No sound for apps on ubuntu machine

Question

Yesterday, all application sounds for one of my user account stopped. I still get the startup sound for that account and on the other user accounts the sound works OK. It's obvious that it's not the hardware.

I am using the Mint desktop. I checked to see if the sound volume was turned down and it is at 100%. I also checked to see if the sound was muted, it's not muted. I checked under system /preferences / sound and everything seems to be OK. When I tested the speakers using the sound utility I do get sounds. Since I get the startup sound, the speakers work when tested (using the affected user account, and the other user accounts work fine.

Only the applications (Firefox, VLC, etc.) seem affected. I checked the applications but I doubt it is an application setting because all applications are affected. Any suggestions on where else to look?

Answer 1

Check you still have the correct output device selected in sound settings, I managed to change mine somehow once and it confused me for a few hours!! Gotta be worth a look!

Answer 2

If you open pavucontrol you can watch what sound output is being used at the time. If it is not correct, then switch the output to whatever device you chose. Hope this helps.