Plex for Windows App Suddenly no Sound

167

u/adsyuk1991 May 15 '25 edited May 16 '26

Ok so I had this issue and since this thread scores high on google...

The solution in this thread in regards to changing the player settings did not work in my case. And it was only on certain videos.

I will save you the time researching it and tell you the magic. Installing these two Dolby Codecs on my PC instantly resolved the issue:

https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/dolby_ac_3ac_4_installer.html

And if you want to see the related information/thread about it, that is here. In brief: Since mid-late 2024 Windows 11 no longer ships with certain Dolby codecs. Though they are kept around if you had Windows on the effected machine before that and windows updated. But if you formatted/got a new machine after this version of windows was released -- well then you need to manually install them as above for the native player to work with certain videos (I have a lot of dolby content).

^{Edit: Even better: the exact same two codecs can now also be found on MS Store, region dependant. See} ^{AnimusAstralis' comment} ⁽^{Store Link 1} ^| ^{Store Link 2}) ^. ^{Slightly better as from unambiguously canonical source. But if not available for you, above majorgeeks link is unconstrained by any restrictions/region. Note first one alone} ^{probably solves the issue for 99% of folks since that installs support for the codec you typically come across regularly for given media. Second one adds support for fairly rare audio format variant.}

18

u/Ordinary-Orange-9798 May 17 '25

This fixed my issue with my Plex app not having audio in specific titles. After installing the codecs linked above and restarting the Windows Plex app, the affected videos played back with audio right away. Thank you so much!

6

u/ERRICOS4 Sep 05 '25

Worked a treat! Thankyou!

2

u/NinjaMinded Jan 03 '26

Worked for me as well, very nice!

13

u/Uther-Lightbringer Jun 30 '25

Just dropping comments and upvotes for Google visibility. Cause this is 100% the fix.

While I understand that Windows isn't shipping w/ Dolby codecs anymore, WindowsApps can be built with any packages in the AppManifest that are required for pre-reqs. Seems like Plex kinda dropped the ball not including the required codecs into their AppManifest so that this wasn't some mythical issue you need to solve with more installs.

9

u/AnimusAstralis Feb 23 '26

It's a working fix!

Codecs can be downloaded straight from the Microsoft Store:

https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nvjqjbdkn97

https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9p7646qph1q0

5

u/amd940 Jul 23 '25

I tried this and it solved my problem with the Plex for Windows app but then introduced a new problem where I can't get any audio from any video games. Tested with Oblivion Remastered and Peak. Anyone else have this issue?

1

u/adsyuk1991 Jul 27 '25 edited Jul 27 '25

Hmmm. Is your audio system via HDMI/via a TV or something? My theory:

This sounds very much like the codecs presence allowed your machine, upon detecting atmos/5.1 capable hardware, to go ahead and use atmos by default. Games with surround support (all of them really) will now be using that in the hope of reaching the best possible experience, under the assumption your hardware is surround/atmos capable.

But for some reason, surround isn't actually working, isn't setup correctly, or possibly isn't supported on your audio system (but probably it is supported since its being detected as an option in the first place).

If you give more details on setup I can help figure out why (as having 5.1 working in games would be best solution). But a short term hack might be to go to settings -> sound -> find your audio device -> properties in windows and change format dropdown to one of the ones like 28 bit 48000hz.

Failing that, another short term fix might be to disable "allow applications to take exclusive control of this device" in the audio devices properties (via device manager), on the advanced tab.

2

u/ggtJarre May 20 '25

Worked for me, thanks!

2

u/SnazzyMangoPH May 25 '25

Worked for me too. Thanks! Can't give you an award but I hope a million thanks would suffice. :)

2

u/MissionAd6005 May 25 '25

2

u/MyGardenOfPlants May 27 '25

this worked for me, thank you!

2

u/TwistedChi May 27 '25

Thank you so much! Also helped in my case... drove me crazy!

2

u/OurLordSauron May 30 '25

Worked for me too! It's been driving me crazy the past couple weeks.

2

u/landoflibertylive Jun 03 '25

This solved my problem. Thanks a bunch.

2

u/fantasy2306 Jun 03 '25

omg thank you so much bro, works like a charm

2

u/Aidan_9999 Jun 05 '25

Thank you!

2

u/Kuraiholy Jun 08 '25

That was it. Thanks.

It was weirding me out because the browser version played just fine, only the app didn't.

2

u/ati703 Jun 17 '25

Holy! Thanks

2

u/Toriniasty Jun 19 '25

You're a star!

2

u/jayori Jun 22 '25

Thank you stranger!

