“The device is being used by another application. Please close any devices that are playing audio to this device and then try again” This problem can be caused by a few things. The first thing is a faulty driver. In fact, a lot of cases were solved by rolling back to a previous driver. In other cases, updating the drivers solved the issue as well. Another reason might simply be the one presented in the error message i.e. caused by another application using the audio device. But, no matter what is causing this issue, it can be solved within a few minutes. There are a few things that can be done to rectify this problem. Simply follow the methods given below.
Tip
Before doing anything else, you might want to use the built-in troubleshooter that Microsoft provides. It might solve the issue. It doesn’t take a lot of time so there’s no harm in trying. Here are the steps to troubleshooting your sound problem
Hold Windows key and press RType control.exe /name Microsoft.Troubleshooting and press EnterClick Hardware and SoundClick Playing AudioClick NextWait for it to scan. It will ask you to select the device that is causing the issue. So select the one that needs troubleshooting and click NextNow follow any additional on-screen instructions. If there are any settings that can be changed then the troubleshooter will pin point those settings.
Method 1: Allow applications to take exclusive control Option
If you are seeing this error message then the first thing that you should do is to do what the error message is telling you. The error message clearly tells you that the device is being used by another application. So, simply closing other applications that might be using sound and turning off the option that allows other applications to take control of your device should solve the issue. And, it actually does solve the problem for a lot of users. First, you need to look at the applications that are using the audio device. Next, you need to close those applications. Lastly, you should turn off the option that allows other application to take control of the device. So, here are the steps for doing all of these tasks
Now, check if the problem is solved or not.
Method 2: Restart Audio Service
Sometimes, simply restarting the Audio Service of the Windows will solve the issue for you.
Now check if the issue is solved or not.
Method 3: Roll Back Drivers
If you recently installed an updated sound drivers then that might be the culprit behind this. It isn’t uncommon that a newly released driver has a bug or compatibility issue that causes the device to misbehave. So, rolling back to the previous version will solve the issue.
If you reverted back to the previous version, restart the computer once the process is done and check if the problem is solved or not.
Method 4: Uninstall Windows Update
Note: You should follow this step if you suspect that the problem is caused by a Windows update. If you haven’t updated your Windows for quite some time and the problem just recently started then there is no point in uninstalling the updates. Skip this method. A lot of the times, your drivers might be updated via a Windows Update or a Windows Update might be causing this issue. If you recently installed a Windows Update then there’s a high chance that the issue will be solved by uninstalling that specific Windows Update. The update we are looking for is the Windows update KB2962407. If you have that then uninstall this Windows update and everything should be fine. If this isn’t an update you recently installed, uninstalling the ones that you just recently installed isn’t a bad idea if you are trying to troubleshoot the issue. Note: Keep in mind that we don’t recommend uninstalling Windows Updates or not updating your Windows for this reason. If uninstalling the update solves the issue then you should wait for the next update. Microsoft does a great job at continuously releasing updates. So, hopefully, the problem will be solved in the next few updates. Follow the steps given below to uninstall the installed updates
Once done, restart your system and check if the problem is solved.
Method 5: Install Windows Native Audio Drivers
If the problem is still there then it’s time to switch to the Windows own audio drivers. The good thing about Windows is that it comes with its native drivers. And, most of the time, they work pretty well mainly because they are the most compatible ones. If nothing else is working then switching to the Windows native audio drivers isn’t a bad thing.
Once done, restart your computer and check if the problem is solved or not. This should definitely solve the problem if nothing else worked. Note: If you want to go back to your audio device drivers then simply follow steps 1-7. On step 8, select your audio device drivers and click Next. Simple as that.
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