I would note that I had this same issue after updating and I did not repair.
I reset my audio settings to default (which didn't work) and then I closed the game client completely, relaunched the game and now all my sounds are working correctly again.

Same problem. Restarting the game did fix it, but then particular sounds completely cut out eventually. I ran a repair, no difference.

Had music but no other sounds, footstep's etc.. Repair did fix it. Now game runs a lot better.

Did notice there was no error log after repair is this normal?

Yep keeps happening, either a repair or a few restarting game fixes it.

i had the same problem not after the patch but after the fix that was rolled out later. after restarting the game a couple of times (no repair, no change of settings), the sound came back. funny thing was that the sound of some spells worked while others remained silent.

with the sound of some spells missing, i realised how much you rely on animation AND sound in combat. with the missing sound (of some spells) combat was much harder.

I too am having intermittent sound effect loss since the last patch. Restarting the game restores the sound effects but they eventually cut out again.

@ZOS_GaryA

Yeah I've been having the same prob:
ESO CS forum: "Personal" sound not working at first since 1.4.3

Hmm, don't know why that link don't work right, is correct in the text tag. Well you may have to find it manually.

Just linking to tie these.
So far so good, I have tried the "repair" option. But this prob doesn't manifest on every login for me.

All sound effects have gone a little weird or are missing - I now have one sound effect that nearly blows the speakers when I sell junk - deleting the usersettings.txt doesn't help.
- edit
- I'm now getting random sound effects when walking/running along - even with the sound settings at minimum I get the speaker splitting sound effect now and again.

Hey everyone,

Thanks for letting us know. Let's see if there are some additional steps we can take.

When some sounds are extremely quiet and others are ear-splitting, it's usually caused by the speaker settings. Specifically, ESO can utilize 5.1 sound, but if you only have two speakers, you'll lose a large majority of the audio except for stuff that happens to your sides.

To check this, right click on the Speaker icon in the system tray on the bottom-right corner of the Windows screen and select Playback Devices. Your default device is indicated with a green check mark. Click it once to select it, then choose Configure to make changes.

This is where it gets a bit tricky. Each audio driver has a different user interface once Configure is selected. You'll want to find a setting for Audio channels and ensure that the sound is set correctly to the amount of speakers you have. If you have two speakers and a sub, you'll want to go with Stereo. 5 speakers, 5.1, 7 speakers, 7.1, etc.

@babylon, for you specifically, since you're getting a weird hiss, if you see any devices in the Playback Devices section that you aren't using, right click them and disable them. If it's later determined that you need it, you can right click in a blank space in the box and choose "Show Disabled Devices" to bring it back.

Let us know the results!

I think the problem is between the launcher and game, for some reason when we log in it loses settings from there, going in and out of game seems to be only thing that fixes it (some times having to do it couple of times). Even running repair doesn't fix it every time.

I did the steps you told us to do and it does not fix it. My sound outside of game is working perfect.

Good luck finding the problem and hope you get it sooner or later. By the way still love the game.

Followup: Ever since I did "repair" all is well with the sound so far.

The missing sound effects usually occur after several re-logs of characters. Most common to notice are missing horse sounds, missing weapon strike sounds or spell sound effects. Sometimes it takes only one re-log (by re-log I mean 'ESC' -> "Log out" to character selection) but in most cases it takes at least 4 or 5 for the bugged sound to kick in. I think some ambient sounds go missing as well as the whole game starts sounding a bit (for the lack of better term) different then usual (calmer, more quiet atmosphere).

I only get this problem after re-log or entering Cyrodiil, I haven't noticed it in any other situation so far, even after playing one character for hours so I believe it's something to do with re-logging (maybe sound engine not cleaning up and shutting down cleanly on log-out)

EDIT: I had missing sounds suddenly re-appear after using a few crafting stations in Riften and Cyrodiil (after deconstructing items).

Update: No, "repair" didn't fix it, 'cause it just happened again. As I said, it is intermittent, therefore it is not a "settings" problem, as that would be constant.