Can’t Hear Anyone on Discord (Fixed)

Discord is one of the most popular VoIP software, notably used amongst gamers. It provides a platform for instant chatting, voice and video calls, and the development of private communities. Particularly used by gamers for electronic sports, multiplayer video games tournaments, and LAN competitions, etc., Discord is now one of the world’s most commonly-used messaging platforms.

Despite being such a commonly adopted platform, Discord -comes with its fair share of issues like every other software. Today we are going to talk about a very generic issue in the Discord application that is “can’t hear anyone on Discord”. The potential reasoning for this issue is often inappropriate audio and device settings or preferences. The issue can also be provoked by the Discord application itself as an update malfunction, glitch, or bug. Here is some good news for you, most of these issues can be easily solved. To prove our point, just follow the detailed step-by-step solutions we stated below and you’ll be good in no time.

Here we explained some of the quick and easy checks you may go through before looking into the technical solutions.

• Firstly, carry out a device test to make sure that devices such as the microphone, speaker, headphones, etc. are working properly.
• Restarting Discord or your PC is quite basic, but oftentimes effective.
• Unplug all the audio devices — Especially your headset and microphone, and then try plugging them in again. Similarly, basic stuff such as muting and unmuting will probably not work — but give it a try.
• Re-install Discord, a dull task, however, it can prove to be a potential solution in certain scenarios. We recommend a complete uninstallation and clean re-install to really sort things out.

If none of the above has worked, there might be something wrong with your Discord setup.

Now we jump into the details, for ease we listed all the possible solutions to this generic issue so you can find the best match for your situation easily.

1. Solution 1: Check Default Communication Devices.
2. Solution 2: Switch to Legacy Audio Subsystem.
3. Solution 3: Update or Roll Back Discord Application.
4. Solution 4: Configure Proper Input/Output Audio Devices.
5. Solution 5: Switch to Web Application.

The first likely fix to this issue can be checking your communication device and set it as the default device if required. As you may have noticed these preferences are available in Windows, make sure that your preferred audio device is set as the default communication device.

Follow with me, as I show you how to set your audio device as the default communication device.

Go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound then under the sound tab open the Manage Audio Devices option then from the Playback tab choose the default audio headset, speaker, or microphone — whichever device you will be using. This can be done by right-clicking your audio device and selecting Set as Default Device.

If you cannot locate the audio device in the list, then do the following steps:

• Right-click on a vacant place within the Sound Playback tab and check the options View Disabled Devices and View Disconnected Devices.

• Now you will be able to see the disappeared audio device on the list right-click the audio device and choose Enable.

Once your desired device is chosen as the default communication device, restart Discord, and check if the problem has been fixed.

There is a possibility that your device hardware might not fit with Discord’s newest audio subsystem. This problem can be easily resolved by rolling back to the Legacy Audio System.

With that said, here is how you can turn on Legacy Audio System.

1. Open the Discord app, go to the User Settings on the right side of your avatar and then click Audio & Video.
2. Scroll down and under Audio Subsystem toggle Use Legacy Audio Subsystem a dialog box will appear, and you should Click Okay to confirm.

This will probably resolve your issue. If not, we have other solutions too. With that said let’s move to the next one.

As we know, in newer versions of Discord there are solutions and fixes to many common Discord problems, but, newer versions can develop issues of their own. Possibly, Discord has been updated automatically and this problem might be caused by a bug in the newer release.

In this situation, Discord may roll back the update which fixes the matter or releases a new update. So, refreshing or updating the Discord application will potentially solve this issue. You should Press CTRL + R to refresh the Discord application.

You can also Re-install Discord, which can prove to be a possible solution in several scenarios. We suggest a complete uninstallation and clean re-install from the official Discord website to try to sort this issue out.

The wrong audio device might be selected in Discord. You might wonder why? Let me explain. This can happen in both Windows and Discord, so sometimes it can be neglected and hard to catch.

Follow the steps given here to check whether the appropriate audio device is selected.

For Discord:

Open the Discord app, go to the User Settings on the right side of your avatar and then click Audio & Video.

You should inspect the Input and Output Device, snap on the drop-down menu below these options and pick the right audio device.

For Windows:

1. By Right-clicking the sound icon on the icon tray on the bottom right of the taskbar. Select the Open Sound Settings option.
2. Once opened, under the input choose the correct input device and similarly correct output device from the drop-down menu.
3. Both should be correctly arranged
4. Now restart Discord and this is a potential fix to your problem.

If this issue persists and the problem is caused by a glitch in the Discord application, then you will not encounter this issue in the Web Version of Discord. Doing this will not only sort the problem out but also give you the opportunity to use Discord natively in your browser. You can use web-based Discord on https://discord.com/app

1. Disable access to any other software that uses audio devices — particularly microphone access. Then check if it has fixed the problem or not.
2. A very unlikely solution proposed is changing the Server Region of the Discord application. While unlikely, this can sort the issue out in sopme cases.
3. Checking Discord application volume through Volume Mixer in Windows. Maybe the volume of Discord is low so the application didn’t produce any audible output.

Now, you might be wondering what the solution can be!

If you have already tried everything and still the issue persists, there are certain ways in which you can troubleshoot.

1. One of them can be using your headphone with a different device and version of the Discord application. If you still face the problem, then it is probable that your headset is malfunctioning.
2. What is more! if you want to try a step ahead, a clean installation of Windows is on the cards. If you are willing to come this far, format your drive and do a clean new installation of the operating system and all system drivers. This is the final solution to this problem and can prove to be some good news for you. While extreme, if havign audio on Discord is important to you, this may be a viable fix.

1. Why is my voice so ‘deep’ on the Discord app?

Maybe there is a problem with your microphone; so, try to get closer to the microphone to more accurately transmit your voice. Also, go through the microphone preferences in Discord and Windows settings to make sure everything looks to be in check.

Tweak the Loudness Equalizer in Sound Settings and turn off noise cancellation, noise reduction, low-frequency protection service if any are on to further fix this issue.

2. Cannot hear other people in Discord?

This is one of the most common issues with the Discord App, and the most common solution is to enable Legacy Audio Subsystem. There is a possibility that your device hardware might not be compatible with Discord’s newest audio subsystem. We explained this solution in detail as “Solution 2: Switch to Legacy Audio Subsystem” in the article above.

To quickly recap, in this article we talked about a very common issue in the Discord App where the user is unable to hear anyone, essentially, why can’t I hear anyone on Discord. The OvrClock team provided step-by-step solutions to help you fix this issue, and if it still persists, be sure to reach out to our team for more help.

Thanks for reading this article and we hope you liked it and found it helpful!