RetroArch No Sound / Audio Not Working Fix

Go to Settings → Drivers → Audio Driver and try a different driver. On Windows, try wasapi first (best latency and compatibility), then xaudio, then dsound. On Linux, try alsa or pulse. On macOS, try coreaudio.

Important: after changing the audio driver you must fully quit and relaunch RetroArch — the change does not apply until restart. After relaunching, load a game and check for sound. A Windows update (especially Windows 11 23H2 or 24H2) can change the default audio API behavior and silently break an audio driver that previously worked — switching from WASAPI to XAudio or vice versa is usually the fastest fix.

Go to Settings → Audio and check the Audio Device field. If it is blank, or set to a device that no longer exists (a removed Bluetooth headset, an unplugged HDMI monitor), RetroArch may silently fall through to no output. Set it to Default or to your active output device by name.

Also check: Settings → Audio → Volume is not at 0. On Windows, right-click the speaker icon in the taskbar → Open Volume Mixer — RetroArch may appear there with its own per-application slider that is muted independently of the system volume. On Android, verify RetroArch is not muted in the system's app notification settings (Android 8+ allows per-app audio muting).

If you are using the WASAPI driver on Windows, go to Settings → Audio and find WASAPI Exclusive Mode. Exclusive mode locks the audio device away from all other applications. If another app (a browser, Discord, a game, a video player) already holds exclusive mode, RetroArch gets complete silence without showing any error.

Turn Exclusive Mode OFF (Shared mode) to allow RetroArch to coexist with other audio sources. If you have multiple audio outputs (speakers + HDMI + a headset simultaneously connected), also set Settings → Audio → Audio Device to explicitly name your active output rather than leaving it as "Default" — Windows's default device routing can send RetroArch to a monitor with no speakers.

Check two quick settings. First, Settings → Audio → Audio Synchronization — make sure it is ON. With sync off and a fast machine, RetroArch can drain the audio buffer faster than it fills, causing the driver to drop audio entirely rather than crackling. Second, Settings → Audio → Mute — this is a menu-accessible toggle (and can be bound to a hotkey) that many users accidentally enable. If it shows "ON", turn it OFF.

If only one game or one core is silent, check Quick Menu → Options while a game is running for per-core audio settings. mGBA has a "sample rate" option; PPSSPP has an audio backend toggle; some cores require a specific sample rate to match the system audio. Setting the core to match the system's 48000 Hz sample rate often resolves per-game silence that global driver changes did not fix.