My MacBook Speakers Stopped Working

1935 days ago in Troubleshooting by Brent | 200 Comments

Recently my sweet, innocent, little puppy, Kaze, step on my MacBook (I know, gasp). Everything seemed fine at first but I soon discovered that the internal speakers on my MacBook stopped working completely. After browsing the Apple Support Site to no avail. I was able to find the following information helpful and ultimately it solved my problem. (whew!)

From iMeowBot on MacRumors:

“That kind of thing happens when of the tabs inside a phono jack is bent. They can often be fixed with a small pick, but it would be very easy to break them off too. You will want to bring it into the shop if you haven’t done that kind of thing before, and the tabs aren’t always accessible anyway, especially on the little jacks.

If you haven’t yanked a cable or anything like that, it’ll probably be covered under the warranty.

If Apple decide that it’s not a warranty item for some reason, and that you need a nice new expensive board, you could you a Griffin iMic or something as a replacement.”

From this, I took my headphone plug and wiggled it around (gently) and it worked. Wierd huh? I definately pulled a Paul and hated my mac for about an hour. All is well though and I’m right back where I should be. Thanks iMeowBot (whoever you are) for the tip!

Cpod

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I never though of putting in my headphones. The sound hasn't been working for well over a week. Now it works! Thanks so much!
Chybby

weird… it just happened to me. just plugged in my headphones then took them out. now it works.
Lexi

Unfortunately, the fix isn't quite permanent. I had this problem last year and without doing any research, it fixed itself on its own. However, I wasn't too careful and I tripped over my headphone cored yanking it out of my comp and causing the problems again.. x< *sniffles*
Dominique

poke and hold worked for me but now the speakers only work when i hold the bobby pin there. help?
timothyndaleyphd

I tried the persistent wiggle and after some persistence (gentle) it fixed my problem for now at least! I'm not so impressed with the Mac in terms of excellence. My daughter just took her's back and got a new Macbook pro due to a keyboard lighting short causing electrical issues. It was $2200.00 to purchase and not even a month old! Then my $1965.00 Macbook pro only 3 moths old started with the sound issue. I now have a 3 year extended macbook pro warranty (252.00) extra because I trust the mac folks so much for quality (NOT!). I think the golden days of Mac superiority are over. Mine came from Shanghai china shipped to me so . . . . perhaps the chinese labor force assembling these MacBook Pro's are not as swift and precise as thought. Two new macs and both have problems! 4200.00 worth of excellence? I think not! Oh well they've got my money once but we shall see if ever again.
Prit

Hi All,
I had the same problem. I was tearing my hair out for 2 months. I pressed the from part of the laptop heavily. – and bingo, it worked. To start with there was some distortion , but by pressing it more it improved.

Hope it helps for you.
Prit
UsUala

YESSSS it worked! After about 40 mins. Feel like a prick for sitting here wiggling a hair pin in a jack for that long, but it worked.
You have to push the second little button in HARD for a few seconds. Sometimes the speakers will only work if you hold the pin on the button, but push harder, HARDER I SAY! And it will work hopefully (Y)
Tom

Speakers operational after inserting headphone jack in and out gently about 8 times. I noticed that the red light was going from on to off and then on again; finally, it turned off and my speakers worked… the toothpick method did not work for me!
joelleireland

i was listening to a song via ear phones trying not to disturb those around me, then i took them out and you guessed it. the red beam of light. It has been 5 months since this happened.. i have tried the wiggling, tooth pick, bobby pin, Q-tip, earing, more wiggling, more toothpick.. NOTHING. i've read ALL of these posts, and many other web sites concerning the same problem. I've tried for hours at a time for days, weeks, and months. Nothing is working, and i cant send it in because i bought my MacBook off of the internet. im so frustrated and don't want to have to carry ear phones EVERY where i go! so inconvenient .. WHAT do i do!
divadavid

You'd think Apple would address this situation…so many people have encountered this problem. Is there any one you know who has experienced this who can show you just where to “tickle” to make it work again?
cherie

