Despite being a popular platform used by many, Discord has its own share of bugs and errors. You might’ve experienced these infamous bugs with discord green circle on your profile but no sound issue that’s common between users.
The issue itself manifests in two ways that are similar to each other. Common ways that most users fix this issue would be to check your audio device’s input level, restarting Discord, or checking your audio drivers.
In this article we will be categorizing the fixes into two categories which are:
- Green Circle on Other’s Profile is there but I Can’t Hear Others
- Green Circle on my Profile is there but Others Can’t Hear Me
Green Circle on Other’s Profile is there but I Can’t Hear Others
I had personal experiences with my discord profile having a green circle but there is no sound output and it usually manifests in this situation the most. I narrowed it down to two things as to why this happens, one of which I’ll explore later.
If your hardware is in top shape and performing as expected, you might need to check your system’s sound configuration. To start, simply access the sound devices by typing “Audio Devices” and selecting the first option that appears.
Checking Audio Input levels of your Devices
In the window, you’ll see the Playback tab devices. In this tab, you’ll see any device that’s connected and installed on your computer if it’s working properly. At the moment my headphones are set as my default device. If I plug in my speakers then the second option would also become available.
You’ll be able to tell if your device is outputting anything if you see the green meter increase in size. The size increase is a combination of the intensity and volume of what you are listening to and your system volume. You might’ve encountered the audio issue because you might’ve muted your output device.
In Discord, you can do the same thing. I recommend keeping the audio output to default as it will follow your computer’s default device, in my case my headphones. If I need to hear anything from my speakers then I change the output device accordingly. You might be experiencing this variant of audio problem because you have the wrong output device selected.
Head over to Discords Settings > Voice & Audio > Voice Settings
Furthermore, in a video (1) from WePC, he stated that you can try to change your Audio Subsystem from Standard to Legacy. A reason why you might be experiencing theno sound issue is because of an incompatibility between Discord and your output device. Several forum posts such as this state there is no real difference between the two.The Standard system is mostly used in conjunction with Discord’s new features and code while the Legacy system uses the older versions of Discord’s audio coding as an option for users to switch to if they encounter audio problems with any new updates. Consider trying this out even if there weren’t any new updates in Discord.
Check and Update Your Audio Drivers
If your device is still not getting an output in the sound manager then it’s likely caused by outdated drivers. This can be verified and fixed in the Device Manager, simply search it up and it’ll appear. Drivers are essentially instructions that allow and teach your computer to use its associated hardware. Outdated drivers prevent your computer from using and accessing them altogether.
The Device Manager tool allows you to view each individual device that is connected to your computer. To check on a specific device’s driver, select the device and click on the Driver tab.
Troubleshooting and repair can be quickly resolved by selecting the “Update Driver” option as it scans and checks your computer for the device’s driver. It allows an option for a fresh and clean installation from the internet or a file you prepared beforehand. This should fix not only the no sound issue but also any audio problems in your system desktop.
Green Circle on my Profile is there but Others Can’t Hear Me
On the other side of the Discord green circle but no sound, this particular problem is caused by your microphone not registering an input or network problems. Similar to testing if anything is getting outputted, the same is done when checking for audio input.
Both tabs are similar as you can see your devices and monitor their volume and input with the green meter. The meter increases in size depending on the volume its going to output. If you happen to see it very low then consider changing the volume and adding boost. It can also malfunction due to having outdated drivers which can be checked with the same method as before.
To double-check if everything is working fine. You can test it out by using the Listen tab in the device’s settings. You can tick the “Listen to this device” and click apply. You should be able to hear whatever you are saying through your preferred output device you selected. Furthermore, you can fine tune it in the Levels tab to make yourself clearer and audible. For my settings, I maxed out the microphone volume and changed the boost around for better audio clarity. Optimizing this is one way to not only fix the no sound problem but also improve your audio quality.
How to Fix Quiet Mic on Discord Only
If everything in your desktop seems to be in order, you could still possibly experience the audio issue from the app itself. Similar to the first issue, you can resolve it by using the app itself.
You can try several things to improve your situation. One of them is changing the input volume. A personal preference of mine is manually setting my input device as there is a tendency for input devices to change in computers.
Changing your input mode to push to talk can fix your problem or you can change the input sensitivity if you find it too tedious. The more the bar is to the left, the less sensitive it is to noise. This makes it so that background noise like your dogs barking and rain will not get transmitted. The higher the dB the more sensitive it becomes which doesn’t require you to speak as loud. Experimenting and finding the value that fits you is important. Use this in conjunction with the testing tool to find the right values. I personally don’t use this feature but in the off cases I do, I usually set the value to -40dB.
If despite all this and you are still experiencing discord green circle around your profile but others still can’t hear you then it is most likely caused by RTC Connecting.
RTC CONNECTING ERROR
Real-Time Communication Connecting is an error that has been becoming common as of late. The cause of this is when Discord has difficulty connecting you to their server which ends up causing the Discord green circle but no sound problem. The problem itself isn’t new as several posts such as this show that the issue has been happening for some time already, only made more prevalent with Discord’s popularity.
I also had this problem making me experience the Discord green circle no sound problem. Me and my friends on the server have coined the situation as “Being stuck in RTC Hell” to quickly explain why we couldn’t reply or talk back.
The screenshot here shows that I’m experiencing RTC Connecting and Discord green circle no sound scenario. Even though my friends light up, I can’t actually hear anything until Discord connects me. The problem usually fixes itself when Discord establishes a connection or we resort to an inelegant method of leaving and reentering to force a connection.
There is a better way to fix this problem and it’s to refresh Discord using the CTRL+R command several times then entering the channel. I usually wait 3 minutes on the RTC connection before I do this. Refreshing Discord would fix the problem and any other network issues. Furthermore, you can experience the issue if you are using a VPN which only needs to be turned off or if Discord is blocked by your firewall which needs it to be whitelisted.
