How to Fix Cracking and Popping Sound ?

MacBook Pro 16 2021 on Monterey, Audio crackles very often. Just ridiculous.

I've had this issue the past like 2 years and it's terrible. It sounds like a messed up program. The noise is extremely loud and startling

2021 16in MBP, M1 on Venture 13.3.1

It does seem to happen more often when I'm playing/doing audio/music production stuff, also when load on my computer is higher

I fixed it!!!! Go to Audio MIDI Setup, then click on output speakers (mac default ones) and change the format to 88,200 Hz! It only crackles on 48 or 41 Hz (for me anyway).

Note: You can click on configure speakers to test out all the different Hz options with the speakers - hopefully one works for you.

what worked for my case was:

(Menu Bar): Go > Computer > Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences > Audio

Delete the com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist and com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist files

Empty trash

Restart your computer

After this I tried listening to the same YouTube videos and Spotify and no longer had any crackling/popping so far. Was really excited that Apple's Support was able to help solve it so quickly. Hope this helps!

what worked for my case was:

(Menu Bar): Go > Computer > Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences > Audio

Delete the com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist and com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist files

Empty trash

Restart your computer

After this I tried listening to the same YouTube videos and Spotify and no longer had any crackling/popping so far. Was really excited that Apple's Support was able to help solve it so quickly. Hope this helps!

I think this is an ongoing issue. I just recently purchased mine and immediately noticed this cracking sound whenever I try to watch videos with bass.

Device Details: Macbook Pro 14" 2024 Sequoia.

I am develop the a new usb audio driver on M3, I can't fix the problem about click sound when more than 2 music app work together. I read all mac os SDK's API but no way to fix this problem. When I Play music app alone it is clean sound. But Open Logic Pro X and Music App together, the Click sound coming. So I think it is about core audio driver problem. The M E core and P core working is not match, the client sync have problem.

2019 intel 16” MBP.

I have encountered those short digital distortion blips when using any type of DAW on interface. Disappeared for couple years and now it’s back. Totally ruins any type of guitar tracking or IR making process.

I’ve ruled out any sample rate, buffer size, cables or external devices. I am bringing it to Apple in a couple days and will hopefully have an answer.

Checking back in with a solution that worked for me.

2019 16” MBP i9 64RAM

TLDR; in Audio MIDI setup, set everything to 44.1 (dont forget input and output settings) if that doesn’t help try a different sample rate.

I make music with several DAWs and regardless of the software, interface, cables etc I’d get digital distortion out of nowhere and it would print onto recordings.

Recently I took it in and thankfully the apple tech was also a music guy and knew exactly what I was referring to. He checked everything and hardware had nothing to do with mine.

I wiped the entire mac when I got home, got the new OS, downloaded just StudioOne, Universal Control for my Presonus HD2, and ToneX.

Deleted the audio PLISTs and restarted. quit and reset the coreaudio in activity manager.

And it still happened.

Lastly I opened Audio MIDI setup and on a whim set the mic, speakers, my interface, and even my two monitor screens to 44.1 and it solved everything.

I am not sure why but I will be contacting both presonus and apple about it because I’d like have the option to record and listen at higher rate if I choose to.

Also looking into getting a rack mounted external clock and maybe that could help too because it directly had to do with sample rates conflicting even though I wasn’t using some like internal speakers sample rate in a ableton session should have nothing to do with each other when I’m using an interface and studio monitors.

Good luck all, I understand how frustrating this issue is.

I opened the Console app and searched for coreaudiod after I heard a crackle. I then copy-pasted the relevant rows to ChatGPT. That was able to give plenty of easy to understand descriptions of the logs to help track down the cause of crackling.

However, in my case, the fix was rather simple: restart Spotify.