Mac Audio Balance Bug That Apple Knew About 12 Years Ago Still Exists

[MacHeritage]

I so remember this bug going back to 2004 with Mac OS X 10.3 Panther and multiple times here and there since then. But I haven't experienced it much over the last decade or so. It was a larger issue in the 2000s Mac OS X. Of course, Mac OS 9 didn't suffer that problem, so it was always refreshing to start into it and not deal with the imbalance issue when wanting to play a game or play a CD or iTunes.

Feels like yesterday sometimes.

 

[tennisproha]

seriously what should be the recourse when apple refuses to fix known bugs? how should they be held accountable for their negligence? should we get partial refunds on the product or service?

because up until now apple has gotten away with cutthroat industry leading malicious tactics. i’m glad the EU is starting to hold them accountable.

i have reported 100s of bugs repeatedly and 99% have yet to be fixed.

 

[rehkram]

seriously what should be the recourse when apple refuses to fix known bugs? how should they be held accountable for their negligence? should we get partial refunds on the product or service?

And furthermore, what is the point of asking serial emotive rhetorical questions about a technical issue that most have never experienced, and may well be caused by a third party app? Am I supposed to grab my pitchfork and storm the barricades?

 

[NewOldStock]

As a fairly new user of a Mac if it wasn't for Soundsource I would have dumped this whole Mac-apple thing.
Why because of multi audio stream at a time is what I use daily and MacOs was not enough. I use several programs at a time. Windows allows this perfectly. MacOs not so much.
Now if they would just unlock the iPad from one stream I would be happy. As far as the Audio Balance bug I do find occasionally things seem off but just re-check balance and slide back and forth and go at it again.
Oh and separate rant no calulator but the history on that is not reasonable for not having at all kinda like this audio issue. Why oh why. Just small issues not big enough attention sounds like apples issue.

 

[NewOldStock]

Almost forgot the Bluetooth headset streaming Mono instead of stereo.
Never ever had that problem before.
Computer had to be completely rebooted but that was probably Bluetooth compatibility issue.
M1 Mac mini 14.3.1 os version.

 

[NewOldStock]

Somebody was looking for this?
https://www.cvedetails.com/vendor/49/Apple.html

 

[penguinlust]

I want to point out one obvious thing here. You can use an app to correct the bug. This implies you can use an app to create the bug. The reason that it comes and goes seemingly randomly over the years could just be apps "fixing" the bug on their end. Apple may not be "fixing" the bug because they may have looked into it and decided no matter what they do they cannot stop an app from doing the wrong thing. The CoreAudio APIs will let you do things you shouldn't, so why would this be any different? Apple is clearly aware of the problem. Plus, there's enough badly behaving hardware out there (never mind software) that no matter what Apple does in software, there is little chance that they could mitigate this for everything, no matter how much time they put into it.

 

[Shamgar]

Balance Lock was a wonderful solution when I used to dock my MacBook Pro at the office. 9 times out of 10, the balance heading out of the dock would be wrong after I connected my MBP to it. The balance screw up only happened on that connection, but it happened most days and it was frustrating. I haven't had to deal with that bug since working from home with a desktop and USB audio device, but I'm both disappointed and not surprised that Apple has failed to fix it yet.

 

[Harry Haller]

And furthermore, what is the point of asking serial emotive rhetorical questions about a technical issue that most have never experienced, and may well be caused by a third party app? Am I supposed to grab my pitchfork and storm the barricades?

“a technical issue most have never experienced.”
When did you do your survey that showed that?
“…may we’ll be caused by a third party app?”
Surely you can’t be serious.

 

[ric22]

There are serious bugs in iOS that have been there for easily a decade. Apple is generally uninterested in fixing things once they’ve ignored them for a couple years or so.

100% true. It is baffling.

 

[rehkram]

“a technical issue most have never experienced.”
When did you do your survey that showed that?

Around the time you did yours showing I'm incorrect.

