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What to do if the sound is gone on the computer: useful life hacks. Google Chrome: Muting sound in individual tabs How to turn off sound in one of the tabs

Thanks to HTML5, web pages can play sound even if you have Flash disabled. Most modern browsers have an indicator showing which tab the sounds are playing in. Most browsers can also mute the sound for each tab separately.

This functionality (muting the sound for a particular tab) has been available in Google Chrome for a long time, requiring only a special flag in "about:config" to be checked. Apple's Safari included this feature in the same way, and before other browsers. In Mozilla Firefox, this functionality was implemented using plugins and in beta versions. Let's take a closer look at turning off the sound in the tab for each browser separately.

Google Chrome

This feature in Chrome is no longer implemented in the hidden setting video in "about:config", but is enabled by default. To mute the sound in a tab, it is now enough to find the tab with the speaker icon (the tab that plays the sound), right-click on the title and select "Mute the sound in the tab."

The audio indicator will be crossed out to indicate that the tab is playing audio, but it is muted. Right-click on the tab again and unmute the tab to listen to music next.

In Chrome, you can turn off the sound in the tab before the sound starts playing (for example, if the site you know plays sounds) by repeating the steps with the right click on the tab.

The only note is that when you check the "about:config" box, the sound is turned on and off in the tab by a simple click on the speaker icon, without the right mouse click. This is probably done to avoid accidental clicks on the speaker by inattentive users.

Apple Safari

Muting the sound in a tab is also possible in Safari, and it was this browser that was the first to offer this feature.

As in Chrome, when a sound is played in a tab, its title is complemented by a speaker icon to the left of the close button. You can click on the audio icon to turn off the sound and turn on the sound in the tab by clicking again. You can also right click or Ctrl + click and mute the tab.

Unlike Chrome, in Safari you cannot mute the sound in a tab in advance, only after the fact, when the sound is already playing.

Mozilla Firefox

In Firefox, the music playing indicator and the ability to mute the sound in a tab should have appeared in version 42, but are currently only available in nightly releases.

Mute works in Firefox tabs the same way as it does in Chrome and Safari. When playing sound, the speaker icon is displayed and by right-clicking on it, you can turn off the sound.

If you are using older versions of Firefox, you can use the Mute Tab plugin to turn off the sound. However, the plugin does not work correctly at the moment, disabling only the HTML5 sound in the tab, skipping the sounds of plugins (for example, Flash).

Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge also has a built-in audio indicator on tabs. But, unlike other browsers, it does not have built-in tools to turn off the sound. Perhaps the browser extensions for Edge announced by Microsoft will allow you to mute the sound in the tabs of this browser, but at the moment there are none. If it appears - write in the comments.

Although it is still widely believed in the world that the average person perceives the lion's share of the information that comes to him visually, the lack of sound when playing the new album of your favorite rock band or watching the long-awaited movie in the "silent movie" mode is unlikely to add to the user positive emotions. There are several ways to solve the sound problem that has arisen, after first determining the most likely cause.

Why does sound disappear?

If your personal computer does not belong to the category of those few centenarians who still remember five-inch floppy disks, then the silence in speakers or headphones can usually be explained by the following typical reasons:

  • hardware problems (BIOS settings);
  • a problem with the sound device driver;
  • mute audio in the Windows mixer or in a browser tab;
  • problem with multimedia browser plugins.

A feature of the first two points is the absence of any sounds when working with a personal computer, and not just when surfing the Internet. In other cases, it is necessary to take into account the features of the browser that is installed on your desktop or laptop, as well as its interaction with multimedia plug-ins and the relevance of their versions.

Hardware problems (BIOS settings)

First of all, you should check whether the wire plug from the desktop speakers (headphones) is plugged into the corresponding output of the motherboard or connector on the front panel of the case. If everything is connected, but does not work, then it makes sense to try switching them to the main sound output of the motherboard, located on the back. Then you need to make sure that the volume control is not set to the minimum level.

