Sound Not Working on MacBook: Why Audio Is Not Playing & How to Fix It?

Mac computer sound troubleshooting and repair guide

The Mac computer sound failure is frustrating, especially during work or school demonstrations. This can be caused by a variety of factors, such as mute Mac sounds or crackling of MacBook speakers. But anyway, that doesn't necessarily mean your Mac is broken.

So don't rush to contact Apple Support for the moment - there are some things to check before you get the device to the nearest Apple store. This article will outline all the steps you need to take to find and fix volume errors on your Mac device.

Reasons for the failure of the sound of Mac computer

Whether it's the Mac volume button fails or other sound-related issues, there may be several reasons your Mac's sound suddenly fails. This may be caused by simple reasons such as software issues, sound settings on your Mac device, or even Bluetooth connectivity issues.

The following are the reasons why you encounter sound problems with your MacBook device. I hope you can find a solution.

1. The software is outdated

Software updates install improvements and implement bug fixes and patches to keep your Mac software (such as Ventura and Sonoma) and programs (such as Safari) running smoothly. Therefore, outdated software often causes many MacBook problems, such as the sound cannot be turned on. To avoid this, we recommend that you update your Mac software as soon as the software becomes available.

2. Driver or firmware issues

Poor sound quality or total silence is usually a sign of driver problems. The latter in turn can cause your Mac to not recognize your input and output devices, including microphones and speakers.

In addition, similar to software updates, firmware updates help fix performance issues related to Mac hardware, including MacBook fan noise. Therefore, ignoring updating the firmware of Mac can lead to sound-related problems.

3. Software crash

MacBook software crashes affect their sound in many ways. However, it depends on the type of software affected.

For example, if a software crash affects a driver involved in the sound output process, it can lead to temporary, sometimes permanent sound failures on the entire Mac system. As far as an application is concerned, if an application crashes while playing audio or sound, it may affect its sound input or output.

4. Bluetooth device failure

Sometimes it seems you lose sound on your Mac and the problem is your Bluetooth device. The Bluetooth device you are trying to connect to or use may be uncharged or the battery is low. In some cases, the Bluetooth device may not even be turned on. These minor issues can lead to problems such as the MacBook not having sound when trying to play or listen to content.

5. System encoding/decoding or output audio format issues

If your MacBook does not support audio formats, you may experience sound problems. Additionally, using incompatible external audio devices can affect sound quality.

Similarly, playing a corrupted audio file can suddenly cause playback problems. In this case, the audio file may not be played or skipped at all. Additionally, the sound stop working on a MacBook may be due to a corruption of the audio driver.

6. Invalid output device selected

Failing to select the correct output device may make you think there is something wrong with your Mac's sound. This is a common and easy to ignore situation, especially if you are not used to changing the sound output settings.

For example, you may be trying to use the output of your computer and your TV is the output device you selected last time. In this case, your voice is completely normal. Selecting the correct output device on your Mac will solve the sound problem.

7. The key component required to play sound on a Mac may not be loading correctly

Mac requires various elements to play audio. Any issues with these components will affect the Mac's ability to play sound correctly. The key factors that prevent you from hearing sounds on your MacBook range from corrupted file systems or system errors to crashes between various applications and background processes.

Sometimes, the sound settings of a specific application overwrite the sound settings of a MacBook, or the sound settings of the computer may be incorrect.

8. The parameter configuration is incorrect

Selecting an incorrect format for the output device often results in sound problems. Similarly, incorrect Bluetooth settings can also cause problems, such as the Mac's inability to play sounds.

In addition, the sound settings of each application may interfere with the sound settings of your Mac. Finally, while this may seem trivial, the volume of the Mac can be very low or silent.

9. Bluetooth connection problem

Your Bluetooth device may not be connected for various reasons. Believe it or not, you may have forgotten the Bluetooth device you need to connect. However, other factors may also play a role.

For example, other wireless devices may interfere with your Bluetooth connection. Or the Bluetooth device may be low or turned off, causing it to be unable to connect.

How to fix the problem of not playing audio on MacBook

The sounds on your Mac laptop won't work can be very inconvenient, especially when you're dealing with important things like presentations or streaming sessions that need to play audio. However, Mac audio issues are resolved, and we will show you some tips and guides below.

1. Check volume level

Before we get into more complex troubleshooting steps, check the volume of your Mac to rule out the possibility of it being muted. Sometimes, this is the culprit behind the Mac sound problem.

