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I run the Slack standalone application on an Ubuntu 16.04 machine which has two sound devices: the built-in sound, and a USB headset. I don't use a desktop environment, but I am running X and pulseaudio is running (as set up by default on Ubuntu).

I want all applications (Chrome, Slack, Skype, etc.) to use the USB headset for sound when it's plugged in. Until recently, this is the way it worked. I don't remember doing anything special to configure this. I just used the PulseAudio volume control application (pavucontrol) the first time (and only the first time) I used sound in the application: when the application appears in the “Playback” or “Recording” tab, switch it from “Built-in audio” to the USB headset, and the setting sticks for subsequent times.

Since a few days ago, this no longer works for Slack. Slack always the built-in audio even when the USB headset is plugged in. To use the headset for a Slack voice call, I need to wait until the call has started, then go to the “Playback” tab of PA Volume Control and switch the device (oddly, it also controls the recording direction).

I think the change happened when I upgraded from slack-desktop version 3.3.8 to 3.4.0. I use the package source https://packagecloud.io/slacktechnologies/slack/debian/ which is automatically set up by the slack-desktop package. The recent update to 4.0.0 didn't fix this.

How can I get Slack to always prefer the USB headset when it's present? I don't mind how it's done, but I want it to happen automatically. Losing audio for a few seconds at the beginning of a call while I fiddle with settings is not acceptable. And I want to keep using the standalone application for this, not a browser tab.

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4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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With Slack 4.0.0, during a call, I can access a settings screen where I can choose a different audio device, and this sticks to subsequent calls. At least if I don't restart Slack in between — I haven't tried that yet.

Notification pings still go to the wrong audio device.

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For me, using pavucontrol to explicitly disable the other output devices worked. Specifically, marking them as "off" in the Configuration tab, NOT muting them in the Output tab

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pavucontrol does not show (or allow control of) defaults for playback sink or recording source

but pasystray does show this in a GUI

or

  1. find out names of default sink/source with pactl info
  2. use pactl list sinks and pactl list sourceto find all names
  3. pactl set-default-sink <name> replace '' with name from 2
  4. pactl set-default-source <name> replace '' with name from 2

or

  1. use pactl list sinks and copy 'Name' for correct device
  2. Go to home folder Pulseaudio configuration files and open file with name ending 'default sink' in a text editor (example: nano ~/.config/pulse/*default-sink)
  3. paste name from 1 and save
  4. repeat 1-3 above for source

default sink/source will be ignored if user changed sink output/source input in pavucontrol.
If that happens, move/rename Pulseaudio database file in ~/.config/pulse/ ending with 'card-database.tdb'
New database file will be created next time Pulseaudio (or system) restarted

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Go to slack preferences, pick Audio & video. Select your preferred Microphone and Speaker. Close panel.

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