MP3 file not playing audio

[Meldaria88]

I have added a media scene with an mp3 file that shows in the audio bar tray to be playing but no audio comes out. I have switched the mp3 source to monitor only and changed the advanced media selection to every single option and nothing is working. I even tried playing on stream to see if it would be heard by viewers and just not me but nothing. Help please.... https://obsproject.com/logs/DAxzuxY96fgh7XNR

 

[DorothyH09]

I had this exact same issue a while back. It’s super annoying because the bars move like it's working, but you hear nothing.
Usually, it's because OBS sometimes struggles with certain MP3 encodings or embedded album art (metadata). One thing that worked for me was just running the file through a volume booster or a simple converter to 'clean' the file and reset the bitrate. You can use a site like https://mp3louder.org/ to quickly re-process it and see if the new version plays.
Also, double-check your 'Advanced Audio Properties' and try toggling the monitoring off and then back to 'Monitor and Output' - sometimes the monitoring engine just needs a kickstart!