To increase the volume of your Mac, do the following:

1. Press the F12 key in the upper right corner of the MacBook keyboard. Pressing it for a short time can greatly increase the volume. If this takes a while, the volume is either very low or the sound is muted.

2. Press and hold the Option Shift key and press the F12 key at the same time. If you do not want to increase the volume significantly or normally, you can increase the volume at smaller intervals.

3. Check whether the sound is valid in other applications

If the audio on your Mac doesn't work properly, check if it changes when using other applications. If the problem seems to be limited to a specific application, try adjusting its settings.

For example, video conferencing applications such as Skype and Zoom often experience speaker failure. Check its audio and video settings and make sure the speaker is completely on the rightmost on the slider.

3. Disconnect external devices

External devices and accessories such as headphones and speakers can sometimes interfere with the sound of your Mac. Therefore, eliminating any external devices connected to your Mac may help solve the sound issues on your laptop.

Remove one device at a time and check whether the Mac's sound plays after removing any devices. If the sound is not playing, proceed to the next device to determine the source of the problem.

The following is how to disconnect an external Bluetooth device from your Mac:

1. Go to Apple menu>System preferences>Bluetooth and check the list of connected devices.
2. Click on the device and click X next to it to remove it from the list.
3. Check if there are any improvements in the sound of your Mac.

4. Check your voice preferences

The most obvious reason why Mac sounds don't work may be found in the sound settings. So, first determine whether the built-in speakers of your Mac are working properly.

Actually, this works for all types of speakers, so try the following steps to find out why:

1. Go to Apple menu>System preferences>Get sound>output.
2. You should see Built-in speaker as sound output device. If you are currently using another device, switch to Built-in speakers to use the built-in speakers and adjust the output volume. You may need to check if the Musing box is selected. If so, uncheck the box.
3. If you don't see the Built-in speakers option, try restarting your computer and resetting NVRAM. This will be described in detail later.

5. Restart Mac

Restarting your Mac is one of the easiest and quickest ways to fix minor sound issues. This is because it can correct any failures in the system (such as distorted audio), reset the system and audio drivers, as well as free up system resources and clear caches.

Please follow the steps below to restart the device:

1. Click Apple menu and select Restart option.
2. Check that the sound of the Mac has been fixed.

6. Restart the sound controller on your Mac

If you are sure that the sound problem on your Mac is not caused by loose cables, improper browser settings, or wrong placement of output devices, you may need to restart the sound controller. A failed sound controller can affect the volume or sound of your Mac. Given that the Mac's sound controller is responsible for the Mac's sound, restarting it can help solve your sound problems. The following is the operation method:

1. Open Finder>App>Utilities>Activity Monitor>CPU.
2. Look for the process named coreaudiod, select it, and then click the X icon at the top of the window to stop it and click to exit to confirm.

7. Check hardware and other connections

Your external devices (such as speakers and headphones) may be the reason why your Mac is missing audio. To determine if they are the culprits, disconnect and reconnect them separately, then restart your Mac and check if the sound is working properly.

8. Update macOS

First, please keep the operating system of your Mac as the latest version for security reasons. However, consider that using an older version of the OS can cause various failures, including sound issues.

You can check if you are running the latest version of the operating system by doing the following:

1. Go to the Apple menu in the upper left corner of the screen, and click System Preferences>Software Update.
2. If there are any updates or upgrades available, you will see the corresponding button.

9. Reset NVRAM and SMC

Nonvolatile Random Access Memory (NVRAM) stores important baseline settings on your Mac, such as time zones and languages. It also controls the volume. Therefore, NVRAM is what causes the computer sound to remain silent after you turn it off and re-open it. Reset NVRAM and you can also solve the sound problem.

Here is how to restart NVRAM on Intel Mac (note that you cannot reset NVRAM on Apple Silicon M1 and M2 devices):

1. Full off the Mac and disconnect the USB device and charging cable.

2. Press the Power button to turn it back on. When you see the gray screen, press and hold Command Option P R until the Mac restarts again and plays the startup sound.

3. Reset any local settings such as language and time zone. Most importantly, the sound should work properly now.

4. Check for malware infection

If there is no way that seems to solve the problem and the MacBook still fails to play audio, it either has a hardware failure or is infected with a virus.

