Macbook Pro M1 16 inch popping audio

Alright. I think that I've finally found at least one set of conditions that leads to this issue and a couple fixes (one that sucks and one that a lot sucks less). So I've been closely monitoring CPU / memory usage and the states of things when there are no pops and when the pops start showing up.

Essentially, what I'm seeing is that when there is memory pressure that goes into the "yellow" in your Activity Monitor, which for me happens during usage and pretty much only when memory usages hits the ~14GB of usage mark (on a 10-core, 16GB build). CPU usage doesn't seem to always have a direct impact, but I have seen that when I trigger something heavy on the CPU and stop it, that can trigger a pop sometimes (inconsistent). It seems like some CPU usage / swapping / etc. is at the least correlated with this issue. This tracks with what @virgil237 said above re: his memory usage being at 14GB.

Would love to hear if anyone using a larger build (32GB) or if you have a friend with one has the same issue when hitting the yellow, but not before. At least that would give us something material to run up the flagpole and get an Apple dev to look into. Also, considering whether to return this 16GB build and just go with an M1 max 64GB build and skirt the issue altogether as I'm guessing a fix won't be forthcoming very soon in any case.

The first fix, as you would imagine is...close things until you get under the 14GB mark and in the "green" and it seems that the issue is at least MUCH rarer, going from every minute or few to once in awhile. Not sure if this will be a software fix or a firmware fix. What is still interesting is how this still does not happen via Bluetooth at all. So, there's something there that further narrows down the possibilities for a sound system Apple dev out there. Core audio daemon routing specifically to the internal speakers?

That got me thinking about audio routing, so I went to get SoundFlower to play with some audio routing to see if I could route through SoundFlower and then to the Speakers with any improvements. SoundFlower not supported on M1 macs yet, which led me to the BlackHole 2ch audio router (existential.audio). So in the Midi Device setup you can add a Multi-Output device and make BlackHole 2ch the primary and set the speakers as the other device. Then set your main output device to the Multi-Output device. So far, popping is either gone or at least a lot rarer. Note that I'm still running heavily into the yellow in memory pressure with no popping. The one caveat is that you have to change volume in the Midi Setup due to the way the devices work...that may be easy to find a control for given all the good DAW software / routers out there. Seems like this should help a dev narrow things down even more. @Apple please look into this.

Hope this helps someone not go crazy. Let us all know your mileage with the proposed fixes and / or other solutions you find! I'll report back on whether this second fix seems to hold or not.

solidliquid315 wrote:

SMC/NVRAM didn't help for me. Though I'm pretty sure it's got something to do with RAM. Happens a lot on Teams and having 10+ browser tabs. If I close the browser, it improves greatly. But then again, my 2013 Macbook Pro could do both so not sure why an M1 Max can't....

?

There is no SMC/NVRAM on an M1 Mac..

what worked on your old 2013 Intel Mac does not apply to M1 SoC - SMC reset equivalent is Shut down, close the lid 30 secs+ , reboot as normal

and

a NVRAM equivalent is— SafeBoot How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

ref: See If your M1 Mac starts up to Options with a gear icon:

If your Mac starts up to Options with a gear icon - Apple Support

For your sound issue try making a change—try making a change from the default setting to for ex 44,100

and test. Reboot if necessary.

Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI setup.app

Contacted with senior tech advisor from Apple and collected several system logs when the popping sound occurs. They informed me that the software team is aware of this software issue and they are working on a software update. Not sure when it would be released but hopefully it will be out soon with the next update (now is Monterey 12.4).

Hello there solidliquid315,

Thanks for joining us in Apple Support Communities! We understand you're hearing a popping sound from the built-in speakers on your MacBook Pro. We're glad you're here, and we'll point you in the right direction to get this sorted out.

To begin, does the issue persist in a new user account? Find out how to create one to test the issue further here:

Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac

If so, and erasing and reinstalling macOS didn't seem to help, the next best step is to have your MacBook Pro inspected by a technician. This link will help you get started:

Mac Service and Repair

Cheers!

