Ear Pod Volume Controls Not Working on MacBook Pro

Hello cabakroll,

Thank you for your reply. How is my Mac not supported? It's worked fine in the past. Hence why I asked if a firmware or OS update changed something. No, the red light (for optical audio) isn't on. I can control the volume on my keyboard just fine. I've looked at that article and it didn't help. Sorry.

I reset PRAM and SMC, and still, no luck.

It might be important to note that I can hear sound through my headphones. I just can't use the controls on the cord to change volume, skip, etc.

I don't. Only Internal Microphone.

I did, and no luck. Safe mode disabled audio all together so it wouldn't have mattered. Didn't even have volume control on the menu bar. Here's a screenshot from system preferences:

Get a load of this! I accidentally dropped my computer while I was putting it in my backpack this morning. 😟 Landed on my hardwood floor in the kitchen. Bent the case a bit. I was able to bend it back. One of my USB ports doesn't work, but I can now control volume and use the mic on my Apple Ear Pods! Figure that one out. Not sure if it was worth sacrificing one of my USB ports though... Thanks for all of your help, cabakroll!

The other day I started having issues with my external mic and volume control not working properly. A Google search uncovered this image showing all of the different parts of the male audio jack:

Apples Ear Pods have a TRRS (tip, ring, ring, sleeve) pinout with the mic on the sleeve position. The left channel is on the tip, the right channel is on ring, the ground is on the ring, and then the mic is on sleeve. Upon inspection of the audio out jack on my MacBook Pro, I was able to find the pin that would match the sleeve part of the plug. I noticed it was was flattened from constant use so I bent it back down so it would make proper contact with the sleeve part of the male connector. Now it works! You can clearly see the pin (top of jack) in this picture. It's the very first pin, closest to the outside of the hole.