If your Insignia TV’s sound won’t work, be sure to troubleshoot the following:
- Volume settings – see that it hasn’t been muted or turned down.
- Input source – make sure you’re using the right input for your Insignia TV.
- Sound system – your Insignia TV may be paired to external audio devices.
- HDMI cable – check if it’s loose, damaged, or otherwise compromised.
Alternatively, your TV’s lack of sound may be due to a simple glitch. Power cycle your unit to clear these bugs out, and if that fails consider factory resetting your Insignia TV outright.
Why Won’t My Insignia TV’s Sound Work?
Check Your Volume Settings
If your Insignia TV’s sound won’t work, the first thing to do is double check your volume settings. It may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how often people forget to check for this!
Make sure that the “Mute” option hasn’t mistakenly been toggled on your Insignia TV. When activated, this places a small speaker icon on your display. Thankfully, this icon will persist until the “Mute” setting gets disabled. It’s worth noting that some Insignia models will have the icon fade away after a short while, but those are pretty rare (and often limited to older units).
Once you’ve ruled that out, adjust your Insignia TV’s volume bar, as someone may have accidentally set it down to zero (usually by sitting on the remote!).
While both issues lead to your Insignia TV’s sound to stop working, they do it through different mechanisms – your Insignia TV could be muted and have it’s audio turned down to nothing, so be sure to tackle each cause independently while troubleshooting.
Ensure You’re Using the Right Input Source’s Audio
Your Insignia TV’s lack of audio may come down to it using the wrong input source. The problem could be due to your TV having the wrong input selected for use (i.e. using HDMI 3 instead of HDMI 2) or because you’ve got the wrong device’s HDMI cable connected to your Insignia unit.
The latter is more common for TV setups with more source devices than available HDMI inputs (i.e. if you’re using multiple streaming boxes like Firestick and Roku on your smart TV).
Users in these situation frequently need to swap which device is connected to their TV, and the occasional mix-up is to be expected – leading to your Insignia TV’s sound not working.
An Insignia TV that’s connected to the wrong source device won’t have a working display, as the HDMI cable is responsible for all data streamed to your TV. If only your Insignia TV’s audio won’t work – with everything else fully functional – feel free to skip this step.
Set Your Insignia TV To The Appropriate Sound System
There’s a chance that your Insignia TV has been set to use the wrong sound system, causing its audio playback issues. The chance of this increases if you’ve used third-party speakers with your home TV in the past – this includes Echo devices as well.
TVs default to using their internal speakers, but occasionally prioritize other output sources.
This only happens if said audio devices have been paired with your TV, and leads to instances where your Insignia TV sends the audio data to the wrong output device, making it seem like your Insignia TV’s sound system is malfunctioning. Most third-party speakers rely on wired connections or Bluetooth, but only function for a short while due to power constraints.
Unfortunately, wired speakers aren’t affected by that limitation – they can stay on and take pairing requests from your TV indefinitely while powered, even if they aren’t capable of playing audio.
You can avoid this by turning off Bluetooth on speakers in close proximity (within 30 feet) of your Insignia TV, though simply “forgetting” the old pairing should be sufficient.
For Alexa devices in particular, users could also opt to mute them manually – you’ll know you’ve done it properly if a red ring pops up on Alexa. Muted Echo dots can’t communicate with other smart home devices (outside of the Alexa app), preventing any third-party disruptions.
Test Your TV’s HDMI Cable
HDMI cables are responsible for transmitting data from your source device to your TV. Any damages incurred, however minor, could easily affect your TV’s stream quality. In extreme cases it can even outright disable key components like the video display and audio output!
Be sure to inspect your cable for knots and twists running down the wire – straighten out what you can. Any bends you can’t fix within thirty seconds is probably unsalvageable.
Patch up all cuts you spot with electric tape, as these will likely end up worsening over time and further stress. Don’t bother trying to fix long, vertical cuts or any damage that exposes inner wiring, as it stops being worth the risk to use that cable.
While shopping for a new cable, always carry your old HDMI cord with you! If you can’t bring it along, even a picture on your phone would help. This helps the employees in the retail store narrow down the best cable replacement from what they have in stock, saving you a ton of time.
Power Cycle Your Unit
On rare occasions, your Insignia TV’s lack of sound may be caused by random glitches and bugs. These are very difficult – if not impossible – to replicate under controlled conditions, making it hard to pinpoint a precise solution.
Instead, you’d be better of cold booting your Insignia TV to terminate all ongoing processes and wipe out irrelevant cache data. Doing this is as simple as unplugging your Insignia unit at home, waiting for about thirty seconds for the capacitors to discharge, then plugging it back in.
Factory Reset Your Insignia TV
If your Insignia TV’s sound still won’t work despite your best efforts, it may be worth contemplating a factory reset. A full factory reset basically resets your unit back to its out-of-the-box settings, deleting all of your apps, downloads, and even account credentials.
It can be done from your Insignia TV’s remote – simply follow the video below.
If you can’t get ahold of your device remote, or lack a working display (possibly due to constant restarts!), you can still factory reset your Insignia TV using its provided external buttons.
Factory resetting your TV should always be treated as a last resort, though it’s very effective at addressing the majority of software issues. Any problems that persist after this are likely rooted with your device’s hardware, and require professional tech support to settle.