MA_ACCESS_DENIED on Windows 10

[AdyRock]

Hi,

I am trying to select an audio device to record WAV data to a file.
I setup the device as follows:

bool CAudioRecorder::OpenAudio( LPCTSTR AudioFile )
{
	ma_result result;
	ma_uint32 currentState = ma_device_get_state( &m_Device );
	CWaitCursor wc;

	if (m_AED_DeviceId.nullbackend == 0)
	{
		if (!FindAED_Device())
		{
			return false;
		}
	}

	if ((currentState != MA_STATE_STOPPED) && (currentState != MA_STATE_UNINITIALIZED))
	{
		ma_device_stop( &m_Device );
	}

	m_EncoderConfig = ma_encoder_config_init( ma_resource_format_wav, ma_format_s16, 2, 44100 );

	result = ma_encoder_init_file( AudioFile, &m_EncoderConfig, &m_Encoder );
	if (result != MA_SUCCESS)
	{
		CString errMsg;
		errMsg.Format( _T( "Failed to create audio file (%i)\n" ), result );
		logFile.WriteToLog( errMsg );
		return false;
	}

	m_DeviceConfig = ma_device_config_init( ma_device_type_capture );
	m_DeviceConfig.capture.pDeviceID = &m_AED_DeviceId;
	m_DeviceConfig.capture.format = m_Encoder.config.format;
	m_DeviceConfig.capture.channels = m_Encoder.config.channels;
	m_DeviceConfig.sampleRate = m_Encoder.config.sampleRate;
	m_DeviceConfig.dataCallback = recorded_callback;
	m_DeviceConfig.pUserData = &m_Encoder;

	result = ma_device_init( &m_Context, &m_DeviceConfig, &m_Device );
	if (result != MA_SUCCESS)
	{
		CString errMsg;
		errMsg.Format( _T( "ailed to initialise audio device (%i)\n" ), result );
		logFile.WriteToLog( errMsg );
		return false;
	}

	m_AudioFile = AudioFile;

	return true;

}

This works fine if the app as Windows Admin rights but fails with MA_ACCESS_DENIED in the ma_device_init function if the app only has standard user rights. I have verified the user has rights to write to the file location, which is in the users temp folder as specified by %TEMP%.

Any idea what I am doing wrong and how I can record a file without admin rights?

Thanks,
Adrian.

[mackron]

I have no explanation for this. Maybe try passing in NULL for the device ID (m_DeviceConfig.capture.pDeviceID).

[mackron]

That's correct - that would give you the default device as per the settings in Windows.

I don't think upgrading would make any difference for this one, but you should probably consider upgrading regardless if only because it's more than a year old. There won't be any major breaking changes based on your example code (any changes would be easy to account for).

I don't know what would be causing this. It sounds like some kind of permission issue on the operating system side, but what exactly that would be I couldn't tell you. miniaudio is using very standard WASAPI. There's nothing I can think of that would be causing this from a programming point of view.

You could perhaps try using DirectSound instead of WASAPI just as an experiment to see if it works (use #define MA_NO_WASAPI).

[AdyRock]

I have tried with direct sound and that fails on the line hr = ma_IDirectSoundCapture_CreateCaptureBuffer((ma_IDirectSoundCapture*)pDevice->dsound.pCapture, &descDS, (ma_IDirectSoundCaptureBuffer**)&pDevice->dsound.pCaptureBuffer, NULL); in the function ma_device_init__dsound.
The result is just E_FAIL so not one of the return values documented by https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/desktop/ee418156(v=vs.85).
Does that mean I need to do something else when using DirectSound?

[mackron]

My assumption is that it's most likely failing for the same reason as WASAPI but just returning a generic error. Can't know for sure though. Shouldn't need to do anything special with DirectSound.

I don't have an answer for your problem I'm sorry. Certainly I've never heard of this before. It just sounds like some kind of security misconfiguration in Windows which I don't think is a miniaudio issue. Do you by chance have a capture tool like Audacity or something? Do they work?

[AdyRock]

Good suggestion, I will try with something like that.
The strange thing is it is the same on two laptop computers.
I will investigate some more and let you know if I find anything helpful.
Thank you for trying though.

[AdyRock]

Well it's the same on Audacity so definitely not an issue with miniaudio, which is good because it is a great product.
Thanks for being patient and giving me some tips.

[AdyRock]

OK, found the problem. It was Windows Privacy settings were set to block applications from using the microphone.