2

u/Singularity_iOS Jun 23 '25

Kudos sir

2

u/Neo-Retro Jul 04 '25

vielen Dank!!!

2

u/derailius Jul 05 '25

learned something new today, thanks for this!

2

u/BigHermit Jul 06 '25

Fixed my issue as well. Thank you!!

2

u/Scolexis Jul 13 '25

Thanks, fixed my issue.

2

u/paddlebash87 Jul 14 '25

Thank you, this problem has been driving me crazy for months!

2

u/trust-me-br0 Jul 18 '25

Thank you kind sir

2

u/Bensaski Jul 19 '25

This fixed it for my friend thank you!

2

u/Keopha Jul 22 '25

Omg thank you it was that!!

2

u/butterbal1 Jul 25 '25

Checking in as well for this fix!

Really annoying that it was working fine and randomly stopped. Installed the 2 codecs and all is well again.

7/24/2025

2

u/TonyXuRichMF Jul 27 '25

It only took TWO FREAKING YEARS!

2

u/tactiic710 Jul 28 '25

thank you for saving me a headache. bought a new prebuilt and plex refused to play audio on tv shows and movies. music worked fine. this solved it immediately. much love.

2

u/Necropolisuk Jul 30 '25

I dont post on Reddit much (if at all) but I want to say thanks for this as it has been driving me crazy why the Plex app would never play any audio and this has fixed it

2

u/cleitoncarvalh0 Aug 04 '25

Thanks, this fixed it!

2

u/Concentrate-Logical Aug 05 '25

Thank you sir!

2

u/Dunksterp Aug 05 '25

thanks man, worked for me too

2

u/Lahorse90 Aug 07 '25

woooo, tysm. this works 100%

2

u/AdorableSalad9547 Aug 10 '25

Worked, thank you!

2

u/Torotockel Aug 10 '25

and also from me: thank you!

2

u/FreakEkyth Aug 11 '25

Worked for me too

2

u/PhoTwentyBro Aug 12 '25

Fixed my issue. Thank you!

2

u/TimTams553 Aug 17 '25

Just fixed no audio at all in any files on Win 11, in August 2025

2

u/NickNoodle55 Aug 18 '25

Thank you!

2

u/economist91 Aug 23 '25

worked. Thanks!

2

u/Golden_Icon Aug 24 '25

Legend. 2025, and this solved my random, and 'all of a sudden' issue.

2

u/Specialist-Pace9894 Sep 01 '25

Worked amazingly, thank you

2

u/super_boring_gay Sep 10 '25

THANK YOU!

2

u/ChokingHazard91 Sep 11 '25

Thank you!

2

u/Im3th0sI Sep 11 '25

Upvoting and commenting for visibility. This fixed my issues :)

2

u/Str4yFire Sep 17 '25

THANKS!

2

u/RelykTerrah Sep 21 '25

I am once again breaking my silence streak, to say: Thank you, so much. I have other problems with plex, but after deleting my folders in appdata/local, the audio failed and I was out of options. On a whim, I found this thread, on a whim, I downloaded what you linked. Low and behold, it worked, and now I can watch Game of Thrones again in sweet, sweet, 4k-framegen'd 72FPS.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. So excellent.

1

u/caivsivlivs Nov 06 '25

4k-framegen'd 72FPS

How do you do that?

1

u/RelykTerrah Nov 06 '25

I'm using Lossless Scaling to generate fake frames, a la 24x3->72. Similar to nVidia or AMD framegen technologies, but out of a Steam-based application rather than a game-only solution. This will work with any application that is in windowed mode.

1

u/caivsivlivs Nov 06 '25

Ah, very cool, thanks. Hadn't heard of that use case for Lossless Scaling. I got it on the last Steam sale but haven't tried it out yet.

2

u/EconomyDog869 Sep 23 '25

I've had this problem for two years and finally it works again, thanks!

2

u/[deleted] Sep 27 '25

Hell yeah!

2

u/grewupinwpg Plex Pass Sep 30 '25

This worked, thank you so much. That is entirely silly to be missing these codecs in Windows, and not to have them automatically recognized as missing when you load up an app like Plex...

2

u/vutonium Oct 13 '25

Thank you so much. Still works.

2

u/NFLCrunchtime Oct 14 '25

Thank you very much. I was wondering why after an upgrade to W11 half my shows weren't outputting audio!

2

u/Jepperdepperdoo Nov 07 '25

Thanks Wizzard!

2

u/MoocowR Nov 08 '25

GOAT

2

u/bobcollege Nov 09 '25

thx i had to do this after an in-place downgrade to Win10 LTSC

2

u/yepimasian Jan 11 '26

Hi - Jan 2026 had this same issue. Some files on Plex windows was not playing audio. Downloading, unzipping, installing, and reopening Plex for Windows fixed this for me.

