Intense FaceTime feedback after upgrade to 10.9

Same here, completely unuseable starting from the Mavericks update. 10.9.1 makes it even worse.

Cool! Thanks for posting.

Today I tried to use FaceTime on my MacBook Mid 2009

After updating to 10.9.1 build 13942

The Mic is very low to the receiver they cannot hear me.

Before the upgrade it worked perfectly.

This BS about reformatting and doing a clean install, who has time for that?

I am waiting for the ISSUE to be FIXED !!! It's so frustrating with these OS updates

and the hardware and software issues that don't work.

Apple Get IT Together please and fix the PROBLEM! ! ! !

I installed the official 10.9.2 release this weekend and just did a test FaceTime call with my parents, who are on a 2008 iMac, a 2013 iMac and an iPad. Same problem when I FaceTime from my 2013 iMac running Mavericks, which didn't occur when running the prior OS version and which doesn't occur when I try from my iPhone 5. Very disappointing.

Quick survey: How many on this post have ever installed a 3rd party CoreAudio manager/Digital Audio Workstation on their system? If so, what vendor and version?

If you're not sure, check in  menu>About this Mac>More Info...>System Report>and on the side bar Audio

Anything beside "Built-in" listed there?

The upgrade didn't help for me either. I called my brother (he was on an iOS device - I was on my mac). He sounded perfect to me, but on his side, all he could hear was echos of everything he said, even when I turned my volume way way down. Earphones solved the problem, but this shouldn't be necessary. No other video conference software I have on this computer has this issue.

Regarding the survey, I have 4 things in my list of audio devices:

- Built In Microphone

- Built in Output

- Elements Organizer 11.0 (From Adobe Elements, which I have installed)

- Premier Elements 11.0 (From Adobe Elements, which I have installed)

i have a macbook air 2013, same problem here after upgrade to 10.9.2 facetime echo. Now i cant use facetime without headset. Before the update, everythig were fine.

Something I did seems to have fixed the problem. I just downloaded 10.9.3, so that is probably what it was. Install all the upgrades and hopefully it is fixed for you too 😉

My MBP came with Mavericks, currently 10.9.3, so I can't go back to an earlier version, but my correspondents on FT have the same echo complaint when I use it. No problem if I use my iPod.

I will try using a headphone and mic.

Just plugged a headphone into the MacBook and the problem was solved. However, I'd prefer not to have to wear a headphone every time I FT with people. Does anyone know where the mic is on this laptop?

Headphones will work, but should not have been necessary. I think there is a software bug somewhere, my macbook air 2013function now perfect after i reinstall osx from scratch.

All very odd, as the echo was only present with FaceTime for the remote users. All other applications which provide an equivalent service, such as Skype and Google Hangouts, did not manifest the problem. Still unsure as to what the issue was exactly but the solution does appear to be to completely re-install the O/S. I've spent some time on this with Apple support and this was the last resort before I was to take it back in, even installing the O/S over the existing one did not work. After erasing the HD and the re-installtion of OSX 10.9.3 I was able to recover all files and settings from a TimeMachine backup (using the migration tool). I'm now all back up up as before, minus the echo!

OS X Mavericks: Erase and reinstall OS X

The various other bits they had me do before reaching to the final solution were:

Isolating an issue by using another user account

OS X Mavericks: Start up in safe mode

About NVRAM and PRAM

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

Obviously only attempt the top solution with a complete backup in place.