windows Emby - Unable to persist volume

[Adorkable 9]

The latest version of the emby app for windows cannot remember the volume level, and each playback starts at 100% volume.

[softworkz 5066]

 

Did you switch the setting below to on? It must be off if you want to control volume in the app.

 

 

[Adorkable 9]

As the second picture shows, this option is off

[Adorkable 9]

The sound can be controlled normally. The problem I have is that when I set the sound to 50% , then go back to the home page and start playing again, the volume starts at 100%, Instead of 50% to start with.

The app did not persist to save my volume Settings

[Chillout 110]

I am having the same issue.

 

 

[softworkz 5066]

Fixed in the next update, thanks!

[softworkz 5066]

Fix is out now, inclluded in the latest Windows app (since 2.212.0).

Thanks a lot for reporting!

[no6mis 2]

Thank you for the fix!

However, it seems that the issue has not been fully resolved yet. While the volume is no longer reset to 100% after stopping and restarting a media file, it still gets set to 100% after restarting Emby. This is particularly unpleasant when using in-ear headphones and forgetting about it.

[Luke 42077]

21 hours ago, no6mis said:

Thank you for the fix!

However, it seems that the issue has not been fully resolved yet. While the volume is no longer reset to 100% after stopping and restarting a media file, it still gets set to 100% after restarting Emby. This is particularly unpleasant when using in-ear headphones and forgetting about it.

Hi, what version of the Emby windows app are you on now?

[no6mis 2]

3 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, what version of the Emby windows app are you on now?

2.219.2.0

[Laovn 3]

Can confirm the same behavior. On emby start it always switches to 100%.

[softworkz 5066]

On 2/28/2025 at 10:15 PM, no6mis said:

Thank you for the fix!

However, it seems that the issue has not been fully resolved yet. While the volume is no longer reset to 100% after stopping and restarting a media file, it still gets set to 100% after restarting Emby. This is particularly unpleasant when using in-ear headphones and forgetting about it.

On 3/12/2025 at 6:17 PM, Laovn said:

Can confirm the same behavior. On emby start it always switches to 100%.

 

This is the current and intended behavior. The reasons are:

• You achieve much better audio quality when app and Windows volume is at 100% and volume is reduced at the last element in the chain (amplifier, speakers..)
  When you have reduced volume in the Emby app at some point, you may have easily forgotten about it next time and turn up your amp to compensate, which is suboptimal to say the least
• When you have enabled bitstreaming for certain formats, these are not affected by the volume setting in Emby, so when you play one of those and one which isn't/can't be bitstreamed, you can get an extreme discrepancy betwen the different files you play
• The visibility of volume level is limited (unlike in VLC for example, where it's always clearly visible in the bottom-right corner) but it get's changed by quite a few interactions (sound mixer, remote control, multimedia keys on a keyboard, keyboard shortcuts in the app and UI elements in the app). In turn, it's something that easily gets forgotten when using the app at another time.

Starting with 100% again provides a clean state.  

When you are in a situation where the Emby app is unpleasantly loud at 100%, I would check the volume setting of other apps and increase it while decreasing the main volume setting instead. I might not always work out, though when another app is outputting at low levels only.

 

[Laovn 3]

2 hours ago, softworkz said:

 

This is the current and intended behavior. The reasons are:

• You achieve much better audio quality when app and Windows volume is at 100% and volume is reduced at the last element in the chain (amplifier, speakers..)
  When you have reduced volume in the Emby app at some point, you may have easily forgotten about it next time and turn up your amp to compensate, which is suboptimal to say the least
• When you have enabled bitstreaming for certain formats, these are not affected by the volume setting in Emby, so when you play one of those and one which isn't/can't be bitstreamed, you can get an extreme discrepancy betwen the different files you play
• The visibility of volume level is limited (unlike in VLC for example, where it's always clearly visible in the bottom-right corner) but it get's changed by quite a few interactions (sound mixer, remote control, multimedia keys on a keyboard, keyboard shortcuts in the app and UI elements in the app). In turn, it's something that easily gets forgotten when using the app at another time.

Starting with 100% again provides a clean state.  

When you are in a situation where the Emby app is unpleasantly loud at 100%, I would check the volume setting of other apps and increase it while decreasing the main volume setting instead. I might not always work out, though when another app is outputting at low levels only.

 

Sorry but this may only hold true for non PC apps but for pc it is plain wrong. You are assuming that there is a convenient way to manage your audio device volume in your audio device. But for windows most of the time their isn't and the best we have is windows volume mixer. For example a HDMI monitor playing the audio with built in speakers. No one in their right mind is going to open a monitor OSD to adjust the output volume just for EMBY or any other Windows app. Different programs play at different volumes so it is an industry standard to have a persistent volume setting for 95% of the programs that may need any kind of volume adjustment. That is why windows has sound mixer and why a persistent audio settings in every app are common industry practice. Name a single game that does not have its own persistent software sound setting.

Also to further complicate things Emby has more audio issues when combined with windows volume mixer. The audio set in volume mixer actually persists after restart while resetting the volume mixer slider back to 100 %. Meaning if you reduce EMBY app volume to 1% in volume mixer it will retain this 1% volume after app restart while resetting the volume slider back to 100% thus you cant hear anything but in-app sound is 100% and Volume mixer sound is also 100%. Moving the slider from 100% to 99% gives of an instant SPIKE in audio.

So please stop calling bugs as features. I am also a software developer and I know that it is the default excuse when there actually is a scenario where it might remotely make sense.

 

PS.: It is actually debatable even for non windows apps to keep anything at 100% in the audio source. 100% is the limit of what you device is capable of outputing and there is absolutely reason to have anything at 100% it does not effect digital audio in the slightest and analog audio will have much greater chance of getting distorted when close to any kind of audio devices limit. There is a possibility for a wave form losing details and flattening out if it can not reach its peak phase due to a hard limit of what the device is capable of outputting. 

