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!

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  • greg

    wigle it works!!! thank u all!!!

  • Radical Missus

    I LOVE YOU!!!
    The sound has been broken for weeks after I leant it to a friend, and i was about to send it away tomorrow, despite major coursework deadlines, and i tried this, and it worked! YAY!

  • Mac Lover

    OMG! It does really worked. wiggling it….
    thank you so much. but the problem persist everytime i plug and unplug my earphones.

  • Erin

    Yet another in favor of wiggling. There was no red light coming from the port, but the wiggle fixed it.

  • Dale from Wales

    YES!! I was fearing another long trip to the Apple Store when my speakers wouldn't come on (previously it wouldn't boot up), but I stuck it in the little hole, jiggled it about a bit and everyone (me) was happy. And that's an innuendo it there ever was one.

  • Soe

    Great Tip!

    Glad that I saw red light, saying something is wrong there and could see clearly what happening inside,

    For someone whose toothpick is not working, because there are TWO clicks to be bounced back to normal.

    After that, the red light will went off and WALA, sound is back

  • Bananalegs!

    Thank-Youuuuuuuuuuu! It works! What I did was put the toothpick all the way in and just keep turning it in an anti-clockwise direction. Go slow and listen to it,'cuz mine made a click noise and then I actually had to do it a couple of times, but Success!!! Don't give up, just take a deep breathe and keep at it! Good luck!

  • TINYDANCER6513

    The other day i was playing music through a cable in my car and the sound was working fine. But just now i turn on my computer (macbook) and the sound wont work!! there is a little circle with a line through it whenever i try to turn up or down the volume. And nothing comes out of the internal speakers. HELP! and how do i fix it?

  • Irina

    Ok I called Apple support and this worked for my Mac Book Pro :
    Insert the Speaker cord or headphone cord into your Mac Book Or Mac Book Pro repeatedly 5 times while the computer is on. Then Go into System Preferences > Sound> Click on OutPut and make sure the Internal Speakers are Selected . IT should work! Good Luck!

  • Danielle

    Thanks for the wiggle technique. I was doubtful that it would work for me, but after doing it for a few minutes it worked! Thanks, I appreciate it.

    wiggle, wiggle

  • Andy

    Wooo… I pushed in a pen middle (the thin bit with the ink in when you unscrew a pen) and it's all working now. :)

  • Frank

    omg…. Thank u for the information, it work just like you said it. who knew a little “wiggle, wiggle” would work.

  • http://www.bldgblx.com Stencil

    Thank you :] I just used some headphones to plug in and wiggle around a bit, messed with the port till the glow was gone, and my internal speakers are back. Weirdest thing ever.. something's bent in the external port so the internal speakers won't work? Doesn't even make sense :]

  • Star

    So I went into System Preferences – Sound and un-muted the Output!
    I am not sure why it was muted in the first place! :) Good luck!!!!

  • Liese Birdie

    And then, there was no sound.. I found this post and yeah, it is the same problem and teh same solution.. but weird.. I heard it never before and my Macbook is the late 2008 alu? And here are dozens of people with the same problem. Mij speakers stopped after listen to music via headphonejack. Sometimes he could find the internal speakers and then they where gone and my mac was 'ticking' searching for the intern speakers. After putting the jack in my mac again and out, the problem was solved (as far as I can see for now..) Thanx!

  • http://www.tsgsv.com Marcus

    Paper Clip @ 6/7pm worked perfectly for me.

  • Joey

    WOW thank you so much. i just heard a pop and all of the sudden my left internal speaker stopped working. I typed in “speaker blow out macbook” and the first post was yours. I grabbed the nearest earphones, stuck them in, heard another pop and now it works perfectly. You saved me a trip to the mac store. Thank you

  • Mike

    I have a slightly different problem. My speakers aren't working, and my headphones aren't working. They just gave out yesterday, not really sure why. I didn't really do anything to them. There is NO red light in the headphone jack.

    Wiggle trick and toothpick trick don't seem to work. I've reset the nvram with the command + option + p +r, I've rebooted, I've shut down and restart. Might be a lost cause I dunno.

    Anyone have any tips at all?

  • rina

    Wiggling worked for me!! yeay!!

  • robert

    Wiggle Wiggle Chicken Dinner. Cha-Ching.

