Jabber on Windows 10 Not Saving Audio Settings After Reboot

[mbernardo1]

Cisco Jabber Audio Settings are not being saved or remembered after a reboot. I have set the audio settings to use the Headset Earphone/Microphone and clicked Apply then OK. Calls are sent and received properly through the headset. However, whenever Windows reboots, and Cisco Jabber opens, the Audio settings are automatically changed to use the built-in Speakers/Microphone. Please help.

• Jabber Version: 10.6.2 Build 59142
• OS: Windows 10 Professional
• External Headset: Plantronics C310-M
• Internal Audio: Realteck HD Audio

[yuri.nicolaas]

This fixed it for me, the Advanced link is there at the bottom you need to scroll down to see it.

[jacky.reinbold]

Hi mbernardo1,

How did you finally resolve this issue. Did you have GPO or driver/PnP issues un the Win side ?
I hit exactly the same issue in newer Jabber 11.8.4 or 11.8.5 versions where the configured headset audio stays not selected in the headset list under advanced settings, and this not only on one laptop, but on several PC/Laptops in a bank.
We are searching for troubleshooting ideas, but we have a suspicion about the Win ID of the audio device thet could change during PnP, and Jabber is writing a fixed ID of the first discovered headset in a file under appdata.

Any idea in the blog ?

[Jonathan Unger]

I know this is an older thread now, but just in case this helps someone else, here is the location of the file which stores the speaker, microphone, and camera preferences.

Location:
%appdata%\Cisco\Unified Communications\Jabber\CSF\Config
OR

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Cisco\Unified Communications\Jabber\CSF\Config

Filename:

deviceData3.properties

Jabber reads the file "deviceData3.properties" on startup and writes to it when changes are made to the speaker, microphone, or camera preferences. You can read the contents of the file with a text editor and even make your own changes. However, if you do make manual changes, the jabber client will need to be restarted as it appears the file is only read once initially and is not scanned for further changes when Jabber is running.

Here is an example of what some of the file contents look like:

Speaker-ID-0: USB\VID_046D&PID_0A44&MI_00
Speaker-Name-0: Speakers (2- Logitech USB Headset)
Speaker-SelectionID-0: {0.0.0.00000000}.{c780344e-7c62-450b-b47b-d88c1912e34c}
Speaker-Volume-0: 100
Speaker-DeviceInterface-0: \\?\usb#vid_046d&pid_0a44&mi_00#6&b879def&0&0000#{6994ad04-93ef-11d0-a3cc-00a0c9223196}\global
Speaker-FriendlyName-0: Logitech USB Headset
Speaker-ID-1:
Speaker-Name-1: Remote Audio
Speaker-SelectionID-1: {3.0.0.00000001}.{6C26BA7D-F0B2-4225-B422-8168C5261E45}
Speaker-Volume-1: 100
Speaker-DeviceInterface-1:
Speaker-FriendlyName-1:

Microphone-ID-0: USB\VID_046D&PID_0A44&MI_00
Microphone-Name-0: Microphone (2- Logitech USB Headset)
Microphone-SelectionID-0: {0.0.1.00000000}.{22b8b43a-6e05-4f7f-b28b-fa15e9dd2d82}
Microphone-Volume-0: 40
Microphone-DeviceInterface-0: \\?\usb#vid_046d&pid_0a44&mi_00#6&b879def&0&0000#{6994ad04-93ef-11d0-a3cc-00a0c9223196}\global
Microphone-FriendlyName-0: Logitech USB Headset
Microphone-ID-1:
Microphone-Name-1: Microphone (Logitech USB Headset)
Microphone-SelectionID-1: {0.0.1.00000000}.{5f39f9e5-c055-4f98-94b0-dbaf33e4044c}
Microphone-Volume-1: -1
Microphone-DeviceInterface-1: \\?\usb#vid_046d&pid_0a44&mi_00#6&30faff39&0&0000#{6994ad04-93ef-11d0-a3cc-00a0c9223196}\global
Microphone-FriendlyName-1: Logitech USB Headset

Camera-ID-0:
Camera-Name-0: TANDBERG Video
Camera-SelectionID-0: \\?\usb#vid_1f82&pid_0001&mi_00#6&14a9a643&0&0000#{65e8773d-8f56-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\global
Camera-Volume-0: 80
Camera-DeviceInterface-0: \\?\usb#vid_1f82&pid_0001&mi_00#6&14a9a643&0&0000#{65e8773d-8f56-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\global
Camera-FriendlyName-0: TANDBERG Video

[jacky.reinbold]

Hi Jonathan,

it's an interesting information of yours. I retain the static behavior of Jabber about the discovery of audio devices and this behavior could conduct to audio device loss.

From what I'm seeing on customer site, even a headset (Jabra, Plantronics,...) has been correctly priorized in the advanced settings, the same headset appears a second or a third time in the audio device list and only one is coloured in black. The other are greyed out.

Unfortunately the used audio device (same headset without any changes) seems to be newly discovered and is not placed on top of the list as configured.

