The last couple of months haven’t been good for some Chrome users due to the plethora of issues they have faced with the browser. For example, the option to clear the browser data was not working, bookmarks were being deleted or disappearing automatically, the browser was crashing while printing, and the download bar was unreadable. As if these were not enough, a new issue affecting Chrome users has been unearthed by tech site PiunikaWeb.
What’s happening with the Chrome audio issue?
Affected users have raised the issue on the company’s official help forum, saying that Chrome automatically mutes media content after awhile. This Chrome audio issue has been affecting Windows users for the past few months.
“I’m using external controller with his own Sound Card. USB connected….and when i [sic] turn it off Chrome works…but when i [sic] turn on device ( coz [sic] i use it for studio speakers ) there is nothing…no sound…i dont [sic] know what to do,” one user said.
Moreover, affected users say this Chrome audio issue surfaces only when using headphones (including Bluetooth headphones) or speakers. The audio issue does not arise instantly on playing media content; rather, users say it happens after awhile or starting on the second song.
“When i [sic] open chrome, go into youtube and watch a video it work [sic] perfectly, but, let’s say i [sic] want to watch another video, i [sic] click on it and i [sic] watch it. The only thing is I don’t have sound on the second video,” one affected user said.
Users are only experiencing the audio issue with Chrome. With other browsers, such as Microsoft Edge, the audio works as intended.
Workarounds that may help
As of now there are no comments from Chrome’s support team about the audio issue. Thus, it is not known if the company is actually working on a fix or is even aware of the issue. However, users have come up with their own workarounds in the meantime.
Some users say completely restarting the browser addresses the issue for one song, but the volume disappears as the next song comes. Other users say unplugging the headphones/speakers and then plugging them back in solves the issue temporarily.
Another workaround is right-clicking on the Chrome browser tab and selecting “Unmute Site.” This trick helps resolve the issue for the current tab only. If you have multiple tabs open, you will have to repeat the same process for all of them.
One user said he was able to fix the issue by tweaking the Chrome settings.
“Go in to Chrome. Find 3 dots upper right. Go to settings. The fix is in there, don’t remember all the clicks I did. Find anything to do with sound,” the user said, referring to one article that helped him fix the issue.
Another user said tweaking the settings could solve the issue. This user suggests going to the task bar and then clicking “Open Sound Settings” on Windows 10. Iff the output device is blank, then changing it back to the default device (headset or speakers) could fix the issue.
If you are also facing the Chrome audio issue, you can try all these workarounds. Hopefully one of them will work for you. The last workaround seems more logical than the others. You can try it first before moving onto the others.
Common tricks to fix the audio issue
The audio issue in Chrome is not a new problem. Users have been reporting similar issues over the years. In many cases, general troubleshooting tricks helped affected users fix the issue. If the above workarounds don’t work, you can try these tricks as well.
The first trick is to update the sound driver. Using an outdated or corrupted sound driver is a common cause of an audio issue, so you should update the sound driver on your device and see if the issue is resolved or not.
If this does not fix the issue, then you should check the sound settings on the volume mixer. The volume mixer on Windows allows users to control the volumes for individual apps. You should check the volume setting for Chrome, and if it’s muted, then un-mute it. You can access the volume mixer by right-clicking on the sound icon on the lower-right part of the screen.
If this also doesn’t solve the audio issue, then you should try clearing the cache and cookies. Holding too big of a cache and too many cookies may overload Chrome, causing it to malfunction.
To clear the cache and cookies, open Chrome, then on the top-right, click on the three vertical dots button > More tools > clear browsing data. If this doesn’t fix the issue, then try disabling the extensions. To do so, open Chrome and click on the three vertical dots > More tools > Extensions. Now disable all Chrome extensions.
If the problem remains even now, then you should contact the support team and wait for the fix.
