This is a problem that appears on many OS X Lion machines where the speaker icon on the menu bar randomly or consistently grays itself out. The most common solutions are to plug in/out a headphone into the jack or opening up Terminal and typing "sudo killall coreaudiod" which can be cumbersome and annoying to do.
The following steps will accomplish the same results as the above automatically without your intervention. If you prefer to do this on a case-by-case situation, go all the way down to the end of this post and you'll find Kai Yen's simple app that you can click on to restart the coreaudiod process. His app will ask you for your login password each time you use it.
Problem: Computer shows the speaker icon grayed out randomly or consistently after you installed/upgraded to Lion.
Cause: Still unsure as to what's causing this. I've read numerous posts about how it could be associated to the Audio Midi Setup, PRAM, Disk Permissions, Audio Folders and I'm still uncertain as to what's causing the problem. All I can say is nothing has worked consistently until this workaround. We all know that stopping the coreaudiod process is a temp fix, but it's annoying to always having to do this.
Workaround Procedure:
1. Open Utility.
2. Open Applescript Editor.
3. Copy the following and paste it at the top half of the editor: (copy everything below with the quotes in place)
do shell script "launchctl stop com.apple.audio.coreaudiod" password "your_password" with administrator privileges
4. Replace "your_password" with your login password. For example if your login password is ILOVEMYSON2011 then it should look like...
do shell script "launchctl stop com.apple.audio.coreaudiod" password "ILOVEMYSON2011" with administrator privileges
NOTE: What this does is it'll accomplish the same thing as "sudo killall coreaudiod" without you having to open Terminal and typing it all the time. This will automatically run each time you start your machine. This means it will NOT ask you for your password when it runs.
5. Now go to File ---> Save As (in the Applescript Editor on the Menu Bar)
Now choose a name for the file after "Save As". I called mine "AudioFix"
Under "File Format", choose "Application".
Save it to your Desktop for easy finding. You can move it elsewhere later.
6. At this time if you want to put the app you just made elsewhere, like in Applications or wherever you want, do so now.
7. Open System Preferences --> Users and Groups.
8. Select "Login Items".
9. Click on the "+" icon, which is the "Add an item to the Login Items list."
10. Find the application you just made. I put mine in the Applications folder.
That's it. Now each time you boot up or restart your machine, Lion will run this app and restart the coreaudiod process. Now pray that Apple comes out with a real, official fix.
EDIT:
After a bit of searching, I found a neat app made by Kai Yen which simply executes "sudo killall coreaudiod" in the form of an app. You can put it in your Applications folder then drag it to your dock to run as you need. If you want to have it run during Login, simply follow Steps #7-10.
The difference here is every time the app runs, it will ask you for your login password. This is good for those who are concerned/worried about storing any password on your computer associated with your login.
http://kyen99.tumblr.com/post/8573258536/mac-os-x-lion-audio-fix
The following steps will accomplish the same results as the above automatically without your intervention. If you prefer to do this on a case-by-case situation, go all the way down to the end of this post and you'll find Kai Yen's simple app that you can click on to restart the coreaudiod process. His app will ask you for your login password each time you use it.
Problem: Computer shows the speaker icon grayed out randomly or consistently after you installed/upgraded to Lion.
Cause: Still unsure as to what's causing this. I've read numerous posts about how it could be associated to the Audio Midi Setup, PRAM, Disk Permissions, Audio Folders and I'm still uncertain as to what's causing the problem. All I can say is nothing has worked consistently until this workaround. We all know that stopping the coreaudiod process is a temp fix, but it's annoying to always having to do this.
Workaround Procedure:
1. Open Utility.
2. Open Applescript Editor.
3. Copy the following and paste it at the top half of the editor: (copy everything below with the quotes in place)
do shell script "launchctl stop com.apple.audio.coreaudiod" password "your_password" with administrator privileges
4. Replace "your_password" with your login password. For example if your login password is ILOVEMYSON2011 then it should look like...
do shell script "launchctl stop com.apple.audio.coreaudiod" password "ILOVEMYSON2011" with administrator privileges
NOTE: What this does is it'll accomplish the same thing as "sudo killall coreaudiod" without you having to open Terminal and typing it all the time. This will automatically run each time you start your machine. This means it will NOT ask you for your password when it runs.
5. Now go to File ---> Save As (in the Applescript Editor on the Menu Bar)
Now choose a name for the file after "Save As". I called mine "AudioFix"
Under "File Format", choose "Application".
Save it to your Desktop for easy finding. You can move it elsewhere later.
6. At this time if you want to put the app you just made elsewhere, like in Applications or wherever you want, do so now.
7. Open System Preferences --> Users and Groups.
8. Select "Login Items".
9. Click on the "+" icon, which is the "Add an item to the Login Items list."
10. Find the application you just made. I put mine in the Applications folder.
That's it. Now each time you boot up or restart your machine, Lion will run this app and restart the coreaudiod process. Now pray that Apple comes out with a real, official fix.
EDIT:
After a bit of searching, I found a neat app made by Kai Yen which simply executes "sudo killall coreaudiod" in the form of an app. You can put it in your Applications folder then drag it to your dock to run as you need. If you want to have it run during Login, simply follow Steps #7-10.
The difference here is every time the app runs, it will ask you for your login password. This is good for those who are concerned/worried about storing any password on your computer associated with your login.
http://kyen99.tumblr.com/post/8573258536/mac-os-x-lion-audio-fix
Last edited:
