Audio disabled in Windows 11 when plugging webcam

Anonymous

Hello everyone,

Each time I plug my webcam, all audio gets disabled on Windows 11. I had a Logitech C920 and bought a Creative LiveCam to see if the problem would persist and it does, so it must be Windows related.

The only fix for now is to go under device manager, scroll down to "Sound, video and game controllers" disable device there and wait for 30 seconds or so. The issue is that it also disables the built-in webcam microphone, which can then not be used anymore for my Teams calls.

This is a major issue for me as I use this for work. I hope Windows can find a solution to this issue.

Thanks for your help!

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Anonymous

after many days of banging my head against a wall I found a fix online... I wish I remembered where so they could get the credit.

While logged in with admin permissions:

plug in the webcam, you'll see the speakers disable and you have no sound

open services 'as administrator'

go to windows audio and double click it to open

go to the login tab

switch it to log on as Local System account radio button at the top, hit apply

restart the windows audio service

now you have the right icon but still no sound

go to Windows Settings > Sound

scroll down to input devices, find your webcam and select it

scroll to the sound enhancements section and turn it off

close the settings window

go back to services

open the windows audio service again

go to the login tab

select This account

click browse

click advanced at the bottom

click find now on the right

select the LOCAL SERVICE account, click ok

The password fields need to be blank.. delete the ******** entries

click apply

restart the windows audio service

Sound is back and working

This was all done with a Logitech C920 webcam.

So far this change has stayed in place with no issues.. I haven't tested to see what happens if I connect a different type of webcam or if a future Windows update will break it again.

Very hard to find a way to handle this through gpo... if anybody has insight on how to implement that I'd be interested.

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67 additional answers

Anonymous

2023-11-14T17:12:13+00:00

Did you follow all the steps mentioned by Jim? What you experienced happened to me in the first workaround I tried which was the same as Sjoerd_487 and which I had also found elsewhere before, which was to go into device manager, scroll down to "Sound, video and game controllers" disable device there. Jim's solution proved to be better because it didn't disable the microphone.
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Anonymous

2023-11-14T16:56:32+00:00

Thank you for replying Jim. yes. i did.. i can control my audio settings again.. but since i disabled the audio settings on the C925 camera, my microphone doesnt' work now. I re-enabled the audio device settings again.. but then the audio settings becomes disabled again..

Not sure what else to try.
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Anonymous

2023-11-14T16:29:47+00:00

Have you tried Sjoerd_487 's steps?
He has a C925 model webcam and found a different process to make this work.
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Anonymous

2023-11-14T16:18:38+00:00

Hello everyone. this workaround worked for me as well BUT!!. now I am unable to use the microphone feat on the webcam. Does anyone know what changed? everything has worked fine for the last 3 years of having all my devices connected and i didn't have to change any settings.

I would like to use my microphone again from the webcam Logitech 925e. Does anyone know of a perm fix?

Thank you in advance for your input/suggestions.

Dcn8tve2
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