How to Fix Cracking and Popping Sound ?

Exactly the same problem, my colleague and I excitedly purchased the new Macbook M1, came with Monterey, upgraded to 12.1, and both have the crackling. Why doesnt Apple do something - they are known for "media", what is the point of having great apps for sounds, recordings, playbacks and spoiling them with crackles and pops

I contacted apple just today, they told me to go in safe mode and try it out, which I did. Then switch off and power on normally... and it works! They said that with safe mode it removes software bugs. They weren't specific but my guess is that it probably does some sort of checksum with the original software to find differences that would interfere with internal systems (such as audio). I may be wrong! But it worked anyway

MBP M1 16'' Pro.

I've tried 12.2 Beta - didn't help.

In my case, issue only happens when Firefox is running, even if Firefox is not the source of the sound.

Same problem on my new MacBook Pro M1 16". It cracks in a very bad way from time to time, unexpectedly, and the sound is really bad like something happened to the speakers. This is my first Mac and it evokes very opposite feelings at the same time. I see guys mention Firefox in comments, I use it too for web surfing, but I use Chrome's PWA to play Youtube Music. The issue appears much more often when I run some builds, but it still persists if the laptop does nothing except playing video or music. Monterey 12.1

hey guys. macbook pro M1 16, buyed 10 days ago. restart coreaudio and change midi settings don’t change nothing. who have a solution?

I found matching the audio format and bit rate on all of my audio devices to help the random pops/clips occurring during audio playback. This can be done in the "Audio Midi Setup" menu.

By default, OSX had some audio devises set to 44.1k and others on 48k, some at 16 bit, others at 24 bit. When I had matched the format and bit rate on all connected audio devices to 48k and 24 bit, the pops and clips were reduced dramatically. I would also note my device did not operate well at 44.1k.

I would also recommend disabling bluetooth devices, as this has been known to cause issues as well.

Hope this helps my fellow audio lovers experiencing these clip/pop playback issues.

M1 Pro 14", same Problem. The Problem can be reproduced by just opening the TV App and watch something in FULLSCREEN (if its not happening then just scrub around the movie timeline a bit and then ....)

hilarious for a 3.000€ machine... this can be fixed by going into midi settings and setting the output format to 48 kHz but it still happens in youtube videos, very subtle but it does happen. Using Safari in almost every youtube video, in the first 1-4 seconds you will hear an audio crack always at the same exact moment in the video.

Please use the Feedback app and report this problem to apple.. they must wake up like ***#

could someone check this following video at second 02? Exactly when he says "Ryan here" there is always an Audio Crack for me (using safari) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dedxf5dOzkY&t=3s

same here with MacBook Pro (14", 2021) Apple M1 Max

Also sometimes have this trouble with MBP Pro 19 2019 Intel. Sometimes it is solved by restarting coreaudio. Month ago i bought MBP Pro 14 M1 Pro, and it also sometimes starts to crack

Same issues here guys, MBP14.

When I am on my speakers I don't mind it so much, but it's really unacceptable when I use my headphones, which is what I do most of the times. It's so annoying. It happens with all audio pause/play, it happens even when I scroll to websites and a video is about to start playing. I can listen the clicking sound coming in and out like something is about to start playing. It is very bad, it makes me not wanting to use headphones when I use a tutorial while coding, where I pause&play the video regularly.

Especially if someone considers the price we paid for these machines, just unacceptable.

Please, make it a priority.

A quick recording: https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview=MBP14ClickingNoises.aac

I have the same issue. It wasn't happening for the first few days after I got the 16 inch M1 Pro Macbook Pro but now it is happening very frequently. Very annoying, especially considering the fact that the speakers are normally so good that you can properly hear music on them. Please. Fix this.

Same issue here, i thought it was an issue with my interface which i exchanged out a few times. i've tried buying new headphones. same issue. I have a late 2015 macbook pro with a quad i7 processors & 2.8 ghz.

Same here. What can I do?

To fix the dropped frame/crackle audio problem /applications/utilities/audio MIDI Setup Set the sample rate to 48,000 Hz.

This should fix the problem. It fixed mine.

The same issue started to crop up on my brand new 2021 Pro Max with Big Sur. And it has been two months of this on Safari.... 😒