Mac Live Share, I Can't Hear You

Enabling Live Share Audio on Mac

Sat, Aug 15, 2020 2-minute read

A quick guide on how to enable audio on Visual Studio Live Share Audio on Mac.

For the Presenter

  1. Install Visual Studio Code (official binary or use Homebrew).

  2. Install Live Share Extension Pack.

  3. Exit Visual Studio Code completely.

    • Official guide

    • Note: Just clicking the red cross button is not enough.

    • Using the shortcut key <command>+Q should be sufficient.

  4. Open Terminal application.

    • Not iTerm2.

  5. Launch Visual Studio Code binary directly from Terminal. Something along the lines of: 

      > sudo open $(which code)

    or 

      > "/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/MacOS/Electron"

  6. Open the folder / file you intend to use for the Live Share session.

  7. Open the Command Palette (<Command>+<Shift>+P) and type "Start Collaboration Session" to find the command Live Share: Start Collaboration Session (Share).

    • Authenticate with GitHub / Microsoft account as necessary.

    • If at any point in time Visual Studio Code is closed and relaunched automatically, you will have to quit the application completely, and manually relaunch it from the Terminal before continuing with this guide.

  8. Back in Visual Studio Code, open the Command Palette (<Command>+<Shift>+P) and type "Show Live Share" to find the command View: Show Live Share.

  9. On the side panel, click on Start audio call….

    • If you followed the steps correctly, there will be a prompt asking you to grant access to Terminal (unless you have already granted access when you used the sudo command at step 5).

For the Presentee

  1. Follow steps 1 through 5 above.

  2. Open the Command Palette (<Command>+<Shift>+P) and type "Join Collaboration Session" to find the command Live Share: Join Collaboration Session.

  3. Enter the URL provided by the presenter.

    • Authenticate with GitHub / Microsoft account as necessary.

    • If at any point in time Visual Studio Code is closed and relaunched automatically, you will have to quit the application completely, and manually relaunch it from the Terminal before continuing with this guide.

  4. Follow step 8 above.

  5. Wait a prompt asking whether you want to join the audio session. Select yes.

Endnote

Hopefully this guide proves useful to someone. And hopefully such guides won't be required in the future.