Sound issues got worse latest patch

Bug Report
1

First of all these sound issues only apply to Overwatch, other games and Blizzard games work fine.

So I played Overwatch since launch and it has been a smooth ride for most of it. Starting around the Symmetra rework I began having some issues with my sound.

The most important sounds: gunshots, footsteps, would all randomly disappear when I would respawn. Voicelines and other random sounds would still play, but it made the game really hard to play. Then I’d die again and when I would respawn the sounds would be back.

Now when I got back from holiday ready to play Hammond this issue has gotten bigger and worse. Sound now completely cuts off at random. Respawning doesn’t solve the issue anymore. Sometimes the sound comes back after a few minutes, other times I just quit the game because it stays unplayable.

I know there are sound issues with using Dolby Atmos: I don’t use this.
These issues are ruining my experience and I just want to play the game again not having to worry all the time for my game becoming a deaf simulator.

Stuff I already tried to fix these issues:

  • Update my sound drivers
  • Update my nvidia drivers
  • Try to repair Overwatch
  • Re-install Overwatch
  • Delete my sound drivers, re-install them

EDIT
I know people have sounds disappearing when in large teamfights with lots of stuff going on.
This is not the case with my issues, my sound mutes when:

  • Respawning
  • A new match/round is starting
  • Dying/watching the deathcam
  • Watching POTG after a game or highlights
  • Sometimes sounds also goes away while still in the main menu
2

I have the exact same issue and have experienced the exact same bugs since the sym rework but I did find a way to restore the audio back. All you have to do is reload your speakers and this can be done by downloading a program called “Audio Switcher” and you just set some keybinds to switch the computers audio device from your speakers to something else and when the bug occurs just use the keybinds to switch off the speakers and then turn them back on again this should sort of reload the speakers and stop the issue.

Also many have already reported this issue and the developers are aware of it so probably next patch it should be fine.

2 Likes
3

Many players have been experiencing sound cut off over the past few months, I created a thread to discuss it if you want to share your experience/videos about the issue, it can help raise awareness and maybe get Blizzard to finally look into the issue: