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volume control icon disabled

My Volume control icon was disabled automatically and the sound on my machine got locked out. I cannot increase or decrease the volume on my computer. Does any one have the same issue?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 20, 2011 10:35 PM

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Posted on Jul 20, 2011 10:38 PM

Try resetting the PRAM.


https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

20 replies

May 13, 2012 10:38 PM in response to rgadde

I was able to solve the problem where the OS X volume controls for the internal or headphones output volume were disabled (OS X menu bar and in sound system preferences). I resolved this issue on my Early 2011 15" MacBook Pro OS X Lion 10.7.4


I first attempted to solve this by clearing the PRAM. Unfortunately, that didn't fix it.


After some tinkering, I noticed if I enabled my Bluetooth, the volume control would temporarily be on then would disable again. I wondered if it was somehow defaulting to a Bluetooth audio device that was not connected. I went and removed all bluetooth audio devices in 'Open Bluetooth Preferences' and rebooted. Upon restarting my volume controls are working properly again.


I also verified if I connected to Bluetooth audio devices (Bose wireless Bluetooth system and Sony Bluetooth speaker system) everything worked properly.


I hope this post will be of some benefit to someone experiencing the same issue. Best of luck!

Nov 10, 2015 12:14 PM in response to SaltH2OFish

That helped me somewhat.


I always use bluetooth headphones, and one day I noticed that the sound icon of my macbook was inactive. I tried the PRAM reset but it didn't help, I also knew it wasn't a hardware problem because the boot sound played.


What did the trick for me is a combination of solutions written here, I disabled bluetooth, then plugging in earplugs - pulled them back out, and the sound icon remained active. To my surprise, sound suddenly worked again.

volume control icon disabled

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