🙅🏻‍♂️ no airpods mic

every time i connect my AirPods, macOS silently switches my mic input to them. my voice goes from studio-quality 48kHz to walkie-talkie 16kHz mono. i got tired of manually switching it back. so i made this.

one command. installs itself. runs forever. no app, no menu bar icon, no GUI. just your MacBook's built-in mic, always.

install

npx fix-my-mic

that's it. picks a mode, compiles from source on your machine (no code signing, no quarantine, no gatekeeper drama), and starts a background daemon. no sudo needed.

want to change settings or uninstall? run the same command again.

don't have node? use curl:

curl -fsSL https://yigitkonur.com/disable-airpods-mic.sh | bash

or clone it:

git clone https://github.com/yigitkonur/cli-disablemic.git && cd cli-disablemic && ./install.sh

requirements

• macOS 12 (Monterey) or later
• Xcode Command Line Tools (the installer will prompt you if missing)

how it works

it's a ~600-line Swift daemon that talks directly to CoreAudio. no dependencies, no third-party libraries, no electron, no python, no node. just Apple frameworks.

1. event-driven, not polling. registers CoreAudio listeners on the default input device and the device list. the instant something changes, it gets a callback. between events, it's fully idle at 0.0% CPU.

2. finds the built-in mic by transport type, not by name. works on MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Studio — any Mac with a built-in microphone.

3. blocks Bluetooth input (classic and LE) and unknown wireless transports like iPhone Continuity mic. USB mics and aggregate devices are left alone.

4. defeats AirPods HFP flip-backs. AirPods sometimes re-negotiate the input 1-3 seconds after connecting. mic-guard re-asserts the built-in mic every 0.5s for 5 seconds after a change, then goes fully idle again.

5. uses Apple Unified Logging (os_log), not log files. the system handles rotation automatically.

two modes

the installer asks you to pick:

1) always block (default)

your built-in mic is always the default. AirPods and Bluetooth mics are never used as input. install and forget.

2) respect manual override

same as above, but if you switch back to AirPods within 10 seconds of mic-guard reverting it, mic-guard goes "ok, you clearly want this" and pauses itself for 1 hour. after the hour, it resumes automatically.

perfect for when you actually need your AirPods mic for a call.

resource usage

| metric | value | |--------|-------| | CPU (idle) | 0.0% | | CPU (during 5s stabilization) | ~0.0% (a few microsecond ticks) | | memory | ~12 MB RSS | | disk | ~65 KB binary | | network | none |

commands

# need your AirPods mic for a sec?
mic-guard pause           # pause indefinitely
mic-guard pause 30        # pause for 30 min, auto-resumes
mic-guard resume          # back to blocking
mic-guard status          # what's going on?

# nerdy stuff
log stream --predicate 'subsystem == "com.local.mic-guard"' --style compact
launchctl kickstart -k gui/$(id -u)/com.local.mic-guard   # restart
launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u)/com.local.mic-guard         # stop until next login

uninstall

run the install command again and pick "uninstall":

npx fix-my-mic

or nuke it manually:

launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u)/com.local.mic-guard
rm ~/.local/bin/mic-guard
rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.local.mic-guard.plist
rm -rf ~/.config/mic-guard

why not just use an app?

there are GUI apps that do this — SoundAnchor, AirPods Sound Quality Fixer, audio-device-blocker. they work, but:

• need code signing/notarization or xattr -cr to bypass Gatekeeper
• run a menu bar icon you don't need
• may not survive macOS updates
• require manual download and drag-to-Applications

this compiles from source on your machine (born trusted, no signing needed), runs as a headless launchd agent (no GUI), and is a single Swift file you can read in 5 minutes.

the nerdy details

single file: main.swift. only uses Apple frameworks (CoreAudio, Foundation, os.log). compiles with swiftc — no Xcode project, no Package.swift, no CocoaPods, no SPM.

key CoreAudio APIs:

• AudioObjectAddPropertyListener — event callbacks
• AudioObjectGetPropertyData / SetPropertyData — read/write device properties
• kAudioHardwarePropertyDefaultInputDevice — the system default input
• kAudioDevicePropertyTransportType — distinguish built-in from Bluetooth

license

MIT — do whatever you want with it.