Hello Brave Community,
I’m facing an audio issue specifically with YouTube when using the Brave browser on macOS, and I wanted to check if others are experiencing the same problem or if there is a known fix.
System details:
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Device: MacBook Air M4 (base variant)
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OS: macOS Tahoe 26.2 (latest stable release)
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Browser: Brave (latest version)
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Website affected: YouTube
Issue description:
Brave blocks YouTube ads perfectly, which works as expected. However, the audio output of YouTube videos is significantly lower in Brave compared to other browsers.
Even with:
…the audio remains noticeably quieter.
Comparison:
If I copy the exact same YouTube video link and play it in:
…the audio plays at a much higher and normal volume level. This issue appears to be isolated to Brave only.
Additional notes:
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This happens with all YouTube videos, not a specific channel or video.
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No third-party audio extensions are installed.
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macOS sound settings appear normal, and audio works correctly in other apps and browsers.
Has anyone else encountered this issue on macOS (especially on Apple Silicon / M4 devices)?
Could this be related to Brave’s shields, audio processing, or a macOS compatibility issue?
Any suggestions, workarounds, or confirmations would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
On Windows, if I don’t have this setting on, volume levels on YouTube are all over the place.
It’s a YouTube specific setting. See if this setting matches in Brave vs the other browsers since you ensured YouTube’s own volume is indeed up.
Sometimes YouTube exposes this setting too, but not on all videos (for some reason):
All of these do affect how you hear YouTube, as yes, if I turn these both off, videos get honestly rather quiet or inconsistent.
1 Like
Well,
I wish I could share a link or attach a video/photo showing the issue, but as a new user I’m restricted from uploading attachments.
If you’re a Mac user and running the same macOS version as I am, you can easily test this yourself. Just play the same video across different browsers and compare it with Brave - the difference in sound volume becomes quite noticeable.
For clarity, I tried keeping the settings identical everywhere. Stable Volume and Voice Boost were configured the same across all browsers, but none of those settings seem to improve the volume issue in Brave.
I’m not very familiar with the Brave experience on Windows, but I’m glad to hear it’s working well for you 
I used to work for Apple, quit around Mac OS X Mavericks. All I have today is a Tiger x86 VM for debugging purposes during the Intel transition which is hardly modern. 
I honestly can’t explain this because if YouTube’s volume is up, the only thing else I can think of in Mac OS is a per-app volume mixer, but that would affect more than just YouTube.
Honestly it sounds like something must be attenuating it before it reaches Core Audio if other websites play at the correct volume.
I’d temporarily create a new Brave profile as a test and see if YouTube works in that. If it does, then something in your profile specifically is causing it and then we’d need to chase the profile itself. I don’t think it is a Mac OS specific bug, not that I’d see since it’s website specific.
I think so too, but my gut feeling is that something is being restricted on YouTube’s end. Brave seems to handle browsing differently compared to other browsers, especially with YouTube. From what I’ve observed, the surround/stereo effect doesn’t work as well on Brave as it does on others. I even tried clearing the cache, restarting etc regular stuff…
Thanks for checking it out on your device as well – I really appreciate it.
No problem. That’s why I got a load of VM’s, you never know when a user comes around with an OS specific issue, and when I have spare time, it’s no trouble.
Hopefully a dev can chime in and see if they can replicate on their end.
