How do I mute audio in Chrome?

Muting audio in Chrome allows you to silence sounds coming from websites, videos, ads, and other sources. This can be useful if a tab is playing audio that is distracting or unwanted. Controlling audio in Chrome gives you more control over your browsing experience.

Identify Audio Sources

Before you can mute audio in Chrome, it’s important to identify where the audio is coming from. There are a few main sources of audio in Chrome that you may want to mute:

Individual tabs – Each tab may be playing its own audio, such as from a video or music player.

Entire websites – Some websites may play audio automatically when you visit them, such as background music or ads.
Videos – Any videos you play in Chrome will include audio that you may want to mute.
Ads – Audio ads and autoplaying videos with audio are common on many websites.

So when you hear audio playing and want to mute it, check your open tabs for the source. Also pay attention to any videos or ads on the websites you have open. Identifying the audio source is the first step to muting it in Chrome.

Mute a Tab

You can mute an individual tab in Chrome to stop any audio playing from that tab. This allows you to silence a noisy tab without muting your entire browser.

To mute a tab in Chrome, right-click on the tab you want to mute and select “Mute site”. This will stop any audio coming from that specific tab while leaving other tabs unaffected. You can unmute the tab again by right-clicking it and selecting “Unmute site”.

This option is helpful if you have multiple tabs open but only want to mute audio from one page. For example, you may want to mute a tab playing music while leaving a tab with a video call unmuted.

Right-clicking on a tab and selecting “Mute site” is the easiest way to quickly mute or unmute audio from individual sites in Chrome without installing any extensions.

Mute a Website

You can mute an entire website in Chrome so that all media is silenced when you visit that site. This prevents videos, music, and other audio from automatically playing. To mute a website:

1. Visit the website you want to mute.

2. Click the lock icon to the left of the URL in the address bar.

3. Select “Sound off” from the menu that appears.

This will mute that website going forward. The lock icon will turn red whenever you visit a muted site as a reminder that sound is off.

To unmute, repeat the steps and select “Sound on” from the menu. You can also customize audio permissions for each website in Chrome’s Site Settings.

Source: Google Chrome Community

Mute Videos

One of the most common sources of unwanted audio in Chrome is autoplaying videos on websites. An easy way to mute these is to right click on the video and select “Mute” from the context menu.

This will mute that specific video without affecting any other tabs or audio sources. It’s useful for those annoying autoplay videos that start blaring as soon as the page loads. Just right click, hit mute, and the video will be silenced while allowing other audio to continue playing.

Note that this mutes the video for the current browsing session only. If you refresh the page or return later, you will have to remute the video again. For a more permanent solution, see the section on muting entire websites.

Source: https://www.groovypost.com/howto/mute-autoplay-videos-websites-google-chrome/

Stop Ads from Playing Audio

One of the best ways to stop audio ads is by using an ad blocking extension in Chrome. Popular ad blockers like Adblocker for YoutubeTM and AdLock can block video and audio ads from playing on sites like YouTube, Spotify, and SoundCloud. These extensions work by preventing ad content from loading on web pages. Once installed, they can mute or skip over most pre-roll and in-stream audio ads automatically. You can customize settings within each ad blocker extension to fine-tune which ads get blocked. Keep in mind ad blockers work best on traditional desktop sites and may have limited effectiveness in mobile apps. But for common sites like YouTube on desktop, a good ad blocker can eliminate nearly all video and audio ads for an uninterrupted experience.

Mute Audio via Settings

An easy way to mute audio in Chrome is to toggle the ‘Mute sites’ setting. Here’s how:

1. Open Chrome and click on the three vertical dots in the top right corner to open the menu.

2. Select ‘Settings’ from the menu.

3. In the left sidebar, click on ‘Privacy and security’.

4. Under ‘Permissions’, click on ‘Site settings’.

5. Scroll down and click on ‘Sound’.

6. Under ‘Sound’, toggle the switch next to ‘Mute sites’ to the on position. This will mute all audio from sites in Chrome.

Toggling this setting is a quick way to globally mute audio from all sites in Chrome. You can toggle it on and off as needed.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Chrome provides handy keyboard shortcuts to quickly mute audio coming from tabs. Here are some of the most useful ones:

Ctrl+M (Windows/Linux) or Command+Shift+M (Mac) – Mute/unmute the current tab you have open.

Ctrl+L (Windows/Linux) or Command+Option+L (Mac) – Mute the current tab you have open. This keeps the tab muted even if you switch to another tab.
Alt+Shift+M – Mute all tabs except the current one.
Alt+Shift+N – Mute the current tab and unmute all other tabs.

Using these handy keyboard shortcuts can help you quickly mute audio coming from annoying ads, autoplaying videos, or tabs making unwanted noise. Muting tabs is an easy way to silence audio without fully closing the tab or website.

Troubleshooting

If you followed the steps to mute audio in Chrome but are still hearing sound, here are some troubleshooting tips:

Check for other open tabs that may be producing sound. Click through each tab and pause any media playing.

Do a hard refresh by pressing Ctrl + Shift + R (Windows/Linux) or Command + Shift + R (Mac). This will force Chrome to reload the page and may stop unwanted audio.
Try restarting the Chrome browser entirely to reset any audio issues.
Check your overall system volume and make sure Mute is not enabled.

Try testing audio on a different site to see if the muting issue only occurs on certain pages. Some sites may have coding issues that bypass mute settings.
Update your Chrome browser and audio drivers to the latest versions.
If the problem persists, reset Chrome to default settings by navigating to Settings > Advanced > Restore settings to their original defaults.

For additional help diagnosing Chrome audio issues, refer to the Chrome support page or contact customer support.

Conclusion

In summary, there are several ways to mute audio in Chrome:

Muting individual tabs is an easy way to silence audio from a specific webpage. Right click on the tab and select “Mute tab” to disable sound.

Muting entire websites through Chrome’s settings allows you to permanently mute audio from distracting sites. This persists across browsing sessions.

Using extensions like Smart Mute gives you advanced audio blocking capabilities, like whitelisting sites and automatically muting new tabs.

Disabling audio via Chrome flags or disabling sound entirely through Chrome’s settings are nuclear options when you want to mute all audio.

The key benefits of muting audio in Chrome are reducing distractions, avoiding obnoxious autoplaying media, and limiting audio tracking by websites. With Chrome’s robust mute controls, you can take back control of your audio environment while browsing the web.