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Level 3

679 points

Headphone jack not working

Lion 10.7.2. When I plug a headphone into jack it does not shut of speakers and sound does not go to headphone. Went to prefs set output to internal

Posted on Nov 6, 2011 9:10 AM

Best reply

hudsonfromnew york

Level 1

9 points

Posted on Mar 29, 2017 9:40 PM

Click on System Preferences, Sound, select "output" and if you have headphones plugged into the jack, you should see headphones/headphone port. Look at the bottom of the window and you may see the mute box checked. This happens on my computer and I ended up using my brand new macbook pro for a year without headphones before I figured this out. Nobody at the apple store explained this to me either.

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58 replies

Jul 3, 2015 3:29 PM in response to leocicilia

This helped me too- what a silly procedure to have to use for simple headphones! Apple, I love you but sometimes you make me crazy. Thankfully the forum people seem to know everything. I'm grateful for the solutions.

Aug 9, 2015 6:25 PM in response to getsocialpromotions

I'm Getting Back To You I Plugged My Bose Headphones In The Jack

They Still Don't Work

LuciusM

Level 1

4 points

Sep 11, 2015 12:27 AM in response to Tony Brave

Note the date. I posted in this thread because it's the first hit on Google for "macbook pro 17 headphone jack not working".

ℹ MacOS 10.10.5

When I plugged my sleeping 17" MacBook Pro into my home system (power supply, ethernet, external monitor, USB hub for keyboard/mouse, headphone jack to powered speakers), I logged in, and the sound didn't switch from internal speakers to the headphone jack. In System Preferences > Sound, the headphone option was not in the list. This has happened before.

Read the thread, no solution worked. I wanted to solve this without restarting (a Mac should not require a restart to solve a simple software issue like this), I also refused to reset SMC/NVRAM for the same reason.

The solution? With all of my stuff plugged in as stated:

Selected Apple Menu > Sleep.
Immediately after it went to sleep I clicked a key on the USB keyboard and woke it back up.
Headphones/Headphones Port was back in the list. Clicked it.

Worked.

17" Macbook Pro's were made by Apple weren't they? I think I ordered this one directly from Apple... Hmm. Confused.

Hope this helps someone else.

MannyB10

Level 1

4 points

Sep 19, 2015 6:41 PM in response to 1robertino

Thanks resolved my issue in the sound preferences as well

Dec 17, 2015 8:10 PM in response to LuciusM

Going to sleep brought the headphones option came back for me too. Restart worked once, but issue happened later again in the same day. That's when I tried going to sleep and waking computer back up. Heaphones option was there and audio coming into earbuds. 15" MacBook Pro for me.

Dec 22, 2015 8:38 AM in response to Tony Brave

Have had the same issue as everyone else on this thread using Yosemite and El Capitan on a late 2011 17" MBP. As its an older model I'd imagine Apple don't care much but I'm surprised that such a widespread and fundamental issue with either their hardware or software was never recognised publicly in forums or support by apple. I imagine its not a software issue as it would be happening on more recent MBPs too if that were the case and then there would really be an outcry!

raffib

Level 1

8 points

Dec 25, 2015 8:33 AM in response to Tony Brave

Going into System Preferences, then clicking on Internal Speakers solved my problem too. I had moved to a new address and my speakers "stopped working". I almost threw my out my relatively new speakers when I learned it would have cost almost the same to buy a new pair. I thought Apple Support would be a long shot, but it worked. Thanks for saving my speakers.