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How to Mute One Tab on Chromebook

Being able to mute tabs individually on your Chromebook can be very useful when you have multiple tabs open and want to silence audio from just one tab. Here are several methods to mute a single tab on a Chromebook.

Use the Mute Site Option

Chrome allows you to mute entire websites by default. While this mutes all tabs from that site, it can still be helpful to silence a noisy tab.

  1. Right-click on the tab you want to mute
  2. Select Mute site from the context menu
  3. To unmute, right-click the tab again and select Unmute site

All tabs from that site will be muted.

Install the Mute Tab Extension

To mute tabs individually regardless of the website, install the Mute Tab extension.

  1. Click Add to Chrome on the extension’s page
  2. Click Add extension
  3. Right-click the tab and select Mute tab

This will mute just that tab until you right-click and select Unmute tab.

Use Keyboard Shortcuts

You can also mute tabs using keyboard shortcuts with the Mute Tab Shortcuts extension:

  • Alt + Shift + M: Mute/Unmute current tab
  • Alt + Shift + N: Mute all tabs except the current one

Enable Tab Audio Muting Flag

Chrome used to have a flag to enable muting tabs directly, but it is no longer available. However, you can re-enable this hidden experimental feature to mute tabs again:

  1. Type chrome://flags in the address bar
  2. Search for “Enable tab audio muting”
  3. Set to Enabled
  4. Relaunch Chrome

You can now click the speaker icon on tabs to mute them.

Check Sound Settings

Make sure that:

  • The Chromebook volume is turned up and not muted
  • The correct audio output is selected in the system tray sound menu
  • Audio enhancing features like EQ are enabled if available

Troubleshooting Tips

  • Check if sound works on other browsers
  • Reopen the tab
  • Relaunch Chrome
  • Reset Chrome settings
  • Update the Chromebook OS
  • Try headphones or external speakers
  • Powerwash the Chromebook

Conclusion

Being able to mute noisy tabs individually is very useful for controlling audio on your Chromebook. By using extensions, keyboard shortcuts, flags, and settings adjustments you can mute single tabs rather than the whole site or device. Try out the different methods to find which option for muting one tab works best for your needs.

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