If sound appears, then the front panel is not connected to the corresponding connectors on the motherboard or is connected incorrectly. In this case, use the user manual that should have been included with your motherboard to correctly connect the connectors, or continue to use the audio output located on the back of the PC case if this does not cause inconvenience.

Modern computers often use an integrated sound card, which is built right into the motherboard. Such devices, unlike external modules, intended mainly for users demanding audio quality, can be turned on and off directly in the BIOS.

Perhaps it is in your case that the audio device is disabled. To check this and enable the sound card:

Video: how to connect the audio output on the front of the PC

Problem with sound device driver

To solve the driver problem:


If this does not help, try updating the driver manually:


In the future, to automatically track the release of updates for certain drivers, it is recommended to install a special utility IObit Driver Booster or similar. This program will not only immediately signal the appearance of a more up-to-date software version for a particular PC module, but will also help you update without problems with just a couple of mouse clicks.

Video: How to uninstall, reinstall and update sound card drivers in Windows 10

Mute audio in Windows mixer or browser tab

Make sure that the silence in the speakers is not the result of simply turning off the volume in the Windows mixer. Launch it by right-clicking on the speaker icon on the Taskbar and selecting "Open Volume Mixer" from the menu that appears. Make sure that your browser's main control and volume control do not have a red disable icon, and that the slider itself is not in the lower position corresponding to zero volume.

If everything is fine with the mixer, check if the sound is muted in the browser tab.

Usually, the presence of sound is indicated by a small stylized speaker icon. In Firefox and Google Chrome, it is located to the right of the tab name, and in Opera, it is located to the left. To enable/disable the sound in a tab, just click on its title and select the desired item from the drop-down menu. By the way, in Firefox and Opera, this action can be performed through the icon itself, without calling the menu.

It will be useful to make sure that the volume control of the player located on the tab is in the correct (not zero) position.


Make sure the player's volume control is in the correct position

If an element created using Flash technology is responsible for the sound on the page, make sure that permission to use this type of content is enabled in your browser settings. To do this, for example, in Yandex you need:


For Google Chrome, the procedure is similar, but instead of the "Content Settings" button, look for "Content Settings". In Opera, the same browser settings item can be found in the "Sites" section.


You can also enable and disable Flash content in Opera in the Flash browser settings item.

Photo gallery: enable / disable sound in a tab in various popular browsers

You can unmute/unmute the sound in a Firefox tab via the icon to the right of the tab name You can turn sound on or off in Opera by clicking the icon to the left of the tab name Right-click on the tab name and select Unmute Tab Sound to unmute the sound in Google Chrome

Problem with multimedia browser plugins

It's no secret that multimedia content can be played both directly by the browser itself, and with the help of third-party plug-ins (add-ons, extensions) installed in it.

Once upon a time, in order to watch a movie or listen to music from the World Wide Web, it was absolutely necessary to have an additional add-on like QuickTime or Real Player in the browser, but here, for example, Flash, despite its venerable age, is widely used with HTML5 and WebM and to this day. By the way, in March 2017, with the release of the fifty-second version of Firefox, Mozilla refused to support all plugins other than Flash in the browser.

If the Firefox browser requires a third-party plugin to play embedded content, it warns the user about this and provides a link to a site from which Flash can be downloaded. Also, the latest version of the Flash plugin for OS and browser can always be found on the Adobe website. Make sure you always have an up-to-date version, because the lack of sound may well be due to changes in different versions of the same extension.

If you are sure that the required plugin is already installed, make sure that it is enabled. Go to the "Add-ons" section, select the "Plugins" item and check that the "Always enable" action option is indicated next to the desired extension.

Also, the lack of sound may be due to the use of various add-ons that are designed to block ads and Flash content on sites (such as Adblock Plus or FlashBlock). Check their presence among the extensions installed in the browser and disable them, if necessary, while playing multimedia content.

