Spatial audio not available on MacBook Air m1?

Well I suggest that you reopen your case and contact them showing them this...

with the following link:

https://www.apple.com/ca/macos/monterey/features/ --> refer to footnote 2

"Spatial Audio is available on Mac models (2020 or later) with the M1 chip using internal speakers, wired headphones or AirPods, Intel‑based Mac notebooks (2018 or later) using internal speakers or wired headphones, and Intel‑based iMac (2018 or later) using wired headphones." -Apple Support (twitter)

UPDATE: I spoke to a senior advisor that actually escalated this issue to the engineers (disk image was sent and a follow up was booked). 2020 M1 macs DO have spatial audio support.

If enough people escalate this issue to the engineers we will be able to see this issue actually get resolved!

Hi, I have the same problem and I have done exactly what the guide says however it still doesn't seem to be working

As you can see from the picture, my AirPods show spatial audio as not available (greyed out as well), however the symbol of the song that is playing shows that I am playing in Dolby Atmos quality.

Hi, I have the same problem, but according to this you can only use spatial audio on the new MacBook Pro. Am I reading this correctly? How its possible that an old iPhone 7 can do it, but my new M1 Air can't?

https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT211775

In Your case Ahmed-midou21,

I would try this first to fix AirPods Pro instead of reinstalling whole MacOs:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253307473

Basically reset your AirPods Pro ( I know its says 1.gen but it will work with all AirPods)

Here’s how to do an AirPods reset the right way:

1. Make sure your AirPods are in their case with the lid closed
2. After 30-60 seconds, open the lid of your AirPods case
3. On your iPhone, open the Settings app
4. Select “Bluetooth”
5. Select the “i” next to your AirPods
6. Select “Forget This Device” and confirm your choice
7. With the lid open on your AirPods case, press the small button on the back of the case. Hold it down for 15 seconds until you see the case status light blinking an amber color. Release the button.
8. With the case lid still open, bring your AirPods close to your iPhone to re-pair them

Hello there Madashelluphere,

I see you're looking for information regarding using spatial audio with your Mac, so take a look at the following information to see if this helps.

With spatial audio on a Mac, this ties in with Dolby Atmos on Apple Music. You would be able to continue to use your AirPods Pro; however, not all songs are available with Dolby Atmos. For more information on this, take a look at the section labeled "Choose how to listen to Dolby Atmos on your Mac" of the following resource:

About spatial audio with Dolby Atmos in Apple Music

We hope this is able to help.

Have a great day!

Yes true, it seems to be a bug.

The link from Brandon states it should work on macOS: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212182

(it does for me in every other app except Apple Music)

On the other hand Macs are missing on this page: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211775 (which the Apple Support on the phone just referenced and then tried to explain that Macs are not supported yet)

This should not be the case. This statement would conflict with what their website mentions. I'd be curious to see this reply. https://www.apple.com/ca/macos/monterey/features/ -> read footnote #2

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212182 -> explicit compatibility listed...

The MBP and A are supported. This bug transcends from a compatibility issue.

Same here, and given that the advertising material specifically says 'Dolby Atmos for Apple Music' for these Airpods 3 that I just received, and spatial audio then doesn't actually work for apple music, this is very poor on apple part, what does what on what with regards to this is incredibly confusing.. i was absolutely convinced from reading around beforehand that the airpods3 wouldn't work for atmos spatial using apple tv, yet this works absolutely brilliantly (I honestly kept forgetting i even had headphones on!), and i expected it to almost only work with apple music, and this is one of the only things that DOESN'T work..... get your messaging straight guys

I am having the same issue but mine is worst at least you guys have noise cancelling and transparency mode, me i have nothing and the airpods pro sound quality is ***** in comparison with macos bigsur, i am having few bugs.

i think i will try to go back to mac bigsur, who knows if there will be a new update to fix all the open bug in montery?

Ohk...So I encountered the same problem but the interesting part is Spatialise Stereo works when you are watching movie or a some YouTube but when I switch to music it doesn't work. I think it's an OS fault. Apple should fix this soon. As we know Apple Music is the best to experience Dolby Atmos with Spatial Audio.

Same exact problem with Mac M1 air and Mac M1 pro. When I go to safari it shows me this mode. In Italian it means "Simulate Spatial Audio". In reality the spatial audio is not perceived at all... This appears only in safari. Apple Music does not work. Nothing goes. How nice to pay 1500 for devices and have these shortcomings.... :D

Does anyone have any other solutions? I've read some that resetting the PRAM solved it. On mac m1 it automatically resets on reboot. In manual there is no way to do that. Do someone have Other solutions?

Ok, so I got some consistent behavior to report when tinkering with this. Loading music up does not always produce a consistent playback experience when using my Airpod3s, however I can consistently change the audio quality to "poorly compressed" and "regular stereo" by switching the tab in the sound preferences panel, which I had been doing when originally reporting audio quality issues. So that explains the super bad sound quality I was experiencing. I was probably on the input tab. I have not been able to get spatial audio to work with these airpods. I'll try "forget this device" and re-pairing them.

I'm not sure it's a bug or something, but it seems like Spatial Audio in Apple Music on Mac doesn't works when streaming the music. And now I've found some solutions to use Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos tracks in Apple Music on Mac.

All you need to do are add your interested album to your music library and download them, then you need to play that album from the library (not from Apple Music) and tada! Spatial Audio is now working.

As of today, January 13th, at the Apple Store on my M1 Max Macbook Pro with Airpods 3 (not Airpod Pro) which also support spatial audio, the music app STILL does not support Spatial Audio running the latest OS and music app. I don't know if the Airpod pros ever really had this issue, but the Airpod 3s definitely do and continue to not support spatialized or spatial audio or however you want to say it. It's simply not supported on these.