ValveSoftware
Steam resets user selected audio device
Your system information
- Steam client version (build number or date): Steam Deck Stable, April 3, 2025
- Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): ChimeraOS 48
- Opted into Steam client beta?: No
- Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
- GPU: AMD
Steps for reproducing this issue:
- Start Steam in Steam Deck mode (e.g. in SteamOS, ChimeraOS, Bazzite, or a similar distro) on a system with multiple audio output devices
- In the Steam audio settings, change the audio output device
- Restart the computer
- Check the Steam audio settings and observe that the audio output device was reset
Using strace, it is observable that Steam is calling the following command: [pid 321547] execve("/usr/bin/wpctl", ["wpctl", "clear-default", "1"]
This issue was introduced many months ago, but it was not clear what the culprit was. This is causing a lot of grief for users of SteamOS-like distros.
It has been reported to me by some users (but I have not verified myself) that this also affects SteamOS on the Steam Deck when docked and/or using external audio devices.
Additional notes:
Happens specifically when steam is launched with -steamos3 option
I worked around this in ChimeraOS by using a wrapper around wpctl: https://github.com/ChimeraOS/chimeraos/commit/671bf89f3197cff49c7a489cfcc7999d46a45205
Ideally, it would be fixed in Steam.