How to Use pavucontrol in Hyprland

Before you start

pavucontrol is a graphical mixer for PipeWire or PulseAudio. In Hyprland it runs as a local desktop application, so no separate audio server needs to be started by hand. Install pavucontrol with your distribution package manager if it is not already present. The application should appear in your launcher as PulseAudio Volume Control or pavucontrol. Since Hyprland is a Wayland compositor, make sure PipeWire and a Wayland-compatible session portal such as xdg-desktop-portal are installed when camera or screen-capture audio routing is involved.

Step-by-step instructions

1) Open your launcher and start pavucontrol. You can also run pavucontrol from a terminal.

2) Go to the Output Devices tab. Check that the expected speakers, headphones, or HDMI output is shown. If multiple profiles are available, one may be marked as unavailable until a device is plugged in or a display connection is detected.

3) Click the green check button next to the device you want to set as the default fallback output. This is useful when Hyprland starts an application before you have chosen the preferred device.

4) Open the Recording tab before starting a call or recording app. Select the microphone or capture source intended for that application. In some setups, camera microphones and monitor audio appear here as separate entries.

5) Start the application that will use the microphone, camera audio, or screen capture. Return to pavucontrol while the application is running, then use the Recording or Playback tab to assign that specific stream to the desired source or output.

6) Adjust the per-application volume in the Playback or Recording tab. This change applies to the active stream and keeps the system output level separate. If an application does not appear, start audio playback or recording first, then refresh the pavucontrol window.

Check the output

Use the VU meter inside pavucontrol to confirm that a stream is active. Play audio in a media player and watch the meter move in the Playback tab. For a microphone, speak while checking the meter in the Recording tab. Both meters reflect current levels; they do not guarantee that another application receives exactly the same processed signal, since application-specific echo cancellation or noise suppression may alter it. The Output Devices tab also shows which port is active, such as speakers or headphones, when the hardware reports port state.

Common problems and next steps

If no devices appear, confirm that PipeWire or PulseAudio is running and that the user session has access to the audio service. Starting pavucontrol from a terminal may show service connection errors that the graphical window does not display.

When a browser or conferencing app cannot see a device, check the portal permissions for the application. Camera and screen-capture streams are controlled by the session portal, while pavucontrol may show only an empty or inactive capture entry until permission is granted.

If an app keeps returning to the wrong output, set the fallback device in the Output Devices tab and restart the app. Some applications remember their own device choice and ignore the system fallback until their settings are changed.

Distorted or delayed capture audio is often caused by picking a monitor source by mistake. In the Recording tab, choose the microphone device directly instead of a monitor of the output unless screen audio is required. If the desired device is missing, check whether it is muted or disabled in the Configuration tab.