A Microsoft MCSE has analyzed the headset driver and PnP discovery into Windows and has concluded that Windows makes his PnP job as usual.

Have you ever seen this behavior ?

Rgards,

Jacky

[Jonathan Unger]

Hi Jacky,

I have not seen this behaviour before.

You may have some luck with opening a TAC case to dig further.

Have you been testing using the latest version of jabber?

[aheckersmc]

Hi Jacky,

Were you able to repair this issue? I find that our audio preference list will change seemingly on its own from time to time. We use Plantronics audio devices for our Jabber softphone. I've been working with Plantronics Support to determine why the devices may be reordered in Jabber - perhaps due to power savings or PnP - but no luck thus far. I'm a little surprised reports of this issue aren't widespread across the web. Either it's something in our environment that causes this, or not many people are using Jabber as their softphone with an external audio device (or maybe it doesn't bother them)? In any case, it's big problem for us. Also, based on our experience and what I've read elsewhere, this doesn't seem to be exclusively related to Windows 10. In fact, we're using Jabber 11.7 on Windows 7 64-bit.

I commented on an old thread here which illustrates how easy it is to recreate this problem when you use Remote Desktop, but the problem is certainly prevalent even with users who don't use RDP: https://supportforums.cisco.com/t5/jabber-clients/jabber-v9-2-and-remote-desktop/m-p/2213342/highlight/false#M5892

[Danik Therrien]

Hi All, 

I was able to resolve the issue. Thanks to another post in this list. 

After testing a bunch of solutions, I was able to make the settings stick by modifying the file
C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Cisco\Unified Communications\Jabber\CSF\Config

 deviceData3.properties

1- Log off jabber

2- Exit

3- Open the file in notepad++

4-Manually place the device you want in order and change their ID

For example If I want to use my computer speakers by default instead of the Sennheiser Dongle

FROM THIS: 

Microphone-ID-0: USB\VID_1395&PID_002D&MI_00
Microphone-Name-0: Headset Microphone (Sennheiser BTD 800 USB for Lync)
Microphone-SelectionID-0: {0.0.1.00000000}.{ed0eb6da-101a-406d-9a37-7bcdc89871cf}
Microphone-Volume-0: 100
Microphone-DeviceInterface-0: \\?\usb#vid_1395&pid_002d&mi_00#6&7889738&0&0000#{6994ad04-93ef-11d0-a3cc-00a0c9223196}\global
Microphone-FriendlyName-0: Sennheiser BTD 800 USB for Lync
Microphone-DeviceVendor-0: Unknown Vendor
Microphone-ID-1: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0668&SUBSYS_10431080
Microphone-Name-1: Microphone (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Microphone-SelectionID-1: {0.0.1.00000000}.{1a894faa-ba3c-4833-a3a3-adb202ca7654}
Microphone-Volume-1: 89
Microphone-DeviceInterface-1: \\?\hdaudio#func_01&ven_10ec&dev_0668&subsys_10431080&rev_1000#4&172bd3b9&0&0001#{6994ad04-93ef-11d0-a3cc-00a0c9223196}\rtmicinwave
Microphone-FriendlyName-1: Realtek High Definition Audio
Microphone-DeviceVendor-1: Unknown Vendor

TO

Microphone-ID-0: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0668&SUBSYS_10431080
Microphone-Name-0: Microphone (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Microphone-SelectionID-0: {0.0.1.00000000}.{1a894faa-ba3c-4833-a3a3-adb202ca7654}
Microphone-Volume-0: 89
Microphone-DeviceInterface-0: \\?\hdaudio#func_01&ven_10ec&dev_0668&subsys_10431080&rev_1000#4&172bd3b9&0&0001#{6994ad04-93ef-11d0-a3cc-00a0c9223196}\rtmicinwave
Microphone-FriendlyName-0: Realtek High Definition Audio
Microphone-DeviceVendor-0: Unknown Vendor

Microphone-ID-1: USB\VID_1395&PID_002D&MI_00
Microphone-Name-1: Headset Microphone (Sennheiser BTD 800 USB for Lync)
Microphone-SelectionID-1: {0.0.1.00000000}.{ed0eb6da-101a-406d-9a37-7bcdc89871cf}
Microphone-Volume-1: 100
Microphone-DeviceInterface-1: \\?\usb#vid_1395&pid_002d&mi_00#6&7889738&0&0000#{6994ad04-93ef-11d0-a3cc-00a0c9223196}\global
Microphone-FriendlyName-1: Sennheiser BTD 800 USB for Lync
Microphone-DeviceVendor-1: Unknown Vendor

[aheckersmc]

Thanks, Danik. I find that I too can edit this file the way you described if I want to control the list, however the order still changes on its own. Did you do anything more than simply edit the file? Perhaps you also restricted permissions to the file? I found that I can setup this file the way I want per your description and give the user read-only permissions to it which will force Jabber to order the devices correctly on clean launch, however they will still get reordered mid-Jabber session. In short, this method requires the user to exist Jabber and launch it to pull in the correct settings. This is close to working, but still not ideal.

