Instagram videos no longer have audio enabled - but only when logged in. This is in Chrome (newest version) on Windows 11.
Other video sites (and all applications) play audio normally.
When I log out of Instagram and watch the same video, audio plays normally.
Clicking the unmute button does nothing as far as I can tell.
In Developer Mode, when I disable the DIV overlay and right-click the video to enable the control, the volume button is disabled which implies there is no audio with the video - but when I log out, the audio plays.
There is also no "audio playing" icon on the tab of the browser for Instagram.
In Developer Mode, when I disable the DIV overlay and right-click the video to enable the control, the volume button is disabled which implies there is no audio with the video - but when I log out, the audio plays.
I have uBlock Origin Lite, but I disabled it to test, no change.
The site has permission to play audio.
I have deleted all Instagram cookies and all cache data. As soon as I log back in, audio becomes unavailable.
A few weeks ago, audio worked normally.
The only event that might have something to do with this was when (in Incognito mode), I came across a site that popped up a fake virus alert with warning sounds and a monologue playing. Interestingly, I could not use my mouse or keyboard while this was going on - CTRL+SHIFT+ESC did nothing, Windows key, ALT-F4, CTRL+W - none of them worked. I know better than to click anything there, but since there was nothing I could do, So I forced my my computer to power down. A virus scan the next day showed no infection.
But it was only after this event that I noticed the audio issue. This could be coincidence as I had not browsed Instagram for a couple of weeks before, but I thought I'd mention it.
It's not likely to be a Windows or hardware issue since other applications and the rest of Chrome play audio normally.
But I'm wondering if a video/audio codec could have been corrupted.
Any ideas of where else I could look?
Thanks!
Updates:
- Incognito mode does the same thing - once I login, the audio gets disabled.
- Firefox also does the same thing - once I login, the audio gets disabled.
- I could not find any setting in Instagram that would allow me to make changes to audio.