Recording permissions on macOS

Meeting capture uses two macOS permissions: Microphone for your voice, and Screen & System Audio Recording for the other people on the call. Call audio also needs macOS 14.2 or later. You can check both permissions at any time in Settings › Meetings › Permissions.

What each permission does

Permission	Used for	Without it
Microphone	Recording your voice	Capture doesn’t start: “Microphone access is off. Recording has not started.”
Screen & System Audio Recording	Recording the sound your Mac plays (the other participants) and detecting meetings by window title	Only your microphone is recorded and transcribed, and meetings aren’t detected automatically

Oyma uses Screen & System Audio Recording to capture audio. It doesn’t save any video of your screen.

macOS version

Call audio needs macOS 14.2 or later. On older versions, the Meeting audio row in Settings may read Needs macOS 13 or later, or calls may record your microphone only. Update macOS in System Settings › General › Software Update.

Check your permissions in Oyma

1. Press ⌘, and open the Meetings tab.
2. Scroll to Permissions. Two rows show the live state:
   • Microphone: Allowed, Not allowed, Restricted or Not asked yet.
   • Meeting audio: Allowed, Needs setup or Restart required.
3. Use the buttons next to each row:
   • Allow asks macOS for microphone access.
   • Open System Settings jumps to the right privacy pane.
   • Check again re-reads the state after you’ve changed something.

Restricted means an administrator or device-management profile controls the setting. Ask whoever manages your Mac.

Grant the microphone permission

The first time you record, macOS asks whether Oyma may use the microphone. Click Allow.

If you clicked Don’t Allow earlier:

1. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone.
2. Turn on the switch next to Oyma.
3. Go back to Settings › Meetings and click Check again. No restart is needed for the microphone.

Grant Screen & System Audio Recording

1. In Settings › Meetings › Permissions, click Open System Settings next to Meeting audio. Or open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Screen & System Audio Recording yourself.
2. Turn on the switch next to Oyma. If it isn’t in the list, click + and add it from your Applications folder.
3. Quit Oyma completely with ⌘Q and open it again. macOS only applies this permission after a restart, and until then the row reads Restart required.
4. Back in Settings, the Meeting audio row should read Allowed.

Test that it works

In Settings › Meetings › Diagnostics, click Run check. For about five seconds Oyma opens your microphone, listens to meeting audio and loads the speech model. Nothing is kept. Say something while it runs, and play some audio (a video, for example) so there’s something to hear.

Result	Meaning
Working	Sound came through
Connected, no sound	The source opened but was silent. For meeting audio this can just mean nothing was playing
Not allowed	The permission is off
In use by another app	Another app holds the microphone. Close it and try again

Reset a permission that seems stuck

If the switch is on but Oyma still reports the permission as missing:

1. In System Settings › Privacy & Security, open the relevant pane (Microphone or Screen & System Audio Recording).
2. Select Oyma and click − to remove it.
3. Quit Oyma with ⌘Q and open it again.
4. Start a capture, or click Allow in Settings › Meetings, so macOS asks again. For Screen & System Audio Recording, add Oyma back with + and restart once more.

Related

• Record a meeting covers starting, pausing and stopping a capture.
• Troubleshooting covers silent call audio and other common problems.