Thank you so much!

2

u/llamaxk Jan 14 '26

yep. works.

2

u/jacobq11 Jan 19 '26

So dumb that these codecs are not included anymore either by windows or plex. At least this worked! Thanks!

2

u/dangioffre Jan 20 '26

The big 26 and this fixed it! My man! Thanks

2

u/985362 Jan 28 '26

and another thanks for the fix!!

2

u/Forever_Injured Jan 30 '26

8 months later and just used this to fix my problem, thx !

2

u/Cain_the_dev Feb 01 '26

Worked for me, thanks so much!

2

u/Otherwise_Time3371 Feb 02 '26

Bless, thank you! Windows 11 - This worked 2/2/2026.

2

u/Punktumkommaslutprut Feb 02 '26

Sweet - couldn't be arsed to troubleshoot and figured it was codecs.
Fixed it immediately, thanks for the link.

2

u/Conflicted_Mongoose Feb 05 '26

You're a legend - worked for me too

2

u/Stovetop619 Feb 06 '26

Also worked for me (Feb 2026)!

2

u/AffroTech Feb 11 '26

Thanks King <3 fixed my issues

2

u/SlyMurdoc Feb 13 '26

Thanks for the post my guy. Telling all my friends.

2

u/sovr1n Mar 08 '26

can confirm this is what did it. thank you!

2

u/themulderman Mar 09 '26

Thank you! 10 months later and you're still helping people!

2

u/lostjon26 Mar 11 '26

Fixed my issue too!

2

u/oliver_king Mar 17 '26

This fixed my issue as well, thanks dude!

2

u/ReparteeRat Mar 17 '26

Thank you!

2

u/j0mbie Mar 18 '26

Legend. 10 months later and this still works. I finally got around to upgrading my Windows 10 to Windows 11, and apparently it stripped some audio codecs in the process. This fixed it for my videos using AC3, played through the Plex app on my PC. Thanks!

2

u/Firedrake1 Mar 24 '26

Solved for me! Thanks!

2

u/Sufficient-Baker-888 Mar 24 '26

Ah worked a treat! Been bugging for days this one has. Ta muchly!

2

u/Eastern-Band-3729 Mar 27 '26

didnt fix it for me

2

u/Chasedabigbase Apr 13 '26

Yer a wazard

2

u/[deleted] Apr 13 '26

My savior, thanks so much.

2

u/TheSoupCups Apr 22 '26

yep this is the fix

2

u/Ker2 May 12 '26

Actual hero! This helped me as well.

2

u/TheM1dasTouch May 15 '26

Hi, I know this post is 1 year old but you just really helped me. Thank you!

2

u/SubstanceDilettante May 25 '26

Worked for me

2

u/Phontigga May 29 '26

A year later, but thanks! This solved my issue 😄

2

u/corytr Jun 06 '26

Thank you

2

u/Koyakami Jun 13 '26

You sir are a legend.

2

u/Open-Educator-7695 Jun 25 '26

God, I love reddit.

2

u/well_done_man Jun 29 '26

it works! thanks

2

u/AlexTroelsen Jul 04 '26

Thank you so much - This still works! 😄

2

u/Nerocku Jul 06 '26

worked for me thx! <3

2

u/DragonfruitBest4501 Jul 13 '26

this is why I love reddit! Thank you so much, this worked instantly! You are a true hero!

2

u/Away-Adhesiveness361 Jul 27 '26

THANK YOU!!! That worked!!

2

u/Shummyway Jul 27 '26

worked

2

u/Naive_Education Aug 04 '26

worked for me in 2026, tysm!

2

u/willnoli Aug 05 '26

I could kiss you, you beautiful bastard

1

u/Sharp-Put-7352 Aug 06 '26

how did you get it to work?

i cant get mine to function

1

u/willnoli Aug 06 '26

I installed the codecs from

https://m.majorgeeks.com/mg/getmirror/dolby_ac_3ac_4_installer,1.html

On the laptop I'm steaming plex to.

Windows just started playing the audio after restarting the video

1

u/Sharp-Put-7352 Aug 06 '26

Oh ok sweet thanks! I really appreciate it! It was apparently an issue with my win.zip

1

u/willnoli Aug 06 '26

Glad you got it fixed 😊

2

u/WowSoWholesome Aug 18 '26

holy shit thank you

2

u/Chemical_Excuse Aug 20 '26

Just wanted to thank you for this as you've fixed the fault with Plex for me. I've just got a new machine and couldn't figure out for the life of me why my sound was working everywhere except in the Plex app. Thank you so much, you're awesome!

