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How can I change Firefox's playback device without closing/re-opening the program?

  • 2 replies
  • 4 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

Castochi
Castochi
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I have two playback devices in my computer, my headset, and my PC speakers. Sometimes I need to change which of these two devices will play sound, based on whether I am using my headset or not. I change which device is playing sound by right-clicking the speaker icon on my task bar and choosing the device I want to play sound on to "default".

Most programs, including iTunes, Google Chrome, most video games, even hated Internet Explorer are all able to play sound on whatever device is selected to "default", even if said programs were playing sound at the moment the default device was changed, and they can dynamically change output devices. Every program but Firefox. With Firefox, I have to close and re-open the browser, which is a small hassle, but a hassle nonetheless.

Is there a way to "fix" this? I've looked and saw no option in the browser, but perhaps an add-on/extension?

Thank you for your help.

I have two playback devices in my computer, my headset, and my PC speakers. Sometimes I need to change which of these two devices will play sound, based on whether I am using my headset or not. I change which device is playing sound by right-clicking the speaker icon on my task bar and choosing the device I want to play sound on to "default". Most programs, including iTunes, Google Chrome, most video games, even hated Internet Explorer are all able to play sound on whatever device is selected to "default", even if said programs were playing sound at the moment the default device was changed, and they can dynamically change output devices. Every program but Firefox. With Firefox, I have to close and re-open the browser, which is a small hassle, but a hassle nonetheless. Is there a way to "fix" this? I've looked and saw no option in the browser, but perhaps an add-on/extension? Thank you for your help.

All Replies (2)

the-edmeister
the-edmeister
  • Moderator
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Feel free to search for an add-on like that - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/ - I am not aware of an extension such as that.

I switch between the speakers and a headset so seldom that a restart button on a toolbar works fine for me. There are quite a few extensions that include a restart button as a feature and there's at least one extension that has just a restart button. AMO Search Results for "restart"

You may provide Feedback to Mozilla here - https://input.mozilla.org/en-US/feedback - to request that feature be added to Firefox in the future.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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You could use a second instance with its own profile folder in such a case and open the link in that instance.

See:

You can add -no-remote to the command line to open another Firefox instance with its own profile and run multiple Firefox instances simultaneously.