Hello,
I'm experiencing a cracking noise using facetime on mac, sometimes it gets clean, other times the audio interrupts completely. The receiving party is experiencing the same issue. No such problem using iphone or ipad with the same device on the other side. This is happening since the macos monterey 12.1, rolled out on 14.dec.2021.
My device: MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015)
Any thougths?
MacBook Air
Have been having the same issue as described by OP. In my case it was on a 27" 2019 iMac. Called Apple Care who sent me to (a very helpful) authorised partner who ran diagnostics (which showed audio system all OK) and then tried reinstalling macOS. This didn't resolve the issue and the next fix was going to be to roll back MacOS to Catalina. Decided that this wasn't worth the inconvenience.
This evening I also tried various combinations of headphone use (with and without microphone built into the headphones). This further isolated the issue to the speakers.
Looked at the Audio MIDI and noticed that the Speakers were set to 48k Hz, while the Microphone was set to 44.1k Hz. Compared with my Macbook pro which showed both at 48k Hz, so tried matching them. 48 k Hz didn't fix the issue - 44.1 k Hz does the job.
Very happy to end the day having fixed a *very* annoying, and seemingly difficult to troubleshoot issue!
Have been having the same issue as described by OP. In my case it was on a 27" 2019 iMac. Called Apple Care who sent me to (a very helpful) authorised partner who ran diagnostics (which showed audio system all OK) and then tried reinstalling macOS. This didn't resolve the issue and the next fix was going to be to roll back MacOS to Catalina. Decided that this wasn't worth the inconvenience.
This evening I also tried various combinations of headphone use (with and without microphone built into the headphones). This further isolated the issue to the speakers.
Looked at the Audio MIDI and noticed that the Speakers were set to 48k Hz, while the Microphone was set to 44.1k Hz. Compared with my Macbook pro which showed both at 48k Hz, so tried matching them. 48 k Hz didn't fix the issue - 44.1 k Hz does the job.
Very happy to end the day having fixed a *very* annoying, and seemingly difficult to troubleshoot issue!
Hello AdvisorMp,
Thanks for the swift response.
I tried what you've suggested, created a new user and made a facetime call using that. Same problem.
Then I returned to the main user and tried transferring a phone(mobile) call from the Iphone to the mac. Same problem.
BTW no distorted sound listening to music on the mac for ex.
I tested facetime with airpods, i can say, it was quite clean, however the audio quality was somewhat low, but no interruptions or distortions.
I made a voice memo and the sound was distorted on the recording. Tried with different settings on the input volume. Did not help. The volume setting works, but the distortion aka cracking noise was still present regardless (not with the 0 input though=completely silent).
I've restarted the mac and remade the voice memo and this time the recording was clean. Tested the facetime and works fine now.
I guess there was something wrong with the audio driver after the os update. Should have tried restarting the machine, but we're not used to do that on a mac, when we experience a problem. Lesson learned.
Thanks for your time, all the best!
Might have fixed the issue for me, launched Audio MIDI setup app and changed built in output format to 44,100 hz from 48,000 hz. Only difference between my iMac and my MacBook air that never had the issue.
This is a complaint on multiple Forums since os 12.1 (12.2 and 12.3 did not fix it for us either).
Here is the fix:
Go to Library>Preferences>Audio and delete all files in the Audio folder. You must have quit Facetime before you do this. Then start FaceTime and the problem will be fixed.
Please have Apple add this info to your troubleshooting page.
I'm having the same problem after Monterey update, now on 12.2 BUT I found a workaround - kill the coreaudiod process - easiest from to go to the Utilities app -> Activity Monitor and search for the process name, then click on it and click the stop sign in the menu bar (it restarts automatically). Doesn't work forever, though, it reverts to crackly at some point. Haven't figured out when yet.
I used the Audio MIDI Setup app on the Mac to change the audio output format to 44,100 Hz as Ty suggested a couple of messages back and now FaceTime audio is all good again.
Here's what worked for me:
same issue on iMac 2019. only started since Monterey 12.1 upgrade. only impacts FaceTime (and google hangouts) MS teams, Zoom and music fine on speakers. issue not present with AirPods connected. Took Mac into apple store, they agree its a Monterey issue...fingers crossed for 12.2...
Try changing your Midi settings for internal speakers to 44,100hz, then restart your Mac.
It should work after the reboot.
Didn't realise there was a 12.2 version, updated and that seems to have solved the problem!
Opened a terminal window and executed sudo killall coreaudiod.
On the 2nd attempt it worked.
Stopping coreaudiod with sudo killall from terminal worked for me as well.
I was able to resolved my issue via terminal using the command sudo killall coreaudiod hope apple fix this i thought it was a hardware issue
Thanks all,
Audio output fixed to 44,100 fixed the issue also on my imac 27’
Thanks for getting in touch, LOL2020.
You mentioned a cracking noise when using FaceTime on your MacBook Air. We can help.
We'd like to have you create a test user on your Mac and test to see if the issue happens in the new user. This will help with isolating this issue.
Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac
If the issue remains, can you provide some more details? Does this only happen with FaceTime, or when using other apps to play audio as well? Is this only happening with one contact, or all contacts?
Let us know, and we'll go from there.
Cracking noise Facetime on mac
