Macbook Pro speakers - 'crackling' and 'popping' sounds when playing audio
TL;DR
Remove the files com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist and com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist (Go > Computer > Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences > Audio)
Hi!
I had an issue with my speakers/sound on my brand new MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021).
The sound started to 'crackle' and 'pop' suddenly. I think it was after the most recent update, although I'm not sure. But it wasn't there before at least.
I tried a few things:
- resetting my nvram
- rebooting
- change the format of my sound to different units of 'Hz': 48k and 44.1k
The above options didn't help. So what i just did to fix it is this:
I removed the files com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist and com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist (Go > Computer > Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences > Audio) and restarted. Now the popping and crackling is gone. I got the answer from these pages (kudo's to them!): https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookpro/comments/qmpg3k/comment/hw9zmgm/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyoD30qaku4
Is this a known issue and did i fix it correctly? As i now know a lot of people experience this issue, including the ones from the company i work at.
Edit:
Had a call with Apple Support about this issue. The above solution is a verified solution (it's a step they take sometimes to fix issues) and removing 'preference' or 'plist' files cant harm the OS much as they almost always get recreated on reboot. Disclaimer: do make a backup of the files before removing them so that you can always revert the changes.