Volume control disabled after plugging in and unplugging headphones, Help Please...

fixed!

i had the same problem and hopefully this will work for some. at first i had to log off then log back in to temporally fix the problem but then i realized it was the apple headphone causing the problem.

i notice i was using my iphone headphone with the built in volume control that was making my mac book volume control not work properly. then i plugged my other apple headphones (without the volume control built in) and that fixed the problem.

i guess there was too many volume controls going on at the same time.

i hope this will help some of you out there with the same problem.

Follow the link.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3203808?start=0&tstart=0
this resolved my problem. Hope it helps.

One more person with the same problem.

Seems like mostly macbook users posting this problem. I'm having it on a iMac, Core 2 Duo running 10.5.8. After headphone use, keyboard volume appears to work but doesn't change the volume. Volume control in the menu bar doesn't change anything. Volume controls in applications (iTunes fx) does work.

The workaround described above -- pulling headphone jack in and out WHILE adjusting keyboard volume with nothing else playing -- does work at least temporarily.

Thanks.

Same problem + headphone jack issue

Hello, just to report I have the exact same problem, Im using a MacBookPro (January 2010), OS X 10.6.8, and tried with different headphones.

Same workaround as well: press and hold volume button while plugging in/out the headphone.

I couldn't do the PRAM testing though - when I hold cmd +opt+P+R, it stays in a loop between the grey screen and a black screen while playing that sound.

There's another thing going on: the headphone jack doesn't stay firmly on the input, it easily slips off, like 1mm or something, and then the computer switches to the built-in output.

I can't remember when each of these issues started occurring to me, maybe they're related to each other? The volume issue seems to be a software problem though.

help

Is anyone Mac savvy? I'm still operating on OS X 10.5.8.
I plugged in headphones to listen to a few tracks. When I remove headphone line in the input has a red light on and the volume will not work in the external speakers. It works fine if headphones or in. I already went to system preferences and selected sound and for input it has NAME: Digital Out and TYPE: Built in Output is selected. HOWEVER, a message under that box reads: The selected devices has no output controls. the volume slide bar is grayed out and can not be adjusted. It is maxed out and the mute icon is under the volume slider. No way to access this to change. I can click on box that says "show volume in menu bar'. Its checked yet it does not show in menu bar. Using the buttons on the keyboard is same thing. pushing up and down does nothing to the level display and same mute icon. WTH? I didn't do any updates. Although I did try to update to LION but I have to have Snow Leopard first because I can't upgrade to newest OS running 10.5.8 (I swear I used to like Macs...not today though) Any hackers put there?

same problem, but OSX 10.7.4

I have many of the same problems people are mentioning here, but I am on 10.7.4. I have a macbook pro 13" from 2009, I think. However, whether my headphones are in or out, I cannot hear the blips from the volume change. Also, whenever this problem occurs my iTunes also refuses to play music - I think it's related. There is no red light in my headphone jack, and I can't even control the volume from the system preferences.

If anyone has any idea how to fix this problem, I would be immensely grateful.

I still have the same problem here on a mid-2012 MBP 13" and 10.6.8.

The volume gets stuck at a certain level. If I'm able to control the volume with external speakers plugged in I won't be able to do it without them, and vice versa. Happens with all external speakers or headphones. No red light coming from the audio port. Tried the advice Graduf linked to, didn't help.

The only way to temporarily fix this is to change the volume and simultaneously plug the external speakers in (or pull them out).

Simplified workaround

I have an iMac Intel Core 2 Duo running 10.6.8 and have got the problem mentioned here. After unplugging headphones, the usual volume control methods for the built-in speakers don't work (key control or menubar speaker icon control). This only started since I upgraded from 10.5.8 to Snow Leopard a few days ago, so I'm sure this is a software issue, not some newly developed hardware problem.

The best fix for me so far is to hold the 'reduce volume' key down as I unplug the headphones. That's been working every time. This is just a simplification of what was suggested earlier in the thread, except that it doesn't involve a re-plug. (Maybe this simplification is something people have taken for granted, and I think a few posters have implied it, but I thought it was worth stating explicitly.)

Prior to that, my best fix was to log out then back in, though restarting worked too. Perhaps that could give some knowledgable person a clue as to what might be going wrong? Something must be getting reset, but what? I switch between headphones and built-in speakers quite a lot, so this problem is a significant ongoing annoyance.

No Volumn

I have no volumn.
I am miserable.
I am traveling and in a hotel.
I tried all the recommendations above, except for the matchstick.
Why isn't this working?


Running on 10.6.8

AET said:

I have no volumn.
I am miserable.
I am traveling and in a hotel.
I tried all the recommendations above, except for the matchstick.
Why isn't this working?


Running on 10.6.8

Click to expand...

