1908539 - Audio echo in Meet calls on MacOS in Firefox 128+ when using built-in speaker and mic

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: WebRTC: Audio/Video, defect)

Description

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

[Tracking Requested - why for this release]:
So far we haven't seen public reports on this from users, but in our own internal meetings we've reproduced this pretty reliably.

STR:
join a Meet call with one other participant where one of the participants is using the built-in speaker and mic on MacOS
result: Pronounced audio echo coming back from the user using the built-in speaker and mic.

In some cases refreshing the meeting and reconnecting will solve the problem, but not always.

mitigations: set media.getusermedia.audio.processing.platform.enabled = false

Also this only seems to impact Meet.

Comment 1

[Karl Tomlinson (:karlt)]

Apparently a regression from https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/ea162d71f178

Comment 2

[Karl Tomlinson (:karlt)]

Attachment: Bug 1908539 restrict MacOS platform audio processing to Nightly r?#webrtc-reviewers

Comment 3

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/c9dd3166c811
restrict MacOS platform audio processing to Nightly r=webrtc-reviewers,dbaker

Comment 4

[Karl Tomlinson (:karlt)]

Attachment: Bug 1908539 restrict MacOS platform audio processing to Nightly r?#webrtc-reviewers

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D216870

Comment 5

[Phabricator Automation]

beta Uplift Approval Request

• User impact if declined: Echo on WebRTC calls
• Code covered by automated testing: no
• Fix verified in Nightly: yes
• Needs manual QE test: yes
• Steps to reproduce for manual QE testing: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1908539#c0 Fix needs to be employed on the MacOS device with built-in speaker and differences in behaviour will be heard by other participant(s).
• Risk associated with taking this patch: low
• Explanation of risk level: This restores to a previous state. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1895787 did resolve some issues some of the time, but when not functioning as intended behavior is much worse.
• String changes made/needed: None
• Is Android affected?: no

Comment 6

[Karl Tomlinson (:karlt)]

Attachment: Bug 1908539 restrict MacOS platform audio processing to Nightly r?#webrtc-reviewers

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D216870

Comment 7

[Phabricator Automation]

release Uplift Approval Request

• User impact if declined: Echo on WebRTC calls
• Code covered by automated testing: no
• Fix verified in Nightly: no
• Needs manual QE test: yes
• Steps to reproduce for manual QE testing: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1908539#c0 Fix needs to be employed on the MacOS device using built-in speaker and mic. Differences in behaviour will be heard by other participant(s).
• Risk associated with taking this patch: low
• Explanation of risk level: This restores to a previous state. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1895787 did resolve some issues some of the time, but when not functioning as intended, behavior is much worse.
• String changes made/needed: none
• Is Android affected?: no

Comment 8

[Serban Stanca [:SerbanS]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/c9dd3166c811

Comment 9

[Pulsebot]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/478bd07bd5b3

Comment 10

[Donal Meehan [:dmeehan]]

:karlt ESR128 is affected, so we'll need an uplift request there too

Comment 11

[Karl Tomlinson (:karlt)]

Attachment: Bug 1908539 restrict MacOS platform audio processing to Nightly r?#webrtc-reviewers

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D216870

Comment 12

[Phabricator Automation]

esr128 Uplift Approval Request

• User impact if declined: Echo on WebRTC calls
• Code covered by automated testing: no
• Fix verified in Nightly: no
• Needs manual QE test: yes
• Steps to reproduce for manual QE testing: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1908539#c0 Fix needs to be employed on the MacOS device using built-in speaker and mic. Differences in behaviour will be heard by other participant(s).
• Risk associated with taking this patch: low
• Explanation of risk level: This restores to a previous state. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1895787 did resolve some issues some of the time, but when not functioning as intended, behavior is much worse.
• String changes made/needed: none
• Is Android affected?: no

Comment 13

[Pulsebot]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-esr128/rev/b2a76d42bda3

Comment 14

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

Some logging profiles from some testing we've been doing. Today dbaker and I were only able to reproduce this when the device causing the echo was in 130, and the other side was in 128. Really weird.

130 (echo causing side with built-in speaker and mic) -
https://share.firefox.dev/3WdmKi2

128 (side experiencing the echo) -
https://share.firefox.dev/4d25hQo

Comment 15

[Raluca Popovici, Desktop QA]

Can you please attach an audio/video recording with the echo? We tried to reproduce it multiple times with pref media.getusermedia.audio.processing.platform.enabled = false/true(both) on Nightly 130.0a1 and Fx 129.0b5 - macOS 13(first user), Ubuntu 22.04 on Fx Release 128.0 and Fx 129.0b5 (second user), Win 10 on Fx 129.0b5(third user).

Comment 16

[Pulsebot]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-release/rev/ad4d3438907e

Comment 17

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

(In reply to Raluca Popovici, Desktop QA from comment #15)

Can you please attach an audio/video recording with the echo? We tried to reproduce it multiple times with pref media.getusermedia.audio.processing.platform.enabled = false/true(both) on Nightly 130.0a1 and Fx 129.0b5 - macOS 13(first user), Ubuntu 22.04 on Fx Release 128.0 and Fx 129.0b5 (second user), Win 10 on Fx 129.0b5(third user).

If you get it to reproduce, it would be obvious. The echo is quite pronounced.

STR:

1. Using 128 on mac laptops and using the built-in speaker and mic
2. Set media.getusermedia.audio.processing.platform.enabled=true, restart the browser
3. Testing with Google Meet, create a 1x1 meeting where one or both of the participants is using the built-in speaker and mic.
4. The person on the opposite end of the laptop using the built-in devices should try speaking

result: heavy echo is heard by the user speaking.

We tried 130 <-> 128 yesterday and couldn't reproduce it, but for 128 <-> 128 we were able too.

This doesn't appear to reproduce reliably every time you try. Refreshing the Meet meeting page on either side can sometimes alter the outcome of the test either way.

Comment 19

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Added to the 128.0.2 relnotes:

Fixed an audio echo in video calls on macOS under certain conditions.

Comment 20

[Raluca Popovici, Desktop QA]

I was able to reproduce with the following configs: 1. Meeting(Google Meet) between 2 laptops with macOS 13(built-in speaker and mic) and 1 laptop with Win 11(pref on true+restart) using Firefox 128.0 - the bug is still reproducible.
2. Meeting(Google Meet) between 2 laptops with macOS 13(built-in speaker and mic) and 1 laptop with Win 11(pref on true+restart) using Firefox 129.0b7 - the bug is still reproducible.
3. Meeting(Google Meet) between 2 laptops with macOS 13(built-in speaker and mic) and 1 laptop with Win 11(pref on true+restart) using Firefox 128.0.2 - the bug is still reproducible.
The issue was fixed on Nightly 130.0a1:
Meeting(Google Meet) between 2 laptops with macOS 13(built-in speaker and mic) and 1 laptop with Win 11(pref on true+restart) using Nightly 130.a1 - the bug is fixed.

Comment 21

[Dan Baker[:dbaker]]

Tested a change to remove this code and with that code still in. It seemed removing this block made an improvement.

Profiles:
https://share.firefox.dev/4cShIyR - Code block in echo heard coming from Mac.
https://share.firefox.dev/4dfZzLa - No echo heard coming from Mac with code change.

Comment 22

[Raluca Popovici, Desktop QA]

The issue is still reproducible for the following:

1. Meeting(Google Meet) between 2 laptops with macOS 13(built-in speaker and mic) and 1 laptop with Win 11(pref on true+restart)+ Rejoin(F5) meeting few times using Firefox 128.1.0 esr build 2.