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Audio popping and crackling problems across the board with Mavericks

I have a mid-2012 Macbook air.


Is anyone else having popping and crackling issues with Audio after upgrading to Mavericks? (I have read through various discussions but haven't seen this particular issue) Note: popping and crackling is not present when playing audio with Quicktime.


Audio is popping and crackling. I'm a musician and DJ and this is terribly impacting my business . . . This includes when played on Youtube, in iTunes, on Djay, Serato DJ, flash, any audio.


It doesn't matter is I am playing audio through a USB mixer, through headphones, internal speakers, audio jack to speakers, DJ console. All of the above snap crackle and pop. I have tried the following:


1. Turing off wifi

2. Restarting

3. removing playlist files (.plst) from /Library/Preferences/Audio

4. shutting down all unused applications


I sure hope there's a new update coming out soon . . . any ideas?

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Mavericks (10.9), DJay, Serato, iTunes

Posted on Nov 5, 2013 10:55 AM

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Posted on Feb 18, 2017 8:30 AM

Apple doesn’t routinely monitor the discussions. These are mostly user to user discussions.


Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem or a suggestion for change. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem/suggested change solved sooner.


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41 replies

Nov 5, 2013 11:12 AM in response to robbennion

Tried the following, didn't work:


I tried this and it did not work. The audio static was a system-wide issue for me. I solved it another way! If this did NOT work for you, please try my solution:


Open Finder > Applications > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup


Go to Built-In Output in the pannel on the left-hand-side of the window.


  1. Click "Output"
  2. Set format to "2ch-24bit Integer"
  3. Set format to "96000.00 Hz"


That's it! Hope that helped.

Dec 3, 2013 2:20 PM in response to robbennion

I’m sound designer and I’ve the same problem! I'm using Ensemble Apoge audio interface and since I’ve my new macbook pro has become impossible to watch a movie or listen to the end of a song without having sound problems (crackling). I'm having problems with VLC, iTunes and QuikTime 10. Terrible to spend more than $ 3,000 and have the problems that had computers of the eighties. Luckily I do not have these problems with Logic Pro!

I'm hoping for an update that puts in place a high number of problems!!


Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013, 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7, OS X 10.9 (13A3017)

Dec 18, 2013 3:34 PM in response to robbennion

Yes, just moved to Mavericks with a Saffire PRO 24 DSP on my Mac Pro 12-core. Sound plays fine in iTunes and Spotify, but after 30 secs or so any file played in Quicktime suddenly deteriorates into rythmic crackling/clicking, as if played through a helicopter. The Saffire says it is sync-locked OK. Any ideas welcome.

Mar 18, 2014 7:31 AM in response to robbennion

Hello, all - not sure if this is an option for any of you, but for those using an external audio device/interface, I found that by being sure the clock source was set to "Mac" as opposed to the device itself helped. Internal Mac resources tend to want to be clocked by the Mac, not an outboard device. So slaving the device to the Mac - not the other way around - can often get timings aligned. And glitches - I have found - are often caused by synch issues.


FYI, you can toggle this option under Applications > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup > Output/Input - "clock source"


Might be a solution for some of you.

Audio popping and crackling problems across the board with Mavericks

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