Elder Scrolls Online 'Voice Channel Changed to Area' Glitch: How to Fix

Some Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) players are experiencing the dreaded "Voice Channel changed to Area" glitch.

This bug first appeared around this time six years ago in June 2015. Official forum users described it as "this constant DING sound" as the application attempted to join the voice service and disconnect from it over and over. The sound was often accompanied by a message on the righthand side of the screen alerting the player that their "Voice Channel changed to Area"—or that it linked to the local area.

ESO 'Voice Channel Changed to Area' Glitch

While ZeniMax Online Studios did issue a fix for this a few years ago, that hasn't stopped it from rearing its ugly head from time to time. The Voice Channel bug only affects console players as PC doesn't have any automatic voice interfaced linked into the game. Additionally, it only appears in certain—likely, high traffic—areas.

How to Fix

There are a few methods that have been known to fix the constant reconnection. Before launching into these, however, we recommend going through the standard procedures: /reloadui (if possible), relogging into your session, relaunching the application, and restarting your system.

One of the quickest ways to resolve this bug is to join a group, switch to the Group Chat, swap back into Zone Chat, and leave the group. This should manually reset the connection code as players normally have to be cued into the Group Chat to speak to members, exclusively.

Another fix is to empty the local caches or save data to reset the voice connection settings. Players may find themselves needing to reestablish their voice presets, but that should be the worst of it.

In the event that none of the above methods work, we encourage affected players to reach out to ZOS' Support team.