MacBook Pro 2021 M1 crackling sound from Apple TV app

I opened up my console app and let the logs roll by. I waited to hear the audio problem and tracked it down in the logs based on the timestamp. I believe this is the actual error:  

Process: Music Message: HALC_ProxyIOContext::IOWorkLoop: skipping cycle due to overload

I'm going to try to talk to Apple support tomorrow about this and see if this leads somewhere.

TL;DR It's a known software issue. Try reinstalling mac os. How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

I started having this issue on a 2021 16" M1 Macbook Pro -- any audio I played (Youtube, video conferencing, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Netflix) would occasionally crackle. This would happen on the laptop speakers, through external speakers over HDMI and with my Airpods. Super annoying for a $3k premium laptop.

I took it in to the Apple store. The Genius said this is a known issue and is software related. He ran a hardware test and didn't find any issues. He recommended these troubleshooting steps:

1. Update to the latest version
2. Reinstall the OS (this keeps all your apps and data)
3. Fresh reinstall
4. Wait for an update from Apple

I was on the latest OS so reinstalled Mac OS (How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support) and so far it sounds good! No more crackling sounds. It's was pretty painless to reinstall OS -- took a couple of unattended hours and my system started up just as it was before the reinstall.

Now hopefully they'll release a more permanent fix to this in the next OS release!

Nothing helped me to solve issue. Tried everything suggested and still crackling sound on 16-inch M1 Pro in all apps, Apple TV, Apple Music, Youtube all browsers. Very annoying. Hope fix will be soon.

I found something in another forum that has worked for me so far... for the crackling and the volume issue. It's only been about a week since I did it, so the crackling might come back, but I wanted to share this now for other poor souls suffering the crackling.

From MacBook Pro 13" with M1 - Volume is way t… - Apple Community

Hey AzoreanFox,

It sounds like you have a concern with the MacBook Pro and audio crackling when in fullscreen.

Try setting up a new user account for testing purposes. Here's how to create a new user account for testing purposes: Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac. If it doesn't happen in the test user account, the issue could be caused by a third-party program or certain settings on the main user account. 

Keep us updated!

Hello. I experienced this issue a while ago. First noticed it on 15 February where I was trying to show off my fancy new laptop with its incredible speakers. I thought it was glitch and carried on. I watch most things with my AirPods as I have a 10 month old and a girlfriend that blames me for waking her. Its not sound the wakes her but its easier to use AirPods. Anyway. I noticed it today on the apple event. I have therefore come to the conclusion that it is for Dolby Atmos things. If I watch the event on the apple website, Apple Events - March 2022 - Apple ,the sound is poppy and crackly. If I watch it on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUwg_JoNHpo there is not an issue YouTube doesn't do Atmos.. Another test is if you try the Family: season 1 trailer for see it wont do it, I know this isn't Atmos as my Soundbar tells me when using the app on the tv. But if you watch the one for season 2 "A Good Man" It does do it.

Now so far putting it on 48000Hz has fixed it. but I thought I would share this thought to see if you are finding the same thing.

I have a 2021 14" MacBook Pro with M1 Pro and 8gb Ram. With Mac OS 12.2.1

The release notes for Monterey 12.3 briefly mention a fix for audio distortion with the apple tv app: What's new in the updates for macOS Monterey - Apple Support probably worth upgrading and seeing if it fixes it (I haven't yet). The annoying thing about this problem is that after a restart it often doesn't seem to start to reoccur for me for a few days.

"Oh nice, lots of replies, I wonder if someone has found a solution to the audio issue".

/me finds two pages of off-topic mouse related stuff.

I guess not then.

(also that wasn't really aimed at lobsterghost1, it just happens I clicked that reply button because this forums is weird)

Eratt74 wrote:

I reinstalled my M1 max 32GB with Montery 12.4 only native program except latest chrome version and (beta) teams with native Apple Silicon support (Used Rosetta 2 supported earlier). I have used the machine for at couple of days, and with several programs and browsers open, playing music videoes from youtube cracling is still present after some time (typically after 30mins-3 hours). Please fix this Apple!

This is a user to user only forum. Asking Apple to do anything here gets you nothing.

You can ask Apple to look into this yourself, via this link --> Feedback - MacBook Pro - Apple

I'll add my voice to the chorus here as this seems to be the largest thread I've found so far on this issue (granted I've only just started looking harder).