I had such a hard time figuring this out. Oh man i was really mad. finally after trying the “wiggling” trick for about a half hour i almost gave up hope and decided to listen to music with the head phones plugged in. i decided to “pinch” my laptop right where the port it on the top and bottom and then i pulled out my head phones and it worked! yay.
http://www.beatsproducer.com/ Beats Producer

It worked! My contribution:
I have a 09 MacBook Pro 17″. Had the speaker/headphone/redlight issue as above. When I peered into the red HAL-like headphone jack, I noticed a tiny tab all the way in the back (like right up against the light), at the 9-o'clock position. Using a paperclip bent with a tiny hook and a lot of patience, I managed to hook it and either pull it or push it in – I made sure I had music playing so that I would know when it worked. Took about 20 minutes and my eyes hurt. Thanks for your help!
mumomany

I've tried for 2 weeks to fix this problem and thanks to everyone here its now fixed, and I'm banning headphones from my book! THANKYOU soooo much.
Clara

I was so frustrated in the beginning not even the red light appeared, but after wiggling like crazy it finally worked.
Krystin

mine is the same. I blamed it on my sister for never pushing pause on my music, seems like its a Mac issue. I hate how I have to carry headphones or a pair of speakers with me everywhere.
Ben

lol didnt even know there was a red light in the hole til just now wtf
Segovia

can't see any red light, but the wiggle trick worked for me
Martin Westerstrand

used headphones. yanked them out JUST as it was shutting down.
when I started it back up, the internat speakers were just silent and gone.

I didn't see any red light, but the wiggle thing worked for me as well!

mine is a 15″ macbooc pro 2.66.
Blueracer66

Damn, it just happened to me. I see no red light. I'll try the wiggling method and see what happens. f.y.i. I hear no sound through the headphones. I hate no having sound. I listen to my iTunes every time my MacBook Pro is on. :/
ana

thank you soooooo much! i dont know what i would have done without the comments since my warranty already expired!!!!
wiggling the headphone plug halfway really works!!!!! thanks!!!
Blueracer66

“Wiggling” didn't work for me. However, if I left my iTunes playing eventually I would start hearing a sound like that one sound you hear when you throw a battery to the fire (lol) on the left speaker then the right speaker. Then the audio will eventually return. It would start really quiet and gradually get louder. The problem still happens to me but now the sound returns within a few seconds after restarting or waking up my computer. Hope this helps in any way.
Rfen

yay! it fixed my issue too.

thanks
Christina

Mine was not as simple. I tried wiggling but to no avail. So i had to use a bobby pin pushed it up agents the sides and vala!

THANKS SO MUCH!
Nexus2k

My GF drop bag with laptop forgetting is inside, symptoms ? no sound thru speakers + ; – ; mute when pressing show crossed speaker icon. Solution ?
I FIXED THIS WAY, play movie with max sound, put in/out headphone and same time press + and – colume buttons, I ended with working OSD for volume but no sound ! OK, power off macbook, pull out battery and press POWER button for 20s, then put battery back, POWER ON keeping button for 5-10s, it beeeeps long time (3sec) seconds, white screen, loads Leo and VIOLA!!! sound speakers play now my music
Hmoffly

I just started feverishly stabbing my headphone jack with my earbuds and eventually it gave it. who said gentleness was better…
Yelenavk

Wow! Wiggle really works…my speakers stopped working so i tried headphones and they worked just fine. I wiggled the headphones inside the computer and after i unplugged them the speakers started working!
KrystalT

OMG. I tried EVERYTHING! Thanks soooo much! I was beginning to get scared. This is a school issued computer too!
Brainfitzgerald8k

thank you soooooo much!!!! wiggle wiggle working
Pissed off

I thought these posts can’t be real but OMG.
Stuck the headphone speakers back in the jack, shake it for a second and pull it in and out and voilla, the damn thing actually works.

There is definitely a factory defect responsible for this failure and needs to be reported to Appe ASAP.
Happy!

