How to Fix Cracking and Popping Sound ?

If it's the same issue as in https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251814420, then my solution saved me a day :)

I'm having the same problem running Xcode 12.3 in Mac OS 11.1 on a 16" MacBook Pro (late 2019). After running a SwiftUI preview, or running an app in an iOS simulator, audio from other apps plays with a horrible stutter. For example, the audio track of a YouTube video playing through Safari, or a song playing in Apple Music. Whether it's going directly through the Mac speakers or through the headphone jack to my external speakers, the sound is unlistenable. I have tried suggestions I've seen online to change the Simulator's audio input and output settings in the I/O menu, and I've tried killing CoreAudio. None of these suggestions has fixed the problem. It obviously makes one's workflow much more difficult if you're trying to follow along with a tutorial video, something I've found myself needing to do a lot to learn SwiftUI development.

2018 Pro here, its an embarrassing noise.

Hey there, just posting my experience too. I've had my 16-inch 2019 MacBook Pro since February of 2020. Today, for the first time ever, I've experienced this awful crackling, distorted audio while following along to a Udemy React Native tutorial. I'm currently on v11.1 of macOS Big Sur and these are my specs:

• 2.6 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7

• 16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

• AMD Radeon Pro 5300M 4 GB

The following applications were open:

• Visual Studio Code v1.52.1

• XCode's iPhone 12 Pro Max iOS 14.4 Simulator v12.4 (940.20)

  • SimulatorKit 597.13.0.1

  • CoreSimulator 732.18.6

• Brave v1.19.88 Chromium: 88.0.4324.96 (Official Build) (x86_64)

  • One tab running my React Native expo browser dev tools on http://localhost:19002/

  • A second tab running the Udemy course

I tried to kill the coreaudio process as suggested in https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/132423?answerId=656040022#656040022 but that did not resolve this concerning issue.

I didn't seem to have this issue on my former 15-inch MacBook Pro which was on Mojave. At the time, I could run Android Studio's Android Simulator and XCode's iPhone simulator without any issues, so I'm assuming this is just an OS flaw that apparently has made its away into Big Sur from Catalina unfixed somehow. This is completely unacceptable. I can get by in the meantime by using my iPad Pro to watch the Udemy course so that I dedicate my system resources to just the simulator(s) and Visual Studio Code, but I really think a "Pro machine" shouldn't be having this issue.

This also occurs when using SwiftUI previews. I have the latest Big Sur 11.1(20C69) and Xcode 12.4 (12D4e)

For me killing/restarting the core audio daemon [$ sudo pkill coreaudiod] (scroll below) did the trick.

Still a pain... Apple please fix!

i have the same Problem with my MacBook Pro 16" and Xcode 12.4 / Big Sur 11.2 :-( Please Fix this!

I confirm this is linked to XCode simulation. When working on physical device, no crackling sound is to be reported.

To keep it up this thread, @mskayyali's solution works fine:

Code Block 
sudo pkill coreaudiod

You may have to run it several times though.

MBP 16" 2020 maxed out, even killing the usual coreaudiod is not efficient here
Very weird, though I don't think it's a very bad bug to fix

Absolutely ridiculous that we overpay hundreds or thousands of dollars for Apple hardware, supposedly because it's higher quality, then issues like this come up which they refuse to fix. It's been happening to me since purchasing my 2019 MBP last year.

The only "solution" that works for me is to change the audio output in Simulator (under I/O) to something other than the Macbook Speakers.

Thanks y'all for the XCode tip. I was tearing my hair out while trying to watch a tutorial and having XCode open. That's really useful to know until they issue a fix.

am using big Sur 11.1 same issue. please fix it

Big Sur 11.3 (20E5186e). I thought they had fixed this by now?.. My guess is this is because of a "rat's maze of virtual pipes" in the bowels of CoreAudio? Is it known for certain that this is a software problem, or the DAC chip?

Solution:

Switching the Xcode simulator GPU fixed it for me

Code Block 
Simulator > File > GPU Selection > Prefer Discrete GPU

RIP Steve.

Hi
just discovered this:
Xcode 12.4
osx Big Sur 11.2.1
I had the usual cracking problem while programming and listening to music.
following some instruction I had also implemented a null audio driver in the simulator, but the problem persisted.
Now it is totally gone, in the exact moment I have modified the folder name of my projects from dev to dev.nosync
i have iCloud setup to sync either desktop and documents, and my dev folder is inside documents. avoiding the sync the the .nosync addition to the folder name has done apparently the magic.

A fix was suggested here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251814420