Red light in headphone jack and no sound from internal speakers.

The fix is very simple -.-

Plug the earphone back in, then while pressing and holding one of the volume buttons you plug out the earphone.

The red light was on, I restarted my macbook, the light was gone but the sound didn't return. I used a stick to poke it and wiggled in a circular motion but that didn't work.

I blew it and still wasn't working, but I put my mouth against the hole and blew as hard as I could and the sound came back within 10 seconds!

I just picked up a USED (no warranty) Mid 2010 MBP with this issue. I have read the many threads all over the web and tried EVERYTHING and nothing has worked. Even headphones are flaky, you have to jiggle them to get audio so it sure seems like a bad jack. I used to a great solderer but at my "advanced age" I'm not as steady as I can be.

I've tried (among other things):

Blowing into the jack with a can of strong compressed air

Diddling with toothpick, q-tip (cotton removed) and any other device I can insert into the hole. 🙂

Twisting and shouting, shaking and cajoling. No luck.

I have a fresh clean install of Mavericks on a new SSD with nothing installed so it isn't a software problem.

I wish I knew which soldering pads on the mother board need to be bypassed or shorted to disable the switch as I have no use for the headphone jack. I primarily want to be able to use the speakers for Skype.

Seeing as I paid under $300 for the MBP it doesn't make sense to have Apple repair it as it would probably cost twice that, Other then the jack the MBP is excellent and was a good deal.

What I don't understand is why the speakers work for the startup sounds.

Hey, I have a 17" MacBook Pro (Late 2011) running OS 10.10.2 and had the same thing happen, but only my headphone jack port stopped working. The internal speakers were fine. But if everyone else's suggestions don't work I have a new cheap fix!!!

I looked it up and saw that people said to twiddle a toothpick or whatever in the headphone jack port. I tried that with a paperclip and it worked. But the next day it happened again so I used the the paperclip again. It worked, BUT I must have damaged a component so everything sounded garbled.

I went to the Genius Bar to see if there was anything they could do but all they suggested was to replace the logic board which costs nearly $800 (AUD)!

NOW FOR THE CHEAP FIX!!!

A friend of mine suggested I use a HDMI cable because they transfer video and audio. I got a Belkin Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adaptor as well as a HDMI cable and connected it to my monitor. Then go to Sound in System Preferences. Under output, select your monitor. Then connect your headphones to your monitor's headphone jack port! Et voilá!!! $50 worth of cables fixed my problem. . .

The volume isn't exactly as adjustable as it was before. . . But hey, it works and saved me $750!

To anyone who may be having this problem now:

I've had the same problem with my 15" MBP. The red light is shining out of the audio jack and the volume is grayed out. It doesn't allow me to adjust the volume and I can't hear anything either. What's worked for me is blowing really hard in the audio jack for a few seconds. The red light disappears and everything works fine after that. It's somewhat of a temporary fix though. You may have to do it every once in a while.

Your analog/digital switch in the port is stuck -- the red light is the dgital audio signal. Try the headphone plug again, this time wiggling it from side to side while it's plugged in. Repeat as needed. If no luck, take the machine in for repair under your warranty.

In responce to those suggesting using a toothpick; that would simply not solve the problem. It may mutilate the red light, but will not fix the audio.

This is a common software issue on Mac OS X 10.7.5 and earlier versions. Unfortunately there was not software hotfix ever released.

The problem you are experiencing is that the computer does not recognize the "internal speakers" as an active sound component.

To remedy this issue, try the following...

1 Reboot your Mac (if you hear the 'ding' sond, then the speakers are physically OK)

2 If the problem still exists go to folder \Library\Preferences\Audio\ and delete the two files inside the folder.

You should be asked to supply your account password to allow the computer to do this.

What this action does is reset the potentially corrupted audio prefrences. Your sound should immediately return after this action. Thank you!

I had this issue on my MBP 13" and I just blowed hard for like 5 seconds in the headphone jack and the red light turned off and audio came back. I think worth trying, since it only take just a few seconds.

I'm really glad that the method I suggested of "blowing air in the headphone jack" worked for many people.

If it helped you, please hit the like button.

It's a really quick and easy fix, but if it doesn't work I suggest you to contact Apple Care or nearest Store to repair or replace your unit.

I had this problem too. I tied the poking, prodding thing and everything else listed here...then by coincidence when I was trying to fix something else (frozen boot bar)... I did the following and my sound started working normally again

Resetting NVRAM

1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R.
3. Turn on your Mac.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys immediately after you hear the startup sound.
5. Hold these keys until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for a second time.
6. Release the keys.

After resetting NVRAM, you may need to reconfigure settings for speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and time zone information.

It may be worth a try

Temporary solution to the problem of red light in the ear jacket that leads to no audio output. Please ensure to follow these instructions i grantee there will be sound from the internal speakers.

• First have at hand an ear piece jacket into the earphone jacket on ur Mac and then
• Open System preference from the doc in case u're using MacOs Sierra or any other MacOs.
• Click on the icon indicating sound then scroll below where u'll find "Play sound effects through Internal Speakers or External Speakers".
• Then scroll below on "Use audio port for: Sound Input or Sound Output" then select sound input.
• After that, play any audio without pulling off the jacket from your Mac and then bingo u should have a clear sound from ur internal speakers.

NB: More research is being done to fit the issue permanently therefore if there is any problem that u're experiencing about the Mac please feel free to contact me via my personal email: Mwaipungu@gmail.com

You probably have the problem correctly diagnosed. Try inserting a cocktail stirrer or a toothpick and jiggle it around in the audio output port and the internal speakers should come to life. There is a switch inside that has to be tripped. Failing that, have a tech at the Apple store do it.

This is a fairly common occurrence.

Ciao.

Thanks for the alternate solution. I have performed what you suggested and the sound will still not return. Upon resent the speakers "ding," etc. Deleted the files, but the "sound icon" is still greyed out and the computer without sound.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks

I had this problem for a while with my mac. I did some additional research and it turned out that upgrading from leopard to lion caused this problem. What I did was do a clean install of lion and everything was fixed. If you do not use lion? Just do a clean install of your current OS and you will be good.

a few things might work - i had the same problem. for a working fix - go to system preferences --> sound --> sound effects and choose 'use audioport for - input'. plug in headphones and your mac speakers should work. this will disable your mac's built in mic, so unless your headphones have a mic, you wont have audio input until you change this setting back.

the permanent fix for me was opening up my macbook pro. i had a little corrosion on the motherboard right where the audioport was. if messing around with the external part of your audioport isnt fixing the problem you might get lucky and have something easily fixable inside. look for blue/green build up. if there is some(hopefully theres not), lightly wipe it.

oddly for me, tilting my mac at a 45 degree angle for a few seconds with the audioport side in the air made my speakers work for hours at a time. that was before i removed the corrosion.

good luck