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.

AppleCare line went through stuff with me...in my case it was a software issue. Did a soft reset and something else (sorry about foggy memory, this was last week and I was nervous at the time because this was a huge purchase for me) - these actions totally solved the problem.

Well… that’s not great. It’s 100% a software issue. A quick “quit” on the core audio fixes the issue for an hour or so - no need to restart. It kills me that I just tossed 2k at a laptop that crackles new out of the box. Gross… My friends are so impressed… also, I’m keeping activity monitor up so that I can constantly quit the core audio in order to get a reset. Apple, if you’re listening, you know this is my first Mac. I’m not impressed. You’re iPads are amazing though.

I found that restarting the computer, MacBook Pro, M1, 16" resolves the issue for a few days, then it returns, slowly at first, before becoming constant, across browsers, Firefox and Safari, BBC iPlayer, and music.

It is not a hardware issue, so far as I know: Apple Genius carried out an audio test on this computer, and found no issue. He determined it was a software issue, and was convinced that it was not due to conflict with any non-Apple software currently installed on the machine.

I think the best course of action is to report the problem through the Feedback Assistant app. I reported the problem with a link to this forum. A couple of days later someone got back to me asking for information. A reboot will really fix this for a while. But I didn't buy a new Macbook Pro to constantly reboot it, I could have bought a cheap PC.

It has nothing to do with what video quality you are watching or what type of content at all. It can be a simple mp3. I just noticed that this problem depends on what applications are running at the moment. For example, when I turn off the Mos application, clicks happen less often or disappear altogether.

Observing this issue as well on Macbook 16" M1 Pro with MacOS 12.3.1.

Tried all fixed mentioned here and elsewhere and none of them help.

To me it seems that the pops/cracks occure when the Macbook is under (heavy) load. Especially when working with multiple programs open and running multiple Docker containers, the problem becomes very apparent. Closing some programs and immediatly the crackling/popping stops or at least becomes less frequent. The frequency of the "cracks" seem to be related to spikes in load as well.

It is very frustrating to listen to music on the Macbook and for the prices you pay, I would expect a proper response and fix for this problem. This seems to be widespread.

I never have any stuttering like the video from Eratt74.

But what can also be an important point is:

Was the system new installed or was it a migration?

If it was a migration from an Intel Mac, then take a look at the kext extensions and, if necessary, delete old unused ones.

Macintosh HD > Library > extensions

Uninstalling Parallels is one thing I have not tried. I installed it immediately upon receiving the MBP. I hate to think that it is the cause of the problem as I need to run it, but I should remove it and see the results.

Yet I suspect that a lot - if not most - of the posters here are not running Parallels.

Don't forget is it a totally new system with the M1 and is it nearly the same as the switch from ppc to intel.

But the devs are much faster today as in 2006.

Perhaps you have too old audio unit plugins. Update all to M1 compatibility or remove the oldest step by step.

My issues its gone and have tidy the au components too.

There are several factors that depend on it, like the cache, audio prefs and sample rate too.

I have the crack, its random and crackles in all apps that use the speaker. I followed Richies advice and launched the audio midi and changed the setting to 44,100hz,. The sound is slightly less vivid, but the crack seems better less frequent but still there occasionally. Super annoying

The only thing that works, albeit temporarily, is rebooting my laptop. The issue goes away for a few days, then comes back and gets worse over time (more frequent and louder) until I reboot again.

Audio Midi Setup does nothing

I have noticed the same with my Samsung tv connection and after trying some of the tips in this thread that did not change anything in the noisy and bad sound output I noticed a correlation with the screen resolution applied to my Samsung tv as an extension of the desktop and not as a copy of the Macbook screen.

When in some resolutions it would be awful and then get a lot better in other.

I. E. For me 1680x1050 and 1440 x 900 seem to work well, anything else and I get the bad sound issue.

Hope this helps

Hook up the macbook to the external source and restart the mac, then if the sound is still there play around with the screen resolutions and if that still doesnt solve it someone suggested fidgeting with the MIDI sound options.

Just the restart solved the issue for me...

setting to 48,000 fixed the problem immediately and fully.