My iMac will not play any form of media other than podcasts (read details below—it’s complicated.)

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Level 1

4 points

My iMac will not play any form of media other than podcasts (read details below—it’s complicated.)

Hi, I have a late 2012 iMac running Catalina 10.5.7 (up to date). Yesterday I was listening to some music via YouTube when all of a sudden the music stopped. After a while I pulled up the browser to see why and the video was just buffering so I reloaded the page and got the same result. I restarted my Wi-Fi and still the video wouldn’t load. I then quit chrome and when to Apple Music instead, but nothing would play in Apple Music either! I tried streaming AND playing music that I have uploaded and stored locally and nothing would play, it just sits at 0:00. Then all of a sudden my computer just shuts off and restarts. When it loads I get a message saying my computer restarted bc of a problem (didn’t give me an error code or anything) and I, again, tried to play media via Apple Music and YouTube and it still wouldn’t play. I then tried to play a video I had edited and exported that was stored on my computer and it wouldn’t play either (not in the finder preview, and not by double clicking and opening QuickTime.) What is weird is that the video pulls up, and I can even scrub through it and see the frames go by so it’s not like it isn’t loading—it just won’t play! I opened Final Cut and go the same result. I can scrub through my entire timeline just fine but it will not play anything back. But you know what is really weird? Even though media will not play anywhere else, the Apple Podcasts app plays podcasts totally fine. That’s the only thing I’ve found that plays. At this point I did a computer update to see if it would help and it didn’t, so I contacted Apple support via message. They had me boot up my iMac in safe mode and try. In safe mode, although it was jittery, it did play media! Once exiting safe mode it wouldn’t play again. They then had me reinstall the macOS but that gave no results. After all that they said they don’t know and recommended I send my computer in. I am an audio engineer & content creator; having a working machine that can play media is absolutely crucial to what I do. This computer is getting older now so I planned on getting a new one in the next 6 months anyway so it’s hardly worth spending the money on repairing it, but bc of supply chain problems I can’t get my hands in a Mac studio or new MacBook for 2 months! Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be wrong? I just need this thing to last me until July lol! It works totally fine in every regard! It for some reason will just not play media all of a sudden. Why would podcasts play perfectly fine, and why would I be able to scrub videos in 4k frame by frame, and yet when you hit play nothing happens? It doesn’t make sense to me. Thank you!

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on May 14, 2022 1:10 PM

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Answer 1

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Bombakiss Author

Level 1

4 points

May 17, 2022 1:56 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

I FIXED IT! So my last discovery made me dig for audio settings that could somehow cause an issue. I opened audio midi setup thinking there is no way that anything in here could result in the whole computer not playing files, but that’s where the answer was. My audio source was “Multi-Output Device” with my audio interface was selected within (as opposed to my source simply being that audio interface alone.) This has never been a problem. I use “multi-output device” all the time to control audio output to and through multiple sources when working on certain projects so I opted just keep that option selected and just uncheck whatever I’m not using at the time. But for some reason, when I got rid of the multi-output device and switched to my audio interface alone as the source, it fixed the problem! Everything is playing now. I have no idea how that could happen, but I’m glad I found the answer. Weird bug. Thanks for your help!

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Answer 2

PRP_53

Level 10

85,567 points

May 17, 2022 3:57 AM in response to Bombakiss

EDITED - spelling

If this condition of the Drive being Full is not addressed very quickly, the computer may Cease to boot up at all.

It is suggested to keep at least 15% to 20% of the Drive Total Capacity as Empty Space for good operations of the computer.

What is “Other” storage on a Mac, and how can I clean it out?

Free up storage space on your Mac

OmniDiskSweeper Safe to use

GrandPerspective

How to delete Time Machine snapshots on your Mac

See used and available storage space on your Mac

Locate backups of your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

The final word from Apple on Managing the " Other/ System Data “ Category

Other / System Data: Contains files that don’t fall into the categories listed here. This category primarily includes files and data used by the system, such as log files, caches, VM files, and other runtime system resources. Also included are temporary files, fonts, app support files, and plug-ins. You can't manage the contents of this category. The contents are managed by macOS, and the category varies in size depending on the current state of your Mac.

