Firefox Community Forum

Hello Firefox Support,

I’m encountering a strange issue with Firefox. While playing YouTube videos at very low quality (144p) just to listen to music, my GPU usage spikes to 100%. This happens even when the video is not fullscreen and there’s minimal visual content.

System Info:

   Firefox Version: 140.0.2 (64-bit)

   Operating System: Windows 11 

   CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 8700F (no integrated GPU)

   GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE

   GPU Driver Version: AMD Adrenalin 25.6.1 

The issue goes away when I disable hardware acceleration in Firefox settings, but I’d prefer to leave it enabled for better performance elsewhere.

Is this a known issue with AMD GPUs or is there something else I can try to reduce GPU usage during playback?

Thank you for your help.

YouTube videos encoded at 60 frames per second are extremely choppy in Firefox only. Microsoft Edge plays the same videos perfectly.

I have deleted my profile and reinstalled Firefox, updated graphics driver to the latest version, and toggled hardware acceleration on and off. Nothing helps.

What the title says. Firefox just isn't playing any sound whatsoever.

Troubleshooting:

• Volume mixer indicates that Firefox is using my speakers, along with all other apps. When playing a YouTube video, the green bar is not bouncing. However, all other programs that play sound do so successfully and their green bars are bouncing (see attachment).

• Other web browsers play sound successfully.

• Restarting Firefox and my computer did not help.

• Switching the default sound device and changing back did not help.

• Changing to headphones made no change.

• Tabs are not muted.

• Autoplay settings in about:preferences showed that audio and video were disabled, however changing this setting to allow video and audio, then restarting both Firefox and the computer did not fix the problem. I have no idea how that setting was even changed to begin with. O_o

• Started Firefox in troubleshooting mode; still no sound.

• Started Firefox in a different profile; still no sound.

• Started Firefox in private mode; still no sound.

• Tried ending the audiodg.exe process in task manager and restarted; still no sound.

• Double checked media.autoplay.blocking_policy, was set to 0.

• Double checked media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground -- changed from true to false, restarted Firefox; still no sound.

• Disabled hardware acceleration; still no sound.

• Refreshed Firefox; still no sound.

• Complete uninstall, including the usage of BCUninstaller to uninstall "leftovers". Reinstalled. Still no sound.

I have Apollo installed on my computer and I've reached out to them before for similar issues, but the dev was insistent that Apollo does not cause sound issues. I'm somewhat sceptical, but they're not being helpful at all so I thought I'd ask here, and disclose usage of Apollo so that all bases are covered.

Thank you for your time.

[Audio Issue] Firefox Causes Background App Volume Drop on Tab Focus — All Volumes at 100%, Issue Not Present in Portable

Issue Summary: Whenever I focus a Firefox tab (even a blank or safe mode one), the audio volume of background applications (e.g., Spotify) drops or changes audibly. It’s not a ducking effect (as all ducking settings are disabled), and Windows volume mixer shows all apps still at 100%. The issue happens only while Firefox is focused — not minimized, not unfocused.

Reproduction Steps:

Play music using Spotify or another app.

Focus any Firefox window or tab.

Background audio becomes quieter or altered — then returns to normal once Firefox is unfocused. Specifically on focus it will change system volume to 58, then return to what it was previously when unfocused.

System Info:

OS: Windows 11 (fully updated)

Firefox Version: 128.0.2 (issue present since at least 127)

Audio Output: Realtek and NVIDIA High Definition Audio (same issue on both)

Spotify Version: Latest Windows Store version

Windows Sound Settings:

Communications tab: "Do nothing"

All app volumes: 100%

No enhancements or spatial effects enabled

Troubleshooting Already Tried (No Success):

Step Result ✅ Disabled audio ducking in Windows No effect ✅ Disabled audio enhancements No effect ✅ Ran Firefox in Troubleshoot Mode (Safe Mode) Issue persists ✅ Changed Firefox audio backend to winmm via about:config No improvement ✅ Fully reset Firefox profile (about:support → Refresh) Issue persists ✅ Verified with Process Explorer (audiodg.exe shows activity on tab focus) Confirms session change ✅ Ensured all apps in volume mixer show 100% No volume mismatch ✅ Rebooted and tested cleanly Still occurs ✅ Tested Firefox Portable (fresh instance) Issue does NOT occur (portable version behaves as expected)

Additional Notes:

The issue appears to be triggered by the main installed version of Firefox only.

