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How To Fix Bluetooth Audio In Chrome Browser

Chrome is a web browser at its core but as a browser, it ens up running versatile apps from spreadsheets and word processors to media players. It’s well equipped to handle all this in most cases but you will find it is lacking when it comes to playing audio through a Bluetooth device. If you’re using a pair of Bluetooth headsets or speakers to listen to something on YouTube in Chrome, you will find the sound isn’t quite right. Some users might not hear sound at all. In either case, you can fix Bluetooth audio in Chrome by disabling Flash.

Prechecks

Make sure audio is working correctly on your desktop, and in Chrome. Connect a wired set of headphones and check the audio quality. If there’s a problem there, then it’s with sound on your system and not necessarily a Bluetooth problem.

You should also check sound quality in other apps using your Bluetooth headsets. If Chrome is the only app where the sound is distorted, or doesn’t play then this solution ought to fix it.

Disable Flash

Flash may be dying but it isn’t dead yet and while Chrome doesn’t allow it to run by default, the plugin is still there in your browser. Chrome uses a version of Flash called Pepper Flash and it doesn’t seem to play nice with Bluetooth audio.

Open Chrome and type the following in the address bar;

chrome://settings/content/flash

Here, turn the on the switch that you see and then play audio in Chrome. Restart Chrome, and disconnect and reconnect your Bluetooth device to see if the problem has been fixed or not.

If it persists, you need to add the website you’re playing audio from to the Flash block list. Return the settings page mentioned earlier and click Add next to the Block section. Paste the URL of the website you’re playing audio on and you’re done. For good measure, restart Chrome. Disconnect and reconnect your Bluetooth device and then play audio.

You will observe a noticeable improvement in sound quality.

Limitations

Bluetooth audio also depends, to some extent on the quality of your headphones. With expensive and/or high quality headsets, the sound will be better even if it isn’t the same as the sound you get from a wired audio device. Lower quality Bluetooth headphones may not play well with desktops and hence there is likely to be some compromise over the sound quality in Chrome.

If the website you’re listening to relies on Flash, you will not be able to use it. Either that or you’re going to have to make-do with the bad audio quality.

15 Comments

  1. In most of Linux distributions the mixer or sound preferences doesn’t allow to choose per application audio device. But, today, most of distributions are using PulseAudio as abstraction audio layer. So PulseAudio has such feature indeed. In my Ubuntu I have installed “pavucontrol” (sudo apt install pavucontrol).

    Open pavucontrol -> Choose the first tab named “Playback” -> It lists all applications using audio, Google Chrome is there using “default/builtin audio” device and you can change it for your bluetooth device easily!

    Finally!

  2. In my case there was another device connected to the same speaker, which was sending some kind of signal and blocking the second device from connecting.

    Make sure no other devices are connected to the same speaker!

  3. i have disabled flash in chrome as you suggested but it didn’t worked for me then i download Adobe flash player then the Audio came back on Chrome.

  4. Goto Sound settings —- Advanced Sound Option—App volume and Device preferences.— Set Bluetooth audio as default for Chrome.

  5. Chrome wont play audio on my Bluetooth speaker. VLC has an option to choose a sound output…but YouTube/Netflix cant be played on it.
    I was stuck with this issue for 3 days and went through multiple forums and tried out all the options…checking Drivers, Reinstalling and pairing Bluetooth device…. but nothing worked.
    Today I was tinkering with the device options and found a quick fix.
    Hope it works for you too. Let me know. Good Luck!

    Right Click on the Speaker icon in the system tray > Choose Playback devices
    You will see 3 devices if you are connected to the Bluetooth speaker
    Click on the Bluetooth speaker option and Click Set Default (or choose Default Device from the drop down)
    Test your audio output from Chrome browser.
    Hope it worked, Let me know.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ca62fba4ea4e3f6eb876f57ad0a018e3cc1815b8c8e3a5a7df286d8f0e747cbb.png