I cannot hear any sounds when played with a browser but the sound works fine through a media player. A support site said they thought Avast is blocking it and want to uninstall it to test. Before taking that step I thought I would ask if there is some setting in Avast that I can check to see if it is the problem?
Using Avast Premium Security
Which browser/s?
Any error messages?
You may want to test the URL of the sound source is clean using this VirusTotal AND/OR this https://sitecheck.sucuri.net/ before you start turning off settings in Avast.
I have four browsers installed. I’m trying to listen to various podcasts that I regulary listen to, The level indicator on the volume bar shows movement in time to the sound of the podcast but nothing can be heard. Since I can hear from a media player and not all browsers, it seems something must be blocking the output of the browsers. Avast seems the most likely but I can’t find anything in its settings related to this. I did try turning off the firewall but it didn’t help.
Are you sure the browsers have sound to begin with? Windows can set volume per app. Go to Volume Mixer in Windows Settings and check if the volume of the browsers is above zero.
While you’re there also check if they’re set to the correct output device. For instance: maybe you want audio on your speakers, but they’re set to your monitor or something.
Yes, they have always worked fine when playing sound. The attached shows the mixer. I started a song in the Aimp music player and also a pod cast in the Vivaldi web browser. As the panel shows, the levels are seen for each. But I only hear sound from Aimp. The image also shows the device being used. I don’t know how to check if the device is different for the browsers. Maybe that is the problem. Can you explain how to check that?
Looks like Windows 7. I don’t know if it can. On Win 11 it’s right there in the same menu.
Also: before uninstalling Avast you can try disabling shields for a few minutes, or putting Avast in Passive Mode as a test. If sounds starts working again you have a likely culprit and can look into it further.
I tried disabling and passive mode but neither worked. Is there a way to store the settings before uninstalling?
Under Troubleshooting you’ll find options to backup and restore settings to a file.
Have you tried reinstalling audio drivers? The problem might not be Avast.
I see your speakers are USB? Maybe that’s where things go wrong somehow. It does remain strange that it isn’t all or nothing and that your media player does produce sound. Maybe check in the program if it uses a different output device from default. Check if other programs beside aimp and browsers have sound or not. Do you have Windows sounds?
I just got to a point where I could re-install Avast but, as expected, it didn’t fix the problem. Besides the sound from Aimp, I only get sound in the device manager when I click the test button. No other program will cause a sound to be heard. Aimp does have a setting for choosing the playback device and it is set to the default device. All of the other programs don’t have such a setting that I can see so I assume they are using the default device too.
I realize this is off-topic for this forum so I won’t clog it up any further. I do appreciate the help in finding out Avast is not the issue.
