FS2020 SU16.1: No ATC audio

User Support Hub ATC, Traffic & NAVAIDs
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ISSUE DESCRIPTION

ATC pilot and controller voices no longer coming through: Starting an IFR or VFR flight from a towered or non-towered airport, I can select ATC menu options as normal, but no voice audio comes through. Other sounds (eg cockpit and engine sounds) are working normally. This happens with both ‘Main device output selection’ and ‘communication device output selection’ set to ‘System’s default device’ and the ‘ATC Text-to-speech’ setting on ‘Azure’ or ‘Offline’.

FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

Every flight + every aircraft tested so far (both default + marketplace aircraft)

REPRODUCTION STEPS

Please list clear steps you took in order to help our test team reproduce the same issue:

  1. Start a flight in a default aircraft (eg Textron Cessan 172) at a parking spot (not active runway) at a towered airport for a cold-and-dark start, ideally with an IFR flight plan. It could be a smaller airport (NZQN) or a busy one (YSSY). Note that the same error can be observed when starting a ‘ready-for-takeoff’ flight on an active runway, but it is easier to demonstrate additional ATC messages appearing, including for AI traffic, after a cold-and-dark start where you are not obstructing the active runway.

  2. With the engine started, open the ATC window and select the clearance or tower frequency (if not already tuned)

  3. Wait for ATC messages to appear to/from AI traiffic, and/or manually select any option from the ATC menu

  4. Expected result: Audible pilot (or AI pilot) voice reading request with pilot message appearing in the scrolling ATC window followed by audible ATC controller response and controller text appearing in the scrolling ATC window.

  5. Actual result: Pilot (or AI pilot) and ATC controller messages appear instantly and simultaneously in the scrolling window, and no voices are heard.

YOUR SETTINGS

If the issue still occurs with no mods and add-ons, please continue to report your issue. If not, please move this post to the User Support Hub.

[What peripherals are you using, if relevant:]

Not relevant, but have Airbus sidestick, Saitex throttle quadrant, and Octavi IFR1 controller.

[PC Only] Are you using Developer Mode or have you made any changes to it?

No

[PC, MSFS 2020 Only] Are you using DX11 or DX12?

DX12 but also happens under DX11

[PC Only] What GPU (Graphics Card) do you use?

GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU

[PC Only] What other relevant PC specs can you share?

AMD Ryzen 5 5600H 3.30Ghz, 24GB RAM, Windows 11 24H2, “FS2020 - 40 year anniversary” installed via Microsoft Store.

MEDIA

*Please add a screenshot or video of the issue occurring.
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Update: I reverted from the SU 16.1 beta back to the current live release of SU16, including a restart of my computer, and I’m not getting ATC audio there either. So maybe it’s an error in a local file or configuration on my machine, or maybe it’s connected to the other outages occuring at the moment.

Is anybody in FS2020 (beta or otherwise) getting ATC voices as per normal? Is it just me and is it maybe time for a full reinstall? You can imagine I’d rather avoid that approach if possible.

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Install English (United States) language via Time&Language > Language & Region > add a language.

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Restart PC.

Launch MSFS 2020 - in Sound settings, change ATC text to speech from Azure to Offline, and save the changes - needed for testing purposes if there is any issue with communication between your PC and Microsoft services. So you are changing from Azure to Offline for testing purposes.

Apply and Save.

Go to the Assistance settings and make sure that in the Piloting section, “AI radio communications” is set to off.

Apply and Save.

In the User Experience section, make sure that ATC Voices is on; if not, turn it on and apply and save.

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No issue on my side in FS2020, ATC audio works for the pilot and controller.

Moved to User Support Hub > ATC, Traffic & NAVAIDs since cannot replicate at that point.

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Hi @TenPatrol. Thank you VERY much for the detailed instructions. I’m not sure how or when, but my ‘ATC Voices’ option under ‘User Experience’ was set to ‘OFF’ so that was probably the main culprit. I don’t recall ever changing the option here, and didn’t even realise it was there.

The one other item I didn’t already have installed was the ‘Enhanced speech recognition’ module. This was never a problem for me but I had also never tried or had to use ‘offline’ voices. Trying it without the module didn’t produce any ‘offline’ voices. Even after installing that module, ‘offline’ voices still wouldn’t work. But a full restart thankfully fixed that.

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With offline voices now working, and a steady stream of audible pilot and ATC commands coming through again, I switched the ‘ATC Text-to-speech’ option back to ‘Azure’ and voice readback is working again with the Azure voices.

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I’m glad my screenshot pointed out that I have the Enhanced speech recognition installed and you don’t - that’s exactly why I made the screenshot, so users could compare their settings with mine.