Volume decreases on Google Chrome when I switch tabs

Question

When I have Spotify running or a Youtube video playing on a different tab, Google Chrome automatically decreases the volume to a very low level. There is no change in the volume mixer, but it is a very distinct change.

This happens when I alt-tab, ctrl-tab or leave the page or tab that has a running sound. There was no problem like this in the past and I can't find any solutions regarding this issue. It would be nice if there was a way to fix this because it is very annoying to not be able to switch tabs without the volume going down.

Solution

I hope the OP had solution so far and went with the life happily. I had this problem in my win10 laptop. i found the exact solution and explanation here.

The solution given on that link from google forum worked for me. I am posting this if somebody has same problem with win 10 it works. The problem is due to adoble flash plugin. Somehow when you open chrome, where flash plug in is playing audio/video windows detects that call is being made and changes the volume.

from above link:

I was having the same issue, found it to be a windows 7 thing found the answer on an adobe forum, apparently something they changed in flash is causing windows 7 to act and detect it as phone call being made on the computer. Hope this helps.

In Windows 7, if you go to CONTROL PANEL and then select SOUND, there is a tab called COMMUNICATION. In that tab it says "when windows detects communications activity: " then you have for options the default is "reduce the volume of other sounds by 80%" change that to "DO NOTHING" and it will work.

Thanks.

Comments

[David Richerby]

Are you sure? I tried enabling that setting and it didn't cause the problem described in the question (Chrome 44.0.2403.125 m on Windows 7 Pro SP1).