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

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

I just had the same issue...Internal Speakers was not showing up in System Preferences > Sound > Output and a red light (the S/PDIF output) was on in the headphone jack. I inserted my headphone plug into the jack, rotated the plug about 45 degrees, and the digital audio switch was turned off.

I really appreciate this thread. I did NOT have time today for a 3-hour round trip to the nearest Apple Store. Thank you all!

NONE OF THIS WORKED FOR ME

I told myself when I find the cure for the red led light I'll share on this post to help anyone else with the same problem and seem to can't find the solution.

Solution: Spray compressed air spray in the headphone jack 😮

One final step - the problem is likely that the internal switch is sticking. If blowing and compressed air doesn't work to clear the gunk, spray some WD-40 into the headphone jack, then plug and unplug headphones into the jack about 5-10 times. After doing this, my speakers are working again just fine, and they properly switch between headphone and speaker as they should. (Other methods suggested here didn't quite solve my problem.)

Tried all options nothing worked. Sprayed a small amount of battery terminal cleaner into head phone jack. inserted head phones into port multiple times and rotated audio was restored.

thanks for the tip

I (as many others) have been trying to figure a solution to this problem as the toothpick method seemed only a temporary solution but seems to strike at the root of the problem.I have found a low-tech solution by inserting a plastic anti-dust audio plug in the audio jack. This seems to do the job as it pushes the audio mechanism without closing the circuit. Problem solved!

Hey,

I had this problem too with my mac. I tried blowing in the headphone jack and deleting the two files mentioned, and also tried tilting my mac at 45 degree.

I just inserted my headphone into the jack and removed it...kept it doing for about 5 times and it solved the problem!

Vedant Jain

Just got a Mac and I'm experiencing the same concern.

I feel robbed. It's amazing to have to deal with this kind of software behavior, definitely something you're no waiting for when u get this kind of gear.

Can't wait for the next behaviors of the kind, seemingly common to Apple (who don't seem to care about...)

By the way, "fix" it by filing something inside the jack in is absolutely ridiculous.

Get a PC with xp on it...

I had the same problem on my Macbook Pro 6,1 running 10.6.8

I don't use the Digital Output so decided to disable it in the driver.

Here's what I did: (proceed at your own risk !)

Open a Finder window, navigate to /System/Library/Extensions

ctrl-click AppleHDA.kext and select Show Package Contents

Open Contents folder

Open PlugIns folder

ctrl-click AppleHDAHardwareConfigDriver.kext and select Show Package Contents

Copy Info.plist to the Desktop

On the Desktop make another copy and rename it Infooriginal.plist .

Open Info.plist with Property List Editor (if installed)

If you don't have it, open with Pref Setter from:

http://www.nightproductions.net/prefsetter.html

Click the triangle to the left of IOKitPersonalities

Click the triangle to the left of HDA Hardware Config Resource

Click the triangle to the left of HDAConfigDefault

Click the triangle to the left of Item 3 (using Pref Setter)

or Item 2 (using Property List Editor)

You're in the correct place if it says Codec - Cirrus Logic CS4206

Opposite ConfigData, click the (Data Item) in Pref Setter

After the first 32 figures enter 00 87 d0 00

ie 00172000001721000017226B00172300 < here

cmd-S to save the changes, then drag or paste the Info.plist from the Desktop to the Contents folder in AppleHDAHardwareConfigDriver.kext

Select Replace and enter your password when prompted.

After a Restart the Digital Output is no longer an option in Sound Preferences which prevents the Internal Speakers from being disabled when the headphone jack is removed.

I don't know how to re-enable the Digital Output which isn't an issue for me but if you may want to use it in the future, you should research that before attempting this procedure.

Credits to Henry Wong at:

http://www.stuffedcow.net/macbook_audio

Just had the same issue... blowing very hard for several seconds into the output jack works perfectly. just put my lips to the computer and sealed my mouth on it, and blew super hard. It actually works.

Well i tried everything in this thread and everywhere else i could find. Had the red light. Headphones did not work, blowing didn't work, toothpick, q-tip, pin, one post even suggested wd-40, that didn't work. I even ordered a new audio jack and replaced it and that didn't work. Tried disabling the digital out that someone posted near the end of page 2 and no dice. What finally worked was my old iphone water damage repair trick.

Here are the steps:

1) Remove the mainboard by following this guide: (used this when i replaced the jack)

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Retina+Display+Mid+2012+Headpho ne+Jack+Replacement/9732

2) check board for signs of corrosion, mine had some by the speaker connector and where the headphone jack plugged into the main board

3) submerge the board in 99% Isopropanol rubbing alcohol for 15-30 minutes.

4) using a toothbrush and q-tips scrub the area of the main board

5) use a can of air to dry

6) reassemble

Bam! it worked.

Do not do this if you still have warranty, take it to the nice folks at the apple store as i imagine this will void it.

Also if you have a water damaged iphone this will work as well. Just pull out the main board, soak and scrub the crap out of it.

I tried the headphones solution. But I tried it with iPhone headphones. It did not work at first, even after almost 20 - 30 times. It worked only after I tried clicking the headphones volume buttons. Then I removed the headphones, internal speakers worked fine.

Sadly, this seems to be a remittent problem. I tried most of the things in here, including compressed air. I had to lift my macbook pro up into the air, tilt the headphone jack down, and blow into the mic as hard as I could (not with compressed air this time). It works, but when I plug and unplug headphones the red light turns on again. I have a 2011 Macbook Pro.

This worked for me. I blew in the port, wiggled a toothpick around in it, plugged and unplugged the headphones countless times, and all that was useless. But unplugging the headphones while holding down the Volume Down button worked for some crazy reason. So yeah if all else fails, try that.