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@oeuf@slrpnk.net

No audio for videos but only for one user and with pipewire

2026-03-12 16:08 UTC

I’m suddenly unable to get audio for video files, but only for one user and seemingly only with pipewire… It’s the same in all video players I’ve tried, flatpak and deb. If I log in as a different user everything is fine. And if I change the audio to alsa in mpv I get audio again there. Music files are unaffected. I don’t know if a permissions issue has arisen somewhere, another application is ‘hogging’ pipewire, or something else. Any help much appreciated! Debian 13, GNOME 48, Wayland

Replies (6)

  • I solved it unistalling it. I didn’t want to use pipewire anyway.

    Open ##636445

  • Check the groups the working user is included in, and make sure the non-working user is in those same groups. See if anything there. Edit: Oh, you know what. I think this is probably Pipewire not starting for multiple users when multiple are logged in. On the non-working user, you need to start a unique Pipewire session for that user, because the other working user's session can't be shared by default.

    Open ##2262614

  • @exu@feditown.com 2026-03-12 18:57

    Is the pipewire service enabled for that user? It's a systemd user service

    Open ##2262615

  • @deadcade@lemmy.deadca.de 2026-03-12 19:49

    Is the video player application itself muted in pipewire? What's the output device set to? You can check these things with an application like `pavucontrol`. Pipewire (and pulse) have a default audio device, but individual applications can set a different audio device if they want to. Another great category of utilities for pipewire is virtual patchbays. If you're looking for something simple, helvum or qpwgraph are geat. For *all* the technical details in a GUI, coppwr provides a good experience.

    Open ##2262618

  • @elmicha@feddit.org 2026-03-12 18:11

    I'm not familiar with pipewire, but is there a mixer somewhere in the pipe?

    Open ##2262620

  • @oeuf@slrpnk.net 2026-03-30 20:16

    Crazy - it hasn't happened again since my original post, until literally just now. I come on Lemmy to look for the thread and remind myself how to fix it, and here is your comment! I'll have a look, thanks :) How is it less secure?

    Open ##2262632