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Safari & YouTube on Big Sur 11.3.1 = distorted clicking audio

Not sure if this is a YouTube or Safari problem, but I'm having the most annoying YouTube playback issue with distorted audio. At first I thought my new speakers were bad, but YouTube videos play perfectly on other browsers. In Safari, my browser of choice, there's a VERY noticeable clicking/crackling sound.

This distortion does not occur in other browsers. Only Safari.

Safari has no problems with Vimeo or other video environments, only YouTube (that I've found so far).

I started noticing this crackling about a month ago.

I'm on a late 2015 iMac, Big Sur 11.3.1

iMac 27″, macOS 11.3

Posted on Jul 7, 2021 7:53 AM

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Top-ranking reply

Level 10

83,952 points

Posted on Jul 7, 2021 7:59 AM

Go step by step and test.

1. Update Safari, if an update is available. Update may come with bug fixes.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204416

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201541

2. Quit Safari, launch Safari holding the Shift key down.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203987

3. Startup in Safe Mode. https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/start-up-your-mac-in-safe-mode-mh21245/mac.

Quote:

It also does a basic check of your startup disk, similar to using First Aid in Disk Utility.

And it deletes some system caches, including font caches and

the kernel cache, which are automatically created again as needed.

4. Clear History

https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/clear-your-browsing-history-sfri47acf5d6/mac

Please read the article before clearing history,

this is like a low level resetting of Safari without affecting passwords and bookmarks.

5. If Safari doesn't open a webpage or isn’t working as expected

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204098

6. Reset PRAM: Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

Settings that can be stored in NVRAM include sound volume, display resolution, startup-disk selection, time zone,

and recent kernel panic information.

The settings stored in NVRAM depend on your Mac and the devices that you're using with your Mac.

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1 reply

Top-ranking reply

Level 10

83,952 points

Jul 7, 2021 7:59 AM in response to Clint Turcotte

Go step by step and test.

1. Update Safari, if an update is available. Update may come with bug fixes.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204416

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201541

2. Quit Safari, launch Safari holding the Shift key down.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203987

3. Startup in Safe Mode. https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/start-up-your-mac-in-safe-mode-mh21245/mac.

Quote:

It also does a basic check of your startup disk, similar to using First Aid in Disk Utility.

And it deletes some system caches, including font caches and

the kernel cache, which are automatically created again as needed.

4. Clear History

https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/clear-your-browsing-history-sfri47acf5d6/mac

Please read the article before clearing history,

this is like a low level resetting of Safari without affecting passwords and bookmarks.

5. If Safari doesn't open a webpage or isn’t working as expected

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204098

6. Reset PRAM: Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

Settings that can be stored in NVRAM include sound volume, display resolution, startup-disk selection, time zone,

and recent kernel panic information.

The settings stored in NVRAM depend on your Mac and the devices that you're using with your Mac.

Reply

Safari & YouTube on Big Sur 11.3.1 = distorted clicking audio

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