Sound issues on Mac are pretty common. You may run into them when you connect or unplug an audio accessory during playback, use an app that accidentally misconfigures sound settings in the background, update to a buggy macOS version, or sometimes, for no apparent reason at all.
If you’re experiencing a sound glitch on your Mac, wherein there’s no audio from internal speakers and increasing/decreasing volume isn’t helping either, there are some really effective fixes that can help you fix the audio problem on your Mac. Here’s a list of such solutions we find effective in troubleshooting Mac’s sound not working issue.
1. Trivial Fixes for Mac Sound Not Working Issue
Before you embark on the complex sound troubleshooting process, we’d recommend you try out a few trivial fixes to resolve no sound issues on your Mac. Of course, if you’ve been a Mac user for some time, chances are you’ve probably already tried these fixes, in which case, you can skip to the next solution.
I. Check Mac Volume
First off, check if your Mac’s system volume hasn’t been muted accidentally. For this, press any of the volume buttons on your keyboard (F10 (mute/unmute), F11 (volume down), F12 (volume up)) to see if you’re able to change the system volume. Alternatively, you can click on the volume control in the menu bar and move the output volume slider to do this.
If your Mac’s audio is muted, pressing any of these keys should unmute it, and you should be able to hear the audio again. Another way to check if your Mac’s audio is on mute is through the device settings. To do this, go into Sound Preferences. Here, tap on the Output tab and make sure the Mute option is unchecked.
II. Reconnect Audio Devices and Choose the Right Output Device
A lot of the time, connecting a defective audio accessory, leaving an audio accessory plugged-in to your Mac for an extended period, or abruptly connecting/disconnecting an audio device during playback can also cause sound issues on Mac. If you’ve started experiencing sound issues after switching output devices, you must, first, disconnect all audio accessories connected to your Mac. And then, make sure your built-in speakers are set as the output source by clicking on the volume icon in the menu bar and selecting Internal Speakers under Sound.
Once that’s done, test your speaker by playing some audio.
III. Check if the Sound Is Working on Other Apps
Although uncommon, there are times when you may not hear sound in a particular app on your Mac. It usually occurs in browsers with the mute feature, which lets you mute a specific tab in the browser. To rule out its possibility and ensure this isn’t causing sound issues on your Mac, open the browser and make sure the tiny speaker icon in the tab playing audio is unmuted.
Alternatively, you can also try playing audio in other apps to see if there’s sound. If, despite performing all of these trivial fixes, the volume icon remains grayed out, or you don’t hear sound from your built-in internal speakers, move on to other fixes.
2. Reset the Core Audio API
Core Audio is a low-level API that deals with sound in Apple’s macOS and iOS. It’s responsible for various audio operations on macOS, including playback, recording, compression, decompression, and more. As such, when there’s no sound on your Mac—and the trivial fixes don’t help—resetting Core Audio makes perfect sense. Depending on whether you prefer CLI or GUI, you can reset the Core Audio API as shown below.
Reset Core Audio Using Activity Monitor
Reset Core Audio Using Terminal
Once Core Audio is reset, play some audio/media on your Mac. Most of the time, this fixes the sound not working problem on Mac. But in case it doesn’t, run the following command in the terminal to stop and restart the Core Audio API: sudo launchctl stop com.apple.audio.coreaudiod && sudo launchctl start com.apple.audio.coreaudiod
3. Restart Your Mac
If resetting or reinitializing the Core Audio API doesn’t help either, you must try restarting your Mac. To do this, tap on the Apple icon in the top-left on the menu bar and select Shut Down.
When it prompts you to confirm, hit the Shut Down button again, and your Mac will automatically close all open apps and shut down. After this, press the power button to boot the Mac. When it starts up again, try playing some audio again.
4. Update/Downgrade macOS to the Latest Version
Although clearing the Core Audio API and restarting the Mac should fix most sound problems, in case it doesn’t, your current version of macOS could be the culprit. If you’re using an older version of macOS than what’s currently available to the general public, you may want to update it to the latest version. To update your Mac, click on the Apple icon in the menu bar and select About This Mac. Tap on the Software Update button. If an update is available, click on the Update Now to install it.
Conversely, suppose you’ve started experiencing sound issues after upgrading to a newer macOS version. In that case, you can try downgrading to the previous stable version of macOS to see if that resolves your Mac’s sound problem.
5. Reset the NVRAM
NVRAM or non-volatile random access memory is a type of computer memory that’s responsible for holding certain system configurations about your Mac. Audio/volume happens to be one such aspect saved on the NVRAM. As such, when none of the above fixes solve the audio issue on Mac, resetting the NVRAM is the next logical step. Follow these steps to reset the NVRAM on your Mac: Upon resetting the NVRAM, some of your settings, such as date, time, volume, keyboard preferences, etc., will be lost and reset to default. So make sure you set them again after you log in to your system.
If Nothing Works, Reach Out to Apple
Fixing sound issues on Mac can be challenging. Since you can never determine the exact cause of the problem, you have to go through all the possible fixes until you get the sound working again. All the solutions listed in this guide aim to simplify this process by providing you with a structured approach to troubleshooting Mac sound problems. If you follow these fixes correctly, it will most likely restore your Mac’s sound, and you’ll be able to hear audio from its internal speakers once again. However, if it still refuses to work, it’s very likely due to a hardware issue, in which case, you need to reach out to Apple support to seek further assistance. However, whatever the reason, there are several ways to fix audio problems on your Mac and restore its sound, as demonstrated in the guide above. Fortunately, there are ways to fix it. Resetting or reinitializing the Core Audio API is probably the easiest one, and you can do it by either force stopping the coreaudiod process from the Activity Monitor app or running sudo killall coreaudiod (to reset the API) or sudo launchctl stop com.apple.audio.coreaudiod && sudo launchctl start com.apple.audio.coreaudiod (to reinitialize the API) in the Terminal. To reset the Core Audio API, run sudo killall coreaudiod in the Terminal. Or, go into Activity Monitor and force stop the coreaudiod process. For resetting the NVRAM, first, shut down your Mac. Then, hit the power button and immediately press the Command+Option+P+R keys together until you hear a beep or the Apple logo appears on the screen. As soon as one of the two events occurs, release the keys. However, if this doesn’t address the problem, you must try other fixes, as listed in the guide above.
