Audio crackling issue

[Wishmastir]

Hi, since the latest patch drop for 7.5, I've been having crackling in my audio while playing the game. My entire sound experience has changed within the game itself too. The loading screen is the worst, with the whole sound byte having cracking sounds within it. It happens when idling, battling, anything. I've not changed any of my in-game settings since I started playing, and the cracking only happens within FFXIV so I know it's not my headset or my computer. It happened right after the patch downloaded, I played about 4 days after the patch dropped, and then noticed the sound change.

Anybody know how to fix this? It's making playing extremely unpleasant.

[Uhgpaysuhbaliet]

Thank you for posting in the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

We highly appreciate you letting us know about the audio issue you have been experiencing. Please provide us with the following information for us to better understand what might be causing the issue:
Are you using any audio enhancement softwares?
Did the windows audio drivers update at the same time as the 7.5 patch?
Does lowering the volume reduce the crackling?
What steps have you taken to resolve the issue so far?

Please do get back to us with the information for us to try to resolve the audio issue and do not hesitate to contact us if you run into any other issues moving forward.

Thank you for posting in the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums!

[Wishmastir]

Thank you for posting in the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

We highly appreciate you letting us know about the audio issue you have been experiencing. Please provide us with the following information for us to better understand what might be causing the issue:
Are you using any audio enhancement softwares?
Did the windows audio drivers update at the same time as the 7.5 patch?
Does lowering the volume reduce the crackling?
What steps have you taken to resolve the issue so far?

Please do get back to us with the information for us to try to resolve the audio issue and do not hesitate to contact us if you run into any other issues moving forward.

Thank you for posting in the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums!

Hi there, thank you for replying. To answer your questions:
1. I am not, just my regular gaming headset plugged into my laptop.
2. I just had a check and I had a driver update labelled "Microsoft Corporation AudioProcessingObject Driver Update (1.0.3.56670)" on the 11th of June, which I think was before the patch?
3. Not effectively, it still crackles.
4. I have tried adjusting various volumes within the game, such as muting background noises, lowering background music, and special effects. Unfortunately all to no avail.

[Uhgpaysuhbaliet]

Thank you for posting in the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

Thanks for the information! Since the issue started after the 7.5 patch, most likely the Windows Audio Drivers are interacting poorly with some of the game files. What we can advise is to verify the game files to check if some of them are corrupted. Additionally, you can try to roll back the recently updated Drivers to see if that will help eliminate the crackling issue. Please do get back to us if there are any updates on the issue or if you run into any other concerns.

Thank you for posting in the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums!

[Wishmastir]

Thank you for posting in the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

Thanks for the information! Since the issue started after the 7.5 patch, most likely the Windows Audio Drivers are interacting poorly with some of the game files. What we can advise is to verify the game files to check if some of them are corrupted. Additionally, you can try to roll back the recently updated Drivers to see if that will help eliminate the crackling issue. Please do get back to us if there are any updates on the issue or if you run into any other concerns.

Thank you for posting in the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums!

Okay I ran an integrity check on my files and it came up clean. I wanted to actually report that the issue randomly resolved itself after the latest maintenance! I did absolutely nothing different.

[Uhgpaysuhbaliet]

Thank you for posting in the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

We are glad to read that the issue has been resolved and that you can continue playing the game smoothly! It seems that the recent maintenance was able to optimize the game files to work better with the audio drivers. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any other concerns regarding the game. We will now be closing this thread.

Thank you for posting in the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums!