Audio or microphone
Sound and microphone problems, including the Windows settings that catch almost everyone out.
What gets checked, and why
- Default playback and default communications devices
- Default input and default communications input
- Microphone privacy permission for desktop apps
- Whether the input is muted
- Device list and recent device changes
These checks read information. They change nothing on your computer. Repairs are offered separately, one action at a time, and only after you confirm each one.
Worth answering before you ask for help
- Which is it: you cannot hear, or they cannot hear you?
- Does the microphone work in other apps?
- Did it change when you plugged something in?
Known issues in this area (15)
This specific component needs a newer Windows 10 than the one installed. Updating Windows is the fix.
Another program has put the wrong version of a shared Windows file into a system folder, and FiveM is tripping over it. The fix is real but it involves a Windows system folder, so it is worth doing with someone rather than alone.
If your radio works, your microphone and your headset are fine. What is failing is the part of the server that decides who is close enough to hear you — that is ours to look at.
Windows could not load one of the shared components the game needs. It is a Windows-side problem, not a FiveM or AGN one.
A shared Windows component the game relies on is not installed. Microsoft publishes the installer for it.
Windows can send different sounds to different devices. Usually this is the game talking to a device you are not wearing.
Windows has a privacy switch that can block the microphone for games specifically, even when it works elsewhere.
Since people nearby can hear you, your microphone is fine. This is about the radio itself — the item, the channel, or its permissions.
Something else on your PC has hold of the file FiveM needs to write.
Security software sometimes mistakes FiveM for something harmful because of how it loads into the game.
Windows and GTA V both need working room on the drive. When it runs out, symptoms look random.
FiveM and GTA V both require a reasonably current Windows. Very old builds stop being supported.
Choppy voice is usually the headset link or the network, not the game.
Your microphone is hearing your own speakers, or the same conversation is reaching you twice.
The game chose its audio device when it started. Changing headsets afterwards does not move it.
Run this on your PC
The Support Assistant runs these same checks locally and writes a report you review before anything leaves your machine.
Download the tool