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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

kyen99

Level 1

5 points

Aug 21, 2013 4:52 AM in response to Bunnyslippers

I think you should be able to rename it to anything you want. Glad it helped.

Aug 21, 2013 12:14 PM in response to kyen99

Thanks!

Nov 1, 2013 8:03 PM in response to karmennim

I don't know if this helps, but I had some problems with my Mac Mini with poor audio quality. So I went to audio MIDI setup and chose "mute" on one of the master channels. Seemed to have worked!

Added a "multi-output device." Maybe that's "the go" as well.

But for the regular output it's 48,000.0 Hz | 2 ch-20 bit integer. But you might have to tinger it to suit your computer until you get it right. But the main thing is definitely muting one of thoe channels (in my case it was 2.)

Dec 2, 2013 11:48 AM in response to mattgartner

Thank you everyone, I just did the upodate and my sound went to nothing. No output in head phones and very quiet output on itunes.

I followed the above advice for a few people, the download app to fix did not work.

I fixed it by going to my finder, searched Audio MIDI setup, tried a few settings and for me the 2ch-32bit float worked like a charm!!!

So happy I can listed to my headphones again!

Peace, love and music!!

Best luck

m_newman

Level 1

0 points

Dec 13, 2013 4:58 PM in response to ezgene

The fix for putting the headphone jack back in and removing it about 5 times worked for me. Been trying all night using the sudo killall coreaudio and everything else this forum has had to suggest but none worked except unplugging and plugging back in a headphone jack. Must be a switch that isnt turned back on when some products are removed.

Dec 28, 2013 2:10 AM in response to kyen99

Great work thanks

May 11, 2014 2:08 PM in response to kyen99

Thaaanks, this always happens when i switch back and forth between my apple tv and internal speakers, apple shoudl really have fixed this by now.. Decent app icon too! 😀

JerTM

Level 1

0 points

Sep 18, 2014 2:34 PM in response to karmennim

So my sound control was laggy. I don't like laggy. I did the "sudo killall coreaudiod" in the terminal. That worked, woot. I only know how to use computers in order to suit my needs, nothing beyond that. Can anyone tell me what is actually happening? and why this happens? Is there something bogging down my machine? Is there something I need to do to increase the performance of my machine? I run Sophos anti-virus software and keep up on all updates... but I feel like there is more that I should be doing to keep my Mac firing on all cylinders, so to speak...

Nov 30, 2014 1:30 PM in response to karmennim

SIMPLE SOLUTION....for some reason many macs get stuck and think their input source is still headphones or external speakers after the source has been removed from the computer. You will notice the headphone port still illuminated after removal of external output device(speakers, headphone, etc). Well here is a simple solution:

1. Close preferences

2. Plug in your external source(headphones, external speakers) and play some music for a few seconds.

3. Stop music.

4. Open system preferences and go to sound.

5. Remove headphones or speakers from computer (This may or may not solve the issue at this step but if not you will see headphone port still illuminated)

6. With FORCE blow into the headphone port a few times and this should do the trick.

Im not sure why this works but hopefully apple with come out with a bug fix for this

Oct 23, 2015 11:10 PM in response to mattgartner

MattGartner's suggestion worked for me (thanks Matt).

For no apparent reason, my sound just stopped working one morning. As Matt suggested, I went to Audio MIDI Setup (via Spotlight), then the Built-in Output tab. I checked the mute tickbox next to the Master Volume channel then unchecked it. My sound magically returned.

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