How do you determine which of these two situations? Please note the following signs:

• Too many pop-up ads
• Suspicious warning on browser page
• Mac performance is poor

If these sound familiar, your laptop may have been hacked by malware. If you are still unsure, follow our guide to check for viruses or malware on your Mac. The following is the operation method:

1. Start MacKeeper and select Anti-Virus>Enable>Start scan.
2. After the scan is completed, our application will notify you of any threats being discovered. Follow the prompts to delete it from the device.

11. Use the terminal to repair audio on your MacBook

If you have used a terminal before, you will be familiar with the various functions it performs. It's perfect for fixing technical issues and can solve volume issues on your Mac.

Please follow these simple steps to use the terminal to fix sound problems:

1. Go to Apps>Utilities>Terminal.
2. Enter sudo killall coreaudiod and press Enter. This should reset your Core Audio daemon.

If you are using Google Chrome, you may find that the latest version will interfere with the controller. To fix this, you first need to disable Chrome.

The following are what you need to do as a Chrome user to reset Core Audio in your terminal:

1. First turn off Chrome. Enter sudo killall Google Chrome and press Enter. If this command cannot disable the browser, try pgrep -x Google Chrome.
2. The terminal will now display a number. Enter kill -9 _ (number at the underscore). Press Enter. This will turn off Chrome.
3. You can now reset Core Audio using the sudo killall coreaudiod command again. When you open Google Chrome again, it will work fine.

12. Check your sound settings in Audio MIDI settings

The audio features of Mac are not limited to its speakers, headphone ports, and microphones. macOS also processes audio from MIDI devices such as music keyboards and drum machines. In addition, it also handles virtual desktop audio, USB audio, Bluetooth audio, and more.

You can check all these devices using the Audio MIDI Setup Tool.

1. Go to Apps>Utilities and open Audio MIDI Settings. You can now see the devices currently selected for output, input, and system sound. Find the smaller icon next to them.
2. Find the audio device from which you want to hear the sound, right-click it, and select Use this device for sound output .
3. If there is still no sound, click Output and try the volume slider under Channel volume .
4. Make sure there are no channels silent. If any channels are selected, uncheck them.
5. If this doesn't work, use the drop-down menu next to format and try different options.
6. You can also test your audio device by clicking the Configure speaker button.
7. In the Test section, click the speaker icon and you should hear a hiss (test sound). If you hear it, your speaker is working and your problem may be caused by other reasons.

How to fix the problem that sound cannot be played on external Mac devices

Have you tried playing songs in different apps? Try various websites and audio files. If your MacBook Pro or iMac still has no sound, check out the other fixes below.

Troubleshooting of external speakers

Does your Mac's external speaker seem to not work? If you are using an external speaker, you should first check that the device is properly connected to the computer. The cable must be securely connected to the USB or audio jack, and the port itself must be clean.

We tend to accumulate dust in it over time, so be sure to clean it regularly with a cotton swab, toothpick and compressed air to achieve the right connection.

If you think the cable is not the cause of the problem, follow these steps:

1. Go to Apple menu>System preferences>Sound>Output and make sure to select your external USB speaker as the output device.
2. If you don't see them there, try unplugging and reinserting them.
3. If they are connected through the audio port, you will see a pop-up menu called Use the audio port for…. Check if it is set to Sound output.

Of course, if you don't use external speakers, you don't have to worry about this.

Troubleshooting of display audio

Before going to system preferences, make sure the cable of the monitor is correctly connected to the port of the laptop and that the headset is not plugged in the audio port.

When

is finished, go to System Preferences>Sound and set the settings in the Output section to Show audio as the output device.

Troubleshooting of digital receivers

To fix the audio of the digital receiver, check that you are using the correct connector – you need a special digital fiber cable. Next, check the receiver settings (you will find instructions on how to do it in the device's manual) – they must be set as digital inputs.

Then, follow the instructions below:

1. On Mac, go to System Preferences>Sound>Output and select Digital Output as the device.
2. Use the volume control on the receiver to see if you accidentally turn it off.

Sound problem has been resolved

Hopefully, after reading our guide, you have figured out the cause of the sound problem. However, if you are still having problems, it is best to contact MacKeeper's premium service. Located in the MacKeeper app, this option allows you to connect with professionals who can troubleshoot and resolve your Mac sound, saving you valuable time and effort. Try it now for quick troubleshooting!

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