I'd say use the matchstick method. You've got nothing to loose. Works every time for me. wiggle the matchstick in the headphone jsck until the red light inside the headphone jack goes off. try your volume controls again and you should have your sound back. The microswitch inside the headphone jack can sometimes get stuck, so the mac still thinks the headphones are inserted even though theyr'e not, hence the red light inside the headphone jack.

What is triggering the problem?

I noticed this problem happening as soon as I started using a headphone set that had built-in volume controls (when I bought my iPhone 5 last fall). Prior to that, I was always using standard head-phones of various manufacturers, non of which ad built-in volume controls.

I think someone earlier in this thread mentioned it's almost like the computer has too many options for volume controls and is getting confused. I know that sounds rather elementary but sometimes I like to attach human-like qualities to my electronic devices

I highly recommend NOT putting a match-stick or any other foreign object into the headphone jack. You just have to kind of play around with it, and the only thing that worked for me was plugging my iPhone 5 headphones in and out a few times while playing with the volume controls. Super annoying, but the only fix until I get my computer into the genius bar.

Simple Solution

Hi you guys.

Blowing in the headphone jack ended up being the simple solution so I made a video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lILTI3jpnEE

Hope it helps!

I've been having the same problem, but restarting my computer fixed it for me. I don't know if this is just a temporary fix, so I'll have to wait and see. Hope this helps some people who were (like me) looking for hours for a fix to this issue, when at least temporarily restarting your computer is a simple way to do it. Also, I'm on Yosemite, so listing to the water droplet sounds doesn't work for me, since they don't exist in this operating system

madmacfan said:

I'd say use the matchstick method. You've got nothing to loose. Works every time for me. wiggle the matchstick in the headphone jsck until the red light inside the headphone jack goes off. try your volume controls again and you should have your sound back. The microswitch inside the headphone jack can sometimes get stuck, so the mac still thinks the headphones are inserted even though theyr'e not, hence the red light inside the headphone jack.

Click to expand...

I think madmacman might be right. After I unplugged my headphones, my system preferences still showed the external speaker as being the headphone port. You don't have to jam a matchstick inside, just carefully wiggle it around until you successfully switch the microswitch. That shouldn't hurt anything.

Similar to Zorrito, I found that moving the balance slider a little to one side fixes it.

Hi all, I'm a newbie and just came across this thread whilst looking for something else, so I hope I'm not 5 years too late with the remedy to this infuriating problem.
I've found what works instantly 100% of the time is to follow these steps:-

1. Open to your 'Utilities' folder
2. Open 'Activity Monitor'
3. Make sure you're looking at CPU activity, so Click on the CPU tab if you need to
4. Select 'Coreaudiod'
5. Go to the top left hand side of the window & click on the 'X' which forces the process to quit (not the red x which closes the window)
6.

It will ask "Are you sure you want to quit this process?" so click on the blue highlighted button 'Quit'

This will reset your Core Audio driver and immediately give you back control of your volume controls.

This is the only workaround I have found which has immediate effect, however until Apple themselves acknowledge and permanently fix this inconvenient problem, it will keep on occurring everytime a jack is plugged in & out of the headphone socket. On occasions, it may take a minute or two for the driver to fully reset and you may find initially that when previewing a piece of audio that it doesn't play, so if this is the case; just be patient and wait for a minute or two as I said previously or you can prompt it by activating iTunes or whichever music program you're using.

Hope this helps.

Regards.

Supa

I think I found the solution... I plugged my macbook to a projector for teaching and encountered the same problem. I'm sharing what I did, worked for me, hope to work for you too..

go to System Preferences>Sound>Output

there in the window, the projector output must be highlighted with blue... select the option "headphone" to enable it while your headphone is plugged in. Its just that the projector audio option had been enabled in your mac. Now check your audio through headphones...

I hope this cleared your confusion. Just let me know...
happy macbooking

I discovered that installing a software was affecting this sound control and volume icon went grey if you already installed any software it may be using the controls goto settings and click output select headphones and volume control will work normally , in my case i installed last night the Movavi Sound Grabber that comes with a screen grabber.

dsample said:

Workaround

I think I've found a workaround that will re-enable the controls after removing the headphones, maybe someone else could confirm it... I think it would confirm that it's some sort of race condition in the audio drivers which is somehow causing itself some confusion.

1. Headphones plugged in, only 'Sound' system preferences panel works.
2. After removing headphones all controls stop working
3. Plug the headphones back in, and keep pressing the volume buttons on the keyboard (just to hear when the audio is redirected to the headphones)
4. As soon as you hear the volume 'blip' noises through the headphones, pull the headphones out of the socket
5. Hopefully once removed the volume controls will work again

I haven't found a way to make the volume controls work when you plug in the headphones, but at least for me, the Sound system prefs panel works most of the time in that situation.

Click to expand...

Ha! This works! Thank you!