Audio glitches on Mac after macOS Tahoe update

Subject: Right Speaker Crackles / Stops Working After Sleep or Restart – macOS Tahoe 26 (MacBook Pro 14” M1 Pro 2021)

Description:

After updating my MacBook Pro (14‑inch, M1 Pro, 2021) to macOS Tahoe 26, I’ve encountered a recurring audio issue affecting the right internal speaker. After waking from sleep or restarting, the right speaker starts crackling (“zzz / krrrr”) and often stops producing sound entirely.

If I keep the Mac awake continuously, both speakers work perfectly — so this seems tied to power management or the CoreAudio driver, rather than a hardware defect. Both left and right channels appear in System Information, showing the device is still recognized correctly.

Temporary workarounds tried:

• Resetting NVRAM / PRAM
• Full DFU restore via Apple Configurator
• Clean macOS Tahoe reinstall
• Deleting CoreAudio / MIDI preferences
• Running Apple Diagnostics (no issues found)
• Restarting CoreAudio using sudo killall coreaudiod (temporarily restores sound)
• Adjusting CoreAudio process priority (temporary improvement only)

Despite all these steps, the issue persists consistently after every restart or sleep–wake cycle.

Impact:

The right speaker becomes unusable until I manually restart CoreAudio or reboot several times. This severely affects media playback and everyday usage.

Request:

Please investigate this potential macOS Tahoe 26 audio driver or power management bug on M1 Pro models, as multiple users are reporting the same symptoms online. Any acknowledgment or fix in an upcoming update would be greatly appreciated.

System:

• MacBook Pro 14” M1 Pro (2021)
• macOS Tahoe 26 (latest public release as of report)

Thank you for your attention and support.

And yes, the issues for me started after the updrade to Tahoe, on a MacBook Pro M1 that I have been using for 3 years, with USB headphones that I have been using for 1.5 years, and continue to use with another machine (a Windows PC) without any problems.

This seems to pin the issue specifically on the MacOS Tahoe release.

Same problem here, after updating to Tahoe, closing Xcode and iOS simulator stoped the issue... but no matter what solution it always comes back. I hope they release an update soon.

This solution in reddit fixed my problem Permanent fix MacOs Tahoe Crackling sound !

I was having a similar problem with Ms Teams, some random white noise glitches were happening during the meetings. It seems like closing the simulator fixed the issue. Thanks!!

danyisdany wrote:

I'm having audio glitches even under the device is underload a little bit just a little bit and I don't know how to fix that thing. It happens just after the macOs Tahoe update. I didn't have any problems in previous Os.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Audio Glitches

re: Audio glitches

Did you try making changes reducing the Hz and compare your results(?)

Yes, I have a set of JBL Pebbles USB speakers connected to an OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock for my laptop when I'm at work. The sound is okay for a little bit, but over time (whether I use it or not), it starts getting staticky and garbled and distorted. If I unplug the speakers and re-attach them, that countdown to noise restarts, but it invariably gets back to unusable.

I'm also having tons of Apple Music issues after upgrading to Mac OS 26 Tahoe. All the volume levels of my songs are everywhere, even in the same album, some are very loud and some I can barely hear. Also, some songs have began to "crackle", songs that I bought on Apple Music and have downloaded.

I've tried clearing the Apple Music cache in the Library folder. I've tried running -sudo killall coreaudiod. I have deleted all the song and re-imported them all and the issues still linger.

This did not happen before OS 26 Tahoe.

MacBook Pro M4 16-inch.

I have now updated to the latest 26.1 version. However, the audio distortion persists. I've noticed a pattern: whenever sound is playing, pressing the trackpad triggers the distortion. Additionally, when launching the simulator via Xcode, music is also disrupted by audio output interference triggered by "trackpad events" → resulting in distortion and crackling noises.

All sorts of odd behavior on microphones - either MacBook or Airpod Pro v2. Especially with using Chat GPT native app. Works fine in Safari browser. Have used sudo pkill coreaudiod which causes ChatGPT sometimes to crash if it was open when I ran the terminal command.

Hard to pin down. Do not have iPhone simulator on All since Tahoe. Still having issues on Tahoe 26.1.

submitted bug report on Apple support page.

Same. I have an OWC Thunderbolt dock, and after the Tahoe update my audio is basically unusable. The sound output is full of pops, drop-outs... I can't do any audio work on my system now.

This solution in reddit fixed my problem Permanent fix MacOs Tahoe Crackling sound !

I did it once and since yesterday after I ran it in terminal it did not came back.

and I watched about 7 hours of courses.. shut it down twice.. so it’s pretty good solution..

does it come back after you typed it in terminal?

I'm seeing this issue as well with a couple of my colleagues at work who have moved to Tahoe.

Even when running the recommended command (sudo killall coreaudiod), the issue reoccurs fairly quickly again.

Anyone else have any other workarounds by any chance please?

Audio cracks very often when I run Xcode. Didn't happen before the update as I used to play videos in Safari without any issue. I think it must have to do with RAM pressure. Also the terminal command doesn't help much, the problem comes back quickly.