No sound in Da Vinci Resolve 16 and 16.1

Hello guys, i know it's a pretty common issue but none of the solutions i found on the web helped me at all, it never works so that's why i'm here. My problem is that i am unable to hear any sound from any of my footages when i open them on Resolve. I didn't have this problem at my beginnings on it but then i stopped working on my project for a few weeks and now i'm coming back at it and suddenly i can't hear anything anymore =/ I tried updating Resolve to the 16.1 before coming to the forums but it didn't do anything, so if you guys have any suggestion i would love to know about it.

Here's a screen of my preferences on audio settings, feel free to tell me if there's something off about it!


I can provide more screens if you want me to, please help me! D8

Is there anyobody that can at least try to help me? I realy have no clue of how to solve this issue and i just can't work with this.

Assuming Windows 10, right click the speaker icon in the system tray and select ‘Playback devices’ (or ‘Recording devices’), double-click the audio device, and change the sample rate to 48kHz in the ‘Advanced’ tab.

The Windows audio device driver settings should match Resolve's Timeline sample rate.

Is there anyobody that can at least try to help me? I realy have no clue of how to solve this issue and i just can't work with this.

If you can post your hardware setup including OS, processor, ram, video card, speaker setup, that would help.

If Windows has updated itself it may have reset your audio settings back to its default 44.1 khz, hence no playback. Check here.

Yeah sorry about the lack of information about my setup!

I'm on Windows 10, Processor AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Six-Core 3.20 GHz, 8 Go of Ram, i'm not sure about the video card, my graphic card is a NVDIA Geforce GTX 1050 tho.

I checked about the Audio settings and it was already in 24 bits 48k hz!

If anybody has a clue of what's going on, i'm still having the same issue and i can't use the software at all... I like it tho and i don't feel like trying to get another free editing software... I tried to uninstall it and install it again it didn't do anything, it was pretty obvious but it was worth a try.

Have you checked your Bus Format and the Patching? These are mine that work.

What are using for sound output? Do you have multiple possible outputs that you can switch between like maybe built-in speakers or another audio output?

Check this thread out: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=91583&hilit=+sound

Thanks for your reply, unfortunatly yes my settings are in the exact same state as yours, yet i still don't have sound.

Yeah sorry about the lack of information about my setup!

I'm on Windows 10, Processor AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Six-Core 3.20 GHz, 8 Go of Ram, i'm not sure about the video card, my graphic card is a NVDIA Geforce GTX 1050 tho.

I checked about the Audio settings and it was already in 24 bits 48k hz!

I don't have any additional ideas about your sound issue, but just for future reference, video card and graphics card are different names for the same thing. I am assuming you are getting sound playback in other applications.

Yeah i figured out that it was the same thing a few days after my post, i'm sorry, i'm a little baguette guy here and even if i'm proud of my english level, it's far from perfect!

And if i understood your last sentence correctly, yeah, i don't have any other sound issue in any other app, even if i mostly run games and Resolve is alsmot the only software i use except Discord maybe, but no other problem at all

Sorry guys i know i'm double posting a lot but i'm still facing that same situation, nothing has change since a few days, however, i've started wondering if the issue could come from this:



Because, thoses access path to thoses audios plugins, i can't find them on my computer. If i go to my program files folder, they are missing like this:





Do you see what i mean? No "Steinberg" or "VstPlugins" folder anywhere, could it be the source of my problem? At this point i'm pretty much trying everything...

What happens if you set your Speaker Configuration to "Use System Settings"?
Do you have multiple possible audio outputs in your system?

When i set it on "Use System Settings", nothing change.

Whatever i use, when i play some footage, there's no sound but it still show some volume level like this:



It's going up and down which show there's sound in the footage itself.

As a matter of outputs, i only have my headset and i'm using it all the time, i don't have anything else even if i do have another option on this:



If i switch to BenQ, there's just no sound at all on my computer so that's not realy an option. Feels like i'll never be able to get rid of this issue, it's frustrating.

Under the Resolve Audio preferences, can you change your Monitor Set under Speaker Setup to Main instead of Near? Also, can you drop down the menu for Device right under Monitor Set to see the list of devices?

I have been messing out with settings just in case, when i found this issue in the first place the setting was already in "MAIN"! It's back to "MAIN" but it dosn't change anything.

I can show you the drop down too but it is the exact same list as my previous screen:

Only a few more things that I can think to check, then I will be at a loss.
Can you post a screenshot of your Win10 Audio properties again, but show both windows?

I had this problem. The way I solved it was by going to the Fairlight tab, then selecting Fairlight on the menu bar. Then you need to select Patch Input / Output and make sure your main output is patched to your Windows speaker system.

See the attached clip.

As a newcomer to Davinci I got stuck on this one too. My I/O audio output source setting were set to System Settings and my monitor speakers - the speakers I use. When I changed to manual and selected the same speakers, however, I got my sound back. I hope this can be of some help - looks like a bug to me...

