No sound out of MacBook speakers & red LED in Headphone jack

[xrotemx]

Solution

i tried all the above without success. then i had an idea and i got:
http://www.mediagalaxy.co.il/files/air-spray-open.jpg
just put the air tube inside the audio slot and push the air untill you hear the sound! cool

 

[A1mzG]

My MacBook seems to have majorly gone down hill recently. It must hit the three year mark and decide to break, I recently had the battery replaced and now I've got this issue too. Tried all the things suggested in this topic with no success My sound does play intermittently though. For example now, a sound will play for a few seconds then go off... To make matters worse I've just moved to China so don't see where I can get support easily. Has any software been known to help where you can turn the light off? Thanks for any help given

 

[BalmungTaichou]

Lol

My macbook pro is less then a year old. First thing is using Bootcamp kills your mac book. Second thing is nobody knows mac not even apple knows mac.

 

[mac00l]

I've had this issue twice by now, red light and stuff, and I believe it is not hardware related, at least not entirely.

The first time was when I upgraded to Lion, I made the upgrade while having earbuds plugged. I tried reseting several times, so I called Applecare, and they told me to plug and unplug the earbuds, which I did and worked.

The second time happened a few weeks ago. I unplugged my earbuds and sound died. Tried the trick applecare told me with no avail. Since applecare repair service in mexico is slow (one week more or less), I've been waiting for some free time to take it in. But it happens that I had to install windows trough bootcamp, and after working with it a bit, the sound worked just fine in windows (so it's not a hardware issue), after a reboot with osx, the same issue still happened. 5 days passed, and the only change I've done recently is activating the voice who tells you the hour, and somehow the sound started working again a few minutes ago.

Weird I know, maybe someone can make some instructions so the OS ignores the sensor, so it can send the sound to the speakers, or you can wait for a few weeks and see if it starts working just like it did with me

Cheers

 

[DCSterio]

MacGyver solution worked!

Holy crap, it worked! Same problem with my MacBookPro (2009) -- headphone sound worked but no sound from speakers, red light on in headphone jack. The MacGenius at the Apple Store told me I needed a new logic board for...wait for it....wait for it...$1200 to $1300 plus "you'll be without my laptop for 2-3 weeks, is that okay." After a week of thinking that was my only option, I ran across this site and the concept of the sensor stuck in the "headphone in" setting. Tried wiggling the headphone jack lightly to no avail, then said WTF -- used the headphone jack like a bullet train going in and out of a dark tunnel until BOOM! red light in headphone jack went off. After reboot, I'm now listening to Tom Petty's "Don't Back Down." Sorry Apple Store, not this time.

 

[Fal Dee]

Today after watching a tv show through my headphones, once i unplugged them my internal speakers wouldn't work anymore (obv or i wouldnt of been searching through this forum )

After reading all the suggestions, i tried plugging/unplugging the headphones many, many, many times.... tried cutting a qtip and using the non cotton end, but no luck. Wanting to avoid using any metal objects I was ready to throw my laptop off my balcony since my warranty expired just A MONTH ago. After figuring "whats the worse I could do now" I tried a safety pin. One poke and BAM internal speakers back on! Plugged in my headphones to make sure nothing was damaged, nope headphones still worked. As soon as I unplugged them again though, digital output was back. Poked it again and the speakers once again worked. Silly that now I'll need to poke it after everytime I want to use my headphones.....
I love my macbook but I'm not happy this happened right after my warranty expired

 

[macbilzi]

Fix your macbook earphone jack with red light on

The problem appears to be, indeed, with a small contact about halfway down the right side of the jack port. Blow out the port well with compressed air first as it usually is simply caused by crud in the port and all this wiggling of different items in there finally dislodges the crud, so the tool is not the trick as much as the method. Once you have unleashed a hurricane therein, if the light remains on, gently slide a round, wooden toothpick down the side closest to the front of the laptop until you hear a very,very slight click. If it is clean, the light should go off and stay off. If it doesn't repeat the compressed air and try again.

Steve Bilzi
Independent Apple Tech
Wilmington, NC

 

[Macspy]

Proper fix...