Video: How to enable Flash Player in Google Chrome

Audio issue only on YouTube

Before blaming the browser itself for the lack of sound, check if the sound is turned off in the YouTube player. The speaker icon between the playback control buttons and the volume level should not be crossed out. Also, the volume control must be set to a sufficient level.

YouTube by default offers you a video player that works with HTML5. This standard has long been supported by all popular browsers. If problems with sound are connected precisely with this, it makes sense to try an alternative version of the player created using Flash technology.

To get started, you can simply check if your browser supports HTML5 on the YouTube site. There you can also find out what video formats and standards are available for this type of browser. After that, you will need to install an add-on that will allow you to quickly switch between HTML5 and Flash players. For Firefox and Google Chrome, the YouTube Flash Video Player extension is the best choice, and for Opera, the YouTube™ Flash-HTML5 add-on is the best choice.

Also, do not forget that sometimes the video can initially be recorded without an audio track. For example, this often happens with CCTV footage.

Photo Gallery: Addons to switch YouTube player between HTML5 and Flash modes

Try a different player type for Opera to get rid of playback problems Try a different player type for Chrome to get rid of playback problems Try a different player type for Firefox to get rid of playback problems

What to do if nothing helped

If all the methods listed above fail, try clearing your browser cache as an additional measure. For example, in Firefox, do the following:


In the Opera browser to perform a similar manipulation:


To clear the cache in Google Chrome:


If clearing the cache did not help, then you can try resetting your browser settings. However, remember that in this case you will lose all logins and passwords saved in the browser, installed themes and third-party add-ons, bookmarks, pinned tabs and other useful information. So make sure you back up your data.

Video: how to clear the browser cache

It's hard to watch a good movie without sound if it's not classic Chaplin films, and it's not at all possible to appreciate the witty jokes of the residents of your favorite comedy show. By following the simple instructions listed above, you can again plunge into the enchanting world of digital audio and the variety of sounds, voices and musical compositions.

A few years ago, Google Chrome became the first browser to introduce special indicators on the tabs, allowing the user to quickly navigate and understand which tab makes a sound.

However, Chrome, unfortunately, does not allow you to quickly turn off the sound. Today we'll show you how to fix it.

Of course, you have already seen the indicator icon before:

However, all this is in any case extra clicks. Other web browsers, including Firefox, Opera, and even Yandex Browser have gone a little further here: the sound indicator is clickable on the nickname. Clicking on it turns off the sound, repeated - turns it back on. No need to go anywhere and open any menus.

You will be surprised, but Chrome also has such a function, but for some reason it is disabled by default.

Turn off the sound on any Chrome tab in one click

The function is located not in the main browser settings, but on the service page chrome://flags. It's called "Tab audio muting UI control", you can find it with the built-in search by starting to type, for example, "muting":

Enable the option, after which you will need to restart Chrome:

That's all. Now you can turn off the sound in Google Chrome on any of its tabs in one click.

Accordingly, turning the sound back on this tab, if it was turned off, will also become easier and faster.

Mute sound in future versions of Chrome

Of course, turning off the sound in one click without going to the tabs where it plays, and without even opening the context menu of these tabs, is convenient.

However, it would be even more convenient if the sound did not appear at all when it was not needed. Moreover, it is one thing to turn off the sound on one Chrome tab, and another to do this operation all the time.

Google is thinking about this and in future versions of Chrome will add special settings for the flash player and sound to the program interface.

As a result, the user on each specific site will be able to customize their behavior (allow or block).

Notably, Chrome now doesn't automatically play audio/video only on background tabs until they've been clicked. However, in future versions, the program may stop playing any multimedia content by default, unless you explicitly click on the player in which it is located.

Thus, an extraneous unexpected sound will bother you much less often and in most cases you simply won’t have to turn it off.

Let's say you don't need sound when you're browsing the Internet at home, at work, or in a public place. You are secretly afraid that whatever you click will open a new tab with an autoplay video or an audio announcement will start playing. You can automatically turn off the sound when you open a tab.

