Firefox Will Not Switch to Headset While Open on Ubuntu

With the pandemic, I'm spending a lot more time in Zoom and watching virtual public meetings on Youtube. To prevent feedback, it is important to switch from speakers to a headset whenever I unmute my microphone, but Firefox has had problems with this. Today, I finally found the solution.

  1. Open Ubuntu settings
  2. Go to Sound
  3. Select the “Output” tab and switch to headset as shown in Figure 1
  4. Select the “” tab and scroll to Firefox and turn the sound off and then back on, as shown in Figure 2.

Zoom has an easy device selection tool as part of the audio mute button in the lower left corner, but it does not generally take effect immediately. Usually it will take effect when you toggle the mute button. If that does not work, try following the procedure for changing devices in Firefix, and toggle the Zoom application as shown at the bottom of Figure 3.

Figure 1. Change the System Sound Device to Headset
Change the sound device for Firefox on Ubuntu using System Settings
Figure 2. Toggle the Firefox application use of sound device off and then back on
Toggle the Firefox use of sound devices off and then back on to switch to headset
Figure 3. Toggle the Zoom application use of sound device off and then back on
Toggle the Zoom use of sound devices off and then back on to switch to headset