I suggest everyone report this as a bug through the Apple MacBook Pro Feedback page: Feedback - MacBook Pro - Apple since it seems to be software bug related to memory usage (I use have 32GB RAM and get popping at ~25 GB usage).

I have the same problem on 14" M1 Max MacBook Pro with 64GB - constant popping on a number of applications, but especially consistently on MS Teams. I just tried sliding in a headphone, and setting:

• System Preferences to output from the headphone
• MS Teams to ignore the headphone and output from the MBP's speaker

and this happens to eliminate the popping noise. Does anyone have the same experience?

PS. not sure if it matters, but the headphone is in the headphone jack, not USB or Bluetooth.

Hi there, any further updates or resolutions? This is infuriating for a $2,900 computer. I have an appointment at the Genius Bar this week but I expect them to suggest a erase and reinstall which I have already done where the issue returned shortly there after. Hoping this is software, which based on the thread below sounds to be. Still no confirmation or resolution based on all I have tried and all I have researched. @Apple this is trash and unacceptable. MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021) with M1 Pro

• New user account -- issue persists
• Reinstall OS -- issue persists
• Boot from a known good OS (from external media) -- issue persists
• Erase and clean install -- issue persists

Same issue. M1 Max with 32 GB of RAM. Incredibly frustrating on such a high end machine.

• Adjusting frequency in Audio MIDI Setup like suggested did nothing for me.
• Turning the volume down didn't help

Quitting nearly all my apps makes the popping either stop entirely or become far less frequent.

Regarding Microsoft Teams running, I got pops even with Teams closed , so I'm assuming it's not really a Rosetta2 issue.

However I noticed that crackling is more frequent in certain situations when listening music:

1. When using the native Spotify app, it will start crackling almost immediately.
2. In Chrome on the Spotify web app and Bandcamp I won't get any crackles
3. I'm pretty sure that I got crackles when using Soundcloud (in browser as well), however less frequent than in the native Spotify app.
4. Never happened on Youtube, however the first time I encountered this I was listening to an online radio station (in browser).

This temporarily fixes the problem.

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

A reboot into safe mode itself also got rid of it for a week. But it always comes back. I've sent timestamps and a system log to apple, so I'll update if they have a solution. I don't have this happening every 30 seconds on my 14 inch m1 pro thankfully.

I did manage to get it to happen more often by stressing the CPU (Blender Render) to 750% or so (this puts a bit of stress on the 16GB of memory though to, so it could also be that. A GPU stress test (world of warcraft at high res with unlocked frame rate) didn't have the same result, so it's not just a power issue.

This seemed to crop up suddenly after several weeks of use on my new M1 Macbook Pro 14. I just did the latest update and still have the issue. It's not consistently showing up with the same audio btw, so not as simple as a particular frequency in a song causing the pop / distortion. About to reset SMC / NVRAM to see if that helps. This is pretty annoying, to the point of I'd return it and exchange if my 14 days weren't already up.

Let us know if you find a fix.

It's probably because Teams is still running on Rosetta. I have the same issues when Teams is running or when I am using a simulator.

Exiting Teams resolves the issue for me and when I launch Teams while listening in Music or Spotify, the issue immediately comes back.

I can confirm this is happening on my 16 inch M1 Pro machine bought in December.

Currently at 14 gb out of 16 gb memory usage. The first time it happend was when I opened up the iOS simulator. Now it happens from time to time during regular usage.

Setting the sample rate to 44100 Hz didn't help as it was suggested on other forums.

Currently up to date with the latest macOS Monterey version (12.3).

This is happening to me too on my Macbook Pro M1 14 inch with 16 GB ram and running Monterey 12.3. Deleting the audio plist files as suggested elsewhere helped temporarily but then it started happening again. Changing the audio frequency in Audio MIDI setup didn't do anything for me. Any other suggestions? So frustrating.