I have posted this before but here again... The "switch" inside the jack is indeed a mechanical spring type switch. If you are looking into the jack it is on the right side. When the spring is pushed back (by the jack you push in) the switch is "open" as in off, and the signal does not flow to the speakers. Cramming stuff in there can occasionally get the spring to reconnect. However it is more likely to make things worse and is definitely NOT a fix. Any "tech" that is posting on here and has not ripped one of these apart by now is indeed no tech, and at least should not be posting here.

The only way to properly and permanently fix this is to open the machine, open the jack and retention the spring.

Nuff said!

 

[flincinc]

for sure, mechanical problem

2010 MacBook Pro

Symptoms: no sound with headphones unplugged, red light inside headphone jack on continuously or intermittently

Solution: just at the upper side of the entry of the headphone jack to the right of the headphone decal is a bar thingy. I think this is the contact that is the culprit, as there seems to be a cavity around it that could accumulate dust/crud. Blow very hard on this spot with a can of compressed air with one of those thin 5-6" tubes. I even turned the can upside down for a second so that liquid actually hit the bar thingy. That seemed to do the trick: red light went off and all worked perfectly thereafter (so far!).

One can see this bar thingy contact with the naked eye, when it is functional, but when it is not functional, it may be stuck down inside its socket. Just blow cold canned air hard at the top of the headphone jack at the very front until the red light goes out.

Thanks to all above in the past! Good luck to all in the future!

 

[jensnowk]

lollypop!

Just this past weekend after watching a DVD (used the headphone jack to listen) I am no longer able to hear anything out of the speakers. I also now have a red LED light shining through the headphone jack. Under the 'Sound' option in System Preferences, it says "Digital Out" instead of "Internal Speakers".
I've called Tech Support and they haven't been able to help me. My next option is sending my laptop back in to them for service. I'd like to see if there if there is somebody out there that has had this same issue before I lose the laptop for atleast a week.
Any thoughts??

I had this same problem, tried using a sharpened pencil, earring back, q-tip without the cotton... didn't work. i kept reading and it said to be mildly vigorous in your efforts so after trying to be very careful with the port i found a dum dum pop and used the butt end of the stick, basically the same as a q-tip, and went to town on my headphone port. I kept the sound on while working so I could see if there was any progress. After about 30 seconds of blindlessly wiggling around the sound worked for about two seconds. So I got excited and kept going trying to be gentile but not holding back and hey! the sound works now! Looks like a big flaw in the apple construction since EVERYONE is having this problem. We should probably write them and ask for a refund or an extended warranty or something. maybe a $25 gift certificate to the apple store or best buy, seems like we've got enough people...



Let me know!


Jen

 

[squeakr]

Looks like a big flaw in the apple construction since EVERYONE is having this problem. We should probably write them and ask for a refund or an extended warranty or something. maybe a $25 gift certificate to the apple store or best buy, seems like we've got enough people...

Not EVERYONE is experiencing or has experienced this issue. It is no Apple's fault but more a fact of life as the springs lose tension and weaken over time. It really is a normal wear and tear issue. Apple doesn't build the jack they purchase them. Do a search and you will see the same thing happens on cellphones and other products that have a headphone jack.

 

[RazorRay]

Cut Q-tip add Rubbing Alcohol

Spent an hour on this and after reading blogs tried toothpicks, wiggling an inserted mini-plug with no luck. Then I stumbled upon a thread where someone suggested that the optical sensor in the jack may have dirt or dust residue that mimics an inserted mini-plug. That made sense, so I cut a Q-tip, dipped it in alcohol, shut the computer down, insert the mystical paper wand into both the headphone jack and the digital I/O, turned the computer (MacBook) on and....wait for it....wait for it...success! Motherboard needed??? NOPE...Software upgrade....NO....finding and deleting a corrupt file.....Na. Cut Q-tip and a little rubbing alcohol....DINGDINGDINGDING!!!

I'm just saying, worked for me...good luck. BTW, you would think that with soooo many people having this issue that you'd be able to find this simple solution with a quick search on the apple site. But NOOOOOOOOO, they'd rather just have you buy another computer. That's cool, I own the stock If you can't beat 'em...

