Chrome Has No Sound? Top Tips to Fix It

However, despite its excellent reputation and overall popularity, it’s still prone to occasional issues and glitches – the most common being a lack of sound.

Chrome with no sound is rarely a catastrophic, unsolvable issue. In most instances, there’s an easy fix to this problem – you just have to play around with some settings.

If you’re annoyed by the lack of sound on your browser, take a look at a few solutions you could try to eliminate this issue.

Reasons Why Chrome Has No Sound

There could be many reasons Chrome refuses to play sound – hardware damage to software failures, program glitches, and more. The following are some of the most common causes with their brief explanations.

How to Confirm Your Chrome Has No Sound

Before you try fixing issues with your Chrome, you should check whether the browser is causing problems or something else. There are several things you should test out:

Option 1: Play audio on different websites

It could be that it’s not Chrome that’s having audio issues but the website you’re on. To test this out, try visiting another website and see whether it will play sounds. If you can hear audio on a different website, then it’s the original one that has issues. If no websites will play audio, the fault might lie with Chrome.

Option 2: Try using another browser

If you have any other browser installed on your computer, use it to check whether you can hear any audio when you access different websites. If the same websites will play audio on a different browser but not on Chrome, you can be pretty sure that Chrome is causing problems.

Option 3: Play audio files on your media player

Finally, you should check your audio by playing files on a media player like VLC or Windows Media Player. If the audio is clear and crisp when using your media player, Chrome may have issues. If the audio is still nonexistent (or bad), your PC could have other underlying problems.

Best Fixes for the Chrome No Sound Issue

In most instances, Chrome having no sound is an easy problem to solve. It’s likely that you just need to adjust a few settings or reinstall some software. The following are some of the most effective solutions you should try.

Fix 1: Update Sound Card Drivers

As mentioned, sound card drivers facilitate communication between your operating system and your sound equipment. They’re the ones that convert signals from the system into audible sound, and if they’re outdated, they could start misbehaving.

Fortunately, updating your drivers is a relatively simple process:

Step 1: Go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Device Manager;

Step 2: Select Sound, video and game controllers;

Step 3: Right-click on the drivers and select Update driver.

After updating the drivers, check Chrome to see whether it will play sound without issues.

Fix 2: Check if You Have Hardware Issues

Of course, you might not be able to hear any audio from Chrome if it’s your speakers or headphones that don’t work. To test this theory out, simply plug in a different set of (proven functional) speakers or headphones and play audio through Chrome. If they work, your original speakers/headphones likely have hardware issues preventing them from playing sounds.

If you don’t have any alternative speakers/headphones, you could also try plugging the ones you do have into another device and testing them out. Connect them to your phone, for instance, and try playing some music. If they don’t work either on your PC or your phone, the chances are that the speakers are causing problems, not Chrome.

Fix 3: Adjust Sound Settings on Chrome

If you have the same no-sound issue throughout Chrome, regardless of the website you’re on, your next solution to try is adjusting the sound settings. It takes just a few simple steps:

Step 1: Open Chrome, click on the three dots in the upper right-hand corner and select Settings;

Step 2: Go to Privacy and security > Site settings > Additional content settings > Sound;

Step 3: Check Sites can play sound.

Moreover, you might want to check whether you’ve accidentally set any customized behaviors for sound and added any websites to the list under Not allowed to play sound. If you have, remove websites from this list and see whether that’s solved your issues.

Fix 4: Clear Cache and Cookies

Cached data and cookies can be pretty helpful, allowing websites to collect relevant information about you to personalize and improve your experience. However, when your browser has tons of accumulated cache and cookies, it can start misbehaving and exhibiting problems with sound and other functionalities.

So, you’ll want to clear your cache and cookies on occasion. Here’s how you can do that:

Step 1: Open Chrome and press Control + H keys;

Step 2: Select Clear browsing data;

Step 3: Make sure that all the boxes are checked – Browsing history, Download history, Cookies and other site data, and Cached images and files;

Step 4: Select Clear data.

Now, try playing audio files through Chrome and see whether that’s solved the issue.

Fix 5: Update Chrome

If nothing has worked so far, you might have issues with the version of Chrome you’re using. Browser updates will frequently contain bug fixes, vulnerability patches, and more, so you should always try to ensure that you have the newest version of Chrome.

Most commonly, Google Chrome will update itself automatically. However, if something has prevented it from doing so, you can update it manually:

Step 1: Open Chrome, click on the three dots in the upper right-hand corner;

Step 2: Go to Help > About Google Chrome;

Step 3: When you click on About Google Chrome, the update will start automatically.

If it was the outdated version of Chrome that was causing audio issues, they should be solved now.

Fix 6: Reinstall Chrome

If you already have the newest version of Chrome available, the problem could lie in the installation. In this instance, the best thing you could do is simply reinstall your browser.

It’s all nice and simple, you just have to follow a few steps:

Step 1: Go to Control Panel > Uninstall a program;

Step 2: Right-click on Google Chrome and select Uninstall > Yes;

Step 3: Go back to Control Panel, and under View By, select Large Icons;

Step 4: Go to File Explorer Options > View;

Step 6: Check Show hidden files, folders, and drives and uncheck Hide protected operating system files;

Step 7: Find and delete all Chrome folders and files;

Step 8: Open another browser and go to https://www.google.com/chrome/;

Step 9: Select Download Chrome;

Step 10: Select Accept and Install.

Wait for Chrome to install on your computer again, then check whether this has solved your issues.

Fix 7: Adjust Device Output

It’s possible that your device output settings have been changed, and thus, your Chrome has no sound. To adjust your device settings, you’ll need to follow the next few steps:

Step 1: Open Settings and go to System > Sound;

Step 2: Select your preferred output device;

Step 3: Select your preferred input device.

Now, go back to Chrome and see whether there are any changes to its audio output.

Fix 8: Disable All Extensions

As previously discussed, some of your extensions might be causing issues with your Chrome’s audio. Therefore, you might need to disable them. Here’s how to do that:

Step 1: Open Chrome and click on the Puzzle icon;

Step 2: Select Manage extensions;

Step 3: Disable extensions by sliding the toggle.

You can start enabling your extensions one by one and testing the sound on Chrome. Once you’ve identified the culprit, remove that extension and enable the rest.

Bonus Tip: How to Fix Corrupted Video Files Online?

In some instances, it’s not Chrome or your hardware and software that’s causing sound issues. You might just be trying to play corrupted files. If that’s the case, you can try solving the problem by using reliable data repair solutions such as Wondershare’s Repairit.

Wondershare Repairit works with virtually all file types, regardless of how they came to be corrupted. While you can always download it and have the program with you at all times, you could also repair your corrupted files online.

The process is straightforward:

Step 1: Visit Repairit Online Video Repair.

Step 2: Click Add and select the corrupted file that’s causing no sound issues on Chrome;

Step 3: Wait for Repairit to start automatic video repair;

Step 4: Preview your files and click Save.

If a corrupted file caused the sound issues, everything should be working perfectly now.

Conclusion

Chrome with no sound is a surprisingly common issue. Fortunately, it’s usually easy to solve by adjusting a few settings, updating your software, and checking your hardware. Try the solutions above and forget about ever having trouble with your Google Chrome browser.