External speakers not working since last Mountain Lion update

1. Take a look at System Preferences > Sound > Output and see if your speakers are showing up and are selected.

2. Take a look at Applications > Utilities > Audio MIDI setup. If the Audio Devices window is not visible, up at the top find the Window menu and scroll down to Show Audio Window. See if your speakers are showing up in the column to the left and are selected, and not muted.

1. Try a different USB port
2. If you have a USB hub, try not using it.
3. If the speakers have a separate cable, swap out the cable
4. Try your speakers with a different computer.
5. Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Uitlity and repair permissions
6. The audio midi setup preference file may be corrupt. Deleting it may fix the problem:
   1. hold down the option key
   2. in the Go menu in the Finder, go to Library
   3. In Library, go to Preferences
   4. find a file named com.apple.audio.AudioMidiSetup.plist
   5. drag it to the trash and restart
7. Boot into recovery mode and repair your hard drive
   1. hold down command-R as you restart
   2. here's a nice page with more complete directions: Repair Boot Disk in Mac OS X with Disk Utility & Recovery HD
8. 4 thru 6 are fairly generic fixes. Maybe someone out there knows something more specific. What model of iHome do you have?
9. The ultimate generic fix, if nothing else works, is to reinstall mountain lion. In this case you could just reinstall over your previous installation and keep your apps and documents.
10. Hope this helps. This should keep you busy for a while.

Hi Arthur. Before I begin to follow your suggestion here, thought I would ask a dumb question and avoid maybe beating a dead Lion. :-)

I was having troubles with my Macbook Pro using 10-8-4 and opted to do a CMD & R Boot to effectuate a System Restore. All went well and it appears everything is doing well except, Now my sound only plays on my Macbook Pro speakers and not on my external ones. Are the directions given here the ones I shoudl follow to try and solve my problem.

Thanks, Ron

BTW, when I check <System Preferences>, <Sound) and <Output> there is nothing shown in window except Internal Speakers.

Ron

That indicates to me that it is a hardware or connection issue so proceeding with Arthur's good suggestions woudl be good. I assume you have already tried turning your speakers off then on again.

Jay

Try contacting iHome support. There is a contact link.

iHome Support

Thanks for reply Jay,

Yes, I have tried turning speakers on and off, unplugging them and rebooting, then plugging them in again. Every thing I can thing in hopes the speakers could get recognized but to no avail. No luck getting them to appear or work. I have no other devices that I can plug in to test for external sound. Incidentally my speakers plug in via an audio plug and not by USB.

I just downloaded the instructions of Booting into Recover Mode and will proceed with instructions to Arthur. It was not clear if I should empty trash after deleting that audio midi file and before powering down. I plan to empty trash first then power down. Then reboot into Recover Mode.

Thanks Eric but I don't have iHome Speakers. I am using an old pair of Harmon/Kardon Sprakers.

Ron

Hi Jay,

I finally got into Arthur's direction and reached point where I realized that he was restoring my OSX. That is the 18 hour operation I just completed over the last two days so no need to do that again. It was after completing that operation and getting my computer back up and running that I discoered my external speakers were no longer working and not even showing up in Soud Preferences as an Output selection.

So I am stuck again. Unfortunately, I have deleted the file com.apple.audio.AudioMidiSetup.plist

Any suggestions going further? I guess I can restore that file from my Time Machine Backup, right?

Ron

Well, heck. I can't find that file on my Time Machine. Not sure why not but I see my Time Capsule hasn't done a backup since the last one in did before I started my OSX Restore on Aug 15, 2013. So, I have Time Capsul doing it's first backup since the Restore and it has 250 GB to backup so I suspect it will be doing this for most of the next 12 hours. :-(

Not sure how I go getting that Audio Midi file back. However, when I check my internal speakers, they are still functioning.

Ron

I also use a pair of older Harmon Karmon Sound Sticks and I plug them in via USB. Is is possilbe that the audio plug is the problem? If you have not done so, try plugging them in via USB.

Jay

The .plist should recreate itself the next time you open the program. The .plist is stored in your User folder Library/Preferences which is hidden by default.

Either hold down the option key while using the Finder “Go To Folder” command and select your user Library in your home folder or use the Finder “Go To Folder” command and enter ~/Library.

If you prefer to make your user library permanently visible, use the Terminal command found below.

Show User Library

You might want to bookmark the command. I had to use it again after I installed 10.8.4. I have also been informed that if you drag the user library to Finder it will remain visible.

I'm not sure how as all I have is the one cable and it has a small audio plug at the end which is my interface with the computer. Don't have a USB cable connector.

???

Not sure why my plug would be bad as it was working fine until I did the Restore but I guess everything is fine until it fails. May be complete coincidence but... ????

Ron

My wife has a newer set of Harmon Karmon Speakers that hooks up like yours. No USB and there does not appear to be a way to swap cable ends. :-(

If you can borrow an external speaker with an audio plug in, you can see if the connection at the Mac is an issue.

Jay