Musescore 4 often does not work with headphones without reboot
OS: Windows 10 Version 2009 or later, Arch.: x86_64, MuseScore Studio version (64-bit): 4.4.3-242971445, revision: eb6b367
When I go to open musescore after switching my default audio output to headphones, usually when I try to play back scores, the play head remains in the same position and never moves, and no audio is output. I saw other posts in the past asking people to restart the Windows Audio service to fix, but it doesn't work . Only rebooting my machine seems to solve the issue. To be clear, my headphones are always plugged in - I am not plugging them in and then encountering this issue, just changing my default output in Windows - with MuseScore closed.
Also, my profile on this forum says I'm banned despite me just making my account yesterday. I tried several times to activate my account with the email link, but after clicking it, nothing about my account changes and I'm still prompted to activate each time I go to Settings.
I saved a diagnostics zip when this issue was happening but I'm not sure if any developers are reading here for it to be useful or if there is another place to send the logs.
Comments
Your account on musescore.com is banned. Contact support@musescore.com about that
In reply to Your account on musescore… by Jojo-Schmitz
Will do, thanks.
It's also important to select your audio device in Edit>Preferences>Audio and Midi. Make sure it is changed to your headphones, and not default.
FWIW I've never heard of restarting any audio service. But it is good to know about. I switch audio devices now and then without issue.
But I think there are many odd things that come into play. For example: just now I opened MU4 and loaded a score. Then realized my headphones weren't plugged in. I plugged them in and made sure they were selected in Preferences. The score played just fine. I think it may have worked because I didn't try to play the score before plugging in the headphones. Who knows.
In reply to It's also important to… by bobjp
Thanks for your reply.
In my case, my headphones are always plugged in. I don't think I have unplugged them in the last 6 months at all. I also have MuseScore closed before switching my default audio device to headphones in Windows. So it's not that I'm trying to play the score, switching my audio device with MuseScore open, and then the problem happens, but rather as soon as I switch my output device to headphones in the OS, anytime I open MuseScore from then on, there will be no playback until I reboot.
I just reproduced the issue again and have tried to explicitly set the playback device to Headphones. That had no effect.
Interestingly, if I close MuseScore and set my output back to my speakers, then I can play back through speakers. But playing back through headphones seems like it only works if the system boots up with headphones as the default device or something, I have only gotten it to work with headphones a handful of times so I'm not sure of the exact steps
In reply to Thanks for your reply. In my… by cranberrysock
Interesting that there is no Buffer entry in your image. Might be part of the problem.
Even so, you speak of "switching my default audio device to headphones in Windows." Switching from what? Are your headphones plugged into your computer directly, or through an external audio device.
In reply to Interesting that there is no… by bobjp
The headphones are plugged directly into the computer in a headphone jack.
I use the Windows operating system control to change the default. It appears in the task bar. This is the only way I know of to change the default audio output device. It works for every other program.
In reply to Interesting that there is no… by bobjp
Also as far as the buffer size setting, whenever this issue happens, the buffer size setting becomes blank and no value from the dropdown can be selected. This does not happen when playing through my speakers
In reply to Also as far as the buffer… by cranberrysock
I've never had so many devices connected at once. So I decided to experiment.
I plugged in my headphones as usual.
I opened a score in MU4 and played it through the default headphones.
I then added two USB audio devices. one with speakers, and one with another set of headphones. So altogether, two sets of speakers and two headphones.
Here is what I did different from your method of switching devices. Open Control Panel and select Sound.
![sound.png]( "sound.png")
This shows all my devices. Here is what I did for each device.
Select the device. Select Set Default. Select Apply and OK.
In MuseScore Audio and Midi select the same device.
Play the score. It worked.
It worked for each device without a restart or reboot. This is new I think. It didn't used to work.
In reply to I've never had so many… by bobjp
That's interesting. I tried it just now and it did seem to work this time. I'll try this way in the future and see if it keeps working. I wonder why they're even different though. Thanks