Sea of thieves is lowering my microphone input volume

  • LaStar7043
    Rogue

    Hi there,

    I'm experiencing a very frustrating issue while playing Sea of Thieves on Windows 11.
    Every time I launch the game, my microphone input volume gets automatically reduced after a few minutes — even though I’ve explicitly disabled any automatic control settings in Windows. Here's the full context:

    • I manually set my input volume to 80 (out of 100) in Windows settings.
    • I join Discord and everything works fine at first.
    • After launching Sea of Thieves, within about 5 minutes, people in Discord start telling me they can't hear me anymore.
    • I check the mic settings again and see that the input volume has dropped to around 50.

    This happens consistently, and only while Sea of Thieves is running.
    What I’ve already tried:

    • In the Sound settings > Communications tab: I’ve selected “Do nothing”.
    • In the microphone device properties > Advanced tab: I’ve unchecked “Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device”.
    • I’ve tested with Discord only and others apps since at least 1 year, and the mic volume stays stable — the issue only happens when Sea of Thieves is launched.

    This seems to be caused directly by the game. I’ve seen a few posts online from other players experiencing similar problems. If anyone has a solution, I’d really appreciate it. Otherwise, I hope the dev team can take a look into this, as it makes in-game and external voice chat almost unusable.
    This is and old post about it, some are on Reddit:
    https://www.seaofthieves.com/fr/community/forums/topic/175946/auto-mic-volume-adjustments-since-the-newest-update/3
    https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/1ks02gv/windows_11_mic_volume_automatically_lowers_itself/
    https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/prxl6d/microphone_volume_keeps_auto_adjusting/
    https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/comments/1krzqds/mic_volume_automatically_lowers_when_talking

    I also sent a ticket to support but he is so meh that I don't have any clue to how to solve this.
    I just want to stop playing because my friends can't ear me, and it sucks in a communication game.

    Thanks in advance!

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  • BrachialDrop143
    Seafarer
    Insider

    having the same issue here I'm just looking around changing anything to do with audio

  • RealStyli
    Vanguard
    Insider

    I don't have this issue and can't test it, but this might help:

    Try installing VB-Audio VoiceMeeter Banana (it's free/donationware) and use that as an intermediate.

    Route your mic to In1, send it to B1 (virtual output). You may need to set the mic channel to mono if it only appears on one side of the stereo track.

    Go to Menu. Save settings file and set it to load that file on startup, as well as system tray and set to run on Windows startup.

    Then set VoiceMeeter Output as your Default Communication Device in the audio widget in Game Bar (Win+G) or within the Recording tab in the Sound Control Panel.

    My theory is that Sea of Thieves shouldn't be able to mess with the levels in VoiceMeeter. But you may still need to check it in the Sound Control Panel, to be sure.

    (VoiceMeeter is very useful for basic audio routing in Windows, so I highly recommend using it anyway. I use it for EQing/gating/limiting my mic, and having Discord audio separate from Windows, so I can apply a basic EQ to Discord. I also use it to swap stereo channels on only one physical output as I need them reversed for my setup.)

  • LaStar7043
    Rogue

    @realstyli I will not install another software to solve a problem which is probably not my fault. I'm playing a lot of games through years and I never encounter this issue other than on SoT. As exemple I'm playing Darktide, Bravery and Greed, Schedule I also in the moment and it all run good. If they have a problem with xbox game bar or anything it's up to them to solve the problem. Than can call me anytime to do tests with my setup if they want, but I refuse to workaround their problem from an ethical view.

    Thank you

  • RealStyli
    Vanguard
    Insider

    I've looked into this a bit and it seems to be a common bug on Windows 11, not just with Sea of Thieves. But it does tend to a problem you will notice if you play a Microsoft game, because they tend to make use of the Default Communication Device setting for gamechat.

    I don't have Windows 11, and this is just one of many issues why I am holding off on upgrading from Windows 10 until I have to, so I can't really test this.

    A few people have mentioned that uninstalling Microsoft Teams, even if you've never used it, can fix the problem. This would theoretically make sense, as Teams would make use of the same Default Communication Device setting and it could be a background process in Windows that's related to Teams. As it's a Microsoft product and recently replaced Skype, I would not be surprised if there are processes running automatically regardless if Teams is open or not.

    So, if you don't use or plan to use Microsoft Teams, you could try uninstalling it and seeing if that does fix the problem. Whether it does or not, let us know, as that could help folks in the future.

  • jc colding
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    Have the same problem.

    Tried going into control Panel under sound and remvoing access to override mic and headphones for all applications. No Dice.

    Getting really annoying

  • jc colding
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    @LaStar7043 are you playing through Steam or Xbox app?

    After playing the game on through Xbox app/ Microsoft Store, i no longer have the problem.

  • Kusi1981
    Master
    Insider

    I have this issue too... or had... never tested it after the renewing my PC with a fresh installation (not because of that issue) - but I raised a ticket with my exact type of mic I'm using.

  • RavenVaik
    Rogue
    Insider

    @realstyli I had the same problem as others here, but I tried your advice and it actually worked! Setting up VoiceMeeter Banana the way you described solved the issue completely. Thanks a lot for sharing this—it was a lifesaver!

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