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

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.

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.

Get a toothpick, insert it and gently turn the toothpick in a circular motion around the internal circumference of the jack until the light goes off.

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!

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.

Great and thanks. Annoying, but simple enough to fix. Will re-install Snow Leopard. Use the audio-out port a lot, and perhaps is the reason the file corrupted.

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.

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

Blowing air into the port worked for me - definitely worth a try for anyone else with this problem.
Thanks! 🙂

Blowing air into the port worked for me as well!

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!

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'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.

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 😮