It feels like some other app is trying to use the internal mic or these some kind of loopback happening? I've tried everything suggested with no luck. 

Again - this just started with Sonoma. 

nothing like that here. is logic checked in system settings>privacy & security>microphone?

[shapiro]

I took the route Dox suggested and just hid the Menu bar, it seems the utility takes a bit of fiddling to install...

Contacted Apple feedback about this, don't like the aesthetic of this huge orange eye staring at me all day