Quicktime does not work with Air Pods Pro

Confirming this is happening to me as well with some added information.

QuickTime.mov files with AAC LC audio encoding will not playback when my AirPod Pro 2nd gen are hooked up and using the QuickTime X application. If the audio is switched to speakers, there is no issue, but when switched to AirPods the files will not play.

Work around is to use VLC or Telestream Switch for playback but this won't work for my clients.

If I use HE-AACv2 as an audio codec the file will playback fine but I need to use the industry standard AAC LC @ 192 kbps and not another codec.

Same files run as MP4 wrapper and not QuickTime do not have this issue, so it's QuickTime related.

These same files will playback using older standard AirPods but there seems to be some sort of incompatibility when QuickTime is trying to read the AAC LC audio. The file won't even playback in QTX. It will open but will not playback.

I'm running on Ventura 13.6.3. Can anyone confirm on Sonoma? I've also tested a few Macs running slightly older versions of Ventura and the same issue persists.

Is there a possible Firmware fix for these?

It seems to work fine on my setup, so perhaps your settings are off?

Verify that both the device audio level and the QuickTime media audio level are non-zero. The QuickTime audio level acts as a percentage of the device audio level.

I have the same issue, sputnik_1! I recorded some videos on a different Mac using Quicktime. Then copied the videos to my MacBook Air and am trying to view them. They are .mov files. They play and sound fine through my MacBook Air speakers but if I connect my Air Pods Pros to my MacBook Air, I cannot play the file at all. The file loads and looks like it is ready to play, but once I click the play "button" the file looks like it is going to start to play but then immediately stops. I have other videos which I use Quicktime to play (e.g., .mp4 files) which work fine when my AirPodPros are connected. Just the Quicktime .mov files fail to play at all.

My suggestion is to download the free VLC player. It plays these .mov files just fine when the AirPodPros are connected.

Hey there, sputnik_1!

Sorry to hear about the trouble you're having with Quicktime and your AirPods Pro. One thing you might want to try is checking if your AirPods Pro are selected as the output device in your Sound settings (System Preferences -> Sound -> Output). Make sure your AirPods are connected and selected there.

Also, consider updating your Mac and Quicktime to the latest versions if you haven't already. Sometimes, these kinds of issues can be resolved with a simple update. Let us know if this works for you!

Having this exact issue with the video (screen recordings) immediately pausing. Works through VLC but the audio is delayed.

Just installed the latest version of Sonoma (14.4.1). The problem is not resolved and persists.

> QuickTime.mov files with AAC LC audio encoding will not playback when my AirPod Pro 2nd gen are hooked up and using the QuickTime X application. If the audio is switched to speakers, there is no issue

I did a quick test and my Mac mini 2018 macOS 14.3 Sonoma QuickTime Player does not play audio neither in .mp4 nor in .mov H.264 with HE-AAC version 1 or version 2. Neither will IINA or VLC. Tested via AirPods Pro, LG Ultrafine 4K speakers, and Mac mini internal speakers.

Regular AAC is OK as always. I am unfamiliar with HE-AAC so please educate me, if necessary. I encoded my test files from H.264 AAC .mp4 input as (did not test libfdk_aac):

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v copy -c:a aac -profile:a aac_he -b:a 64k H.264_aac_he.mov

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v copy -c:a aac -profile:a aac_he_v2 -b:a 32k H.264_aac_he_v2.mov

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Efficiency_Advanced_Audio_Coding

https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/AAC

I now tested HE-AAC libfdk_aac and unlike in with plain aac macOS 14.3 Sonoma QuickTime Player could play audio OK, also via AirPods Pro.

HE-AAC version 1:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v copy -c:a libfdk_aac -profile:a aac_he -b:a 64k H.264_libfdk_aac_he.mp4

HE-AAC version 2:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v copy -c:a libfdk_aac -profile:a aac_he_v2 -b:a 32k H.264_libfdk_aac_he_v2.mp4

> The problem is not resolved

What specific problem?

That QuickTime Player does not play some rare audio codecs like HE-AAC to AirPods (or AAC LC at all?)?

My setup (Sonoma 14.4.1) can play libfdk_aac_he and libfdk_aac_he_v2 audio but not without libfdk (IINA can also play the latter but strangely it needs to go through the movie once before (96 kHz there, otherwise 48 kHz) audio is played). All my movies have the plain AAC LC anyway, and no trouble with that.

Have you tried this: quit Quicktime Player, and move these folders to the Desktop folder (just in case before deleting them) helps:

~/Library/Containers/QuickTime Player

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data

If not, try to make a dummy user and see if Quicktime Player works in that account.

...

For the record about those rare High-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding (HE-AAC) codecs:

I now noticed that the native ffmpeg AAC encoder (-c:a aac) does not have the ability to output HE or HEv2 profiles. The audio it outputs does not play in any app I tried (QuickTime Player, IINA, VLC).

If you need HE profile you'll have to use -c:a libfdk_aac or -c:a aac_at (macOS/iOS only). aac_at encoder -profile option only accepts numeric values, e.g. 4 works as aac_he and 28 as aac_he_v2. aac_low 1 is "The default, AAC 'Low-complexity' profile. Is the most compatible and produces decent quality." It is the most common AAC profile found in typical files.

FF_PROFILE_AAC_MAIN 0

FF_PROFILE_AAC_LOW 1

FF_PROFILE_AAC_SSR 2

FF_PROFILE_AAC_LTP 3

FF_PROFILE_AAC_HE 4

FF_PROFILE_AAC_HE_V2 28

FF_PROFILE_AAC_LD 22

FF_PROFILE_AAC_ELD 38

HE-AAC version 1:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v copy -c:a aac_at -profile:a 4 -b:a 64k H.264_aac_at_he.mp4

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v copy -c:a libfdk_aac -profile:a aac_he -b:a 64k H.264_aac_libfdk_he.mp4

HE-AAC version 2:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v copy -c:a aac_at -profile:a 28 -b:a 32k H.264_aac_at_he_v2.mp4

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v copy -c:a libfdk_aac -profile:a aac_he_v2 -b:a 32k H.264_aac_libfdk_he_v2.mp4

Apple's audioToolbox.framework (normally available only on macOS) will provide a series of codecs suffixed _at. Apple's encoder is even better than FDK-AAC.

Confirmed this continues to be an issue on Sonoma 14.2.1 (23C71)

The current version of Sonoma is 14.4.1 …

14.2.1 is from December 19, 2023, with 4 releases after that.

Perhaps so, but I haven’t yet seen anyone posting success with any version of Sonoma. Will update tomorrow and check again.