One of the most common issues that gamers come across when using discord is that the screen share audio would stop working out of nowhere. It could get really, really annoying when you want to share your gaming sessions with others. What good is a screen share if you cannot talk to people that you are sharing the session with?

In this tutorial, we have laid out multiple options you can try out to get this issue fixed for good. But before that, let’s get a brief idea on why this issue occurs.

Why Audio is not working in Discord Screen Share?

Below are the various factors that could have led to audio issues on Discord screen share sessions. Note that this may not be the case for you but rather, these are some of the most common factors.

• Bad audio drivers: The audio drivers installed on your computer are the base for all the audio hardware on your device. And when there is an issue with this, it leads to audio issues everywhere. Yes, after all, Discord may not be at fault in some cases.
• Issues with other applications: There are multiple applications installed on a computer and not all of them play along very well with others all the time. Sometimes, other apps on your computer might impact the audio hardware output on your computer which will lead to issues in Discord as well.
• Administrative access: When you share your screen with others, you are sharing your entire device screen with others over a network. Windows may tend to flag this as a task that requires administrative privileges just to make sure the user knows what they are doing. Even something as simple as granting administrative access could fix this issue.

Things you might want to double-check/be sure about before proceeding to the fixes:

1. Have the application credentials ready. In case we end up completely resetting the app, you may need it to re-login. It’s always a good idea to keep the credentials ready.
2. Make sure the sound option is enabled in the Application Window in Discord settings:

Now, let us get started with the available options. You can try to fix discord screen share audio not working issue.

Grant Administrator/Elevated Access

Since sharing the screen with another user over the internet is a matter of privacy, you may need elevated user/administrator access to make sure the audio is working fine. To do this, follow the steps below:

1. Press Windows Key + E > Go to the folder where discord is installed on your computer. By default, it installed in the C: driver.
2. Once you are in the application folder, right-click on the .exe file which runs discord and select Properties.
3. In Properties, click on the Compatibility tab > Enable the option which says Run this program as an administrator.
4. Click on OK to save changes and exit the settings.
   

Now, try opening discord and see if this has fixed your issue.

Add your activity

Discord usually understands what the user is doing and acts accordingly. But there are times when Discord gets confused about the user actions and hence doesn’t do what is expected. This became common when the user tries to share their screen content with others in Discord.

To fix this, developers released a feature where you can select the specific application or game which you want to focus on. We shall use this feature to let Discord know that you are sharing your screen when you do that.

1. Launch Discord and navigate to Settings.
2. In settings, click on games at the left navigation bar.
3. Go to Game Activity and Add the application in which you are facing audio issues when sharing the screen. Once you add the application, you can easily focus on it using the application. Make sure that one of your other “games” listed in Game Activity is running. If the game/application is already there, try removing it from the list and then add it back and check if the problem is solved.
4. If you still have the problem, then turn on the Overlay feature of Discord and check if the problem is solved.

Reinstall Audio Drivers

As we had said earlier, the issue could even be outside of Discord where it has no control whatsoever. For example, when you have issues with the audio driver installed on your computer – it is going to affect your Discord audio as well. Here’s how to reinstall Audio driver and fix the issue:

1. Press Windows + R> type in devmgmt.msc >press Enter.
2. in Device manager > Expand the category of Audio inputs and outputs.
3. Right-click on the sound hardware and select the Uninstall device.
4. Next right-click anywhere on the screen and select Scan for hardware changes. Now the computer will scan for any hardware that is not installed and will find the sound module that we just uninstalled. Then it will proceed to install the default drivers.
5. After the drivers are installed, restart your computer and see if the issue is resolved. If it isn’t, update the drivers again.
6. Right-click on the driver and select Update Driver. Now you can use Windows Update to update the driver.

If this method does not work, we recommend to manually download the driver files from your audio device OEM website and try installing it on your computer.

Use Push to Talk

Discord will automatically detect whenever there is an audio activity and transmit it over the internet. But when the automatic way does not work, there is a way to manually force Discord to do it for you.

In the Voice and Video settings of Discord, there is an option called Push to Talk. In this method, you can manually push a specific key (specified in your application’s settings) for audio to be captured and transmitted. You can always undo this setting once you feel the automatic way has become more stable.

Do Not Share the Full Screen

Some users have reported that they face audio issues only when they share the screen in full-screen mode and everything is fine when they don’t do it that way. Seems like Discord is having a hard time when the user’s focus application or game is in full-screen mode.

The workaround to this is to use the application or game in a minimized format. It is a good idea to restart your machine before doing this. If it is a game that you are sharing, you can choose Windows Mode in settings and if it is an application, you can easily resize the windows.

Check the Application that has Issues

There may be some application that is still not compatible with the Discord screen share system and causes issues when you share them full screen via Discord. One fine example of this is the Mozilla Firefox.

To put it simply, the reason why some applications don’t play along well is because of the multiple processes. For example, for the same application, there would be different processes running in the background. And the process which is responsible for the GUI windows may not be the one responsible for capturing audio. They would be two different processes and this would cause confusion.

In these scenarios, all you can do is wait for the app developer to release a proper fix for this thing.

Clear Discord Cache/Roaming Data

Like all other applications, Discord also makes use of the cache and temporary files to capture user preferences and other local settings. When these get corrupt, it ultimately leads to random issues in using Discord – one of them could be the audio issues while sharing screen. You can easily clear cache and temporary files by following the below steps:

1. Close Discord completely and make sure all the related processes are not running using the Task Manager.
2. Press Windows Key + R.
3. Type this and press Enter: %appdata%
4. In the Roaming folder of AppData, find the folder named Discord and delete it.
5. Restart your system.

Check System Audio Settings

Now, let us make sure if the we have properly configured audio settings on your device. We are going to verify these two:

• Check if the correct recording device is configured as an input device.
• Check if Discord has proper audio permissions.

To check these on your computer:

1. Press Windows Key + R > Search ‘Microphone privacy settings‘ and open the top result.
2. Make sure that the option for Allow apps to access your microphone is turned On.
3. Scroll down a little bit and you will see a list of all the apps allowed to use the microphone. Make sure Discord is present on that list.
   

To make sure you have selected the right device as an audio input device:

1. Right-click on the sound icon in the taskbar and select Sounds.
2. Click on the Recording tab and make sure the right device is selected.
   

Reinstall/Update Discord

This is pretty self-explanatory. When all else fails, we have to take matters to the next level. Look if an update is available for Discord and if its, download and install the update right away. You can also keep track of any updates via following Discord via social media channels. They are pretty vocal about updates and bug fixes.

If that doesn’t fix, it is time to uninstall and reinstall Discord.

1. Press Windows Key + R.
2. Type this and press Enter key: appwiz.cpl
3. In the Programs and Features utility that shows up, find the Discord app, and uninstall the same.
4. Next up, download the latest version of Discord from Discord’s official website and install it.
5. Restart your machine.