I FIXED IT !!! It happened to me and i almost give up. i followed all the guidance you all provide. and at the end its not the the software or the computer fault. it simply the file that i downloaded from facebook. i tried to edit a video my friend asked and she told me to download from facebook. its a MP4 file but for some reason the Davinci Resolve didnt want to playback the sound, just the video but strangely enough it could be play on VLC. after spending almost 2 hours i came across to put a different MP4 file . Voila .... it worked. so check your files if you happen to download it from somewhere, try to download it again of try to fix it before you load it to resolve. i hope this help

Having same issues. Usually use Premiere for editing and just tried da vinci. Da vinci keeps switching the sample rate to 44.1khz every time I open it and I cant seem to be able to switch it back to 48 khz in-program. It also doesnt release the sound driver after I quit out so I have to restart my computer or turn my Lynx Hilo (Soundcard) on and off to get sound working again. Tried all the things mentioned but none of it is working for me . I can still bounce material out and the sound works fine when play it in vlc. Da Vinvi recognises the device is there, I can choose it in the preferences. Also have levels coming through da vinci, but my sound card is just not getting any sound from da vinci. Seems like there is a bug or an incompatibility between my drivers and Da Vinci. Any updates from anyone?

For what it's worth, I came to this thread because I was not getting any sound in Resolve 16. I have figured out my problem, and it doesn't look to be related to the original post but might help others looking here.

I had installed a Intensity Pro 4K capture card. The main Preferences in Resolve, "Video and Audio I/O" for "capture and playback" has options of none and Intensity Pro 4K, with the card default checked. The Speaker Setup section is totally grayed out.

I hooked speakers to the "audio out" cables of the "breakout cable" and the sound played through them

I had this issue too...and was ripping my hair out trying to find a fix. It's weird...but here's a screenshot of how my settings looked when I found something that worked. Maybe it will work for you too.

Heres the workflow I used...
First: Davinci Resolve>Preferences>Video and Audio IO
Then: set "speaker configuration" to Manual
Then: choose the device you want to hear your audio from (in my case, my Logitech USB headset).
Then: In External monitor circuit choose "Control Room". It should look like this:

Screen Shot 2020-07-10 at 10.07.57 am.png (96.83 KiB) Viewed 50550 times

Then: Hit Save

Then go over to Fairlight: In the top bar open Fairlight>Patch input/output

then set window to this (I am using a Logitech USB headset. You will change the output to whatever your output device is called):

Screen Shot 2020-07-10 at 10.08.27 am.png (32 KiB) Viewed 50550 times

Then: Hit "Patch" and hopefully your audio will now play. Mine certainly is working now. Maybe this will help someone who has tried everything else!

SOLVED this way:
Win10 Pro, DR 16.2.4, multi monitor setup - one of them with speakers, HDMI connected.
DR Video and Audio I/O - speaker setup:
speaker configuration "use system setting" device showing Speakers(Realtek Audio) = NO sound!
speaker configuration "manual" device preselected was HDMI connected display, changed to Speakers(Realtek Audio) = sound OK!

This worked for me.

Honestly, this issue is driving me utterly bonkers.

I'm running Windows 10 on an AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, 16GB RAM, with a Realtek on-board sound-card (for want of a better description).

When I installed Resolve I had issues until I set the audio rate on the card to be 48000 24bit. Sound was then working and I was in business.

A few months later I'm coming back to it and trying to edit a new video, and I can't get the audio to work for love nor money. I spent several hours trying different settings in the audio preferences, making sure that the card is still set to 48000, disabling things like Steam's virtual soundcard that it uses for streaming audio to Steam Play (this system isn't dedicated video editing, I do sound and gaming too, hey ho). Nothing would work. Came back the next day, bam, it's working again no problem, no further changes made, it just mysteriously decided to cooperate. This was a few days ago.

Today I go back to editing again, and I have no sound again. I'd put the computer to sleep with Resolve open, and wasn't working on resume. So I did a cold boot, and sound came back. OK, fair's fair, not unexpected for things to go south when using sleep mode.

Now I'm back in to the same issue again. No matter what I try, no matter how many restarts I do, settings I play with, chickens I sacrifice, no sound do I hear. Fairlight settings are correct. My settings in Resolve are:



It's just extremely weird, and I have no idea what to do next. I can almost guarantee that the moment I hit post, switch this PC off, go for a vape and a fist shaking session at the Ancient Ones, and come back it'll suddenly decide to grace me with tickling my eardrums once more, but I can't really keep up this constant coin-flip situation as to whether I'll be able to work on a video or not. I don't exactly have free time in abundance as it is, and I do enjoy my hobby of randomly throwing together some silliness in video form, but now I'm spending all my free time trying to get Resolve working instead of actually being able to do any editing. Blergh!

Thanks in advance for any help that you can offer.

I had this problem. The way I solved it was by going to the Fairlight tab, then selecting Fairlight on the menu bar. Then you need to select Patch Input / Output and make sure your main output is patched to your Windows speaker system.

See the attached clip.

I updated my OS to Windows 2004 and lost sound upon re-entry to Resolve. This fixed it for me, thanks.

