Sound Problems in PowerPoint 2019, 2016, 2013, and 2010

Sound problems that were common with PowerPoint 2007 became easy to fix when Microsoft started automatically embedding sound files by default in PowerPoint 2010. Other than having actual sound issues on your PC, the only other possible cause is not setting the sound to automatically play. You may have the audio set to play In Click Sequence, which means the audio clip will not play until you actually click on the sound icon during your presentation. If you want it to automatically play, make sure you set it up properly by specifying that it play Automatically.

Sound and Music Problems in PowerPoint 2007

The music plays just fine on your computer, but when you email your PowerPoint 2007 presentation to a colleague, they hear no sound. Why? It may be that the file size is too large, an MP3 was used rather than a WAV file, or the audio is set to play upon clicking instead of automatically. So, how do you fix these sound problems? Music or sounds can be embedded into PowerPoint 2007 presentations only if you use a WAV file format. MP3 files will not embed into a PowerPoint presentation. The easy answer is to use only WAV files in your presentations. The downside is that WAV files are huge and could make the presentation far too cumbersome to email. There’s an easy fix for this problem. It’s a simple four-step process.

Step One: Get Started Fixing Sound or Music Problems in PowerPoint 2007

Step Two: Convert MP3 to WAV

You need to trick PowerPoint 2007 into thinking that the MP3 music or sound file that you will insert into your presentation is actually a WAV file. To perform this trick, download a free program that will do this for you.

Step Three: Add the WAV File to Your Presentation

Step Four: Specify the Sound File Size

What Happens Now? Will the Music Play?

You have tricked PowerPoint 2007 into thinking that your converted MP3 file is in WAV file format.

The music is embedded into the presentation, rather than linked to the music file. Embedding the sound file ensures that it will always travel with it.The music is now disguised as a WAV file, but is a much smaller file size.The music file is embedded in the presentation because you increased the limit to the file size in Step Four.