A completely clean portable version does not cause the volume change, suggesting something related to the system-wide install, global config, or registry entries is affecting it.

Even without extensions, without playing any video/audio in Firefox, just focusing the window causes this volume behavior.

What I Plan to Try Next:

Fully uninstall Firefox (including deleting AppData and registry leftovers), then reinstall cleanly to see if that resolves it.

Possibly test Firefox ESR if needed.

Request for Help:

Has anyone experienced Firefox causing audio session or DSP changes on focus, especially with audiodg.exe activity?

Could there be a hidden system-level or registry config that ties Firefox to a shared exclusive audio session?

Any way to trace which audio sessions Firefox creates and how Windows handles them?

Let me know if you'd like logs, about:support data, Process Explorer thread captures, or a video of the issue. I’d appreciate any help from the community in narrowing this down.

Thanks! —Justin

I went to cp24.com and the video on the right side should load the news channel live automatically but it won't load, I tried downloading a new extension but still does not work, any help would be great, thanks!

I have HDR working in Proton games and mpv fine (using Plasma 6.4 / Wayland)

I enabled HDR in Firefox (gfx.wayland.hdr), and HDR content works in YouTube fine ( looks amazing!) however.. I have an issue in that all non HDR content doesn’t show any video (I have sound) just a green sceen (see screen shot) including all ads.

Any idea how to work round this ?

I have AMD 7800 GPU .

Cheers

After opening a YouTube page and selecting a video to watch, I get a second page with the word DOWNLOADING on it. Sometimes is just another blank page that goes away almost immediately. This happen often.

Using iOS on Mac Mini desktop, I get no sound on democracynow.org but on the iPhone the sound works fine. Most other streams/videos have fine sound but not imdb.com on the desktop with iOS but again, fine on the iPhone.

no matter what I try I cannot get any content from HBO max, crunchyroll, or spotify to play. I feel as though I have tried every troublshooting step. In firefox 140.0.4 64 bit on windows 10 I have:

-turned DRM off and on -disabled and re-enabled widevine -disabling all extensions -try in a private tab -turning off tracking protection -clearing cookies/cache/site data -uninstalling and reinstalling firefox -trying on firefox nightly -trying on other firefox based browsers zen, librefox same issue. chromium based browsers and firefox on my windows 11 laptop play drm content like normal -manually installing older version of widevine -changing useragent to chrome(this triggered cloudflare and would not let me pass) -making another user in windows and trying there

the error i get on crunchyroll is code: DRM-0 and on spotify it loads but the play icon does nothing. in hbo max i get error code 1k-0003

At this point I don't know what else to try, If there is not another solution I probably try to just switch to brave browser or wiping this pc and reinstalling windows.

I take guitar lessons on line and the audio for the lessons has suddenly defaulted to muted and I can't unmute it even with repeated attempts. The speaker icon is x-d out. I've rebooted, gone out and back in to the site and tried it on another browser where it worked fine. Firefox is my preferred. What can I do?

I am using FF desktop. All of a sudden, I get no sound through my laptop speakers when trying to watch videos (on YT and FB for example). I still get sound if I use external speakers through the 3.5" jack. I still get sound through other browsers, no matter if it's through the laptop speakers or external ones. So, it is definitely an FF problem. Sound works fine on all other media files on the laptop. Refreshing FF didn't fix it. Nor did reinstalling or restarting the laptop. I tried changing the autoplay settings as suggested in the help article, but still no laptop audio via FF. How can I fix this? Thanks