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Answer 3

Bombakiss Author

Level 1

4 points

May 17, 2022 12:04 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Etrecheck Report 2

Yes the problem unfortunately persists.( Also, I have automatic updates disabled bc I am an audio engineer that uses Pro Tools and it is extremely common for Apple to release macOS updates that can cause major or minor bugs in Pro Tools until Avid catches up and rolls out a Pot Tools update, so most of us just keep auto updates off and update after Avid gives us the thumbs up.)

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Answer 4

May 16, 2022 9:24 AM in response to Bombakiss

The fact that it plays in Safe Mode but not when booted normally is a clear sign of a third party software conflict.

Please run Etrecheck and post its full report here. Use the "additional text" button and paste the report into the text box.

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Answer 5

May 17, 2022 3:32 AM in response to Bombakiss

Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.

Automatic updates disabled - Automatic updates are disabled. This computer is at risk of malware infection.

Security updates disabled - Security updates are disabled. This computer is at risk of malware infection.

Apple security disabled - Apple security software is disabled. This computer is at risk of malware infection.

Obsolete hardware - This computer may be considered obsolete.

Disabling Apple security and the security updates may not have caused the problem, but puts your mac at risk for no reason.

Your system disk is FULL.

You have some 28GB out of 750GB.

It may seem a lot but it really isn't, and it is probably what is causing this directly - besides making your mac very slow - which I am sure you must have experienced. Yes, your mac is rather old but still workable, especially since it has an SSD boot drive. I am guessing it may be now as slow as if it had the original 5400rpm HD.

Also: you have Chrome and its evil keystone daemons, and that kills video applications.

See https://chromeisbad.com for how this happens and how to fully uninstall.

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Answer 6

Bombakiss Author

Level 1

4 points

May 17, 2022 10:40 AM in response to PRP_53

My drive is actually less than half full. Apple had me reinstall macOS the other day and when I did it created a “Macintosh HD - Data” volume, then at some point it created a 2nd “Macintosh HD - Data” volume without me realizing it. That 2nd volume was taking up 359gb. I deleted one of those volumes and now my drive space is as it normally is. Apparently a lot of people have had that happen with Catalina

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Answer 7

Bombakiss Author

Level 1

4 points

May 17, 2022 10:45 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

I’ll take care of google chrome, thanks for the reply. The disk space being full is actually a new thing that I didn’t even realize until I did this report—my drive is actually less than half full and usually never drops below 100gb of free space. When Apple had me reinstall macOS it added a “Macintosh HD - data” volume, then for some reason added a SECOND one without me realizing at some point and it was taking up 359gb of unnecessary space. I just deleted one of those volumes, so my disk is back to where it normally is. Apparently a lot of people have seen that happen with Catalina.

I’ll let you know if chrome makes a difference. Thanks!

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Answer 8

May 17, 2022 10:53 AM in response to Bombakiss

A lot of people fall for that mistake - they do not completely erase the drive, but erase only the Macintosh HD - that is, the system volume - that is only some 15GB. Then reinstalling causes two Macintosh HD - Data and a lot of wasted space. Fortunately, as you now know, this is easy to fix after the fact.

So now you have enough space, I suppose the problem is still unresolved...

can you post an updated Etrecheck report?

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Answer 9

Bombakiss Author

Level 1

4 points

May 17, 2022 1:41 PM in response to Bombakiss

So I have made another interesting discovery… I was cleaning out some old files and I accidentally hit the spacebar on a video in the finder and it actually started playing. I found several other ones next to it that played too. I hit cmd-I to pull up the info to see if there was ANY sort of difference I could see that would answer the question as to why those specific videos would play but no other videos or audio files would, and I realized that those few videos that were playing were strictly video—they had no audio channels whatsoever. If it were some sort of audio issue that would make sense as to why also YouTube videos won’t load once I click on them, but if I hover the mouse above a video at the menu a video preview plays (bc previews include no audio.) I still have no idea what could cause this, and I’m even more confused how I can still edit and hear audio in pro tools but it must have something to do with it.

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Answer 10

May 18, 2022 2:03 AM in response to Bombakiss

I am glad that you solved, and thank you for posting.

Just as a little FYI, that you probably know, but if you opt to show volume in the menu bar you can switch the audio output from there, no need to dive into Audio MIDI Setup (except to add, remove or change audio options).

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