Recently updated iMac to Catalina; now system recognizes my external speakers and earphones as Digital Out, and type as Optical digital-out port, and there's no sound. Any advice to fix this, please?
Internal speakers work fine.
External speakers work fine on MacBook (Mojave), where they're recognised as external headphones on headphone port, which was what the iMac used to recognise the speakers as previously.
haan286 wrote:
I don't think it's the audio jack itself, because that still works fine on my MacBook Pro, where it is recognised as "External Headphones".
I meant the jack on your iMac. I have a Late 2015 5K that I referred to earlier. The headphone jack has always been problematic. If I don't fuss with the plug inside the jack it will either fail to work or show digital output. Even if I just bump the cable. I try not to.
Try resetting the SMC
Which iMac(year) do you have? FWIW, it's not a Catalina issue. I have a 2.1 Cambridge Audio speaker setup plugged into my 2015 5K iMac through the headphone jack and whether I plug in those or headphones they are listed as "Headphones" in System Preferences > Sound > Output. There may be a physical problem with your headphone jack.
Hi, thanks for your suggestion, and sorry for the long delay in response.
I've tried it, but it didn't work. The iMac still recognises the external speakers as "Digital Out" and "Optical Digital-out port".
I've tried plugging in earphones; same thing, they were also recognised as Digital Out.
I'm wondering if there's a bug with Catalina.
It's just odd that the iMac suddenly has issues recognising an analogue audio jack.
The iMac's a late 2015.
I don't think it's the audio jack itself, because that still works fine on my MacBook Pro, where it is recognised as "External Headphones".
The speakers worked fine on the iMac just prior to updating to Catalina. It was only after updating to Catalina that this issue of being recognised as "Digital Out" cropped up.
Catalina - wrongly recognises my external speakers as Digital Out; no sound
