What to do if Firefox won't play any sounds

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  • Creator: Chris Ilias
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This article identifies several causes (and solutions) of No Sound in Firefox.

Before using the instructions in this article, make sure other applications on your computer can play sounds. If Firefox is the only application that you can't hear, continue to the troubleshooting steps below.

If you want Firefox to make a "click" sound effect when you click on a link, and to use other small sound effects like Internet Explorer does when you browse web pages, try the Navigational Sounds extension.

Windows Vista volume mixer

  1. Open Firefox and visit a site that should play sound.
  1. Click the volume icon in the Windows task bar.
  2. Click Mixer. The Volume Mixer window will appear.
  3. Make sure the Firefox slider is not at the bottom.

Flash based videos or media lack sound

If you're only having trouble hearing sound from pages that use Flash for video and audio (such as YouTube), you may be experiencing a problem with the Flash plugin. Follow the instructions in the Fix common audio and video issues article.


Non-standard code

Websites made using FrontPage add background music to webpages using non-standard code.

  1. At the top of the Firefox windowOn the menu bar, open the Tools menu, and select Page Info. The Firefox Page Info window will open.
  2. If there is a line in the Page Info window saying "GENERATOR Microsoft FrontPage ...", contact the webpage author.


Other Plugins

Most web page sounds are made through plugins. For these sounds to work, you need to have the correct plugin installed. If a plugin isn't installed, you'll normally see a puzzle piece icon and Firefox will show a yellow bar telling you that you need to install the plugin.

See the Use plugins to play audio, video, games and more article for links on how to install various plugins, including QuickTime, Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, and more.


Plugin volume controls

Some plugins have their own volume controls. Check for a volume control directly on the plugin or in the right-clickCtrl+click menu.