Edited March 15, 2025 by Laovn

[softworkz 5066]

27 minutes ago, Laovn said:

So please stop calling bugs as features.

It was a deliberate decision and I explained the reasoning. That's all.

We can agree that it's complicated and individual situations are multifold, so I can of course imagine that it makes sense in some cases to have being persisted. 
We'll surely be able to provide an option to retain the volume across runs of the app. 

Thanks

Edited March 15, 2025 by softworkz

[Laovn 3]

19 hours ago, softworkz said:

It was a deliberate decision and I explained the reasoning. That's all.

We can agree that it's complicated and individual situations are multifold, so I can of course imagine that it makes sense in some cases to have being persisted. 
We'll surely be able to provide an option to retain the volume across runs of the app. 

Thanks

What about the windows volume mixer bug? 

 

19 hours ago, Laovn said:

The audio set in volume mixer actually persists after restart while resetting the volume mixer slider back to 100 %. Meaning if you reduce EMBY app volume to 1% in volume mixer it will retain this 1% volume after app restart while resetting the volume slider back to 100% thus you cant hear anything but in-app sound is 100% and Volume mixer sound is also 100%. Moving the slider from 100% to 99% gives of an instant SPIKE in audio.

Is this also a feature?

[softworkz 5066]

On 3/15/2025 at 10:54 PM, Laovn said:

On 3/15/2025 at 3:24 AM, Laovn said:

The audio set in volume mixer actually persists after restart while resetting the volume mixer slider back to 100 %. Meaning if you reduce EMBY app volume to 1% in volume mixer it will retain this 1% volume after app restart while resetting the volume slider back to 100% thus you cant hear anything but in-app sound is 100% and Volume mixer sound is also 100%. Moving the slider from 100% to 99% gives of an instant SPIKE in audio.

Is this also a feature?

 

You're the first one reporting this.

Is this about video or audio playback?

Do you mean the slider named "Emby"?

 

When I restart the app, that sllidet is always back to 100%. Do you get different results?

 

[softworkz 5066]

When I do a test with Windows Media Player, I get the same result:
 

SETUP

 

AFTER RESTART

 

 

Same like in case of Emby, the volume slider in the mixer is independent of the volume setting inside the app, but the mixer slider gets back to 100%.
(just that WMP remembers the in-app volume whiel Emby does not, as discussed above)

 

Do you see a different behavior on your machine?

[Laovn 3]

22 hours ago, softworkz said:

When I restart the app, that sllidet is always back to 100%. Do you get different results?

Yes it is always back to 100. But real volume stays at the previous set value. If I set it to 1% it will sound like 1% after restart but show up as 100%. 

[Laovn 3]

23 hours ago, softworkz said:

When I do a test with Windows Media Player, I get the same result:
 

SETUP

 

AFTER RESTART

 

 

Same like in case of Emby, the volume slider in the mixer is independent of the volume setting inside the app, but the mixer slider gets back to 100%.
(just that WMP remembers the in-app volume whiel Emby does not, as discussed above)

 

Do you see a different behavior on your machine?

I don't use windows media player. I use Media Player Classic (MPC). I see the same behavior it shows up as 100% after restart. However it also resets the volume back to 100% thus when you see 100% you get 100% there is no mismatch from what is displayed and the actual playback volume. Emby does not. It will play at the pre restart slider value while showing up as 100%.

PS: All these players have built in persistent volume sliders. Thus I never even though about playing with their volume mixer slider.

Edited March 19, 2025 by Laovn

[softworkz 5066]

1 minute ago, Laovn said:

Thus I never even though about playing with their volume mixer slider.

I don't quite understand - you were the one to bring this up...

 

2 minutes ago, Laovn said:

I don't use windows media player.

I mean to take it as a reference in terms of OS behavior.
Can youi please try that for comparison?

 

18 minutes ago, Laovn said:

Yes it is always back to 100. But real volume stays at the previous set value. If I set it to 1% it will sound like 1% after restart but show up as 100%. 

That's not what I'm seeing.  When I have 100% inside the Emby app and set 5% in the volume mixer,  after restarting the app, it plays at full volume again (=loud).

 

Are talking about video or audio playback? Which OS, which audio device, if it's about video playback, please post MPV logs from playback before-closing and playback after-restart.

Thanks

[Laovn 3]

58 minutes ago, softworkz said:

I don't quite understand - you were the one to bring this up...

I bought it up because Emby does not have a persistent slider. If it did this behavior would be irrelevant as you'd never go there.

59 minutes ago, softworkz said:

That's not what I'm seeing.  When I have 100% inside the Emby app and set 5% in the volume mixer,  after restarting the app, it plays at full volume again (=loud).

 

Are talking about video or audio playback? Which OS, which audio device, if it's about video playback, please post MPV logs from playback before-closing and playback after-restart.

Video playback.

Windows 11

How do I  access MPV logs?

1 hour ago, softworkz said:

I mean to take it as a reference in terms of OS behavior.
Can youi please try that for comparison?

Sorry but I don't have it installed.

[aeonsfury 1]

Hello,

Has there been any progress on keeping the volume persistent when reopening the app? It's the only reason I'm sticking to using theater along with a few friends as we really don't like having our ears blown out after launching the app every time....

[Luke 42077]

15 hours ago, aeonsfury said:

Hello,

Has there been any progress on keeping the volume persistent when reopening the app? It's the only reason I'm sticking to using theater along with a few friends as we really don't like having our ears blown out after launching the app every time....

HI, yes this is on our to do list. Thanks.