Sound became very quiet in some apps

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
1

Any ideas how to debug this or how to reset things that may cause this?

Several months ago some apps became very quiet. I think it happened after pairing via Bluetooth with an iPhone (to use the PC headphones/mic there). But it’s unpaired and removed now.

So far I reproduce this issue in these cases:

  • Skype: call (or “make a free test call” in settings). The ringtone work fine.
  • Bluetooth audio from my Android phone (Pixel 6a). At least the microphone recorder and calls. Youtube seems to work fine somehow, even though in both cases I see the same bluez_input in PulseAudio Volume Control and EasyEffects.

EndeavourOS (Arch), KDE, latest Pipewire, Wireplumber.

As suggested in the Arch wiki I checked volume in alsamixer → F6, but if I increase from 37 to 100 Skype becomes better but other apps/sounds become too loud, the volume in KDE becomes 100%.

Skype volume in KDE and pavucontrol is 100%.

1076×976 44.9 KB

763×705 43.4 KB

1434×146 19.8 KB

2

Looks like I fixed it by deleting some Wireplumber cache. :tada:

$ systemctl --user stop wireplumber
$ rm -rf ~/.local/state/wireplumber
$ systemctl --user start wireplumber

I have looked into this dir before, but thought that it cannot be related to the issue because in the restore-stream file all volumes were 1.0 and Skype is missing there (I guess Audio:media.role:Communication may be used for it).