Why Am I Hearing A Weird Static Noise in Stardew Valley?

by

There’s a lot to love about Stardew Valley, with the soundtrack lauded by many gamers for its extremely pleasant, wonderful, and soothing. Which makes it all the more frustrating when you go from listening to the pleasant and calming Stardew Valley soundtrack only to have it burst out in static crackling.

The weird static noises aren’t designed into the game, and while it might be the headphones or your audio drivers in your computer, there is a known static glitch in Stardew Valley that can infrequently affect players on all platforms, whether PC or Switch. I’ve also run into the weird static problem – both with the in-game glitch that others have identified but for PC users who find this is a recurring problem I’ve find a couple other potential causes that aren’t related to the static glitch but cause the same effect.

The good news is that all static issues with Stardew Valley are easily fixable and can be prevented with a few minor settings changes. Assuming the audio drivers are up to date, the majority of audio problems in Stardew Valley can be resolved by restarting the game and changing the settings to 32-bit Compatibility instead of 64-bit. This fix works even if the system is designed to run at 64-bits and is a known audio glitch.

Let’s dive into all the potential audio issues, and solutions, to deal with static when playing Stardew Valley!

Bath House Stardew Valley
I want to hear the relaxing background music as I run around the map trying to catch Linus peeping – not staticky crackling noises that interrupt the incredible soundtrack.

What’s Causing The Static Audio In Stardew Valley?

There are four main causes of staticky audio in Stardew Valley. Those five issues are:

  • The 64-Bit Audio Glitch (known Stardew Valley glitch)
  • Audio Driver Issues
  • Headphone Issues (this can include cable for wired headphones)
  • Interference from mods
  • The Yahoo/YouTube Effect (PC only)

Let’s dive into each potential issue, including the easiest fixes so you can go back to enjoying your game without your headphones killing your ears.

The 64-Bit Glitch

This is the cause of most staticky sounds ruining a game of Stardew and creating those static crunchy sounds in your headphones. That’s why we’re tackling this first.

This glitch first appeared when the game was upgraded to work on 64-bit versus the 32-bit original build. Most of the time the game runs fine and the majority of players have apparently never had any issues. However, programming is as much art as science because issues like this can come up and no one can figure out what is causing that “bad interaction” that is causing a side effect.

How To Fix The Stardew Valley Static Glitch

Eric Barone has released patches to fix this happening most of the time but if you’re having problems there are a few solutions. For the short-term:

  • Re-starting the game seems to reset the audio most of the time for both Switch and PC
  • A hard reset of the Switch can solve this problem
  • A restart of your computer will tend to fix this problem for a while if you’re on PC

The long-term fixes for the static Glitch

  • Switch to 32 bit compatibility mode (PC Only)

When playing the 32-bit compatibility version (which anyone on Mac OSX 10.12 or lower or Windows Vista or lower should be playing on anyway) there should be no cackling or other audio issues with your game. This has consistently worked as a permanent fix and if it doesn’t – usually the problem isn’t the known static cackling glitch but it’s one of the following three other issues.

How to Switch to the 32-bit compatibility version of Stardew Valley

This is mainly a PC fix and will have different directions depending on whether it’s on Steam or GOG.

On Steam

  1. Open your Steam Library
  2. Scroll down to the game and right click “Stardew Valley”
  3. Select “Properties”
  4. You want to click on the tab that says “Betas”
  5. You’ll see a drop down menu, and from that menu you want to select the option labeled “Compatibility”
  6. The game should receive an update
  7. Go back to the Steam Library, scroll to Stardew Valley, and then click to start the update
  8. Stardew Valley is now ready to play in Compatibility mode

After these steps you shouldn’t run into the crackling noise problem with Stardew Valley again. If you do, it’s almost certainly an audio driver, headphone, or speaker issue.

ON GOG

  1. Open your games list and right click on “Stardew Valley”
  2. Move your mouse so it hovers over “Manage Installation” and on the dropdown select “Configure”
  3. Click the “Beta Channels” drop down menu and select the “Compatibility” option
  4. You’ll see an “Update Received” for Stardew Valley
  5. Click to begin the update upload
  6. Once completed you should be good to go with Stardew Valley now playing in Compatibility mode, fixing any in-game static and crackling issues

Audio Drivers

Sometimes the audio drivers in your PC will have an update and without that update, they start acting squiffy (for lack of a better word). Make sure there are no updates for your audio drivers and if there are, update your drivers and restart the computer, if necessary.

