macOS: How to request microphone access?

[tresf]

Question

Why won't Java ask for Microphone access? How does one package a Java application so that will properly ask for permission to use the microphone?

Please see the following unit test: https://github.com/tresf/SoundRecorder.

Test	Pass/Fail	Details
Terminal	:white_check_mark: PASS	javac SoundRecorder.java && java SoundRecorder, from Terminal, it works. Reset with: sudo tccutil reset Microphone com.apple.Terminal
IntelliJ	:white_check_mark: PASS	From the Project Explorer, Right Click SoundRecorder.java, Run. It works. Reset with: sudo tccutil reset Microphone com.jetbrains.intellij.ce
Bundle	:no_entry_sign: FAIL	./package.sh, double-click SoundRecorer.app. It doesn't work.

Passing criteria:

• MacOS should prompt for permission to access the microphone, the resulting .wav file should contain audio, not silence.

Some initial observations:

• Failing tests produce a silent .wav file for the specified duration. No prompt; no Java exceptions thrown.
• Successful test show the parent app, not Java. e.g. "IntellIJ would like to access the Microphone".
• You only get one chance to Approve. Dismissing the dialog will assume "No" and the option will need to be manually added using System Preferences, Security & Privacy, Privacy, Microphone.
• Unlike other macOS privacy settings, there's currently no way to manually add an App to the Microphone area.

Java version tested:

• AdoptOpenJDK 11.0.10
• API: AudioSystem.getLine(...).open(...)

Some general questions:

• Are entitlements required for Microphone access to work?
• Can entitlements be applied to a non-binary (e.g shell script) executables?

Related questions:

• https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/95062
  "VSCode terminal doesn't allow/request permissions to access media devices"
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/55727488/
  "Application doesn't ask for permission to access microphone in MacOS 10.14 Mojave"
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58728150
  "How to give Microphone permission to Java application (macOS Mojave and above)?"
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/56084303
  "OpenCV command line app can't access camera under macOS Mojave"
• https://stackoverflow.com/a/66210338/3196753
  "Cannot Access Microphone on Mac Mojave using pyaudio"
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/61989711
  "How to record microphone on macos with pyaudio?"

Note: Big Sur can have caching issues between signing steps.

[tresf]

Some general questions:

• Are entitlements required for Microphone access to work?

This Unity thread suggests they may be needed:

Quoting:

We discovered that in addition to ensuring NSMicrophoneUsageDescription was in the plist in the mac app bundle package Contents when built, these entitlements also needed to be set:

com.apple.security.device.audio-input
com.apple.security.device.microphone

Then the signtool must be run (and a cert may be required)

... however signing with these entitlements alone doesn't seem to fix the symptom.

[github-actions[bot]]

We are marking this issue as stale because it has not been updated for a while. This is just a way to keep the support issues queue manageable. It will be closed soon unless the stale label is removed by a committer, or a new comment is made.

[karianna]

Fixed in 17.0.2 (but not backported)