How to Fix Steam Link Audio on macOS Host

by Rian

It is less likely scenario for macOS to be the host than the client for Steam Link, but it does indeed happen. I usually set my MacBook Air to be the host for Steam Link to play a stream the game session over to my phone, and no doubt there are other use cases where a Mac is the Steam Link host.

Symptoms

To clarify “macOS Steam Link Host”, I mean the case where a Mac is the host machine, broadcasting the stream to a user’s device of choice. For example, I use my smartphone to connect to my Mac — Steam games run on the Mac.

After setting up the Steam Link on the host automatically, Steam client on the host goes into big screen mode. The screen is streamed properly, but somehow not the sound. Restarting the either device does not solve the problem.

Solutions

I highly suspect Steam Link could have audio issues for more than one reasons, but from my experience, the problem was Steam client on the host device. When the host Steam client goes into big screen mode and starts streaming, it should set the system audio output to Steam Link.

The settings can be found either from System Settings or the menu bar. Mac settings are inaccessible from Steam big screen mode, so you may need to exit big screen mode temporarily. On menu bar, simply click the sound icon and change Output to “Steam Streaming Speakers”. For System Settings, navigate to Sound, under Output & Input, select “Steam Streaming Speakers”. Either method should work.

I take the output settings was not changed automatically over. I’m not sure if this is a glitch Valve can patch. It might be Tahoe related, or it could simply the case of lackluster support. Hopefully it will be ironed out soon enough.