I also followed all of these suggestions and eventually got audio from files in the media pool but not my timeline. I tried to see if the timeline properties were strange and that is when I noticed the dropdown under the program/timeline monitor beside the audio monitor level. Mine was set to Ext 1 and when I changed it to Main 1, BOOM! Audio working. I'm not sure if this would have worked without changing the other settings that others have suggested but I don't think I would have gotten audio out without changing this one.

I now also have this same problem, other recording software works just fine, but here's the thing:
I dont even GET the display of main bus.
This is what these panels look for me:


Also: this happens with TWO separate USB interfaces, Scarlett Solo and Tascam US1x2

I'm also facing the same issue...

At the beginning of the year, I've downloaded Da Vinci Resolve 16 and started using it. After a month or so the sound stopped working. I tried everything that I've found on the internet, including the suggestions of this post, so I gave up and decided to wait until the new version of the program was released. However, once I downloaded Da Vinci Resolve 17, I found out that the problem keeps existing.

My computer specifications are:
Intel Core I5 - 7º Generation
8Gb Ram
NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
Windows 10 updated to version 20H2

And I use a Scarlett 2i2 as an audio interface.

I've already tried every sound specification that I'm able to, but following your instructions, I'm currently with 24 bits, 48khz studio quality. and on "Video and Audio I/O" I've already tried both System settings and manually assigning the output and using control room on te external monitor source setup.

Since I'm not being able to listen to the audio not even on the media playback, I'm not able to change settings on the fairlight tab. even though, I already tried to do so, and it did not worked.

Does anyone has any Idea on what can I do?

Thank you in advance for your assistance, I really want to be able to use this software again...

I dont even GET the display of main bus.

If the main bus is the only bus then you'll see no dropdown.

Does anyone has any Idea on what can I do?

Do your audio tracks have EQ, dynamics, plugins or anything like that applied? Is the audio coming through compound clips or anything like that before it gets to your timeline? In my experience, when these things are the case, the audio often doesn't start playing right away. It can take several seconds for it to kick in and sometimes it'll come on in only the L or R channel first and then cut back out and cut back in with both channels. Caching audio effects can help with this sometimes.

You might check the settings under Fairlight > Patch Input/Output... as well as the path settings on the main bus by clicking on its input button in Fairlight's mixer. I don't know too much about all that but those both appear to be places that control where the audio goes.

Assuming all other settings are correct, with the Fairlight page open, click on the Fairlight dropdown menu and select Patch Input/Output. It should look similar to the pic. Click on all to select them and click Patch. Now does the audio work?

I solved this via the "Patch/Unpatching", I just patched every input to an output until something worked. This is the one that worked in the end:

Fairlight tab > Fairlight menu item at the top > Patch Input/Output>

patching.PNG (11.43 KiB) Viewed 42227 times

Just click both boxes on the left, and all the boxes on the right. I had multiple items in the drop down, so this took about 10 different tries to get right.

So I have to post my solution on here because it was so stupid and specific to the laptop I was using. I am using an ASUS Strix ROG laptop. I had all of the issues you all have and after days of scouring the internet and trying every possible solution, I finally found someone with a Youtube video having the same issue on the same laptop as me! The problem on these laptops, is the sound enhancing program, Sonic Studio 3. I don't know why it is an issue, I don't care. But what I do know is that as soon as I went down to my task bar and exited the program altogether and restarted Davinci, BOOM I have sound!

The last post is the most valuable reply. I also spent half a day searching a solution and fund that comment at the end. It was my nephews MSI Laptop.
It seems all the Gaming laptop manufacturers need to bloat them with enhancement apps.
Click the small arrow in the task bar and right-click everything suspicious and close it.
Restart Resolve and test. If the sound works you need to prevent the cause from reappearing by deactivating the app in the taskmanager -> autostart
If you closed the wrong app and something stopped working on your system it will restart with the system again so no worries.

by default there is usually no need to go into the Fairlight Input/Output Patch settings, but when changing audio cards it may be necessary. I had a couple of problems in the recent months with no sound, now I know where to look when audio is not working. Thanks for the tip.

I know this is an old thread but I just wanted to confirm that my settings had been changed to 44,000kHz. I changed it back to 48,000kHz and got my sound back! In version 17.1, that is.

DV17 latest version as of this date. Here's a puzzle. No sound on these clips. I can put them in again they will work but I'll have to re-edit.

Here's the problem. No changes I make can make these work. All other clips work! But not showing these as even existing in Fairlight. So fairlight is the problem?

Mine only affects 5 tracks and 4 of them are on the same line. It just suddenly happened for not apparent reason. Also they are not showing up as even existing in fairlight. Bizarre programme, not worth using if it is going to do this to me. What's the solution to when some work and others don't? any ideas much appreciated.

How can it suddenly not be seen in fairlight? And how come all the other audios work? Bizarre.

First image is my edit timeline. Second is fairlight. As you can see they have vanished.

1.PNG (51.96 KiB) Viewed 20906 times

2.PNG (7.28 KiB) Viewed 20906 times

thank you, windows defult audio format was it, neeeded 48