• My issue is system-wide - not just the Apple TV app. Music, Youtube videos in Safari, Quicktime, etc.
• It's happening on 2 different 2021 MacBook Pro with M1 Pro.
• My personal machine I had first and thought it was Soundsource (Rogue Amoeba app), but uninstalling didn't fix the problem.
• I started a new job recently and they sent me a very similarly configured MBP. Problem showed up pretty quickly, but before even installing Soundsource.
• The problem has spanned at least 12.2, 12.2.1 and into 12.3. I don't recall it happening before, but maybe I didn't notice it as I wasn't even using my personal maching to playback a lot of videos or music when I first bought it (iPad or iPhone usually). So I'm not sure if an update introduced it or it was there prior to 12.2 (I think my personal machine I started at 12.0.1 whereas my work machine was already at 12.2).
• I check Audio MIDI Setup and I was already at 48Khz. Toggling to 44.1 and back hasn't fixed it.
• I'm going to boot my personal MBP into Safe Mode and leave it there for a while to see if it is something I may have installed.
• I did notice the same message in the Console logs mentioned in a post earlier (Music  HALC_ProxyIOContext::IOWorkLoop: skipping cycle due to overload), but also I see Messages had the same message and it's neither a warning nor error so I have a feeling that is a red herring.
• I will log a ticket with Apple Support.

This is not likely to be hardware.

There are two distinct issues here:

1. Crackling noises when you use the Apple TV app in full screen. The noises stop when viewing Apple TV in a window. That is what this discussion is about.
2. Intermittent pops and clicks whenever a sound (from any application) is played.

Issue 1 can sometimes be fixed by using the Audio Midi Setup app. This suggests a software issue.

Issue 2 cannot be fixed as far as we know. It might be a hardware issue. You should return your MacBook or hand it in for service.

I have the same issue. The following fixes have not worked for me:

• Deleting the core-audio preferences
• Changing the Hz using the Midi tool
• Killing various processes like Siri and CoreAudio, etc
• Restarting

The one "fix" that has worked is using a different user than my main account. I didn't appear to suffer the issue at all when I tested.

This suggests it is indeed a setup issue, some config or process unique to my user. However this isn't really a "fix" as such, because my main account is my main account, and has a lot of stuff in it setup for work, I can't just "use a different user", it'd be a really big task to get a new user account back to where my main one is, and by doing so I may well reintroduce the issue anyway!

Really hoping Apple can work out what's triggering this and either fix it or advise us here on what to do.

This is definitely a big issue that Apple needs to investigate and address.

I've had 3 MBPs since 2013, and after several months of owning a M1 Pro MBP 16", it's started having persistent audio crackling issues.

9to5Mac published a story this week about it, and lots of reports show that it's a very common issue:

https://9to5mac.com/2022/05/10/2021-macbook-pro-users-complain-about-crackling-and-popping-audio-issues/

Here's a video exhibiting the problem:

https://youtu.be/ZRez2VKsMm8

• it seems to be software-related, and likely due to memory pressure, or de-prioritization of audio
• I always have lots of apps open (Chrome with 50 tabs, Figma, Docker, Slack, PHPstorm, Lightroom) - so full memory usage is a constant part of my Mac experience
• I've never had any audio problems before this 32Gb M1 Pro MBP (previously had a 2013 MBP and 2018 MBP, both top-end specs)
• it affects any audio sources (videos in VLC, YouTube, music, notification sounds)
• When using AirPods Pro to listen to the same video that has crackling, the audio also glitches (not popping/crackling, but lots of gaps and hiccups) - strongly suggesting that it's a MBP software issue, and not hardware/speakers
• notification sound (e.g. "ping" with long reverb) can sometimes warble/glitch as it plays on
• a notification "ping" came in while watching a video in VLC, and the video's audio was garbled/distorted constantly thereafter (required an app restart)
• I've tried setting the Audio MIDI to 48k, with no impact
• I've tried killing coreaudiod process, with no impact
• After reboot, I can play audio without crackling for a while (sometimes a couple of hours) - however, the audio crackling/popping returned, and persisted.

MacBook Pro (16 pouces, 2021)

MacOs Monterey 12.3.1

What worked for my case :

1. (Menu Bar): Go > Computer > Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences > Audio
2. Delete the com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist and com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist files
3. Empty trash
4. Restart your computer

I'm having the same issue, except it is a brand new Macbook Pro 2021 and the sound is crackly every time I try connecting to my TV via AppleTV, regardless of fullscreen or not.

It sounds totally fine with my older Macbook Air so it is unfortunate that the brand new laptop isn't connecting the audio well.

I tried a different test account with the same result.