  • Jessie

    hahaha princley! you saved my life and my lappy :) did the push half way through method and push it to the left.. it worked :)
    (you only have to press gently…

    thanks!!!! funny though the song “do you believe in magic” came on :P ohh thee irony :D

  • Yiscah

    YaYYY! Thanks so much for posting this. Went to skype w/ my Mum and no sound would come out. After finding this, I looked in the lil hole where my headset plugs in and found a red light on. Jiggled the pointy end bit of my earrings in it lol, cause I couldn't find my headset and the light went off, sound came on :)

  • john C. Ortega

    ok I did use the paper clip and put it into the jack almost all the way in but not quite and rotated pin in a circle while playing a song and it came right on

  • lauren

    I have a similar problem except the end of my speakers came off in the jack. The speakers still work if you plug the other half in, but the internal speakers do not work. Ive tried wiggling a toothpick and it didnt work because i think the end of the speaker needs to come out of the jack. Does anyone know what i could do?

  • Lauren Selig

    THANK YOU!!!! I was seriously freaking out. You are an absolute lifesaver!

  • Nickblaqk

    HOly crap!
    The headphones thing worked IMMEDIATELY
    I was surprised, I thought it was B.s.!

    THANKS!

  • Jimmy

    Thanks guys!
    The exact same thing happened to me: the speakers stopped working on my Macbook pro, a red light was on in the headphone plug. I Googled it and found this trick: I wiggled and after a few tries IT WORKED!!!!!! awesome! Thanks!

  • William Mazurek

    Thanks so much guys!
    My speakers were out for almost 2 months and it was really annoying because I had to have head phones with me whenever i wanted to do anything. The wiggling didn't work at first for me, but then i tried it with the headphones almost all the way in with just enough space to move the end of the jack around, it worked! Thanks so much, my warranty is expired and I just saved some dough!

  • Eve Double

    Hooray for the wiggle! Thanks so much!!!

  • Miguel

    taking the risk to be like everyone else … it worked thanks.

    still i think it is COMPLETELLY stupid comming from this kind of product – i mean … wiggling! … seriously? u pay thousands for such a stupid “bug”. pfff… whatever.

    well anyway – it worked for me – thanks a lot anyway :)

  • skater4shreder

    hey where is this stuff loacated?

  • skater4shreder

    can someone tell me where this wiglin takes place!

  • lil john

    well i have the same problem! but i have no idea where all this stuff is located at so i can wiggle it!! i need help asap!

  • lil john

    hey can someone tell me how im supposed to find this cord that i have to wiggle!!!!!!!!????????

  • skater4shreder

    how did u do this?? and just the regular headphone input slot?

  • skater4shreder

    hi where do u wiggle?

  • skater4shreder

    how?

  • skater4shreder

    hey idk where to wiggle? where am i supposed to wiggle?

  • Celeste

    You guys are awesome!! The wiggle thing worked for me, too. Thanks a bunch. I was def. getting a bit irritated. :P

  • Name

    Oddly enough, the toothpick and a gentle probing at the back of the jack worked for me. It's eerie.

  • Alain

    YESSSSSSSSSSSS !!!
    thx :) ))
    my speakers are siging again lol
    the wiggling thing worked I was using an ipod headphones,
    I just pulled it off very gentelly and wiggled until I heard them back so I turned the volume up and it's working now
    thx again :)
    Alain

  • skaupert

    And wiggling worked. But only in the audio-in jack. Not in the headphone jack.

  • dave284

    Same symptoms for my Macbook also.
    Tried the audio file delete and reboot.
    Tried the cotton bud.
    Tried the paper clip.
    Tried the rapid insert/withdraw.
    Tried the tooth pick method using a wooden kebab scewer>>>
    YEEEHAAA!
    Worked for me poking it in at 3 o'clock position about 1/3 in.
    My life is better now I have found the t-spot.

  • Name

    hoo-ray for wiggling toothpicks! thanks!

  • Name

    When I plugged in my earphones, I heard static and crackling, and it stopped period. Now my speakers don't work, and neither do my earphones :/
    I've tried to plug my earphones in a couple times, and there will be a quick sound of music then it'll stop.
    I've tried wiggling and whatnot, and I read this, and noticed that people talked about a “red light” I don't see a red light.
    Am I in a situation where I need to send it out for help? :/

  • http://iboughtamac.com brentspore

    Yeah, that sounds like a loose wire or connection. Something different than what the above stuff is. Time for a call to the Genius Bar? :)

  • Name

    Ah, what a bummer :/
    Oh well, I'll get that checked out tomorrow, thanks though (:

  • shawn

    The wiggly method just worked for me :D DD

  • Gillian

    someone help me!! i can't even try the wiggle option because i can't even plug anything in to the jack. it looks like there is a piece of metal inside. i can only get the headphones about half way in.
    there isn't a red light either.

  • http://iboughtamac.com brentspore
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