 

[Annietj]

No sound from macbook with red light in headphone jack

Hi Guys,

It seems there are many people out there who have had the same 'OH NOOO' moment with this problem. My son uses my macbook to play games and uses headphones so he doesn't drive me nuts. When I came to use my macbook this morning I had no sound. I tried all the usual non techy things in system pref, to no avail. Your forum gave me such hope, after reading several dozen posts I ran upstairs, got the cotton bud, scraped off the cotton and inserted it into headphone jack - nothing! I persevered, wiggling it about and spinning it a bit, nada, zip, nought! I took the wiggly stick out and thought all was lost but - success!!!! The light went out and sound is restored. Like some of you, I thought the full cup of tea I spilled over the keyboard 2 years ago had come to haunt me, but it seems not. Keep persevering guys, it worked for me, but not 1st time. Thank you to all of you for getting me out of a potentially expensive hole.http://cdn.macrumors.com/vb/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

 

[Roorasesnge]

This happened to me, too, it kinda scared me at first. Anyhow! I tried a few of the ideas on here and nothing worked--even the matchstick idea. Then I tried the whole plugging the headphones in and pulling them out really quick over and over again, which finally worked!

 

[lukebbb]

Itworked!

Hello everyone. Very helpful the trick of the matchstick. I used a toothpick made thicker by wrapping some electrical tape on it, shove it in the earphone plug, and suddenly as magic, the red light went off and the speakers went back to life.
Great hint, thank you!

 

[James McTyre]

No sound - Red Light - but Ubuntu works

I can't get the matchstick, the qtip, or the pen tube to work. However, I did discover that when I use BootCamp to boot into Ubuntu on my MacBook, the sound works fine. Here's the catch... the red led stays on in Ubuntu, but the sound still works, either on internal speakers or headphones. Now very stumped.

 

[Tarheel86]

Thank GOD!

I tried all of the suggestions: plugging and unplugging the headphones, paper clip, toothpick, Q-tip cut off with alcohol, etc, etc.

Nothing worked.

Then, I tried compressed air, but still no change. I kept at it with the compressed air over and over. I then stuck a Safety Pin in, but that didn't work. Hit it with more compressed air and then began sticking headphones jack in and out repeatedly, and it FINALLY worked!

Just hope it doesn't return.

I registered on the Forum just to say THANKS !!!

 

[petzl]

macbook pro, i can never be mad at you.

i have a MBP 15" mid-2010 and i had the symptoms everyone else in this thread had: internal speakers not operating, headphones operating, red LED inside the headphone jack goes on and stays on as soon as you remove the headphones and internal speakers stay off.

praying first to the East to Mecca, and then WNW to Cupertino, i then used (the non-business end of) a ballpoint pen tube, gently but firmly pushing it straight in 4-5 times, with no effect. then, i hit upon a solution.

the trick was: with the tube fully inserted, apply gentle pressure down on the tube, 1/4 inch from the opening (like it was a see-saw), such that the tip farthest inside is touching the top. the LED light instantly went off and the internal speakers would play. (success!) however, when i removed the pen tube, the red LED went back on again. (only partial success.) so, i tried it again, with the same results. (repeatable, partial success.) then, i just left it in, as a stopgap measure, while i watched a 10min video to think of an idea. this time when i removed it, the red LED stayed off. (back to: success!)

not sure if the leaving it in had the effect, or if it was just that the third try was the "lucky" try that worked. and, i'm almost apprehensive to use headphones again for a while because of this. in any case, internal speakers are back, and i have a strategy for future mishaps.

someone above suggested using rubbing alcohol: i highly recommend AGAINST putting any liquid in your headphone jacks, for what should be obvious reasons! i'd also recommend against any metal objects as well: non-conductive materials are readily at hand, so why take the chance?

