For whatever reason, after the most recent patch on 5/16/23 anytime I open wow with its default sound settings, it cancels out all other audio on my computer. I cannot hear discord, youtube, spotify, or any other source of sound besides WoW. I have tried restarting my computer, uninstalling and reinstalling WoW, checked all my drivers for updates, verified game files, restarted my computer, switched my USB Ports and plugged/unplugged my audio jack.
I have tried literally everything I could possibly think of, yet I cannot get any other sound to work while in WoW. I managed to mess around with my audio settings in game and somehow got the problem to switch, where I have my outside audio but zero audio for WoW.
I am at a loss, so if anyone else has had or is having this problem, help would be appreciated.
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Is there not a selection in windows for each source?
Do you mean in my system sound mixer? If so, then yes and they are all 100% and unmuted
If you mean for selecting my audio output, I have my headset selected for everything and it is the default. But even then, it doesn’t matter if I have my headset or system speakers selected I have the same problem
Hope someone else has input, will not be home to test stuff untill midnight.
Good luck…
I’ve been trying to troubleshoot with my guildmates too and they don’t have much of an idea either.
Thanks lol
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I do not have a issue.
Using Edge on Youtube and in game fishing . I only have 2 Addons.
Win10 pro …
Someone told me long ago…
Just caugjt a [ Old Boot ] sell price 18c
Good luck finding your issues.
I’m having the same problem. Just started today. When running WoW I can’t get any other audio on my PC. No youtube, media player, chrome videos. Nothing… It’s like WoW takes full exclusive control of Windows 11 audio now. Anyone know how to fix this???
OMFG you are describing the exact same problem I’ve been having for the past week. It’s not just retail- there’s a thread over on the classic forums with people experiencing the same problem.
I posted the following over on that thread in response to the original post:
Same, I’ve been directed to uninstall and reinstall drivers, scan and repair the game, etc. Basically all the options you have listed above. And then some. I’ve disabled all of my addons thinking maybe one of those was causing wow sounds to have supremacy over everything else on my computer. Got nothing for that. Sigh…
I’m at my wits end here lol. I’m tempted to just buy a new computer. I spent thousands on this one though, for the sole purpose of playing WoW- my old computer was perfectly adequate. Obviously something I’ve done or updated is causing this. I just have no idea what. And the people who have helped me to try and address this issue are completely at a loss. This all started with the new patch, last Wednesday shortly after season 2 came out. I dunno what happened. But something changed and my **** has been ****** since.
I also did something to my sound settings where I was able to hear the other programs on my computer while playing wow. Discord sound worked again, spotify, I could use my web browser to listen to TED talks on youtube lol.
But I, like you, became unable to hear anything from WOW. Which can be really ******* deadly when you’re raiding and playing unfamiliar dungeons in M+ at a high key level >.>
This is EXACTLY my problem. Even weirder, when I change between the different audio outputs, there is a split second where I can hear both audios but then it goes back to one or the other.
I was able to get through Raid on tuesday without sound, but it is much more difficult. I’m glad I’m not the only person dealing with this, but I have absolutely no idea how to fix this. I’ve tried literally everything I can think of.
There are several threads with multiple people experiencing this same problem- on both retail and classic. Trying to raise visibility on this issue in hopes that someone from WoW will respond and/or address it.
I began experiencing this loss of sound from all other apps last Wednesday, shortly after Season 2 on retail was released.
I’ve had some help from people in my guild who are way more experienced with computers and we’re all at a loss. The following is a copy and paste from a player called Nimbles on a classic technical issues thread about this problem, and the things he has tried are the very same that I have done.
" I have this problem in retail and have tried everything:
- reinstalling sound drivers
- scan and repair game
- delete and reinstall game
- modify in game sound settings
It doesnt seem to be an issue with the 10.1.5 PTR… can we get Blizzard to chime in please…whats the point of having a technical issues channel if no one from Blizzard chimes in"
Really hoping we get someone from Blizz to look into this. If this player is able to play the PTR 10.1.5 version and not experience the issue we are all experiencing on the 10.1 live, then clearly something changed on Blizzard’s end when they released the new patch to retail. No one else I know is having this issue so it clearly isn’t widespread, but there are enough threads on the support channels about it that I know I’m not the only one.
Chime in if you’re experiencing sound issues. We need more people to make a fuss about this or we might be stuck using discord on our phones during raid like savages >.> Forever… 
Hey everyone,
Thank you all for reporting this. I wasn’t able to find any known issues matching this behavior with the game’s sound, but in most cases we find that such a conflict is caused by a specific sound setting or a third-party program overriding permission for the sound device. First, check to ensure your sound device isn’t set to allow apps to take exclusive control:
- Right-click your speaker (
) icon in the Windows task bar.
- Click Open Volume mixer
- Click your Device icon to open the Properties window. It should look like a headset or speakers, depending on your sound device
- Click the Advanced tab. Uncheck the setting “Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device”
Restart WoW, and then retest. If it doesn’t work, try closing potentially conflicting programs/applications by disabling startup items with the steps below. Before trying the steps below, please close unnecessary programs and restart your computer:
- Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open the Task Manager.
- Click More Details in the bottom-left.
- Select the Startup tab.
- Right-click on each item listed and select Disable. Make sure all are “Disabled”.
- Restart the computer.
If the issue is resolved after restarting your system, you can enable each startup application one at a time to determine which one is causing the problem. You will need to restart between each application you enable.
Note: To re-enable startup applications, follow steps 1-4 and select Enable.
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I tried those suggestions and none of them worked unfortunately.
I tried to paste the DXDiag directly but it said it was too many characters. Here is the Pastebin link: https://pastebin.com/ytZ6D2nU
Appreciate the response but nothing changed on my side. The only thing that changed was the recent game patch. Given that the issue is reportedly not present on the 10.1.5 PTR that tells me Blizzard broke/changed something in the current live game client.
Yeah, everything worked great until the recent patch on Tuesday. Something in that must’ve broken the audio because I don’t have this problem with any other games.
Right. This issue is only present with WoW. None of my other games disable system audio when running.
I’ve already tried the volume mixer fix prior to this post. Ive tried a lot. My guild has several people who work in tech/computer industry and they had me share my screen as we spent hours looking through my computer for processes or programs that might be causing this. Unsuccesfully. Unfortunately.
We didnt try the shutting down of all apps on start up. I did this earlier and nothing came of that either.
Ill do the dx thing and post it later. Thank you for responding. This issue has been frustrating.
If the issue is not occuring for players on the 10.1.5 ptr but is occuring for them on the live servers, i think it would be worth checking into that. Whats the difference, on the audio front, between the two?
Chiming in as well. I have the same issue. Both WoW retail and classic cut out all audio to my pc applications. Have tried all the above troubleshooting methods with no success. All other games installed on my pc work perfectly fine.
I’m having the exact same issue. I’ve tried everything including reinstalling Windows, the issue is still happening.
This is still an issue after today’s maintenance and small patch. WoW takes exclusive control over the PC’s audio and no other sound will play. Blizzard, we’re waiting on a fix…