Skip to main content

🎙️ Disabling Exclusive Audio Mode in Windows

This guide will show you how to disable "Headset Advanced Exclusive Mode" in Windows. Disabling this feature can help to resolve audio switch issues and allow for simultaneous audio playback.

A
Written by Alexandra Nitu
Updated over 2 months ago

Symptoms:

  • No Audio / Input on a phone call even though the headset is listed in the Dialler Settings

  • Audio cuts out during a call while other applications are running in the background (Teams, Google Meet, Slack, etc..)

Windows 10

  1. Find the speaker icon in the system tray and right-click:

  2. Choose Open Sound Settings:

  3. Choose Device Properties:

  4. Choose Additional Device Properties:

  5. Finally, on the Speaker Properties Menu, choose the Advanced tab and then, under Exclusive Mode, ensure that both boxes are unchecked.

Windows 11

1.Right click on the speaker icon in the bottom-right corner of your display, then select Sound Settings.

2. Scroll down to Advanced and click on More Sound Settings.

3. A small popup menu will appear - Within the “Playback” tab double-click on the specified headset you are currently using/having the issue with.

Another pop-up menu will appear, navigate to the advanced tab and uncheck the setting “Allow application to take exclusive control of this device”.

Press “Apply” to save

Make sure both boxes are unchecked.

4. Repeat the same steps for the “Recording” tab (ie. your microphone) as shown in this screenshot.

Related Articles
'I can’t hear the other person and they can’t hear me when I get a call in Teams'
Did this answer your question?