MBA M1 No Speakers

Question

Level 1

11 points

MBA M1 No Speakers

Hi, my MBA M1 - well going to be Big Sur - loses audio devices on a daily basis. Seems to be an issue waking from sleep from anecdotal evidence.

If I check the sound preferences panel there are no output devices. If I restart coreaudiod then the devices reappear.

This happens in the MBA M1 is only attached to power or to an LG 5K.

What ever is happening macOS should be as bad as the core audio stack dying and need restarting.

Any ideas ?

On Big Sur 11.5.2

MacBook Air (2020 or later)

Posted on Aug 19, 2021 11:30 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

IEthnographer

Level 1

14 points

Nov 3, 2021 5:34 PM in response to TRCalgary

That’s… interesting.

Glad it worked for you. In my situation, it’d be more of a workaround or stopgap than a solution.

In fact, what’s in that `/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL` folder is the stuff I mentioned: ACE and BlackHole… which I do use.

So, I’m not that surprised. It does mean that I’ll have to investigate further. I could probably replace the free BlackHole plugin with something like Loopback… which relies on ACE. Not sure I’m willing to get rid of Rogue Amoeba’s software. Maybe people there have further info.

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Answer 2

Missy5937

Community Specialist

Aug 20, 2021 5:39 PM in response to G Berks

Hello G Berks,

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. We understand that you're running in to an issue with your MacBook Air M1 and audio. To clarify, are you using external speakers or are you referring to the built-in speakers? If using external speakers, are you connecting via Bluetooth or a wired connection? Please provide a few more details regarding your audio setup and we'll go from there.

If you can’t hear sound from your Mac speakers

If the internal speakers on your Mac aren't working

Best regards.

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Answer 3

Missy5937

Community Specialist

Aug 26, 2021 11:51 AM in response to G Berks

Hello G Berks,

Thanks for following up and providing more details. If you haven't done so yet, try booting your MacBook up into safe mode and test if the issue persists. Once testing is completed and you've rebooted normally, test your device once again to see how it's doing. The reason we suggest testing again, is that during safe mode, your MacBook will perform a check of your system, kind of like First Aid, and may repair any issues that it picks up.

How to use safe mode on your Mac

Best wishes.

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Answer 4

G Berks Author

Level 1

11 points

Aug 20, 2021 11:30 PM in response to Missy5937

Any speakers.

macOS will show internal / external speakers and play sound just fine.

Then something happens and macOS shows no sound output devices. Might be wake from sleep issue.

I then force kill coreaudiod. It automatically restarts and then macOS shows the sound output devices again and sound works.

thanks

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Answer 5

G Berks Author

Level 1

11 points

Aug 27, 2021 12:11 AM in response to Missy5937

Thanks, but that it's really going to help. Safe mode is predominantly there to help test issues with startup items.

Regardless of what is causing it, macOS shouldn't be crapping out with some OS bug and losing track of the audio devices.

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Answer 6

Oct 31, 2021 2:43 PM in response to G Berks

Sounds like I'm having the same issue. Started recently on the latest version of Big Sur. Still happening in the initial release of Monterey (12.0.1). Just found out about the `sudo pkill coreaudiod` trick, which worked like a treat.

Most of the time, I use an Anker USB-C Hub with a PreSonus AudioBox iTwo audio interface plugged in. Unplugging the hub doesn’t fix the problem. Rebooting the #MBAM1 does. And starting coreaudiod just did.

When the problem occurs, sound.prefPane displays no audio output or input device and Audio & MIDI Setup is blank.

I can’t find `coreaudiod` in Activity Monitor.app (even after restarting it).

I have BlackHole from Existential Audio installed, for screen captures and such, as well as some Rogue Amoeba software like Audio Hijack and a demo version of Loopback. Those use ACE (Rogue Amoeba’s Audio Capture Engine), as does Discord Helper.

(I use some DAWs and got hundreds of AU/VST plugins.)

As far as “wake from sleep” issues go, it’s a strange one.

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Answer 7

G Berks Author

Level 1

11 points

Nov 1, 2021 12:14 AM in response to TRCalgary

Thanks. though won't have worked for me.

I did a complete reinstall including ssd wipe.

I put back they apps I needed for my job and then a little later the issues reappeared.

While I wouldn't be surprised a 3rd party device causing the issue the OS shouldn't crap out the way it does. And sadly need the other apps for my job.

Thanks

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Answer 8

G Berks Author

Level 1

11 points

Nov 4, 2021 12:39 AM in response to IEthnographer

If you can easily repeat it maybe worth contacting support itself and get a senior support engineer to see it. They maybe able to collect logs etc. You'll have to get through the lower levels first who will just run playbooks, such as create a new test account etc

I have found Apple's own bug reporting process to be virtually useless as it's just a blackhole and they never respond.

Happens too infrequently to be able for me to show them.

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Answer 9

Nov 4, 2021 3:12 AM in response to G Berks

Same here, unfortunately. I don’t think I could reproduce the bug.

Plus, I’m busy enough at my dayjob+sideline that I wouldn’t get to it for a while. Maybe around Black Friday, at which point I might buy Rogue Amoeba’s Loopback. It’s also an ACE app, so that might still be an issue. At least, I’ll be able to focus on the RA stuff and investigate with their support.

In the meantime, I’ll just keep Terminal handy for coreaudiod restarts.

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