No sound from Thunderbolt display

I'm having the same issue. I've had my 27" Thunderbolt display for 15 months and this issue started after I upgraded to Mavericks (on a 2012 13" MBP). Very annoying.

So far, I've done the unplug / plug in the thunderbolt cable - that worked in the beginning but not with as much success lately. I also unplugged the power cord from the display and re-plugged that in. This brought back the sound for about a week. Then, after I wake my Mac from sleep, the sound will be gone.

Same goes with the iSight camera - the Mac doesn't see it.

I've also rebooted my Mac and reset the PRAM. All of which sometimes gets the sound back for a little while or it doesn't.

I'm hoping I don't have a faulty logic board in the display...or my Mac.

Anyone else having success in resolving this issue completely? Anyone else notice this issue occur after upgrading to Mavericks?

YES! I have the same issue on my MacBook Air, with Thunderbolt display. It will not let me play the sound through the thuderbolt display, and it is REALLY annoying. When I try to switch to the 16C Soundflower, I get the message, "The selected device has NO Output Controls." Like you I paid extra to have a great sound experience, and the Bulit-in speakers DON'T cut it.

The issue happened AFTER the updgrade to Mavericks. I am 100% convinced Apple screwed up the Maverick's implementation of the sound driver - at least on the older Macbook Air devices (in the about the Mac screen, it shows I am on a Mid 2011 Macbook air with 10.9 OS).

Apple, PLEASE fix patch this.

JRexy, good to hear that I'm not the only one who had this problem after upgrading to Mavericks. Let's hope it is a software issue and that Apple fixes it soon.

Great tip!

can send fcpx audio right to the montor via intensity shuttle, then go right back to normalized audio.

Yes FYI to all, same problems here with regard to no audio option and no camera availability. Also a teeny additional display problem: the F1 & F2 display brightness keys on the keyboard have no effect on the brightness of the TB display. Someone above offered a workaround that works for me:

-sleep laptop.

-plug in display power cable first.

-plug in display TB cable second.

-wake laptop.

However, success is intermittent as I too--somebody else reported this above--have to at times unplug and replug several times. I'll report back if anything happens.

PS to maximusgaseous: did your repair back in 2012 stick? Anybody else get this problem successfully repaired?

Thanks!

I have this same problem.

MacBookPro from early 2011 running Mountain Lion, haven't chanced update to Mavericks.

Bought Thunderbolt Display this week and the longest it has held the sound over the Display is about two songs. After that it reverts back to the Built-In Speakers and the Display option is no longer in the Sound area. Not greyed out, just not there.

Nothing obvious happens to trigger it (like the MBP going to sleep or something).

I also have a wireless keyboard and trackpad with this setup.

Has anyone had any service from Apple on this issue?

Quick update on my issue: in short, I'm still having this **** issue. But it did disappear for about 4 months...how did I get it to disappear? I traveled away from my home for the winter holidays (1 week) and brought my laptop with me. It wasn't connected to my display for 1 week. When I got back from the holiday and plugged my laptop in, the sound worked...and it never reverted back to the built-in speakers until today.

Everytime there's a Mavericks update I hope that this issue is fixed...guess I'll have to keep hoping.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone else gets this resolved via Apple support. I didn't purchase AppleCare so I won't be contacting them...

So as per maximusgaseous above, I too brought the TB Display in for repair, and the fellow diagnosed with my MBA and with another MacBook, and determined the problem to be with the TB Display's logic board, now replaced--under Apple Care, luckily--and all is now well. FYI.

I have a Mac Pro and a TB Display. I had the same problem. I fixed unplugging and plugging back the TB monitor with the Mac on. I'm using 2 monitors, maybe this help.

Now camera, speakers and brightness work great.

For me - it was a matter of unplugging my Thunderbolt Display power from the wall and plugging it back in. Now works every time.

Update: after three weeks the problems returned, and I returned to get the power/TB cord replaced, and that took care of it. Most likely frayed wiring from plugging each into the MacBook Air (USB port and TB port are each on opposite sides of the laptop). I noticed that the replacement cord is longer, so fraying from bending less likely to occur now. FYI.

An update: I paid about $130 for the Apple Store to "fix" my display in early 2014. If memory serves, they replaced the cable and the logic board (after two trips to the store). The Genius had a hard time reproducing the sound issue (they played a looping YouTube video for hours). After the second trip / repair, everything was working fine...until about a few weeks ago.

Same issue with sound dropping out (and me having to unplug the Thunderbolt connector to get audio back). Then, today, as I was watching a YouTube video, the entire display started flickering on/off repeatedly (I recorded a video of it with my iPhone). This also happened once or twice when I was having the audio issues last year.

I bought a Thunderbolt Display in February 2015 for my Ivy Bridge Mac Mini. From Day 1 I had this issue (hardware error? maybe, if so something they've never bothered fixing. Uh...thanks Apple?). Unplugging the thunderbolt connector for a few seconds and plugging it back in would bring audio back up. Following advice in this thread I have started flipping the power off on my surge protector for a few seconds before turning it back on. Resolves the problem more easily without me having to get behind my computer and unplug things.

I usually only lose audio if I boot to Windows via Bootcamp or install updates. I've never had the issue in Windows at all. My guess is its some sort of buggy audio software in OS X that Apple has never bothered to track down.

I have also just purchased a Mac Mini and connected it to my iMac (27-Mid 2011) via Thunderbolt cable. Both are on latest Yosemite (version 10.10.5).

The ability to display the screen from the Mac Mini to IMac has been problematic but i know have got a workaround to it. However, the sound which was being output to the IMac has stopped working and only comes out of the Mini. I have looked at the sound devices available to the Mini and the IMac doesn't appear anymore ?

Is there ever going to be a fix to address this issue.. as thread goes back a while ? Anyone have a workaround which does involve rebooting everything ?