Monterey has a bug that is impacting global mute functionality in the OS when using any audio bluetooth devices such as AirPods. When global OS mute is used it is muting both the input and the output when the desired outcome would be to only mute the input. This problem did not exist on Big Sur. It appears that in macOS Monterey there was a change made to how devices are classified (it is clearly a bug), that change on the backend of the operating system is causing all types of issues for any device that exercised control over headsets or microphones.
- Connect any bluetooth headset to the computer.
- Open default "audio MIDI setup" application which is a default macOS application.
- Find the headset you connected via bluetooth and find the input pane it might show up as two seperate devices.
- Play any audio source including playing a clip from youtube.
- Go back to the the "audio MIDI setup" application and click the mute checkbox next to the slider on the input pane.
- At this point the output will be muted; what should happen (desired behavior) is the input should be muted but it should not impact the output. What is happening is it is not impacting the input but muting the output.