Macbook pro 16" M1 pro 2021 popping sound OS 12.0.1

For me it's rare except when a memory swap (not cpu load) is in progress.

One easy way for me to reproduce it is to have audio playing and then plugging in or unplugging an external monitor. Then the popping is guaranteed until all the window placements are completed.

Additional info: I just tried listening to a synthesizer played into the Focusrite interface into Logic, and i did not detect any audio glitching from that. So, it seems like external audio sources are not affected, but software instruments used in Logic ARE also included in the issue.

Someone suggested maybe bluetooth devices might be the culprit, but i deactivated my Kensington Turbo trackball, and that didn't resolve anything.

Nevermind. I restarted and flushed the PRAM and my glitching seems to have stopped. Also, my System Updater is now showing that 12.5 IS available, when previously it had said i was up to date. So, lots of weirdness going on, and i guess the audio glitching was just a part of that.

I have this same issue. Got the mac yesterday. Same model (Macbook pro 16" M1 pro 2021) and Monterey 12.5...

Sounds like a record playing skipping! I notice it pops when I initiate a intensive task, such as clicking a blur filter in lightroom, or moving and placing an image in photoshop: a record skipping pop interrupts whatever I am listening too.

The speakers are so awesome, I hope they figure this out 😬

I am going to watch activity monitor see if I can corroborate what @pardise pete is saying about swap pop!!!

#swappopgate

On boy, I have this issue too. I have the 14" M1PRO 8C, and I have cracking/popping when using many Chrome Tabs and Also Visual Studio Code ( I am a programmer ). It is extremely annoying, because I don't know the cause for sure. And also I cannot replace Chrome with Safari for the reason of my job.

And if this wasn't enough, I have audio problems also with my DAC ( Fiio k3 ). When using it in USB 2.0 mode, the music from time to time minutes, and comes back in 1s or so.

Keep in mind that on my Macbook Air M1 I had none of the above issues. And I had the same use, the DAC.. many chrome tabs bla bla. It has problems only on the M1PRO.

So to sum up and not get confused, I have 2 different issues:

1. Popping and crackling sound when using some apps ( Chrome/Teams maybe Skype. I really don't know for sure ) but not using the DAC.

2. When using the DAC the sound mutes sometimes 2-3 times in a few seconds, other times once a few minutes. It is basically a trash.

I am sad to see that many have this issues. And I am really frustrated..

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.

I personally suspect this could be related to restoring a backup from a pre M1 machine. dan1829's solution seems to have worked for me: Macbook pro 16" M1 pro 2021 popping sound… - Apple Community

Or it could just be alleviated by having restarted but it's been going an hour with no popping.

The conditions it happens appears to be:

• Playing something on Spotify
• Some other audio event happens (even if it doesn't play a sound), such as a notification in another app.

Currently using: Discord, Slack, Skype and Whatsapp.

In fact, I just got an email "ping" which I don't remember hearing recently, so again I think it's related to notification sounds that should play but mess up.

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....

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.

Just adding to the convo to help keep people updated

16 inch M1 Pro MBP - late 2021

Was crackling SUPER bad for the first 4 months or so, gradually got better, eventually forgot I had the issue at all. Just caught a couple of pops today and it reminded me, so I googled around to see how many others it was affecting.

I'm sure an OS update fixed it for the most part.

I have the same problem with the sound. I also saw a pattern related to RAM, I have a MacBook pro m1 pro with 16 GB of RAM, and when the RAM passes 13.8gb (+/-) of use, it starts popping. It's a shame to have these kinds of problems, which don't seem to have a solution.

The only "solution" is to activate quicktime player and open a new audio recording, then the pops and cracks disappear, shame for apple, they had to fix this software issue a long time ago. This is a low-level driver or a kernel bug, they have to step up the quality of their kernel C++, C coders. (yes macOS kernel is written in CPP).

Unfortunately the problem re-occurred. Minimal, but still. I'm now trying the eqMac solution as suggested below by alexggggggg and will let you guys know. A proper sound driver sounds like the right way to fix this problem (pun not intended).

MBP 2021 M1 16" 16Gb same problem even with the most recent (at this moment) update Ventura 13.3.

Deleting plist files or restarting audio services doesn't help. RAM usage doesn't seems to be impacting since I even hear that noise when the laptop is starting up.

2. Delete the com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist and com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist files

I have Mac OS 13.4 and I can't find such files. Could you, please, help me? )

dan1829 wrote:

1. Ok, I have just tried this and seems to be working ok for now (i have managed to listen to one full song without the issue which is a win at the moment)

Go > Computer > Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences > Audio

2. Delete the com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist and com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist files

3. Empty bin

4. Restart your Mac

5. Keep your fingers crossed