audio not working on discord screen share
When audio is not working on Discord screen share, there are exactly 4 causes that account for nearly every reported case: the Share computer sound toggle is off, Discord is running the wrong audio subsystem, a Windows privacy permission silently blocked audio capture, or you're using a browser that physically can't pass system audio. You can rule out all 4 in under 5 minutes without reinstalling Discord.
Work through each fix below in order. Stop the moment your viewers hear sound again.
Why Discord screen share has no audio in the first place
Discord does not capture system audio by default. You have to opt in every time you start a share. That's an intentional design choice, not a bug, and it catches almost everyone at least once.
When you click screen share, a small preview window appears before you confirm. It has a Share computer sound toggle in the bottom-left corner. That toggle defaults to off. Miss it and your viewers see your screen in complete silence.
Beyond that toggle, Discord's audio engine uses the Windows Audio Session API, known as WASAPI. When Windows updates a driver or resets a privacy permission, WASAPI drops its connection to Discord. The app looks like it's streaming audio, but nothing reaches your viewers.
Browser Discord adds a third layer of restriction. Chrome and Edge only pass audio when you share a specific browser tab. Sharing a window or your full desktop through a browser produces no audio. That limit lives inside the browser itself, and no Discord setting overrides it.
Knowing which layer broke is the fastest path to the right fix.
Fix 1: turn on the Share computer sound toggle
This single missed toggle causes roughly 60% of all Discord screen share audio problems. The preview window is small and disappears the moment you confirm, so it's easy to overlook every time.
When the screen share dialog opens, find Share computer sound in the bottom-left corner of the preview pane. Enable it before you click Go Live or Share Screen.
Already sharing and your viewers hear nothing? Stop the share completely, flip the toggle on, then restart it. You can't enable it mid-session without stopping first.
On macOS, enabling this toggle for the first time prompts you to install a virtual audio driver. Complete that install before doing anything else. Without it, macOS blocks every app from capturing system audio at the OS level, and no Discord setting gets around that.
What the toggle actually does
Turning on Share computer sound tells Discord to open a secondary WASAPI loopback stream alongside your video capture. That loopback grabs whatever audio is playing through your output device and routes it to the voice channel. Without it, only your microphone feed goes out. Your viewers see your screen but hear nothing from it.
Fix 2: change the Discord audio subsystem setting
Discord gives you 3 audio subsystem options: Standard, Legacy, and Experimental. The wrong one silently kills screen share audio while leaving your microphone working perfectly. That combination is what makes it so hard to diagnose on your own.
How to change the audio subsystem
- Click the gear icon next to your username to open User Settings.
- Select Voice & Video from the left sidebar.
- Scroll down to the Audio Subsystem dropdown.
- Switch it to Legacy, then fully quit Discord and relaunch it.
Legacy uses an older WASAPI path that works with a wider range of Windows audio drivers, particularly on systems where drivers haven't been updated recently. If Legacy doesn't fix it, switch back to Standard. Only try Experimental as a last resort since it causes instability on many setups.
Check your output device while you're here
Scroll up to Output Device in the same Voice & Video panel. If it's set to Default and your PC has more than one audio output, Discord may be routing sound to an HDMI port or a secondary device with no speakers attached. Set it explicitly to your headphones or primary speakers rather than leaving it on Default.
Reset voice settings if nothing else works at this stage
At the very bottom of the Voice & Video panel is a Reset Voice Settings button. It wipes every custom audio configuration and returns Discord to factory defaults. This fixes corrupted settings that no individual toggle can undo. After resetting, re-enable Share computer sound and test again before changing anything else.
Fix 3: restore Windows permissions blocking Discord audio capture
Windows 10 and 11 control microphone access per app through a privacy setting. A Windows update can switch this off for Discord without any notification, and your screen share audio disappears along with it.
How to restore Discord's microphone access in Windows
- Open Settings and go to Privacy & Security, then click Microphone.
- Make sure the top-level Microphone access toggle is on.
- Scroll the app list and confirm Discord is individually enabled.
Restart Discord after making this change. Windows doesn't push permission updates to a running process, so the restart is required, not optional.
Run Discord as administrator
Some audio capture functions require elevated system privileges. Right-click the Discord shortcut and select Run as administrator. If screen share audio comes back immediately, make it permanent: right-click the shortcut, choose Properties, open the Compatibility tab, and check Run this program as an administrator.
Update or roll back your audio driver
A broken or half-updated Realtek, NVIDIA HD Audio, or Conexant driver can corrupt the WASAPI loopback stream Discord depends on. Open Device Manager, expand Sound, video and game controllers, right-click your audio device, and choose Update driver. If a recent Windows Update changed your driver version, use Roll Back Driver instead. Either action can restore the loopback path Discord needs.
Disable exclusive mode on your audio device
Some apps claim exclusive control of your audio device and lock out every other process, including Discord. Right-click the speaker icon in your taskbar and open Sound settings. Find your playback device, click Properties, then open the Advanced tab. Uncheck Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device. This frees your audio device to share access with Discord's loopback capture.