Sound output reverting to internal speakers after restart

I finally sorted this problem today! I updated to 10.6.2 which didn't resolve the problem so I removed the file: <user>Library/Preferences/com.apple.soundpref.plist
and rebooted and now my sound preferences are remembered.

"Mac OS X Snow Leopard: Sound preferences: output device not saving"

At last someone with the same bug as mine! I can't seem to find many other discussions on this, but I have the same issue with my T.C. Electronic Konnekt8. I have to go into the sound prefs and select my Konnekt 8 as the output device every time I boot! It wasn't a problem in Leopard, but since Snow Leopard it happens.

I've even tried going into library/preferences and erasing all files that might have ANYTHING to do with sound, audio, Core Audio, to no avail. Tried reinstalling in the hope that soomehow the problem would be resolved.

If I open the preferences (.plist) files in textedit, they contain no lines of text that can be manually altered to select another device. I'm not even sure how the iMac knows what device to use in the first place.

TRY THIS THOUGH:
I have created another user account for graphics work rather than audio work. I enter this with "fast user switching" and even though I haven't changed the output prefs in my startup account, the other account seems to detect the Konnekt 8 automatically!

I haven't tried copying the sound and core audio prefs from one account to the other yet, but will try soon!

I have an Intel iMac 24" Mid-2008 model.
I should mention the Konnekt 8 is a FireWire 400 device, and I have 2 external hard drives konnekted too, but they are in my FireWire 800 port.

I have finally fixed my problem that most are having on this forum!! I tried several of the solutions plus a full, fresh re-install to another drive without success. What finally worked for me was:

1. created a second admin account.
2. logged into #2 admin account and set output device (Line Out)
3. tried logging in and out between #1 and #2 admin accounts -- sound always reverted back to Internal....hmmm frustrated here, ready to give up.
4. I inspected preferences between accounts and noticed my #1 admin account was missing the Audio folder in [/Library/Preferences] with the 2 plist files. I had deleted the folder during my earlier attempts as was suggested in this forum. The Audio folder was present in the #2 admin account.
5. I copied the #2 admin account Audio folder to the #1 admin account [/Library/Preferences] folder.
6. I changed the sound setting output to Line Out.
7. I logged out and logged in and the sound did NOT revert back to Internal!!
8. I then restarted as a final test, and it was still correct (Line Out)!

Oddly, the time stamp on the 2 plist files has not changed from when I copied them to the #1 admin account. Strange. I wonder where the sound settings are actually kept and why the file time stamps have not changed?

I am not going to touch any sound settings for fear I will break them. Tomorrow is another day and who knows, it probably won't work. I'm crossing my fingers.

Good luck to the rest of you.

Update to my post, I made a mistake in my previous steps. I made an error on where the Audio folder came from. Ignore my previous steps, they should be:

1. I inspected preferences between my 2 installations (the original and the new install) and noticed my #1 admin account was missing the Audio folder in [/Library/Preferences] with the 2 plist files. I had deleted the folder during my earlier attempts as was suggested in this forum. The Audio folder was present in the new install.
2. I copied the new install's Audio folder to the #1 admin account [/Library/Preferences] folder.
3. I changed the sound setting output to Line Out.
4. I logged out and logged in and the sound did NOT revert back to Internal!!
5. I then restarted as a final test, and it was still correct (Line Out)!
6. I have even done a full shutdown and startup up and it still works.

Sorry about the messed up steps in the first post. I had been trying so many things I temporarily forgot which folder I made the copy from.

BMGoss,

So the only way to fix this is through a fresh install, sorry you lost me!
Is there a way to change the sound plists to save the right thing?

Mahalo!

@mauikekai,

no, you shouldn't need to do a fresh install. I only used a copy of the Audio plist files from the fresh install to resolve my problem. I used those files on my existing installation (my existing installation is a new Snow Leopard install with a migration from Leopard that was then updated to 10.5.6). I think the migration aspect is what caused my problems with the 10.5.6 update. Perhaps using the clean install Audio plist files cleaned up the migration issue on my existing installation.

I'm not sure if the clean plist files can be posted somewhere for you to download and use on your existing installation. I don't know how to "reset" existing plist files. Any ideas how this can be done?

Hello all, i also have this problem.

And after deleting the plist files and the caches i tried putting them back from my laptop because the werent recreated by the os itself.

Now i find something new so i might be on my own here but in my lib/prefs audio folder it holds 4 files instead of 2.

The 2 files that should be there and duplicates with ~orig behind the plist.

Wich ones shuld i delete now, tried deleting the whole folder before that just made it disapear and did not get recreated after a restart , so i think thats no solution.

Well since i got no answer fast i tought ill just ty some things and see what happens, and it worked for me.

I only deleted the 2 plist files that did NOT have ~orig behind it and the set my audio prefs again, and then i saw it make a new plist file, i then restarted my mac and there was the 2nd new plist and everything seems fine now.

At the end i end up with 4 files in the audio folder located in library>prefs>audio, device settings and system settings plists and 2 more that have the ~orig behind it and my problem is solved.

Maybe this clears somethings up.

