Can't hear shared music while in Zoom meeting / my own background music becomes distorted

[gamer6049]

Hello, I recently bought a new Dell G15. I play weekly Dungeons and Dragons via Zoom where the host shares music with us. I can hear everyone speaking, but cannot hear the music. Everyone else can hear the music perfectly. I can only hear their voices. Someone other than host tried sharing music. Everyone else could hear it except me. I can hear my friends voices perfectly fine. It is as though some setting is automatically muting the music.

This happens when I use the base speakers and microphone on the laptop, or when I use a Snowball external microphone and headphones, or when I use airpods. Any combination of base system, headphones, external microphone, I can hear my friends' voices but cannot hear the music. 

Yes, I have made sure to select the correct output speaker and input headphones, in both desktop client settings and in the actual meetings. No combination of selected speaker (Speakers Realtek Audio, Same as System Speakers Realtek Audio, or Headphones) and selected Microphone (Microphone Array AMD Audio Device, Same as System Microphone Array AMD Audio Device, or Blue Snowball) allows me to hear the shared music. SOMETIMES I hear it for a moment when I connect. Then it is automatically muted by something.

Yes, I have set Audio Profile -> Background noise suppression to "low".

To be clear, I am not trying to share my audio. I cannot hear when others share music. I can hear their voices, but not the music.

Surely there is some setting that is automatically detecting and muting the music? Does anyone with a Dell G15 have issues with music on zoom? In System -> Sound -> Volume Mixer I also select the correct output device (Headphones usually) and input device (external Snowball microphone usually). 

Also important is, when I play my OWN music on my laptop while in a Zoom meeting, it is garbled and choppy and extremely distorted. For example, trying to play Spotify or Youtube through my headphones to create my own background music for the Dungeons and Dragons. I can barely hear it even when I mess around with app volumes in the Volume Mixer. This only happens while in a Zoom Meeting. 

Thanks for the read and for any help. I am at a loss. Clearly I am missing some Zoom or Dell AI-noise cancelling setting. The speakers and headset both work fine for music, video games, everything else. Just can't hear shared music or play my own background music while in a Zoom meeting.

[susan1025]

I have an old Toshiba (went from Win 7 to Win 10) that works fine with zoom.  I purchased a new 17" LG Gram Win 11, was all ready to teach my dance class and NOTHING!!!  no one could hear the music.  I set it up with exact settings from the settings from the Toshiba laptop.  I'm taking the LG laptop back today and will take more time to shop for a new computer that will work with Zoom if that's possible.  Any suggestions for computers on the market that doesn't have the noise cancellation "BUG" in it or at least one that has a workaround for a non-techy person like me?

[IsabelQuintana]

I have a Dell laptop. When I upgraded to Windows 11, I lost the ability to hear "shared sound." So I could hear someone talk during a zoom meeting but I couldn't hear any shared music. I did the steps below and it worked for me:

From the “search box” in the toolbar near the windows key, find the “Dell optimizer” à choose “Audio” à Turn off/disable the feature “Remove other’s background noise.” Then restart the computer.

Hope this helps.

[CarlaPortugal]

Hi! You need to check your device's setting. Turn "mono audio".

[ITBoy]

Hi,

It is a Windows 11 issue, Microsoft will need to fix it, I have just purchased a new Acer Aspire 3 A315 laptop, I get exactly the same problem you describe here, when I use Windows 10 the problem goes away.