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Big Sur upgrade FaceTime no audio on MBP

FaceTime was working perfectly until I upgraded to Big Sur yesterday. When I call iPads running iOS 12 they can hear me but I cannot hear them? Sound output is set up correctly. It works OK on Zoom and MS Team. iPad to iPad no problems. Any ideas? Big Sur is also draining the battery very quickly... reset SMC & PRAM made no difference.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.0

Posted on Nov 14, 2020 2:26 AM

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Posted on Dec 24, 2020 3:38 PM

Classic in OSX for the past 15 years... Most usually a simple reset of CoreAudio will do the job.


The simplest way (even if a bit weird for the non technical person) remains easy. Just copy and paste the following commands in the Terminal App (Found in Applications > Utilities > Terminal App).


Without going too much in details, open the Terminal app, copy the first command, enter your password, wait for the command to complete and then enter the second command. Your password should be "remembered" for the second one...


This first command will kill the audio system

sudo killall coreaudiod


This second command will restart the audio system

sudo launchctl start com.apple.audio.coreaudiod


Worst case, after just restart your Mac and check the apps in question.


Cheers.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 24, 2020 3:38 PM in response to herbyherbs

Classic in OSX for the past 15 years... Most usually a simple reset of CoreAudio will do the job.


The simplest way (even if a bit weird for the non technical person) remains easy. Just copy and paste the following commands in the Terminal App (Found in Applications > Utilities > Terminal App).


Without going too much in details, open the Terminal app, copy the first command, enter your password, wait for the command to complete and then enter the second command. Your password should be "remembered" for the second one...


This first command will kill the audio system

sudo killall coreaudiod


This second command will restart the audio system

sudo launchctl start com.apple.audio.coreaudiod


Worst case, after just restart your Mac and check the apps in question.


Cheers.

Nov 16, 2020 12:43 PM in response to Real_Chosen

I seem to be having the same problem. Today I discovered that when I start an audio phone call from my iMac (using my iPhone) there is no audio, but the audio histogram in the phone notification pane indicates that audio is being received. When I checked my audio settings the correct input (Internal Microphone) and output (Headphones) were selected. I discovered that by switching the audio output to any other destination, and then switching it back to Headphones the audio came back and worked normally for the duration of the call. I've been able to replicate the behaviour several times.

Dec 15, 2020 7:45 PM in response to herbyherbs

I have same/similar problem. After upgrading to Big Sur on my iMac I can no longer make calls from my computer via my iPhone as I could prior to upgrade. My computer microphone is registering background sound but call is not ringing or connecting even though it registers a missed call on recipients phone.

Also I can no longer preview saved video's in my photo albums since upgrading.

I received another upgrade today which I hoped would solve this problem, but it did not.

Jan 2, 2021 11:58 AM in response to Glenn Samson

A short update... I tried again, and to my surprise, audio now works as expected in FaceTime. No updates to either Big Sur or FaceTime have been applied but...

Since installing Big Sur I have been experiencing a plethora of issues. During troubleshooting I cleared all caches (more than once - thanks Onyx) found and deleted old 32bit kexts, etc (thanks EtreCheck) and deleted may old and unused applications. Many, but not all, of my original problems with Big Sur have either been resolved or greatly improved after the purge.

It would be good to know if this process helps others with the FaceTime audio issue.

Big Sur upgrade FaceTime no audio on MBP

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