How to start a recording on the macOS built-in Voice Memo The Voice Memo is not starting to record automatically.

If I press the red &quot;Pause&quot; button on the bottom left I end up back at the main screen.

Pressing the &quot;Play&quot; button does nothing. So how to use this (what should be dead simple) app?
Go to system preferences and click on sound and then click on the input tab. You should see a panel like the one below.

Click on the Mac microphone and set the input volume to a resonable setting (I use about halfway across). You can choose a position such that speaking in a normal voice will move the input level about 1/3 up the blue scale. See below.

Now try recording using the method you tried previously. When you start the voice recorder and hit the red button you should get a screen like the one shown above. While running, the white line indicating sound intensity will be colored red.