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karmennim Author

Level 1

0 points

Mac OS X Lion: Sound problem after unplugging my headset/headphones.

Hello all,

I have an early 2011 i5 Macbook Pro, 8GB ram, 320gb HDD, recently upgraded to Mac OS X Lion. I've been looking through the discussions, but I haven't found any other topic with my same problem, unless I missed it.

My problem is: sometimes I will leave my wireless headset (Plantronics .Audio 995H, via USB) or headphones (via audio jack) plugged in for hours at a time. Once my headset battery dies, or I just decide not to use either my headset or headphones, I will unplug it. When I unplug it, NO sound is coming from the built in speakers whatsoever. Also, when I plug the headset/headphones back in to see if the sound is still going to play through them, it doesn't. I have checked my sound preferences after I unplug (System Preferences > Sound) and it's on the default "Internal Speakers" but no sound is coming out. I press the volume adjust buttons on my keyboard, and they work but still no sound.

This DID NOT happen when I had Snow Leopard..

The only way I can get my sound back is by rebooting. Right when I click restart, all the volume adjust sounds, Skype IM sounds play RIGHT before it reboots. I have done PRAM and anything else suggested by other users in the discussions to reset hardware but nothing has worked. Does anyone else have this problem? and did you find a solution?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 28, 2011 1:20 PM

130 replies

Aug 30, 2011 6:35 AM in response to kyen99

This did the trick for me - just for informational purposes, the issue was happening on a 13-inch, Mid 2009,

2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

Killing that process brought back volume control.

Thanks for the tip kyen99

AGW112

Level 1

0 points

Aug 31, 2011 6:59 AM in response to rushdjava

I am also having this problem. It is a real pain. The ultimate irony is that my headphones and audio work like a charm on my Windows 7 bootcamp side.

Ken's command didn't work for me. I would appreciate any other suggestions, although I'm guessing we have to wait for an update from apple.

kev9794

Level 1

25 points

Aug 31, 2011 4:32 PM in response to tah_mas

Hmmm... interesting. Im guessing you killed the sound and the system restarts it, so you get it back right away? Have you had the problem again?

kev9794

Level 1

25 points

Aug 31, 2011 4:33 PM in response to karmennim

Im having the same issue on my iMac i3 (2010) with Lion 10.7.1

Good to see I'm not the only one.

Perhaps 10.7.2 will fix it? I hope, cause its really annoying to restart.

kyen99

Level 1

5 points

Aug 31, 2011 5:57 PM in response to kev9794

Yep, tah_mas' fix does the exact same thing as mine (`sudo killall coreaudiod`). When you kill off coreaudiod the system automatically restarts it within a few seconds. So, clearly it's a software problem that should be fixable. There was an update to Lion a few weeks ago (10.7.1) that mentioned some kind of audio fix, but it didn't fix this problem.

For anyone who still has the same problem where audio stops working after plugging/unplugging the headphones, who thinks the `sudo killall coreaudiod` didn't work, make sure you are logged in as a user who has admin rights. The command will ask for your password and should not return anything, unless you put in the wrong password.

If you run the app I posted earlier in the thread, it will give you an opportunity to put in a different user/pass for a user that has admin rights. Both methods work for me without fail.

pyrog

Level 1

0 points

Sep 1, 2011 4:10 AM in response to kev9794

The upgrade to Lion 1.7.1 don't fix this bug for my MacBook last 2009 13".

I hope that 10.7.2 will fix it, cause its really annoying to restart, even with LionAudioFix.app

Sep 4, 2011 11:25 AM in response to karmennim

Kyen99, your little app worked for me. Hopefully Apple will address this. Has reinstalling Lion or doing a clean install correct this permanently for anyone?

Sep 5, 2011 11:21 PM in response to karmennim

So happy, problem solved. Apparently it is the old power pc progs lurking on our systems that is causing the problem. Remove them and the sound comes back. It works. Instruction can be found here: http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/15/how-to-check-if-applications-are-incompatible-wit h-mac-os-x-lion/

Deep joy!

zaxe

Level 1

4 points

Sep 9, 2011 2:01 PM in response to kyen99

Thank you SO much for this! It's been driving me crazy!

Sep 9, 2011 5:57 PM in response to zaxe

I have a MBP 2011 and had a similar issue with 10.6 which I could resolve by plugging and unplugging my headphones.

I am now on 10.7.1 and the problem is MUCH worse. I can only get sound back by holding power button to power off then sometimes also have to run "sudo killall coreaudiod" after booting.

I have also noticed that when the sound is out I also lose my USB port (closest to back). The port still supplies power but will not connect device to the OS.

I seem to have had this since upgrading to Parallels v7 - but I cannot be sure as I haven't uninstalled parallels yet.

Sep 14, 2011 9:26 AM in response to b@lde@gle

i'm experiencing the same problem... sound disabled (no input or output devices available when alt-clicking the volume control) and USB port powered but "deaf".

Even after rebooting the problem persist (in fact it appears right after a reboot).

Tried uninstalling Parallels v7 and did the magic... usb port and sound devices available.

Tried multiple reboots.

Reinstalled PD7 and again no usb and sound after reboot.

Sep 15, 2011 5:26 AM in response to hell_voyager

Parallels Desktop 7.0.1 is out... and apparently fixed my problems...

Sep 21, 2011 8:06 AM in response to kyen99

kyen99 wrote:

sudo killall coreaudiod

I get the same problem here - it is triggered when unplugging any type of headphones/speakers/iPhone headphones (with built in mic). Once sound stops plugging/unplugging anything will not bring back sound even on internal speaker - only a reboot. Seems completely random when this happens - as I can swap sound devices quite happily but then suddenly it goes wrong.

But thanks to kyen99 I no longer have to reboot!

Nice work figuring out you can restart the sound deamon. I guess there's a bug in there triggered by a change in audio device plugged into the audio jack.

FYI:

MacBook Pro 13-inch, Early 2011

Mac OS X Lion 10.7.1