Bug 511576

Summary:	Muted sound is unmuted after connecting laptop to a dock
Product:	[Plasma] plasmashell	Reporter:	Iyán M. V. <me>
Component:	Audio in general	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status:	CONFIRMED ---
Severity:	normal	CC:	isma.af, kdedev, nate, olib141
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	regression
Version First Reported In:	6.5.1
Target Milestone:	1.0
Platform:	Arch Linux
OS:	Linux
See Also:	https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=511276
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Iyán M. V. 2025-11-03 15:12:53 UTC

SUMMARY
Starting with Plasma 6.5 (and still and issue with Plasma 6.5.1) the laptop is unmuted when connected to a docking station or any external display with built-in speakers. This, together with the recent change of enabling sounds when attaching external devices by default, can be problematic when there is an expectation of silence, e.g. in an office or library.


STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Mute laptop
2. Connect to docking station
3. Laptop plays a sound because of the external device attached (multiple times! I guess because one sound for external monitor, another one for the USB hub ,etc.) and it becomes unmuted.

OBSERVED RESULT
The audio state before attaching the laptop (muted) is not respected.

EXPECTED RESULT
The audio state should not be changed regarding if the new external device supports audio or not. I think this is what most people expect. If you laptop is muted, then you have to unmute if you connect to an external TV or docking station. If it's not muted, it can use the current volume levels for the new audio devices.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: Arch Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.1
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.19.0
Qt Version: 6.10.0
Kernel Version: 6.17.7-arch1-1 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 22 × Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 155H
Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (30.9 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: Intel® Arc
Manufacturer: LENOVO
Product Name: 21KDS00600
System Version: ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12

Comment 1 Iyán M. V. 2025-11-06 08:41:52 UTC

Another issue, but related to same changes in last version, is the following:

1. Manually mute one of the output sound devices in the sound applet
2. Use the mute/unmute key in the keyboard

Before, I think only the current selected device would change the state mute <-> unmute, which is what one would expect. I think the new intended behavior is that all output devices switch together when that key is pressed. But what happens now, is that the manually muted device remains unchanged (for sure not the desired behavior) while all the others change.

Comment 2 TraceyC 2025-11-18 22:09:42 UTC

I'm able to reproduce the docking bug on Plasma 6.5.2. I'll re-test on the same with Plasma built from git-master

(In reply to Iyán M. V. from comment #1)
> Another issue, but related to same changes in last version, is the following:
> 
> 1. Manually mute one of the output sound devices in the sound applet
> 2. Use the mute/unmute key in the keyboard

This is a separate issue. It seems related to the discussion in bug 435199 or bug 508170. If those don't cover what you're looking for, please open a new feature request.

Comment 3 Nate Graham 2025-12-09 04:12:21 UTC

Possibly caused by https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-pa/-/merge_requests/362.