Occasionally (once every 5 starts) my iMac has no volume. It requires a restart to correct this. After which the volume returns as normal.
I don't have any external speakers or other hardware connected.
This is an annoying waste of time but not a critical problem so I've put up with it for several months.
Has anyone else experienced this and know if there's a fix?
iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 10.14
Try resetting the NVRAM, as per > https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063
Try resetting the NVRAM, as per > https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063
I actually experienced this also, like you said not all the time, but enough to be annoying. And I would look through the volume settings and everything appeared normal. No explanation.
Anyhow, I regularly have a speaker plugged in through the headphone jack. So I would just reach behind, and unplug it for a moment, and then plug it back in, and it would be resolved. -Yes, another tedious work around, but much quicker than having to do a full Restart.
The computer knows when something is plugged in or not and changes the output in settings. My guess, is that the action of unplugging and replugging is enough to get the system thinking about it, and reset the sound card driver.
So maybe if you don't normally have anything plugged in and just rely on the internal speakers, you could test this by having a cheap set of old school ear buds laying around. Next time it happens, plug them in and take them out. See if that's a quicker work around. Good luck.
this had worked from 2nd June 2020 until today. so I was back to "no volume".
It had worked every day so seems like a temporary improvement but no permanent fix
Intermittent 'no volume' on iMac
