How to: Fix Steam Voice Chat in macOS Mojave and Catalina

fix-steam-microphone-permission-macOS.md

How to fix steam microphone permission macOS

Step 1: Disable The System Integrity

• Disable The System Integrity for access the relevant system database.

Reboot your Mac and hold Cmd+R on startup. This will bring up the Recovery Mode. Open Utility -> Terminal from the menu bar and type csrutil disable Reboot.

Step 2: Manually add permission for Steam to access the microphone.

Open Terminal and type the following command:

sudo sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db"INSERT or REPLACE INTO access VALUES('kTCCServiceMicrophone','com.valvesoftware.steam',0,1,1,NULL,NULL,NULL,'UNUSED',NULL,0,1551892126);"

Enter your Mac password to confirm the action.

Step 3: Make Steam use that permission

In Terminal, type the following two commands:

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Add NSMicrophoneUsageDescription string" /Applications/Steam.app/Contents/Info.plist

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :NSMicrophoneUsageDescription Using voice chat" /Applications/Steam.app/Contents/Info.plist

Step 4: Enable The System Integrity

Reboot your Mac and hold Cmd+R on startup. This will bring up the Recovery Mode. Open Utility -> Terminal from the menu bar and type csrutil enable Reboot.

I have Mac mini Catalina 10.15, and there are no such directory ~/Library/Applicatoin\ Support/com.apple.TCC
There were another directory, cant remember name.
Also no sqlite3 by default in bash, may be I have to install it manually

Try to install sqlite3 and double check your TCC.db file path because i see you have a typo in there which is Applicatoin, it should be Application)))

Hope this work!

How about re-enabling the System Integrity Protection after doing the changes?

I forgot to rebbot and tried to sqlite3 command in recovery mode
now problem fixed

How about re-enabling the System Integrity Protection after doing the changes?

You can use csrutil enable command in recovery mode.

How about re-enabling the System Integrity Protection after doing the changes?

You can use csrutil enable command in recovery mode.

Thanks for the solution. But it would be good if csrutil enable is added as Step 4.

How about re-enabling the System Integrity Protection after doing the changes?

You can use csrutil enable command in recovery mode.

Thanks for the solution. But it would be good if csrutil enable is added as Step 4.

Yeah sure, Thanks for your suggestion!

I followed these exact instructions and now my mac no longer connects to wifi networks. Any idea what's going on?

Guys, I have done the above step and I could see the steam listed for permission for the microphone. But now the only problem is that when I try to use the mic during the game, others can only hear static! Any idea what could be the issue?

Idk why but when I inserted the first command it starts SQLite terminal and when I add the next two commands nothing happens. Maybe is because I have installed mysql on my Mac?
I don't see Steam in my microphone permission list.

Quick thing : in the second command a whitespace before the sql code is missing! The correct command is:
sudo sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db "INSERT or REPLACE INTO access VALUES('kTCCServiceMicrophone','com.valvesoftware.steam',0,1,1,NULL,NULL,NULL,'UNUSED',NULL,0,1551892126);"