-Petzl

if at any time, you thought bad porn background music was appropriate for some of the technical descriptions, you are not alone.

shout out to @tongatonga for ballpoint pen tube suggestion (with no q-tip or toothpick available, pen tube did the trick)

 

[qozzie]

Yes!

success was achieved, thanks so much to you geniuses.

my path to glory:
1. matchstick did not work (pressed firmly and jiggled),
2. ink tube from ball point pen didn't work (also pressed firmly in and jiggled),
3. used a safety pin and aimed for the top as was suggested by one post, and within two seconds I heard a click and the internal speakers came on! Little or no pressure required.

wow, what a 'primitive' and practical fix .

 

[protekmike]

Giving back to the forum

I have a little more technical information to help with this fix. I run a repair shop and found the MacBook models have a small stainless steel detent about half way down the jack barrel on the side facing the rear of the computer. With the machine off and the laptop in an inverted "V" position squirt a very small blast of Clearner & Lubricant (Radio Shack 64-4315). With a jeweler's screwdriver work the dentent/switch untill it comes loose and you can feel it moving in and out of the jack barrel. Repeat this as necessary until you feel a distinct travel in the dentent indicating full travel movement. Test for internal sound.

 

[Macspy]

Totally wrong

The above post is totally wrong. I repair these properly almost daily and I am telling you all again that cramming stuff in there at best is only a temporary fix. The problem is that a mechanical spring switch to the front of the jack has lost its connection. The only proper repair is to open it up and retention it. All the hoping for a simpler easier solution is in vain.

 

[Fiks]

Possible solution to the red light/speakers gone problem

Folks, this appears to be a perennial problem. I have had the "red light on" problem before, and can usually fix it by sticking in the headphone plug and pulling it out quickly. The "cut Q-tip" also works for this (cut the end off a Q-tip and wiggle it in the headphone jack). But today, MY SPEAKERS DISAPPEARED from System Preferences. (10.6.8) Here's how I fixed it: Open System Preferences>Sound>Output tab. While it is open - I saw "digital optical out" but no "internal speakers" option - poke in the cut Q-tip stick. You can feel it up against the internal button that switches on digital/headphone mode, and should be able to feel a little detent when you depress the internal button/switch. Push it in and out several times while watching your System Preferences> Sound> Output window. You may see the output description cycle back and forth between digital optical and speakers. Keep doing it until you get it to stop on "internal speakers". That fixed it for me; if you were able to cycle it, you should be good-to-go. Thanks to all on this forum who led me to this solution! This is a pain in the butt, so good luck!

 

[kalachnikov]

Speakers solution

Hi,

I have just solved my problem and have registered here to share it with you.
In fact, about two months ago, my internal mac book pro speakers stopped working and the red led was on (exactly like everyone here). At first, I played with the jack and the sound came back once or twice. After that, they stopped working for good, no cotton, cleaning or anything worked. A month later, my internal (and external - plugging a mic in the jack didn't work) microphone also stopped working. So I went to the apple store, they told me after checking and whatnot that I had to replace the main board, about 600 euros. I decided of course to keep it as is, bought external speakers as well as a usb headset (mic + speaker).
Two days ago, my computer's hard disk being quite full, I deleted the films that were taking too much place and ran Onyx software to clean up my computer (this is not an ad for Onyx, and I'm not a technician). I ran the whole options of Onyx, one after the other. My computer restarted and everything worked as normal.....

So basically, what I am really saying is that it's a software issue, not hardware. EVERYTHING is back to normal now. I hope this helps.

 

[Nmcdonough]

Quick Speaker Fix.

I read all the different solutions to fix the headphone jack and make the speakers work and wasn't to fond of sticking different things into the port. Instead I grabbed a can of Dust Off, put the straw in the headphone port (fits perfect) and gave it three quick sprays and immediately fixed the problem. Good luck!

 

[bumper0823]

No sound out of MacBook speakers & red LED in Headphone jack

Hey guys, new on here...I too have just encountered the red light in headphone jack hole...but I think my problem may go a bit deeper...some people were saying to insert a headphone and go in & out several times...but I can't even fully insert any cable into the port...it only goes in so far, but not all the way like normal? Is this normal with this problem? I'm going to try the compressed air thing here shortly, but was more concerned about that I can't insert my cable fully anymore...let me know and thanks!!