Game bar only picks up audio when looking at it

no, i don't use the party chat, i'm in the game that has voice chat, but the microphone isn't bein picked up, so i can hear my crewmates, but they can't hear me and when i go to the xbox app>settings> audio, there is a gray bar right under where it says Voice volume and under that gray bar, you can set the volume, that gray bar looks like it should light up or show you if your microphone is being picked up but it always stays gray. When i go to the xbox game bar and launch a party, it looks like it picks it up there fine, but in the settings of the xbox app it does nothing, same for the game(sea of thieves) whenever i try to speak in the game nothing comes out on my side and the green message icon that shows if your voice is getting picked up doesn't appear at all meaning it's not picking up the microphone for some weird reason.

Netflix films, just switch to (Original audio setting in audio of the movie) receiver's should still pick up Atmos.

Atmos setting is more for sound bars, headphones, or t.v.s that can't decode Atmos on it's own.

generally earbuds will only have party audio since that can be picked up from the controller connection. I havent seen a pair of earbuds (maybe the turtlebeach battlebuds but unsure) play game audio, i think for that you either need a bluetooth wireless
gaming headset or a headset made for xbox to pick up game audio

Maybe discord is causing some troubles with these settings

Could you try closing everything and try recording a clip just for your game with the microphone enabled?
(Don't forget to check the minimized icons in the Taskbar, sometimes when you "close" a program it goes to the tray)

Are you able to use a different microphone just to test buddy?

Let's try reinstalling the game bar to see how it goes:

Right-click on the Start button and select Windows PowerShell (Admin) from the pop-up menu.

Copy and paste the following command in PowerShell and hit Enter to uninstall the Game Bar from your system.

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.XboxGamingOverlay | Remove-AppxPackage

Now head over to Microsoft Store and search for Xbox Game Bar and see if you're able to install it now