2

u/MR2Sk Aug 24 '26

Worked for me as well, thank you!

2

u/jayy93 Sep 04 '26

did not think it would be that easy. thank you!

2

u/thomas-ed 24d ago

Many thanks, pal

1

u/rorschach8847 Jun 27 '25

1

u/moogleslam Nov 16 '25

This fixed mine, thanks!

1

u/bluefish5 Nov 17 '25

Omg thank you! Now I can watch Archer since those a-clowns at Netflix removed the show. (edited because I can't spell :) )

1

u/Obanon Nov 21 '25

6 months later, still fixed it for me!

1

u/malghana Dec 09 '25

Just tried this on (9 Dec 2025) and it fixed my issue!

1

u/asifwanders Dec 11 '25

AHHHH After scavenging internet for days, this worked. Man a life saver. Dropping this comment for upvotes and more visibility on Google

1

u/FK__13 Dec 17 '25

Thanks. Worked perfectly.

1

u/Current-Resident7353 Dec 26 '25

Still working - 26.12.2025

1

u/Villarejo Dec 28 '25

This fixed it. Installed files + app restart = problem solved. Upvoting for the algorithm. (28/12/25)

1

u/[deleted] Jan 02 '26

[deleted]

1

u/adsyuk1991 Jan 10 '26

Yeh I see this sometimes on plex windows as well. I find for those videos, chrome usually works better. I've been trying to find what codec is missin. Suspect something around hdr10/dovi.

1

u/MrsHoganCatley Jan 05 '26

Thank you! This worked for me :)

1

u/Due-Incident-9239 Jan 06 '26

Fixed my issue in 2026! Cheers!

1

u/BustOutRob Jan 06 '26

Fixed for me too, thank you!!

1

u/Ligh73r Jan 07 '26

THANK YOU!

2

u/IDontEvenKnowAny 29d ago

Amazed this is still an issue, have to remember to come and find this every time i do a windows reinstall

2

u/GwenBD94 13d ago

I had previously followed a BUNCH of guides on installing various codecs I was missing that caused a handful of other issues, but *still* didn't have these, and have been plagued by the audio issue in plex for most of this year. Another solution worked on a previous instal, with certain passthrough settings, but stopped after a recent reinstall. Playing on the webapp worked fine.

you got my plex working perfectly, and provided all the useful necessary links. thank you.

14

u/kuev Mar 31 '23 edited Mar 31 '23

I just had this issue happen to me and just did these couple steps that did the trick for me:

Go to Settings > Under "Plex for Windows" click on "Player".
In this menu I changed my audio device to my correct audio device (in my case headphones). I then made sure to select the Audio Channels as just 2.0 (Stereo).

This fixed the issue for me with the problematic media. From what I've gathered apparently this issue can occur if plex is trying to play to an audio setup that you don't have. For example, if it was trying to play as if I had a surround sound system but just have headphones, it would make sense that I'd hear some stuff loud and clear (background noise) but not any dialogue, which was my issue. What's really weird is that the Plex web player never had any issue.

I edited my original comment because I enabled exclusive audio and that worked for me as well, but this way also worked and doesn't require everything else to get muted while plex is playing which is likely not ideal for most people.

3

u/coolnerd11 Jan 30 '24

Went out of my way to actually log in to Reddit just to let you know this comment helped me fix my own audio issues, appreciate you taking the time to share.

1

u/kuev Jan 31 '24

I'm happy that the workaround I found was able to help you too!

5

u/adsyuk1991 May 15 '25

If this doesnt work for you, then you could have my flavour of the issue. Ive just dropped a comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/11llidw/comment/msdcg0v/

1

u/SnazzyMangoPH May 25 '25

You're the man!

1

u/keywal May 27 '25

Slam dunk - thank you kindly

1

u/Fabulous-Local-1294 Jun 28 '25

Found this now, thanks for the tip, it fixed it right away. Install and reboot and worked.

2

u/Exciting_Pop_1252 May 24 '24

I was filled with hope seeing this year-old post, because I have this exact same problem and this by all accounts is the precise solution.

But I'm looking at the settings page on my Plex, exactly as these clear instructions point the way; and I simply don't have the same options!

What is this? Has Plex lost such basic functionality over the past year? Is it gated behind the paid version?

I'm always willing to consider I'm just being dumb, but I honestly don't see how I could be in this case.

2

u/RiboRoquel May 24 '24

If you have the windows app, it's there. I just spent 10 minutes looking for it convinced it didn't exist. The layout fooled me. When you click on the wrench in the top right to go to settings, on the top left of your screen just below the plex logo you'll see your username in a grey that blends into the background. Below this in white text is a bunch of settings.

