MacBook Pro M1 2020 Skipping Video/Audio via HDMI

My MacBook Pro M1 2020 (Ventura 13.2.1) used to play video to my TVs via a USB-C to HDMI adapter, but now it will only play video from clips or games in fast forward or at normal speed without audio. It is set to play audio out to the devices, not the MacBook speakers. It was fine a week ago, but now it won't work on multiple TVs, HDMI cables, and adapters, so I'm confident it's a software issue with my computer.


Note: Apple grabbed the OS 11.1 from a different laptop but won't let me change the listing. It is 13.2.1.

MacBook Pro 13″

Posted on Mar 24, 2023 6:53 AM

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Posted on Aug 27, 2023 4:24 PM

Has anyone heard any updates??????This same thing is happening to me, every time I plug my MacBook into my TV via HDMI it just speed fast forwards through the whole video if you try to go back it does the same thing over and over, I have found the workaround for some reason when you change the audio to the MacBook speakers instead of the TV it fixes it but that obviously doesn’t cut it with volume. Has anyone heard any updates or found a way to fix this, mine has been like this for over a year now. how has apple not addressed this?

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56 replies

Oct 8, 2023 1:38 AM in response to jordandupton

Thank you all for your response!

I found a couple of solutions that might help someone: you can close the coreaudiod process (responsible for audio playback), which should then start automatically, or you can also terminate a process that has been running in the background for a very long time and is somehow related to audio. I've also heard of a way to install Garage Band, maybe that will help, although it's quite strange.

My problem disappeared with time, maybe one of the MacBook updates solved it.

Oct 12, 2023 9:38 AM in response to jordandupton

I've been having the same issue for about 6 months and as others have mentioned on this thread would have to restart my laptop after setting my sound output to my monitor whenever I wanted to use an external speaker. A few days ago I updated to Sonoma and haven't had the issue since. I know that's not a viable solution for everyone, but another solution to potentially solve this.

Nov 16, 2023 1:18 PM in response to jordandupton

I've just been restarting every time I try outputting video/audio on HDMI since I have my M1 Pro 14" since over a year ago. Doesn't matter what source of video, be it local files or web streaming stuff, always I need to restart then it outputs HDMI ok.


I seen reddit and here talk of doing an SMC reset, seems to be on Arm Macbooks SMC reset is done when powering off then waiting 30 seconds before powering back up. I might try that, wonder if in combination with one of the latest OS updates this might be fixed.


Could it be this is a hardware fault somewhere around HDMI output function by Apple that they may have fixed in new batches of the Macbook?


Weird is this bug happening accross several Macbook models from M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max and M2?

Dec 4, 2023 9:08 AM in response to pompelaup

My guess is it gets somehow synchronized to HDMI video/audio output so it continues working as long as the HDMI cable stays connected and the Macbook isn't rebooted. If you disconnect the HDMI cable, and if you watch some videos without HDMI and then you come back to try to reconnect a HDMI cable, this out-of-sync problem might re-appear requiring yet another restart while keeping the HDMI cable plugged in on the Macbook during the restart. So if you keep your macbook always connected to the HDMI for a long time, it might stay synchronized through suspend/resume for as long as you don't restart or power off the Macbook.

Jan 7, 2024 6:19 PM in response to jordandupton

Rebooting the mac helped. I was away from my monitor for a while and perhaps because I was in a different country that was using a different power voltage, the combined effect of charging + audio + video playback was causing some issues. Several system processes had also been up for a really long time using a lot of CPU power so that could also have been it. Anyway - rebooting fixed it!

Jan 9, 2024 10:19 AM in response to jordandupton

I had similar issues with audio only using HDMI, Bluetooth, and using the headphone jack and I narrowed it down to my computer speakers. In System Settings-->Sound, if the Output volume is set too high, my speakers would make a popping sound. My theory is that the speakers are trying to prevent distortion when they receive an input above some threshold, so they pop. It appears to be random because the high output may only be for a short time (cymbals crashing, someone yelling, etc.) while other audio plays fine. I verified this on my Windows machine so my speakers are getting returned.


Hope this helps those with the audio problem.

MacBook Pro M1 2020 Skipping Video/Audio via HDMI

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