No audio when plugging external monitor through HDMI

Question

If I plug my external monitor through HDMI, I lose audio in my laptop. My external monitor doesn't have audio, so I want to keep the audio in the laptop's speakers. How can I do that?

Solution 1

Go to the sound menu at the top of the screen and click preferences. Alternatively, execute the command alsa-mixer. Under the output tab, see if there is an option in the dropdown for HDMI Output.

Solution 2

What worked for me was going to System Preferences > Sound > Output and choosing my headphones as the device for sound output.

Solution 3

On the volume icon on the desktop, there should be an icon of the external HDMI device. Press that and you should be able to disable that device for sound and it will automatically use the built in sound of your laptop.

Comments

[Elder Geek]

possible duplicate of Auto-switch audio to HDMI when HDMI monitor/receiver plugged into laptop

[719016]

I couldn't make it work. This must be a hardware issue.

[William]

Yep, guessing so.

[Lord Zsolt]

This worked, I had HDMI selected as output, instead of the internal speaker. (And my HDMI monitor doesn't have speakers)