Sound balance reverting to right channel

About sound balance reverting to the left speaker : I notice i only happens when I listen to music videos in Youtube. It is an annoyng thing to have to go to preferences<sound<balance every time it happens. And it appears to be an randomic behavior in my Mac Pro. I can imagine that Apple should pay more attention on it. Thx and sorry for my bad writing in English, I am brazilian.

Same for me - glad to see it isn't just my system. Frustrating. Why can't Apple stay on top of this stuff. It's a pretty old bug.

Same here on macbook pro 13". It happens randomly on wake up or reboot. I don't have any external screen.

Same for left channel on mid-2011 13 inch macbook air. There doesn't seem to be anything in particular that triggers the problem but it is persistent.

Problem has not been solved in Mavericks :/

My MacBook Pro unexpectedly shifts all sound to the left.

It only happens once a month or so. I can't identify any kind of cause or solution. I just submitted a bug report to Apple about it.

Did anyone find a solution for this problem?

I have my Bose sound system plugged into the headphone socket on the front of my mid 2012 Mac Pro but everytime I boot it up the sound defaults to the right speaker every time.

How strange. I'm up to date but I've had the problem for a while now. I hope mine sorts itself out one day too.

Here is the solution for anyone still having audio panning trouble.

1 Trash the com.apple.audio.AudioMIDISetup.plist and Audio Folder contents in /Library/Preferences/Audio

2 Empty the Trash

3 Go to Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup and balance the volume

4 Go to System Preferences/Sound/ and reset the balance to the centre

5 Restart

Message was edited by: Kroduction

PANNING SOLUTION

1 Go to System Preferences/Flash Player/ Click block all sites from storing information on this computer and consider deleting all site data and settings

2 Trash the com.apple.audio.AudioMIDISetup.plist and Audio Folder contents in /Library/Preferences/Audio

3 Empty the Trash

4 Go to Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup and balance the volume

5 Go to System Preferences/Sound/ and reset the balance to the centre

6 Restart

Kroduction

[Music Producer]

Message was edited by: Kroduction

You sir should work for apple, as this fixed the problem I've had for years and no one i spoke to as apple could understand the problem, never mind fix it.

THANK YOU!

Your welcome! I wish I could work for apple! 🙂 I'm happy to be of help to you.

Kroduction

[Music Producer]

I tried multiple times but your solution didn't worked for me :'(

try resetting the PRAM

1 shut down your mac

2 hold command, alt and the letters P and R

3 power your mac on but keep the keys held down

4 wait until your mac restarts again which youll hear the second chime sound

5 let go of the keys

let us know if it works 🙂

Kroduction

[Music Producer]

hi all... let me explain why i am posting here. recently my Macbook Pro started having some weird issue with audio playback not when plug into a TV/sound system via HDMI, not when output is the default laptop built-in speakers BUT ONLY when my headphones are plugged in (and yes, i tried different headphones, issue remains so it's the headphones).

here is what happens. from 1 day to the next, when watching say a TV show, suddenly the music/background sound/voice mix was all wrong, ie voice barely audible and overlaid with all sorts of weird electronic sound distortions as if there was some sort effects processor in the loop and gone wrong or something.

in System Preferences-->Sound the balance slider stopped affecting the left/right balance, that is, slide it to the left or right, you still hear sound on both channels! but only when the headphones are plugged in. it behaves normally when output is speakers.

so anyways, i tried everything: SMC rest, PRAM reset, safe boot, recovery mode boot, OS reinstall, the suggestions above... nothing works. went on chat with Apple but that was a wash. they are telling me that the only conclusion left is that it is a hardware problem!

so being stubborn that i am, and unwilling to accept that the audio circuitry could fail so miserably from 1 day to the next (after all, i forked out more than $4000/USD on this laptop when it came out in 2011--talk about an overpriced piece of junk considering that less than 1 year after purchase the DVD player stopped working, and the LCD started to fail within 2 years!) i investigated further and found out that when paying around with the 2 sliders for channel 1 and 2 in AudioMidi app, i am able to playback videos normally but still can't get the balance to behave properly.

actually, i am wondering whether i've lost the stereo altogether and audio is coming out in mono only? and is it really not a software issue? did i rule everything out?

i am this close to flying all the way down to Cupertino, CA, storm into the Apple building and if i manage to get past security, throw my laptop at the CEO! 😠 yeah, i am past pis$3d off. and to think i was considering buying one their new desktops! jesus, isnt' there any computer manufacturer left able to build a quality system?