This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Audio plays only on left channel

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by NaskyG

NaskyG
NaskyG
more options

While YouTube videos work fine, with audio coming out both the left and right channels, I've experienced problems with other websites where the audio will only come out of the left channel.

I've encountered this issue with education modules from Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) and from American Society of Clinical Pathology (ASCP), where the lecturer can only be heard through the left channel (very annoying).

The educational modules from OHSU have the option of using Adobe Flash or HTML5 (same issue with either one). I cannot find any sound settings that might help.

I would also like to point out that this is not a system settings issue, since I don't have this issue on Chrome, Internet Explorer, or Edge. I'm in the process of switching to Firefox (I really like your product's take on privacy and security), but quality of life issues such as these make adoption difficult. I may revert to Chrome.

While YouTube videos work fine, with audio coming out both the left and right channels, I've experienced problems with other websites where the audio will only come out of the left channel. I've encountered this issue with education modules from Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) and from American Society of Clinical Pathology (ASCP), where the lecturer can only be heard through the left channel (very annoying). The educational modules from OHSU have the option of using Adobe Flash or HTML5 (same issue with either one). I cannot find any sound settings that might help. I would also like to point out that this is not a system settings issue, since I don't have this issue on Chrome, Internet Explorer, or Edge. I'm in the process of switching to Firefox (I really like your product's take on privacy and security), but quality of life issues such as these make adoption difficult. I may revert to Chrome.

All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

This can possibly happens if there is only one mono audio channel coded. You can try to modify this pref on the about:config page.

  • media.forcestereo.enabled = true

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I accept the risk!" to continue.

NaskyG
NaskyG Question owner
more options

Unfortunately, that did not solve my issue. I have read around different forums, and this seems to be a problem since version 3, and it doesn't affect everyone.

Of note, I am using the Logitech G930 headset, which is recognized as a 7.1 surround system by Windows (thanks to the Logitech software). I had read (and I don't have the reference right now) that Firefox has this issue of playing mono tracks only through the left channel when the system assigns the audio stream to the center channel. Again, can't really confirm that this is the specific reason for the audio coming out the left channel only, but after testing a normal, plug-in, stereo headset, I *can* say that the audio came out through both the right and left channels.

Like I said, this seems to be a long-standing issue, related to specific hardware and audio configurations. What's weird is that other browsers are not plagued by this.