OBS Detecting Mic but not Desktop Sound

[Fibijean]

Hi all, first time posting here so apologies if I get the protocol wrong.

I have dual headphone/microphone ports on my PC, so my headset comes with an adaptor that plugs into both. Recently, OBS has stopped being able to pick up desktop sound, but it still records mic input just fine. I used to record with both desktop audio and microphone disabled just for the footage, and I only noticed this problem when I wanted to start streaming with sound, so I'm not sure how long it's been an issue.

If nothing is plugged into the headphone jack, OBS picks up desktop audio just fine - the problem at that point, obviously, is that I myself can't hear it. I've tried it with the headset plugged into the adaptor plugged into the PC, with just the adaptor itself plugged in, and without the adaptor but with the headset in the headphone jack. Nothing has worked - OBS just doesn't record sound if there's anything in the headphone jack. Every other program (Discord, for example) has zero problems using both the headphones and the mic, so I know it's not a hardware problem. OBS on my laptop, where my settings are exactly the same, picks up both desktop sound and mic input using the same headset, albeit without the adaptor.

Any ideas as to what could be causing the issue? I've done a lot of googling, but nothing has helped so far.

 

[Fibijean]

So after four days of troubleshooting it just magically fixed itself when I did literally nothing that I hadn't already done before. So... solved, I guess? Apologies for any inconvenience.

 

[nicks_blurry]

I am facing the same issue as stated by you. how did you troubleshoot it?

 

[Fibijean]

I am facing the same issue as stated by you. how did you troubleshoot it?

I don't remember the specifics too well, but I believe I just googled the problem and tried every solution I could find - trying different ports, restarting everything, playing around with the audio settings in OBS and the default speaker settings in Windows, updating Windows, reinstalling my audio drivers... none of that really seemed to work.

I didn't start doing this until after it fixed itself, so I can't claim this as the solution, but what seems to work reliably for me now is routing my desktop audio through a third-party software (in my case, Voicemeeter Banana) so you could always try that. This is the tutorial I followed - if you don't want to split your desktop and Discord audio, just ignore the Discord parts and follow the rest. The important part is in the dot points down the bottom - basically, you just select your hardware outputs in Voicemeeter, set the Voicemeeter input as your default playback device for Windows, and then set it as your desktop audio device in OBS.

EDIT: If the above doesn't work for you, this thread contains a solution that I never tried which seems to have worked for a number of people a few months ago (turn windows sonic (7.1) on, apply changes, turn windows sonic (7.1) off).