This has fixed the majority of audio issues I’ve heard about that weren’t caused by the actual in-game audio glitch.

Headphones

If you’re still hearing crackling or static, especially if it’s just from one half of your headphone, it could be the headphones themselves that are the issue. This is especially true if the issue persists after the game is shut off.

No audio issues from the game itself should affect other programs on the computer, meaning your headphones are very likely the culprit assuming everything else checks out (and you don’t have Yahoo.com open in another browser tab).

Check not only your headphones and test them, but the cable/cord, as well. Any issues here could easily translate to issues in-game with audio, but should be easily fixable with a replacement.

Mod Interference

Look, I love mods and the tractor mod is amazing, not to mention the massive infusion of new content via the Stardew Valley Expanded Mod. But mods aren’t part of the original programming and sometimes even good ones can result in game instability or unintended consequences that affect sound.

Look at online forums for specific mods causing issues, as the list is too big (and often narrow) to put here, but if you run a LOT of mods, you have a higher chance of having issues with one or more mods.

If there is only one mod causing most of your errors or issues, turning this mod off or removing it completely should solve those issues, but a restart is sometimes required to make sure all the chances have taken the proper effect.

The Yahoo/YouTube Effect

If you play on PC and tend to have the background music low (but not off) as you’re watching something on another screen like Netflix or YouTube, or are taking a break with Stardew Valley while caught reading an article, it could be the site open on another tab causing the issue, especially if you are switching from one screen to another.

Yahoo is notorious for this. If you have Yahoo.com or any Yahoo page open whether mail or news story, there’s a very good chance it is the cause of any micro stuttering or static audio issues you are having.

If this happening with YouTube it’s not likely YouTube itself but more likely you’re pushing your PC to the limits of what it can deal with all at once. Generally speaking YouTube videos playing on one screen and Stardew on the other won’t cause an automatic static issue, though kudos on being able to separate that much audio at once.

I’ve only had one issue with YouTube playing while I was doing a day of Stardew, and I’m 90%+ certain that wasn’t YouTube so much as Microsoft’s “you must update this now” combined with a lot of open tabs

I believe this because I’ve had YouTube go static and the audio glitch like crazy when a Yahoo news article was open on another tab. Something between how Yahoo loads ads and news consistently messes with audio on other programs whether YouTube, Audible, whatever, so Yahoo on any of your tabs will often be an issue.

How To Fix The Stardew Valley Static Glitch on Switch

With Switch you generally do not need to do a hard reset on the Switch, although that has taken care of the issue in the past. Other Switch users who ran into this issue found that after saving the game, closing it down and starting it back up again was enough to take care of any static or stuttering problems.

Some players have found that switching the sound to mono can work to eliminate the stuttering.

A Clever Workaround to Fix the Stardew Static Glitch

I haven’t run into someone who had a chronic static audio issue with Stardew Valley that couldn’t be fixed with a simple reset, but one person who didn’t want to lose their day’s progress and was playing on a dual monitor setup came up with a pretty clever workaround. They just found a YouTube video that was Stardew Valley music on loop and played it in the second monitor while muting the sound in-game.

I’m not sure that would work with every situation, but for the in-game glitch issue with audio, she said that worked until the auto-save at the end of the day so she could restart the game and troubleshoot.

Enjoy Stardew Valley’s Soundtrack in Full

At this point everything should work perfectly. The only other problem to address would be if the crackling audio in Stardew Valley was coming with actual stuttering in-game. In that situation, you need to take Task Manager and turn Stardew Valley to High Priority program. In this case it gets more resources and you are going to have less issues with it running on your computer.

This article goes over every single fix for any audio issues that are likely to be the cause of any issues you might be having. Once fixed, you can go back to enjoying Stardew Valley and its truly incredible soundtrack!

Other Stardew Valley Articles You May Love