I did an upgrade from leopard no clean install, but this was the only problem i had so far while updating.

When we are at 10.6.4 i might do a clean install but for now i'm happy with my system as it is 😉.

Talked to Tech support yesterday and they act as though they have not heard of this problem. Tried all the usual stuff including PRAM reset... nothing. It was suggested that I reinstall S. Leopard, but to no avail. Anyone found any other answers. I have tried everything here and nothing has worked.

Would anyone who seems to have gotten it to work want to copy and paste their audio plists here so that I may give it a try? I have even gone back in time machine and restored the plists from a previous date to no avail.

Mahalo

Message was edited by: mauikekai

@
mauikekai

below is the contents of one of my plist files: com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist

the other file is much longer, and I didn't want to clutter up the forum with such long content. For this file, try the following:

1. copy the contents below into a new TextEdit file and save it with the name above.
2. go to the Library/Preferences folder and rename the Audio folder Audio-OLD
3. create a new folder in Library/Preferences and call it Audio
4. copy and paste the new plist file you created in step 1 above into the new Audio folder
5. restart your Mac and see what happens
6. if the setting is Internal speakers, try changing the setting and restart again
7. check to see if the restarts created the second plist file
8. check to see if the new plist file's contents have changed from what is below - verifying that the system is writing to this file.
9. if that doesn't work, I see how I can send/post the other file.

I wonder if there is a permissions problem on some of the system files that is preventing settings being saved. If you haven't already done so, you may want to verify/repair them in Disk Utility.

====insert text below into new file: com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>0</key>
<dict>
<key>current default input device</key>
<string>AppleUSBAudioEngine:OmniVision Technologies, Inc.538-2640-08.09.09.1:Monitor Webcam:fd510000:3</string>
<key>current default output device</key>
<string>AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,2:0</string>
<key>current default system output device</key>
<string>AppleHDAEngineOutput:0</string>
</dict>
<key>501</key>
<dict>
<key>current default input device</key>
<string>AppleUSBAudioEngine:OmniVision Technologies, Inc.538-2640-08.09.09.1:Monitor Webcam:fd510000:3</string>
<key>current default output device</key>
<string>AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,3:1</string>
<key>current default system output device</key>
<string>AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,3:1</string>
<key>primary default output device</key>
<string>AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,3:1</string>
<key>primary default system output device</key>
<string>AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,3:1</string>
<key>secondary default output device</key>
<string>AppleHDAEngineOutput:1</string>
<key>secondary default system output device</key>
<string>AppleHDAEngineOutput:1</string>
</dict>
<key>version</key>
<integer>1</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

BMGoss,

Thanks for posting the plist, but it looks nothing like mine must have something to do with different configs.

Thanks. After doing a fresh install on Apple Techs advice I am still experiencing the same problem. Just about exhausted with this problem.

I finally found the root cause of my problems for this. The problem for me is with *file permissions* on the 2 Audio plist files. For some reason during the 10.5.6 upgrade they are not set properly. Looking at the all the answers on the forum that seemed worked for one reason or another confirm they are related to file permissions.

I also have a permanent, reasonably easy fix for it. To fix the permission problem, you need to change the ownership of the files as described below.

========================
Launch Terminal from Utilities folder. This automatically logs you in as yourself.

To change file ownership, your need to switch login as root. Follow the commands in bold. I left the detailed listing so you can see what to expect. You can copy and paste the bold text into Terminal as they are to save retyping.

Note the ownership change from "brent" to "_coreaudiod"

unix$ *sudo -i*
password: *type your normal user password here*

unix# *cd /Library/Preferences/Audio*
unix# *ls -l*
-rw-r--r-- 1 brent admin 3149 11 Nov 22:17 com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 brent admin 1363 11 Nov 13:06 com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist

unix# *chown _coreaudiod com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist*

unix# *chown _coreaudiod com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist*

unix# *ls -l*
-rw-r--r-- 1 _coreaudiod admin 3149 11 Nov 22:17 com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 _coreaudiod admin 1363 11 Nov 13:06 com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist

unix# exit

quit Terminal
=============================================
*all the commands without the surrounding text* for easy copy & paste

sudo -i
cd /Library/Preferences/Audio
ls -l
chown _coreaudiod com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist
chown _coreaudiod com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist
ls -l
exit
=============================================

change your Sound Output setting
see if the timestamp changes on: com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist
the other plist will change after restart
restart your Mac and see if it works

good luck!

If this fails for some reason, I have another way of changing the setting that works but is not preferred. You can edit the plist directly to change the Sound Output but it is harder to do and does not sync with System Preference changes.

BMGoss,

YOU ARE THE MAN!

Funny, Apple knew it was a permissions problem but their only answer was to do a fresh install which worked until I migrated my user info over and the problem came with it. I was pulling my hair out and I dont have much left.

Thank you very much!

After days of frustration, this solution worked for me. Many thanks!

If I don't have the Library/Preferences/Audio folder (which I don't), how exactly do I get it or create it? I did a fresh install on my computer and then migrated over my old setup, but that folder doesn't seem to exist, and as such the above solution doesn't work for me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.