Macbook pro 16" M1 pro 2021 popping sound OS 12.0.1

Switching the output format down to 44khz seems to have fixed the issue for me too. Fingers crossed!

My previous Macbook pro (2016) had similar issues - only far worse, so it's been a solid 6 years of high priced hardware with unusable built in audio... Hopefully no more :D

I tried changing the bitrate in the midi settings. It seemed to fix it for a time, but it came back and there were issues with surround sound audio playback on movies. Put it back to 48khz fixed that issue. Then I tried deleting those files, but it eventually came back. I have ended up using this:

sudo launchctl stop com.apple.audio.coreaudiod 

when I start hearing the pops. This restarts the core audio daemon which has the side effect of tossing and recreating those preferences files and avoiding the restart. Try that...

I would say Class Action Size. It's outrageous. The amount of boasting Apple does about the quality of their new Macbookpro speakers only to have them pop at every turn. The company has made no effort to address it.

I'm looking to contact some of the Apple media sites.

I'm experiencing the popping/crackling sound on the Macbook Pro (16-inch, 2021) which I just purchased recently (April 2022) which is disappointing given this is my first Mac purchase after previously owning a Macbook Pro (Mid 2012) which had been pretty much flawless since I bought it.

It would be interesting to hear from other people which specific applications or platforms this is happening on. I've tried a couple of suggestions that people have mentioned here such as changing the audio frequency and deleting the coreaudio plist. None have worked so far but I have noticed that the popping/crackling sounds only seem to happen when I'm playing YouTube videos. As a contrast, if I'm playing content from most streaming services, it doesn't happen. I am using FireFox 99.0.1 (64-bit) to watch this content. Does this only happen when watching/playing content through web browsers?

After reading this thread, I feel like there hasn't been a great deal of concern or effort on Apple's part to fix this issue; especially given this device is a "Pro" device and people are probably using it for high end audio applications. With that said, it shouldn't be crackling or popping even if it's a consumer level device. There's definitely something wrong here.

I originally had links to Reddit posts but since those apparently violate some rule, please go to reddit and search for:

MacBook Pro 16 2021 audio crackling issue

MacBook Pro speakers crackling and popping

Look for u/[deleted] with 371 comments and 191 upvotes or u/DailyDoseOfHighlight with 56 comments and 39 upvotes. But really any of the dozens of posts would work since they have the same information about changing MIDI and deleting plist files.

New MacBook m1pro 16”. Having this issue too with all various midi format settings.

Definitely not a fun surprise with an expensive machine that advertises great quality sound. I’ve never had this with a MacBook before including previous MacBook Pro (intel) and M1 air.

This is a very old issue that has been around for 5 years at least.

One surefire way to trigger it is to open the iPhone simulator from Xcode, leave it running for awhile, and then try making a Zoom video call. The sound will start to crackle like crazy after you've been talking for 5 minutes.

Open Music and check if the equaliser is switched on or off. If on, switch it off. I did this last night, and the clicking and flatus ceased immediately. I re-activated the equaliser and the flatus immediately returned, switched it off and the distortions vanished. The equaliser is off now, and, so far, no noise distortions. Fingers crossed.

switching Midi to 44000 has been the only reprieve for my machine. This isn't a permanent fix however as it does eventually come back. I switch it to 96000 and it goes away for a short time as well.

I love these speakers when they work...but the cracking and persistence of this issue definitely doesn't look good on Apple. I don't need their Pro products specifically and will be thinking twice before purchasing another one (I don't have this issue on an Silicon 13inch MBP).

[Edited by Moderator]

Glad that turning the equalizer off fixed it for you. My equalizer was off so I tried enabling it but that didn't help. It doesn't seem to matter if it is on or off.

Crazy that a machine that special emphasis was put on how great the speakers are has an issue that makes playing sound worse than a $200 Chromebook.

Hello All,

Got the Same issue ! The sound cracking when I play the song from different sources...

I change the frequency but the same problem... I think it's a software problem because I haven't got this problem before the last update :/

Had the same issue on my MacBook 16" M1 Pro 2021.

'codeaudiod' process had lots of system calls and consumed 2x30% of high-efficiency CPU cores (total CPU consumption was low).

The symptoms gone after removing '/Library/Preferences/Audio/com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist' and '/Library/Preferences/Audio/com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist' followed by the MacBook reboot.

Looks like some kind of the audio settings migration failure since my MacOS and MacBook passed 10 years of upgrades.

Another data point to add: since upgrading to 12.4 mine hasn't made the noise. Since Apple has been completely silent on this issue I'm not confident it is fixed and suspect it is a matter of time before it returns.

This is crazy-making. I bought a 14" M1 Pro MacBook Pro 32GB/2TB in March, and had no issues for about two months. All of the sudden, I started getting crackling and popping in just about any audio, even through two different USB audios interface to headphones. Since one of the main things I do with the computer is playing around with music in Logic/Studio One, this is not good. I've tried some of the "solutions" people have posted - some don't work at all (killing coreaudiod), some seem to work until they don't (changing to 44.1KHz from 48KHz), some I still have to try (deleting the plist files) and have a feeling they'll only work temporarily.

I wish I knew why everything was fine for several weeks, and what happened to cause the issue to rear its ugly head.

Yes, I get it on the MBP M1 (2021 16") speakers and on AMPro's too, Apple Music, YouTube, Teams calls, everything

I've tried all the fixes, it keeps coming back

Disgraceful form Apple - not that they care