First thing that popped up on google for me. I didn’t have any better ideas and it worked
http://www.etech.com/laptops-laptop-ac-adapters--c1146_1161 Laptop AC Adapters

I went a different route and recalled my mac book, meaning I just got a refund rather than bother with something that didn’t work at all — batteries aside.
patricia

was reading this forum and omg cool wiggle does work. Thank youuu for the advice
Samko34

Thanks-wiggled with 3mm cord from headphones worked for me. Wiggled around 1/3 to 1/2 way in jack for about 1min .
Tmart31

THANK YOU SOO MUCH FOR THIS! Absolutely a life saver this was!
kori

I used a bobby pin and kept wiggling it around and it started to work!! Thank youu!!! )
Joexbiz

Another possible solution (works for me): put your mac to sleep for a few seconds, then wake it up. For months, I noticed that after I redocked my mac (that is, reconnected power, usb hub, monitor, external speakers after having gone mobile for a while), occasionally, the external speakers stopped working and I could only hear the internal ones. Undocking and redocking usually involves one or more sleep/wake cycles. Don’t ask me why it’s related, but sometimes after the last awakening, the speakers (or external headphones) fail to work. Another sleep/wakeup cures it.
Guest

thank you MACFRIEND!!!!

i did the toothpick wiggled gently in one the small bumbs , i own a mac book WHITE

gently as you said VOILA!!! music again
lilly

I tried that and the sound came back when I use external speakers but it won’t work without external help. ((the computers internal speakers are not working)) Is there any other help you can suggest? Thanks!
Chale14

Whoohoo! Bobby pin totally worked!!!!!!
Ssmith

amazing… for a short while i was thinking of the hassle i would need to go to backing up my computer, erasing confidential files etc so that i could hand over my mac for someone to pull apart and replace speakers or something like that. I just put in the the phone jack and wiggled around and now all sweet again.
Jmort

Finally! My speakers have had the same problem for the past year until I found this post. I used a bobby pin for about 5 minutes and my sound is working again. Thank you soooooo much!
Danielle Hirsch

Wiggling around a jack inside the port worked!!!!! Wow who knew, got to love the internet…
Sophie

My speakers stoppped worked as well! I tried everything.. I called apple and they were no help. I tried plugging my headphones and wiggling them around and that still didn’t work, but the red light was on so I decided to try the toothpick trick. I wiggled it VERY gently and it worked perfect! Just push it straight back!
Amanda

Oh my god! It works! I’ve been trying to get it to work for a little over a week! I felt hopeless. Here’s my tips.
1. Relax. This might take a while and it can be VERY stressful.
2. Take your headphones. Insert them into the jack about half way and wiggle in a circular motion.
3. Try plugging it in all the way from time to time.

That’s what worked for me!
http://www.facebook.com/kenny.bunnell Kenny Bunnell

I had this same problem. I use an external display and it has speakers inside. Those would work, but macbook speakers would not. I went into system preferences and then “sound”, then selected “output” from one of the three options along the top: “Sound Effects”, “Output”, and “Input”. Once I selected “output” I selected “Internal Speakers” from the list below and then increased the “output volume” slider. That did it…just another twist on the same frustrating problem so I thought I would share it.
Eyesurgeryfuricchia

Thanks Richard, my wifes Mac had the same problem and we were depressed about it….then i read what you wrote and tried it and to our amazement IT WORKED….AWESOME….THANKS
Anonymous

This really works! I just wiggled my headphone jack in the red hole and it works like a charm now!! Praise the LORD for this interface so we can figure out weird problems without spending a ton of money sending in our macs to be worked on! Thanks for posting this!
Zoe, UK

Omg i thought the wigggling thing wasn’t going to work but after a few tries it did. THANKS
Flor

Tnx a bunch, it totally worked, i plugged my headphones and started wiggling them, make sure you have a tune playing so you can tell if it’s working or not immediately
linea

For me the wiggle thing didn’t work, restarting did though!

My MacBook Speakers Stopped Working

1935 days ago in Troubleshooting by Brent | 200 Comments

Unwrapped a new Mac?

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