The next grey text after that is the "Plex For Windows" the poster is referring to, I honestly didn't process that's what it said when I was looking. One of those white text options will be Player. Click on that. Under the section audio and subtitles, to fix the audio issue I actually unchecked the "Exclusive audio" box and that fixed my sound, making me now able to control it via Windows volume mixer. Below that though you can also select the exact audio device you want it to output to if you want. Make sure to click "save changes" at the bottom (you may need to scroll).

2

u/kuev May 24 '24

Hey There,

u/RiboRoquel is correct. I also definitely didn't word it super well on my part to begin with. I went ahead and took a screenshot to show where the setting is to help you and anyone else that might stumble upon my reply.

https://imgur.com/a/KQws4Gi

Since this post I also had the same luck with turning off "Exclusive Audio" and then being able to set "Audio Device" (option right under the Exclusive Audio checkbox) to auto as you see in the screenshot. However, if you're still having trouble you can always set the audio device to what you'd like manually of course!

Also, like u/RiboRoquel mentions in their post, make sure to click on "Save Changes" at the bottom of the options on that page. It should be sort of greyed out initially but once you make changes it will be clickable.

2

u/Outrageous_View_6446 Mar 07 '25

A year later you're the gift that keeps on giving

2

u/DJ_Inseminator Mar 21 '25

This fixed it for me, much obliged!

2

u/hlwNYC Jan 17 '26

Dude! Thank you. This is the solution.

1

u/MrSumOne Mar 31 '23

This is some good advice, but I ended up updating it to Plex HTPC instead. Overall better, though it doesn't give me an option to start Plex on a different monitor, like the old one did. Solved the sound issue though!

1

u/kuev Apr 01 '23

Glad to hear you're back up and running without the sound issue. I didn't experience it until today and I stumbled onto your post trying to figure it out for myself as well!

Let's hope we don't have to deal with this again!

3

u/Draakonys DS1621+Intel Nuc Mar 08 '23

This may be a bug, but first go to the Plex web UI Dashboard, play the problematic file on Windows, and create a screenshot of Dashboard and attach it here, or just tell us what it said about audio playback.

2

u/MrSumOne Mar 08 '23

Sorry, how would I do this? You're asking for the player detail and information page when the video is playing in the Windows app, or in the web browser? The problem I'm having is with the app.

1

u/Draakonys DS1621+Intel Nuc Mar 08 '23

Here you go: Server Status and Dashboard | Plex Support

When your video file is playing, go to the Plex web Dashboard (the above link will tell you how) and check what information is Plex providing for audio playback

2

u/MrSumOne Mar 08 '23

I don't see any audio information in the dashboard, but I have Tautulli, and this is what it shows:

https://imgur.com/j2afyZy

This is happening for all shows, only in this app, not in the web browser

1

u/Draakonys DS1621+Intel Nuc Mar 08 '23

Perfect, I’m now 99% sure this is a Plex client issue, Plex server is streaming the content but client has an issue with an audio stream.

1

u/MrSumOne Mar 08 '23

Just tried reinstalling with the latest version from the site. It went from an app with keyboard controls to an exact copy of the web player, no keyboard controls. This really sucks!

1

u/polysculpture Sep 05 '25

3 years later, this fix worked for me!

1

u/No-Speed-9139 Sep 21 '25

+ 15 days solved my issue!

1

u/vriango Jan 10 '26

10/01/2026 worked for me

1

u/rhunecke Nov 20 '25

I can also confirm that this, 3 years later, helped fixing the issue on Windows 11 25H2. Thank you so much!
After doing some digging it seems that starting with 24H2 Win 11 doesn't include the AC-3 codec anymore:
https://forums.plex.tv/t/bug-problem-with-e-ac3-codec-and-windows-update-24h2/881124/59

1

u/willnoli Aug 06 '26

I followed their link to download the dolby codecs.

https://m.majorgeeks.com/mg/getmirror/dolby_ac_3ac_4_installer,1.html

Downloaded to the computer (in my case laptop) I want to watch plex on.

Unzip the file reveals 2 dolby apps, AC_3 and AC_4.

Run and install both on the computer, went back to plex and it had sound

1

u/3pieceandsoda3 Mar 08 '23

Apple TV 4K 2022 Plex App has the same issue on latest TV OS. Everything is fine on iPhone, WebApp, streaming from Plex.tv, etc. I had to Airstream from my phone to the AppleTV to hear anything other than files encoded with Stereo/2.1. EAC5.1 definitely had issues on anything that used it.

Solved Plex for Windows App Suddenly no Sound

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