Only System Sounds after apt upgrade

Dear Ubuntu Community,

I have a weird issue where suddenly only system sounds such as increase/decrease volume 'drips' are playing. Firefox and Chrome don't play any sound. When I opened VLC it had a different device selected then the one I had in sound settings. It worked after I switched to the USB soundcard in VLC. However, I can't switch the sound device in Chrome etc. I tested the audio as described in the SoundTroubleshooting guide, there it was able to play the audio file. Within the sound settings if I click on 'Test' it doesn't play any sound if I click on left/right speaker. ubuntu-bug -s audio did a audio test which worked perfectly fine.

This started this morning after I did a apt update & upgrade

System:
  Host: rezi-System-Product-Name Kernel: 5.4.0-73-generic x86_64 bits: 64 
  Desktop: Gnome 3.36.7 Distro: Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS (Focal Fossa) 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: P8Z77-V LX v: Rev X.0x 
  serial: <superuser/root required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 2501 
  date: 07/21/2014 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-3570 bits: 64 type: MCP 
  L2 cache: 6144 KiB 
  Speed: 1648 MHz min/max: 1600/4000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1648 2: 1649 
  3: 1649 4: 1649 
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GK106 [GeForce GTX 660] driver: nvidia v: 340.108 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: nvidia 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa 
  resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz, 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 660/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.4.0 NVIDIA 340.108 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio 
  driver: snd_hda_intel 
  Device-2: NVIDIA GK106 HDMI Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
  Device-3: Creative Labs Sound Core3D [Sound Blaster Recon3D / Z-Series] 
  driver: snd_hda_intel 
  Device-4: Texas Instruments PCM2902 Audio Codec type: USB 
  driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-73-generic 

I use Device-4, which is selected in the sound settings. I've restarted my desktop multiple times, removed the plug and waited a few hours but to no success.

Is there anything else I can try? Thanks!

EDIT: I just noticed that as soon as I play a sound in Chrome it shows up in the 'Volume levels' area of the Sound settings. So for some reason it's not passing those sounds through to the soundcard. I also installed an audio interface picker extension in chrome which didn't help.

Solution 1:

I was able to fix the issue by installing Pavucontrol.

apt install pavucontrol

Which showed me that Chrome was indeed using a different output device than the one selected in system settings. Still a weird bug.

If someone has a solution that doesn't require installing additional software I'd happy to accept that as an answer!