Audition will load tracks, but will not play them

To anyone who has an external sd card that is loading the audio track. It may look like you have the clip on the multitrack editor but the sound that you are using may not be able to be detected because the external storage device is not there and it might need that to play the audio. This can occur even if you have the correct default devices connected and the audio works on your computer. In this case you need to make sure that both the audio default device is correct and that the storage device you are loading the audio off of can be read as well. If you don't want to use the external storage then make a file that can be used locally on your device. this may remedy your situation if your external storage keeps on disconnecting. 

I found out how to fix this problem:

1. Click Edit

2. Click Preferences at the bottom

3. Open Audio Hardware

4. Click Settings

5. Click on the output device you would like to use

6. Select Properties on that device

7. Click the Advanced tab

8. Make sure the Default Format option matches the Sample Rate in Adobe Audition. You can see the Sample Rate in the Audio Hardware section in the settings that you previously opened. Make sure both of them have the same setting. i.e. 44100 Hz on both.

9. Hit apply and then go back into Audition and play the track. It should play now.

After reading several responses, I went to the preferences for sound output.  I did not see a problem. I have used the jack at the rear of the computer recently to play to an amplified system.  Simply plugging in my headphones in the front allowed te silly thing to start.  I unplugged them and the rear output took over as it should.  I am not sure if it is the software or the hardware acting up.  It happened once before, but by re-connecting the headphones it cleared before I had to investigate. No definitive answer, but if it happens again, that is where I will start.  

I was having this issue tonight as well. Have the track in Waveform and when I push the spacebar like normal, click the play button,  nothing. Its wierd because I  can see when I hit play that the play button turns green like its playing but the track bar doesnt move and no sound in the headphones that I use to monitor with. This has never happened before so I was feeaking out a little.  I eneded up unplugging the Thunderbolt from the back of my Apollo Interface and waited a second, plugged it back in and ... bam... it's back to normal and working as usual.  All im saying is that it worked for me and it does not seem to have altered anything in settings , ability or functionality of the DAW and im back to editing. Hope this helps. Thanks. 

Thank you so much, it definitely worked for me.

This worked awesome for me! 

absolutely worked, bizarre 

For choppy Sped up Audio playback: Edit>Preferences>Audio Hardware>Set Input to NO INPUT. The NDI drivers give Adobe programs the blues. I had the Newtek NDI tools installed.

Using souped up Mac Pro 2009 with a Blackmagic Intensity Pro for output to my amp (Mac OS Sierra -10.12.6). Working from PrPro to select my audio tracks to edit clips in Audition, everything loads but Audition won't playback UNTIL I discovered that if I select NO INPUT in my Audio Hardware settings in Audition, THEN I can swap between PrPro and Audition with full sound playback capabilities in both softwares.

Worked for me..hope it helps.

Here we are in August of 2018, and still having this EXACT same problem on my Mac, and I, too, have tried all the suggested "fixes" with no luck. Holding down the SHIFT key upon start-up eliminated the missing Temp Volume error issue that would pop-up, but that was about it. This really is frustrating, and difficult to run a professional business with such inconsistent software.