If you don't feel comfortable completing the steps outlined in this article or you encounter any errors during the process, please do not proceed. At this stage, we would suggest contacting an Apple specialist for further assistance.
If you are experiencing issues with audio on macOS, your audio settings and preferences may have become corrupt.
Issues such as glitches, disconnects, dropouts, and general odd behaviour can often be resolved by deleting your audio preferences so they can reset. The steps below will run you through how to do this. However, if you'd prefer to watch a video, click here: Video Guide.
Step one: Delete device and system audio settings
- Open
Finder → Go (menu bar) →
Computer
- Select
MacOS or
Mac HD (or a similarly named main drive)
What to do if you can't find Mac OS or Mac HD:
-
Go to
Settings… or Preferences… (menu bar) →
General
- Under "Show these items on the desktop", tick Hard disks
- Navigate to
Library →
Preferences →
- Delete all versions of these files you find:
com.apple.audio.
DeviceSettings.plist
com.apple.audio.
SystemSettings.plist
Usually, there are two of these files, but there may be copies. Delete all of the files with these names. If prompted, enter your password.
Step two: Delete Audio MIDI Setup settings
- Open
Library
Pressing and holding the Option ⌥ or Alt key while in the Go menu should reveal this Library if it is not already visible in the list.
- Open
You can go to View (menu bar) → as List to make it easier to see the longer file names in this folder.
- Find and delete this file if it appears in the list:
com.apple.audio.
AudioMIDISetup.plist
If you search through the list of files and com.apple.audio.AudioMIDISetup.plist doesn't appear, the file does not exist, so you can skip this step.
Step three: Empty trash and restart
Once all of the above is complete, it's important that you empty the trash/bin and restart so your Mac can create the new preferences files. Empty the trash/bin in the dock.
- Now restart your Mac.
Video Guide
If you have any trouble with the steps above, please see the video guide below for further assistance.
FocusriteUSB.kext and NovationUSB.kext mentioned in the video may not appear on your system. These were used for older devices. If you do not see these files, it is okay to proceed.
Further troubleshooting
If you are only experiencing issues with audio input or recording, please follow the steps in this article if you haven't done so already:
macOS Sonoma/Sequoia/Tahoe recording input issues
If this article hasn't helped you, please feel free to search again at the top of this page or, to contact support, please click here.