coreaudiod

I had the same issue and tried a lot. But in the end, it was this hint: http://www.solidpitch.com/2010/05/11/when-your-mac-doesnt-remember-the-sound-set tings/

...

Deleted the Audio folder located at [OSX HDD Name]/Library/Preferences/ and create a new one as root in the terminal:
"sudo mkdir /Library/Preferences/Audio"

then set permissions:
"sudo chown -R _coreaudiod:admin /Library/Preferences/Audio"

Cheers, Roland

Hi,

I am having a similar problem with my 2011 MacBook Air 13". The left speaker will only output crackling sound if the volume is set to the highest level. The right side does not seem to have a problem. Any idea what could be causing this?

Aubrey

This worked a treat for me. The _coreaudiod service was using up 120% CPU and adding in the folder (which was already missing) fixed it immediately. Thanks a million.

I uninstalled MacPorts and didn't know why my computer was performing so poorly. I used top in the terminal to see what was going on and creating this folder with the permissions fixed the CPU usage issue. Thanks for the post.

@mac_ro Thank you so much

Thank you so much, I followed your steps, and it solved my issure instantly as soon as I

" sudo chown -R _coreaudiod:admin /Library/Preferences/Audio"

on my New MacBook Pro 15", i7 2.6 GHz, Mountain Lion 10.8.2

Thank you so much

This Solved my Problem

I am on Lion and was having similar problems with coreaudiod over 100% and crippling the system. I have also read people on Snow Leopard having similar problems. Eventually I found that the /library/preferences/audio folder (that is the root /library folder, not system/library or username/library) was missing (this may even have been self inflicted, ironically, following some online advice on how to speed up my system!) Roland's solution should work, or you can as I did just copy the above audio folder from another Mac (I used my partner's who is on Snow Leopard and it worked fine). Another useful bit of info I picked up during the process is whilst you're sorting all this out, if your system has ground to an almost halt, you can disable the coreaudiod process using the following commands in terminal:

To load or unload coreaudiod temporarily:

sudo launchctl load /system/library/launchdaemons/com.apple.audio.coreaudiod.plist

sudo launchctl unload /system/library/launchdaemons/com.apple.audio.coreaudiod.plist

To load/unload and have this persist even when rebooted:

sudo launchctl unload -w /system/library/launchdaemons/com.apple.audio.coreaudiod.plist

sudo launchctl load -w /system/library/launchdaemons/com.apple.audio.coreaudiod.plist

The unload will disable all the audio but gives you your memory back whilst you replace your audio folder, then just run the load command and reboot.

Cheers

That's a truly incredible tip

sudo mkdir /Library/Preferences/Audio

sudo chown -R _coreaudiod:admin /Library/Preferences/Audio

thank you very much indeed.

Hello.

Today I had the same problem. After reading this article, I have tried to solve the problem with Time Machine. I noticed that the folder "/Library/Preferences/Audio/" no longer exists. The problem itself occurred only two days after the loss of the folder.

solution:

Change to the directory "/Library/Preferences/". Open Time Machine and choose a day on which the folder still exists. Restore folder. Reboot (it's better that way). Open Disk Utility and repair the permissions.

Done!

Mad props to mac_ro. That tip saved by butt!!

Thanks Mate!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR THIS TIP!

I have been pulling my hair out trying to figure out why my brand new Mac Mini was going beserk.

Activity monitor showed nearly 100% CPU usage...and I could not do anything on my computer.

I had no idea what I was doing but nervously followed the exact instructions provided. IT WORKED!!

Curious, but Apple support was unable to help and referred me to another tech who is supposed to call me back tomorrow. Now that will NOT be necessary. Again, thank you!

Can you explain step-by-step exactly what you did? I'm having the same problem but I'm not understanding HOW people fix it. Any details will be helpful!! thanks!!!!

nevermind, figured it out and it worked 😀

Glad to hear it worked for you also...the Apple Tech did call back and I told her how I managed to fix the problem, with instructions from this thread. She was not aware of how to do this little trick.

I will definitely keep this thread BOOKMARKED, in the event it happens again.

I had the same issue after updating itunes 11.0.2 to 11.0.3 coreaudio deamon take 180Gb of swap memory.

I did the fix and it's work again. Here is what I did:

sudo mkdir /Library/Preferences/Audio

sudo chown -R _coreaudiod:admin /Library/Preferences/Audio

you must remember your administrator password.

Thanks!