Broken sound from behind

I can’t hear voice lines if they’re said anywhere other than directly in front of me, including ult lines, I can’t tell when anyone is using ults at all either on my team or theirs but I don’t really get how to fix it, it’s not only coming out of one ear and it’s not affecting sounds when i’m facing that direction, it’s literally only sounds from behind

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I’ve got the same problem. Blizzard, as usual, probably messed something up, again. Now we’ve got to wait for a hotfix or the next patch.

I’ve been having the same issue, really hope Blizzard fixes this soon.

Was playing Sigma the other night and i never heard him say “Hello” when using the emote. Haven’t heard footsteps in a long while either.

Same here. Voice lines not playing, especially the “i need healing”. I just see the prompt in the chat.

Inaudible footsteps, getting flanked by McCree, Reaper, Mei and even Roadhog because i simply can’t hear their fatass lumbering footsteps.
Pharah boosters either makes no sound at all or is is nearly inaudible.

Ult voice lines cutting off mid sentence, or not playing at all.

Thanks for your reports! We’re seeing reports of this after the Windows 10 update recently after the KB4515384 update and we’re gathering information for the muffled/broken sound.

Could all impacted provide the Windows version to see if this is happening on other Windows builds? Press Windows Key + R and type in winver, provide the current Windows version including the OS build like so: Version 1903 (OS Build 18362.356).

If spatial sound is on, does it help to disable this? Right click on the sound icon on the Task Bar, go to Spatial Sound and make sure it’s turn off.

That’s my current version.

Also Spatial sound is disabled.

Thank God, I thought my headset is broken, whew.

I’m looking forward for a fix because I rely on sound so much and the game is unpleasant and unplayable for me atm. :frowning:

Having this issue as well. Running Version 1903 (OS Build 18362.356) and Spatial Sound set to Off. I’ve noticed that turning on Dolby Atmos in-game made it somewhat normal again (on my Astro A50 headset), but I prefer to play with that turned off.

hi, just checked and that’s the version i’m showing too 1903 (18362.356) and spatial sound is off

I’m glad I’m not losing my mind, I can’t decide if using the Dolby setting in game helps, seems like some sounds it does some it doesn’t. I’ve definitely had issues with the directional sound, whether it just isn’t playing or if I turn in a different direction a sound that was just playing just like stops.

I’ve definitely noticed the directional issue with enemy doomfists, not hearing the sound que when he’s charging up his punch.

Also am on the same version of windows, hopefully it gets fixed soon!

Awesome! Thanks guys for following up with those details! As a note, this is specifically called out in the latest Windows update.

It looks like Ferskie found a partial workaround in the mean time, by turning on Dolby Atmos in-game under Options > Sound. Does this help a bit for anyone else?

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It works a little but it isn’t as good as it should be.
When can we expect some kind of fix.

Thanks, Carnaval! In the windows update, it does mention a fix is planned in an update later this month.

Enabling Dolby Atmos is the partial workaround until the Windows update is pushed. I’ll continue to update with any additional workaround for this that we do have on this thread!

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I tested this last night just to see if we could add anything else here. While not ideal, the audio sounded a bit better with Dolby Atmos enabled in-game, and enabling Windows Sonic for Headphones (Right click on Sound Icon. Spatial Sound > Windows Sonic for Headphones). I wasn’t able to get much better results with speakers, but hopefully this may help for headsets!

This was called out in the update, if you have the option available and feel comfortable with doing so.

You can also search in the Windows Control Panel for third-party audio device control panels and disable Multi-channel audio or Virtual Surround Sound, if these options are available.

Hopefully, this gives a few more options to play with to get rid of the broken/muffled sound in Overwatch until the Windows update fix planned later this month. If you do have anything that worked for you, feel free to share! I’ll try and highlight anything called out :slight_smile:

I’m running Window 7 and also have muffled sound from behind.

There should be a new update for Windows 10 released on Sept 26, that should have fixed the muffled/broken sound issue. Try checking for the KB4517211 update.

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