Crackling sound on MacBook Pro 2018

Perhaps I exaggerated but it sure seems like there are a lot of people experiencing the problem. In the scheme of things it may be a small percentage but no one with the problem seems to be getting any satisfaction. You are just one of the lucky ones.

My comment is somewhat jaded because originally I went to the Apple Store to get a lower model MacPro and three of them they brought out to me wouldn’t start. They ended up giving me a better laptop. While I was there a friend of mine was also there. He had brought a new Apple computer home and it didn’t start. He was getting a replacement. Hence my comment.

"You are just one of the lucky ones."

I'm not just one of the lucky ones. If that were the case then Apple would have the worse computers in history if customers were just lucky enough to get one that works. Come on. That's a huge exaggeration. I've had a very good history of buying Apple computers and some have had issues, but never out of the box, so your situation is very unusual.

On the two main threads I follow (one of them having 1300+ posts) there are many people who've replaced their machine 2 or 3 times, and discover the same issue on the replacements. (Many reporting discovering it the same week they replaced it). If the issue was uncommon, the odds of the same person getting 3 machines in a row with the same issue are insanely low.

How low? Apple sold 5.3 Million Macs between July and September 2018.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/263444/sales-of-apple-mac-computers-since-first-quarter-2006/

The odds of many people reporting this same experience are even lower. It does not appear to be 'only a few machines having the problem.' Even if you had the worst luck; (luck isn't real); in the world, if the issue were uncommon the odds are incredibly low that you would get 3 different machines with the same problem.

If anything it points to either user behaviors or software combinations that reveal the issue.

yes until Apple were to fix the issue at the software or firmware level, all macs may very well be susceptible to the issue.

March 21, 2019. Went to Apple Store, they did a diagnostic test and congratulated me that my 2018 MBP is healthy, LOL. Apparently, almost everyone (many) is/are having the same issue and there is no fix, I think the staffs could have just told us that instead of pretending they have never heard of the problem. Is there any MBP that doesn't have this problem? So, how does the warranty work? Do we keep exchanging for a new one until we find a "Good Apple"?

"Is there any MBP that doesn't have this problem?"

Well I have been told by a select member that I say it too much, but since you asked....I have a 2018 MBP and it's been rock solid. No issues with crackling sound. So yes, there are MBP's without this issue and I'm certain there are thousands more that are problem free.

I'll respond again with the recommendation I followed and that has 'cured' that buzzing, crackling sound completely on my new MacBook with theHigh Sierra MOS. Go to theUtilities folder in Application and open the Audio MIDI setup app. In that app, change the Format from 44,100 Hz to 48,000 Hz. Close out that app and restart. I listen uninterrupted for hours to streaming radio now.

Good luck!!

I have a 13" MacBook Pro 2018, running High Sierra, and this issue is very painful. It's annoying to pay so much for a new laptop, and not be able to perform a simple task such as play music on it.

The issue can be fixed (temporarily), by killing the coreaudiod process through the ActivityManager. I found that once this process is killed, the crackling will then disappear for a few hours or so, until it returns.

The above fix is not ideal, but it's better than rebooting the Mac. I was nearly at the point of returning my Mac, wondering if my speakers were faulty. But once I discovered this, it seems proof that it's a software/OS issue that Apple need to address through an update.

The same thing happened to me. As soon as I updated, I started to have the issue. I never had this happen before and this system is about 4 years old. I've done the audio midi setup thing I've done the PRAM reset so I don't know. It's so unnerving.

Hi. Has this been resolved. I’m curious because I had purchased a MacBook Pro back in November 2018. It gave the same symptoms of crackling sound from the speakers. I am mediately returned it but still want to purchase it. But I am hesitant to purchase the same issues. Do you know if it’s been resolved? Did Apple do anything for you?

I did end up upgrading to Mojave a few weeks ago and haven't experienced the issue since.

I have the same problem , the crackling just started to appear yesterday.did you find how to resolve it?

ohh , i already tried to change midi to 48 but it didn't help. what security update did you do ?

10.13.6 - 2018-003 update.. not sure how old it is... didn't hear any crackle for 2 hours on spotify.. how frequently it happens to you?

very often with youtube, spotify or notifications. and force quiting coreaudiod isn't doing anything. are you on mojave or high sierra?

Edit : oh you're on high sierra...dammit

So very often you mean not like in my case that I didn't hear anything in a few hours straight?