Bug: No sound effects or voices

[FutileMasquerade]

I found that my sound effects and voices are completely muted. Music and system sounds seem to be working fine. I'm very hesitant to restart my game to try to fix it, since I just got through a two hour and ten minute 5000+ person queue. Is there a fix for this without restarting?

[FutileMasquerade]

oh my bad I just realized this is the wrong part of the forums for this

[AeroXaia]

I found that my sound effects and voices are completely muted. Music and system sounds seem to be working fine. I'm very hesitant to restart my game to try to fix it, since I just got through a two hour and ten minute 5000+ person queue. Is there a fix for this without restarting?

I've heard setting your sound to 16bit, 44100 hz can fix this. My sound issues are different, but that's what I've heard.

How to change if you're not sure:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...a-22efda8da0c2

[the_vanity]

Dude I'm having the EXACT same issue and this has never happened before. I'd tried everything suggested by Google but nothing works. I waited 2 hours to get into the game so it really sucks that this happens.

[WanderingStar]

Had this as well after waiting 6 hours to get in.

[Oniji]

Please see this thread OP for a current workaround. As well as other things you can try if the workaround doesn't work for you:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...-Sound-Effects

Current Workaround
Doing the following has fixed this issue for a lot of people. It appears that after the Endwalker update, the audio device set for Combat sounds was either missing or set to a non-primary device. Switching the device to something else then back to the correct device forces the audio device to be updated correctly.
In Windows 10: Sound Settings > Sound > Advanced Sound Options "App volume and device preferences" > Find "Final Fantasy XIV" in the list and change the "Output" device (top entry) to anything other than what it is currently set to, then BACK to what it is intended to be to.

[Tessmarin]

In the process of trying to get rid of the distortion I had to change a lot of settings. I will just tell you which one worked for me.

If you are still with distant sounds you can give this a go:

Right click your sound icon on task bar, go to Sounds
For the device you are using under Playback tab right click what you are using and configure speakers and make sure its on stereo.

For the device you are using under Playback tab right click and go to Properties. In testing all the sound issues the setting that gave me cut scene audio back was putting the properties Advanced tab to 24bit 48000 although many say to use 44.1. Try to change the Speaker Properties Advanced tab default formats and see if you can get your sound back using one of those settings.

WARNING: If you change these settings in game you will very well lose audio so be advised before you sit though the queues again - best to try this at off hours.

Good luck