No one likes sudden, unexpected browsing noise, but some sites still have autoplay. Luckily, browser makers have added some easy ways to automatically mute when you open a tab in Chrome and Firefox.

If you are a Chrome user

Chrome has a built-in blacklist. If you want to mute certain sites (such as annoying autoplay videos), you can right-click on the site's tab and select Mute Site.

But if you want something more powerful, like muting all tabs by default and whitelisting them, you can do that starting with version 64, which came out in January with a stable build.

Click the main menu button (three vertical dots) in the top right corner, then "Settings". Click the Advanced button at the bottom of the screen.

In the "Privacy and Security" section, click "Content Settings". Click Sound.

The default setting for "Allow Sites to Play Sounds" allows you to play sound from every site on the Internet, whether you've visited it or not. To change this, click on the switch. If you really want to turn off all sound, you can add exceptions to this rule by clicking "Add" next to the "Allow" section.

But most users will probably prefer to enable the main option and add sites to the Silent list. Just enter any URL, then click "Add".

Now, when you visit this site or open a new tab via a link, all audio (including autoplay videos) will be muted. Enjoy the silence.

If you are a Firefox user

At the time of writing, Firefox has released version 58 of Quantum. It doesn't have the same built-in mute options as the latest version of Chrome, but there's an extension you can use that's pretty much the same. , then click Add to Firefox, then Add in the pop-up window.

Then click the main menu button, the three horizontal bars, in the top right corner of the window. Click Add-ons.

In the "MuteLinks" section, click "Settings".

Scroll down to the section labeled Blacklist sites. To add a site that you want to permanently mute, click the blue "+" sign. Then click the pencil icon and enter the URL of the site you want to mute.

You can add as many sites as you like. Now whenever you visit them from the URL bar or any link, they will automatically mute any video or background music.

Alternatively, if you want every site to mute except the ones you visit the most, click "Mute by default". You can add exclusions by clicking "+" under "Whitelist sites", then click on the pencil icon and add the URL manually, just like a blacklist.

He was the first browser to decide to mark pages with audio content with a special icon. However, you will not be able to quickly turn off the sound on sites with annoying self-playing videos, alas. Another situation: in Chrome Lost sound on all network resources. Read below for a complete guide on how to disable (enable) sound in the most popular web browser.

A bit of history: back in 2011, the hero of the note got an extension for working with the MuteTab sound. Three years later, Google engineers added a corresponding sound indicator (flag) to the browser. Other specialized applications went a little further, making the indicator clickable, and only in Chrome this useful functionality is still experimental. However, injustice is easily corrected.

Turn off (turn on) the sound on the tab

For this to happen, type in the address bar chrome://flags → "Enter" → next, through the search field, find the option " Tab audio muting UI control" (or immediately copy to the address bar chrome://flags/#enable-tab-audio-muting → "Enter") and set the switch to " Turn on" ("Enabled").

  • Restart the browser by clicking the button of the same name (" Relaunch now"), see screenshot.
  • Open on YouTube any video and at the top of the tab, click on the speaker icon - the sound will turn off. By the way, clicking on a tab with the right mouse button achieves the same effect → in the context menu, stop at " Mute website". Clicking on the tab again, on the contrary, will turn on the sound.

Turn off (turn on) the sound through the settingsChrome

Everything would be fine, but constantly muffling the sound on frequently visited pages is not very convenient. Therefore, I suggest through chrome://settings customize the behavior of the player on each specific web resource.

  • In advanced settings find " Content settings" (section "Privacy and security") → " Sound" → if in Chrome for some reason there is no sound, activate the mode " Allow websites to play sounds (recommended)".
  • To block sound on selected domains, add them to the "Sites with muted" list → " Add".
  • If the " Turn off sounds on websites", whitelist your favorite video pages by visiting "Allow" → " Add".

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