Macbook pro 16" M1 pro 2021 popping sound OS 12.0.1

Just updated to Ventura and the issue is back, regardless of whether I'm in Light mode or Dark mode...and my current memory swap usage is at 0 bytes so that no longer seems to be a factor! This is ridiculous.

Oh, I had problems. I was going to try to help them track it down but after updating it went away. Mine definitely sounded like an audio buffer glitch. A bit like a stuttering and 'pop' type sound. Truly horrible for a platform that is relied on by audio engineers, DJs, etc.

I tried the fixes that people posted, such as changing sample rate but that didn't work. I'm on MacBook Pro 14" M1 16gb.

I am on Ventura 13.0 and have tried all the proposed solutions. It happens with speakers but also with the Apple earbuds via aux.

This is not the only M1 Macbook I have experienced this on either, on my work laptop the same annoying popping/cracking sounds happen.

What a joke for a laptop in this price range.

Hi, I was buying a new macbook m2 for me and my wife about 2021, unfortunately we also had these problems with the crackling sound!

I would like Apple to somehow fix this situation or compensate for this discomfort! because we are connected with the music and it bothers us a lot! we were also in the diagnostic center and no problems were found there (technically). But the problem remains!

I would be very happy if Apple gave us new MacBooks!

thank you very much! :)

I await your reply and compensation, thank you very much!

I previously reported in this thread that the problem was solved by updating the OS to 12.6.1. However it seems to be not completely solved, it just happens much less frequently now, maybe once a day or two.

Very occasionally I get a "crunch" type of glitch/buffer problem noise as I'm listening to music off my hard drive (VLC) or streaming audio off of Youtube or other services through Chrome.

Unfortunately when it comes to "Pro", and when you pay top $ for a premium product, once is one time too often. I didn't expect that I'd be experiencing fundamental problems like this when I bought a brand new MacBook Pro.

I hope that they can get to the bottom of the issue and completely fix it in future OS updates. It seems to be widespread and not a good look for what is meant to be a top-tier product.

Hi, I did this it helps. But the sounds cracks again returned. It drives me crazy as we need to listen on low level, then the cracks are really audible. Think of sleep music. The cracks would be waking me up so decided to research it. It is a major bummer.

[Edited by Moderator]

That was only a temporary fix. I also tried changing the Format in Audio Midi Setup which also temporarily alleviated it but soon enough the issue returned. I am yet to update to the latest MacOS though.

Hello, deleted plist, all other remedies suggested here. Popping cracks disappear from Music and VLC. However pops are coming when working in premiere on a timeline. After a longer pause a few minutes when I hit a spacebar to get timeline moving, the movement opens up with a pop crack. Interesting is these are a bit different pops each time. I chatted with Apple the guide said to me, "yes, I got it", and I shared with him a link to this thread! When he arranged a call back the girl wanted to take me to SafeMode. Yet due to communication issue, I could not complete the research phase with her at that time. but when I asked the adviser whether she is aware of the issue, she said no.

Hello everyone, after executing everything suggested here, upgraded to Ventura 13.1. Now I get the pops and cracks only sometime, quite rarely. One thing which might be easily overlooked to delete the audio setting .plist files from the trash can and then restart, it worked for me for sometime. Wishing everyone to get this one sorted asap.

Happy new year.

Hi, I got those cracks back again. They become noticeable especially when listening to healing frequencies, meditation soft music etc.

Today I executed this command sugested to reset the audio driver without the need of restart.

sudo launchctl stop com.apple.audio.coreaudiod && sudo launchctl start com.apple.audio.coreaudiod

But crackling sound again appeared.

It looks a huge number of people are affected also on another machines. I sense, this is the last Apple laptop I have bought. Missing Steve Jobs....

It seems that Apple people we speak to on chats or phones are postponing the solution or some are simply unaware of it, hence the standard troubleshooting like restart, reset, upgrade, safe mode procedures, etc are offered.

Since upgrading to Monterey 12.6.1 the cracking/popping has subsided to once or twice every 6 hours. Unfortunately this is too often to be able to use my macbook as a musical performance tool, which was part of the reason I bought it. Can't have that kind of thing happening on stage.

Frequently the crack/pop will occur at the same time as a GUI event, like switching a window, or another event, like changing the volume.

When I talked to support they didn't want to take this thread seriously, saying it's "all over the map", but it looks like an extremely consistent problem from my perspective, but surely a problem with nebulous causes or it would have been fixed by now.

This will my last Macbook sadly, unless they can figure this one out.

My crackling only started about a month ago (December 2022). It happens regardless of whether applications are open or not, whether Internet is connected or not, whether anything is playing or not, and it is intolerable. It crackles more loudly and intensely whenever I perform a command and whenever it performs a function, whether I’m hitting an f–key, waiting for an application to open, or even when I just move the mouse around.

MacBook Pro 13” mid–2012,

macOS Sierra version 10.12.6, all software fully up-to-date.

I took a video but I guess we can’t upload videos here? A screenshot would be of little use for a problem like this.

Best wishes, happy new year, best of luck to all

That’s extremely frustrating to hear. Sometimes when speaking with an unhelpful representative (by phone at least), I can wrap up the conversation, call back, and hopefully get a different rep on the phone who can be more helpful (or at least take me seriously).

maybe they should see the May 2022 article on 9to5Mac titled “2021 MacBook Pro users complain about crackling and popping audio issues.” It reports thousands of user complaints and provides links to numerous discussion threads covering the problem.

Audio and video production are the two reasons I started buying Macs in the first place. What is a Mac without these capabilities? An expensive, slick–looking avant garde word processor? Without audio it’s not even an iPhone.

The fact that this problem has persisted for at least eight years is… Alarming? Unfathomable?

I have an old Sony CD burner from the 90s, and a grey Tascam 424; at least they still work. 😂

How long we have to suffer this ridiculous issue? Okay maybe this is my last Mac computer. What do you recommend to buy for music and coding? :D Let's make this "get rid of mac" discussion...Yeah I'm very frustrated...