Any other thoughts? 

[krizvite]

I have to confirm this behaviour of Jabber app. We are using 11.9.1 and by some users change the jabber app the setting during the day even if deviceData3.properties read-only is. Is there any news regarding this issue?

[DaveG1]

Anyone make any progress on this?  We are having volume problems with out headsets.  We are using 11.9.1 and VXME on our VDI environment.  With VXME on both the thin client and VM.  When disconnecting from the VM the microphone volume on the headset changes when connecting back to the VM.  I've tried playing with volume in the devicedata3.properties file but that doesn't do anything.  it doesn't seem to recognize the volume change for the microphone in that file.  Anyone have any ideas?  Thanks.  

[alexander.bruestle@roche.com]

Hi,

change the sequence of the speakers in the config file. Change also the device id. Only the first device with id=0 will be used after starting the application. The config file must configures as read only because the config file will be overwritten after every new starting of the application.

Regards

[DavidZiffer78200]

Thanks so much Danik for your solution here, which solved my problem immediately. The reality is simply that Jabber's UI has no way for users to specify preferences or priorities. In a world where pretty much everyone has multiple audio and video devices, this seems to be a critical design failure. How hard could it be to provide a method for overriding the static preferences that Jabber sets initially, which are most likely based on bad assumptions about what your hardware preferences are? Yesterday I was on a conference call and had to mute my mic because background conversations around me were interfering with the phone meeting. It was only afterward that I realized that Jabber had been using my webcam mic rather than my headset mic, and this escaped me at the time despite the fact that I've been constantly aggravated by this. Even if Jabber doesn't supply an interface for selecting preferences, how hard could it be for Jabber to assume that when you have a headset plugged in you want to use the headset? Unbelievable.

[Paul Tursan d'Espaignet]

I also had encountered this issue on Windows 10 with Jabber 11.9 and 12.1.1.

I'd additionally found that after deleting the Jabber cache and then in Windows changing the default playback and recording devices, when restarting Jabber the default devices were then selected by default and always used. I could change the devices in options, but these changes would not persist after restarting Jabber.

However if instead of the Standard audio options, you click Advanced, then change the order of preferred devices, these changes do persist between restarts of Jabber / Windows.

Hope this helps. TAC apparently said "this is by design". I think it's a bit silly that you need to know to click on "Advanced" to persist the changes.

[Richard McLoughlin]

Thank you Paul.

I had the same issue jabber for Windows version 12.8.0.51973 build 301973. Changing my audio preferences via Settings - Audio - Advanced and re-ordering the speaker and microphone has resolved my issue also and the settings are now preserved session to session.  It is indeed curios that settings are only preserved session to session if set under the advanced options.

All the best

Richard

[bobhansen128]

I can't get my audio settings to "stay put" and modifying the device preferences doesn't help. No matter what I do my ringer, speaker, and microphone device lists are randomly re-sorted every day and my default devices change. I'm logging into a Citrix MyPC environment and I'm using Cisco Jabber 12.9.1.53980 Build 303980. My properties file name is "deviceData4.properties".

I've tried

• Exiting Jabber before signing out of Windows.
• Signing out of Jabber and then Exiting Jabber before signing out of Windows.
• Changing my ringer volume, signing out of Jabber, and then Exiting Jabber before signing out of Windows.
• Selecting primary devices from Audio menu (Basic view)
• Selecting preference devices in Audio menu (Advanced view)
• Selecting the option Keep the current microphone or speaker
• Sign Out, Restart, or Shut down of my Windows session always causes this to happen. Disconnect or timeout of my Windows session does not. I normally use Sign Out at the end of the day.
• Modifying my properties file per Danik Therrien's suggestion. Doing this properly changed my device order in Jabber but the order does not stick after Windows sign out and sign in (or reboot).
• Delete the Jabber cache per the instructions here
  https://help.webex.com/en-us/WBX72595/How-Do-I-Clear-the-Cache-in-Cisco-Jabber-for-Windows

Here are some things I've noticed

• Volume settings DO stay set between Windows sessions.
• In the Windows Audio Control Panel, the Playback and Recording devices are always in the same order, and the same default devices are always selected. You can launch the control panel with this command (I have it saved as a shortcut)
  C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL mmsys.cpl,,1
• I save my properties file when I log in to Windows at the beginning of the day (before I launch Jabber) and again after I've updated the sound device list in Jabber and save. These properties files always show devices in the same order. In other words, the properties file is saved away properly after making changes. Regardless of how I exit Jabber or restart Windows, the file is still maintained. The properties file is not re-sorted until I launch Jabber at the beginning of the day. Of course then I re-sort the preference lists and save. These properties files show the same order but they are not identical. The SelectionID values are different from day to day. Specifically, they change when I launch Jabber.
• I was able to verify that audio playback works on all but one of my devices. Audio playback for these devices work on both my home workstation and in my MyPC environment. I do not select different audio devices on my home workstation or in my MyPC environment. I only change devices because something (other than me) has changed them.

I've been trying to diagnose and fix this for half a year. Can anyone offer any help?