Screen recording no sound? Find the missing sound and fix it

Screen recording no sound? It is one of the most common recording problems, and one of the most frustrating, because you usually find out after the moment has passed. The good news is that it almost always comes down to a handful of settings, and a thirty-second test catches every one of them.

The trick is to stop asking "why is there no sound?" and ask a sharper question: which sound is missing? This guide walks through that question using Cheap Recorder, a recorder that runs in Google Chrome on Mac, Windows and Linux, but the same three sources apply to most browser recording.

Screen recording no sound: name the missing sound first

A browser recording can take sound from up to three places, and each has its own setting:

Your voice comes from the microphones you ticked.
The other people on a call come from the call's Chrome tab, shared with its sound.
Sound from what you are filming, such as a video playing in a tab, comes with the screen you picked, but only when Chrome shares that sound.

Play your recording back and note which of these you can hear. A recording with your voice but no call is a different problem from one with nothing at all. Then go to the matching check below.

Your voice is missing

Read the Microphone tile in Cheap Recorder. Its small line of text tells you the state:

"allow the microphone to record your voice" means Chrome has not been given access. Press Allow microphone and camera. If you blocked it earlier, allow the microphone again in Chrome's site settings for the page, then reload.
"no microphone found" means Chrome cannot see one. Plug it in and press Rescan.
"none selected" means every box is unticked.

Next, check the right microphone is ticked. Open Change or add microphones. A webcam, a monitor and a headset can each have their own microphone, and the one ticked may not be the one you speak into. The recorder remembers your choice in that browser, so this only needs fixing once.

Then start a short test. Each ticked microphone has a level bar that moves with its sound. If yours stays still while you talk, check the microphone's own mute switch and your computer's sound settings.

The other people on the call are missing

This is the classic half-recording: you can hear yourself perfectly and nobody else. The call's voices only reach the recording through the Call audio tile. Before the call, it should say "on" followed by the tab's name.

If it says "not captured", press Pick the call tab….
If it says "that tab had no audio", you shared a window or the whole screen, or left the tab-audio box unticked. Pick the call's tab from the tab list and tick Share tab audio.

Keep the call tab open for the whole recording; if it closes, Chrome stops sharing its sound. If the message "Meeting audio sharing stopped." appears, the tab's sharing ended and the other people are silent from that point. Picking the tab again does not add it to a recording already running, so stop and start a new recording. The step-by-step version is in Record a Google Meet call with both sides' voices.

The sound of a video or web page is missing

This one surprises people, because the picture is fine. It comes down to how you picked the screen:

To get the sound of a video or web page, choose A browser tab and tick the tab-audio option in Chrome's window.
When you share a window, Chrome does not hand over its sound.
On a Mac, a whole-screen share has no sound either.
Sound from other programs on your computer cannot be recorded this way, so play it in a Chrome tab if you can.

The sound is there, but wrong

Echo, or the call's voices twice. Wear headphones. If you ticked Record the microphone untouched under Options, echo correction is off, so untick it for calls. And if you filmed the call's tab with its tab audio and also picked it in Call audio, the voices go in twice: tick tab audio in one place only.
Your voice is very quiet, or pumps up and down. The usual processing includes volume correction. For a studio microphone, Record the microphone untouched gives you the plain signal instead.
Your voice sounds like an old phone line. A "Bluetooth microphone selected" warning on a Mac means the headset has switched to a low-quality mode. Use it to listen and a wired or USB microphone to speak.
A microphone's name followed by "dropped out". It disconnected, often a USB cable or a Bluetooth link, and its sound ends there. Reconnect it and start a new recording if you need it.

It is not the recording, it is the file

Two last cases look like missing sound but are not. A GIF is always silent, because GIF files cannot hold sound: choose MP4, MOV or WebM for video with sound (see Convert a recording). And if another app will not play a file from the Separate sources folder, that is because those files are WebM, which some players do not open. Use the MP4 beside that folder instead.

A worked example: the thirty-second test before a call

Say you are about to record a Google Meet call with a client, and you cannot ask them to repeat it. Five minutes before, you run a test:

Record. Join the call in a Chrome tab, set up Cheap Recorder as usual and record thirty seconds while you say a sentence and the other person says one back.
Listen. Press Stop and finish and play the test in the player on the page. You hear yourself clearly, but not the other person.
Name the missing sound. It is the other people on the call, so you look at the Call audio tile. It says "that tab had no audio": you had shared the Chrome window rather than the call's tab.
Fix it. Press Pick the call tab…, choose the Meet tab from the tab list and tick Share tab audio. The tile now says "on" followed by the tab's name.
Test again. Another thirty seconds, and both voices play back. Now you record the real call.

To check your microphone on its own, switch off Record my webcam and do not pick a screen: you get a small M4A audio file that tells you in seconds whether your voice is coming through. The full checklist is in No sound in your screen recording? What to check.

Frequently asked questions

Why can I hear myself but not the other people on the call?

The call's voices come only through the Call audio tile. Pick the call's tab, not a window, and tick Share tab audio.

Can I record the sound of a desktop app?

Not this way: sound from other programs on your computer cannot be recorded. Play it in a Chrome tab and share that tab with its audio if you can.

Why is my GIF silent?

GIF files cannot hold sound. Convert to MP4, MOV or WebM when you need video with sound.

Can I add the call's sound back after sharing stopped?

No. Picking the tab again does not add it to a recording already running, so stop and start a new recording.

Get started

The free plan needs no card. Try Cheap Recorder in Chrome, run the thirty-second test, and your next recording has every sound you meant it to have.