MacBook Air audio missing after Serato DJ Lite driver installation and improper uninstallation

I have Macbook Air 13-inches Mid 2012 so quite old and last OS installed is macOS Mojave 10.14.6. It works quite ok and i decided not to upgrade not to risk performance lost.


I have purchased HERCULES DJ Control Starlight for remix. So I went to the web site of the producer and download the last https://serato.com/dj/lite software. I did too quick before realize (after have installed) that this SW requires MacOS 13 Ventura or higher.


Anyway MacOS did not make any objection installing SW and the DJLITE was working ok, but audio volume from embedded Mac speaker was low.

So I went to internal preference of the Dj-Lite and i select "audio output--> different devices" in spite embedded speakers to connect to external speakers. SeratoDJ Lite SW asked me to install / update one driver , i told YES, he download this driver and during this something went wrong. OS blocked . After several minutes I was obliged to force shutdown.


At the restart the Macbook Audio is gone. I don't hear anymore any audio from my Macbook. If I go to System Information -_> hardware --> audio : nothing is present (empty). In Preference if i clicjk on the "audio" icon i see the spinning wheel running for 2 minutes and then it tell me "application not found".


On top right of the macbook close to wifi icons there is no more any audio icon.


I then uninstall Serato DJLight but i think i did worst because i did not uninstall simply placing the icon of DJSerato to the trashbin but i used "AppDeleteLite" which also deleted some others files :(


When I reboot the MacBoom I hear the "sound" but as soon as he load my account the sound disappear


I fear the driver installation failure , and improper uninstallation of DJ Lite Software caused some system problems to audio.


I founded this thread: Sound not working after 10.9.4 Mavericks … - Apple Community which seems similar to my issue but i hesitate to start any action as issues are different .


Unfortunately I have a very old backup and I cannot upgrade the MacOS to newer one. Someone can help to restore my audio settings without losing data and applications?


Thank you a lot



[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Air 13″

Posted on Jan 23, 2025 2:15 AM

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10 replies

Jan 24, 2025 1:33 PM in response to matteos72

Update

i have done a backup with Time Machine then I have initialised the disk by CMD + R-> then Disc Utility—>

Initialise disc (the only one I have is the 125 GB SSD MacOS HD)

Then reinstall MacOS Mojave from zero.

Everything was fine


i created a new account , log in and audio sound is perfectly ok.


so at least I m sure there is no any deep firmware damage.


then i re-installed the backup with Time Machine and my original account:

audio disappear no more available in any preferences.

And is not available in any account (also the new one I created).


Finally

I tried to unload kextaudio by this command


sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/ AppleHDA.kext


ok, command executed.

then


sudo rm -rf System/Library/Extensions/ AppleHDA.kext


and after this command I get error: impossible to remove … not allowed.

do you know why?


i will continue thinking tomorrow how try to recover.

Jan 23, 2025 5:50 AM in response to matteos72

Ah, OK...


Have you run Disk Utility's Disk First Aid on all connected drives?


In Disk Utility>View, select Show all Devices, highlight the top left entry.


Run Disk First Aid on all items in the left panel, from top down.


Are you running any VPN, Anti-Virus, or Cleaning apps?


We need to see what all is running, a report from this will not display any personal info...

Using EtreCheck - Apple Community


EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info.

https://www.etrecheck.com/


Thanks for Old Toad’s etrecheck instructions…

Slow iMac 2017 - Apple Community



Jan 25, 2025 11:33 AM in response to matteos72

Is this report after migration?


Delete this file & restart...

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.adobe.ARM.***.plist


~ tilde indicates your home folder

Apple hid the Users' Library folders...


Method 1:

1 From the Finder, select the Go menu at top of the screen, and choose Go to Folder.

2 In the window that opens, enter ~/Library, and click Go.


Have you run Disk Utility's Disk First Aid on all connected drives?


In Disk Utility>View, select Show all Devices, highlight the top left entry.


Run Disk First Aid on all items in the left panel, from top down.

Jan 24, 2025 3:53 PM in response to matteos72

sudo rm -rf System/Library/Extensions/ AppleHDA.kext


and after this command I get error: impossible to remove … not allowed.

do you know why?

...

Likely you'll need to disable SIP...

Disabling and Enabling System Integrity Protection | Apple Developer Documentation


Yet we might have better luvk with... We need to see what all is running, a report from this will not display any personal info...

Using EtreCheck - Apple Community


EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info.

https://www.etrecheck.com/


Thanks for Old Toad’s etrecheck instructions…

Slow iMac 2017 - Apple Community


Jan 23, 2025 12:11 PM in response to BDAqua

Hello thanks for answering me. Yes I run Disk Utility in the top left view i see APPLE SSD 128 Gb , then inside a "content" and inside Macintosh HD. Nothing else. I am not running any VPN no antiviruI run "SOS" on the Macintosh HD and seems all ok. Today i Went to AppleStore Genius bar where they suggested me to make a Timemachine backup (i did ) and then try to re-install MacOS Mojave by pressing COMMAND+R during reboot. I did. The process has taken 45 minutes and was succesfull. But at the restart (despite when i restart before to log in I hear a sound) when i log in with my admin user finally all sounds are lost as described before. I will try to provide you maybe more info with etrecheck. Any other idea meantime are welcome. thank you a lot.


Jan 23, 2025 3:15 AM in response to BDAqua

Thanks for fast reply: I've installed Mac-app-cleaner but i don't find anymore any files linked to Serato Dj-Lite. So seems app was uninstalled correctly.

Problem remain that if I go to --> System Preferences --> Sound --> i get(after 5 mins of rolling coloured wheel !) the message "Preference Error! Impossible to load Sound preference" . And if I go Information on Mac --> system report ..> Hardware --> Sound: totally empty!

Jan 26, 2025 11:36 AM in response to BDAqua

Thank you but Disk Utility first aid was ok, no any errors detected.


Finally after 3 days I've founded a solution.

I recovered a very old back up (but at least with 80% of applications i needed). From my "corrupted" OS I've copied all my data : documents, download, desktop, images, movies, configurations of the browsers (all the data : config, password whatever) in an external disk.


Than i taken note of the applications i have installed since this old back up.


Then i have started the process to re-initialized disk (CMD+R) + reinstalled this backup with TimeMachine and then i was able to restart with my account working .


But this was a very old "status":


So Then i copied manually the files , updated the app, downloaded the new app, and now everything returned fine.

It was impossible to restore audio and performance in the original corrupted account (which was a "root" account so even worst). System also become incredibly slow (for instance if you tried to open a terminal windows it was taking some time, clicking some applications taken time: the problem was deep ).

I was 3 times at the Genius bar of AppleStore and at the end this was the only "safest" solution they suggested me .


I want really to thank you for your kind help and i hope this post can help other people in future.

Thank you

Long live Apple!

ciao!

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MacBook Air audio missing after Serato DJ Lite driver installation and improper uninstallation

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