“…may we’ll be caused by a third party app?”

Surely you can’t be serious.

3rd party apps can certainly be programmed to change the balance setting. This is demonstrated by the fact that the utility app that most people here use to work around the balance going out of whack actually does adjust the balance, right?

So I'm not being unserious in suggesting it. Who knows what API calls 3rd party apps are making? Such apps might include games, utilities, media players & editors, malware, and so on. If they crash, or don't clean up after themselves during normal exit, the balance would remain where it was last set.

I actually believe Apple could fix this easily by trapping the condition and forcing a recentering of the balance. But I don't have access to the code, and there's always more to it when you're discussing software. Besides, everyone would start complaining about the fix 'breaking' something else! 🤣

 

[Haiku_Oezu]

I *think* it might have happened to me once..? I wonder what even causes that, it sounds like such a quirky bug

 

[xeric]

Apple has still not fixed a bug in macOS that causes the audio balance to drift on Macs under certain conditions, despite having acknowledged the issue 12 years ago.

A developer named Fabian highlighted the problem today in a post on X (formerly Twitter), claiming that Apple "still has not fixed the audio left/right balance bug in macOS. I still have to use an app to fix it automatically. The app is from 2015, that means we are approaching the 10 year anniversary [of the bug]."

Balance Lock is the app in question, a free download available from Tunabelly Software. The bug's continuing existence was corroborated by other users who responded to the X post and commented on it over on Hacker News. However, it seems as though the issue has persisted for even longer than Fabian initially supposed.

Writing in 2013 on Stack Exchange, one user claimed to have experienced the same bug on multiple Macs going back to 2003. Whether or not that is the case, what we do know is that Apple acknowledged the bug on February 12, 2012 in a Mac OS X 10.2 support document, which is no longer on Apple's website but retrievable via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. In it Apple states:
To rectify the problem, Apple advises users to open the Sound panel in System Preferences (now System Settings) and "Drag the audio balance slider to the desired position."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1757669861377949930

Given Apple's advice at the time, it sounds like the company had not been able to come up with a proper fix when the support document was published, which begs the question as to whether it still has no solution to the bug, and that is why the company has let it remain in successive versions of Mac OS X and macOS up to this day.

Have you experienced the audio balance drifting on your Mac? Let us know in the comments.

Article Link: Mac Audio Balance Bug That Apple Knew About 12 Years Ago Still Exists

man, i've been living with this problem for a year or 2 thinking it was a problem with the bluetooth aspect of playing my MacBook air through my stereo to try and work it out for the umpteenth time and finally finding this page and realizing how easy it was to fix, feel like a dummy. i just was looking in the Music app settings for a balance control and realizing it was in the Sound settings from the System settings. i'm happy its fixed though, my sanity thanks all those keeping this info available.

 

[whiteashsaturday]

man, i've been living with this problem for a year or 2 thinking it was a problem with the bluetooth aspect of playing my MacBook air through my stereo to try and work it out for the umpteenth time and finally finding this page and realizing how easy it was to fix, feel like a dummy. i just was looking in the Music app settings for a balance control and realizing it was in the Sound settings from the System settings. i'm happy its fixed though, my sanity thanks all those keeping this info available.

Apple needs a group that reads the top 5 forums where users post about this stuff other than their failed online support site. Apple's online support site always tells people to reinstall, restart, turn off, turn back on, and directs them to the wrong answers constantly. I've never seen a support site, hosted by a company, that provides nothing more than a Siri response.

Apple being and Audio company, or specializing in audio, really needs to fix this. However it is sad what has "dragged on" without being completed for the last 12 years... nearly 14 now. Wish focus was put on fixing lifelong bugs, instead of adding new bogus features.

The audio balance issue popped up just yesterday for me, and this little app fixed it again. Thanks for 3rd party fixes!!

 

[Edgecrusherr]

I wouldn't be surprised if they're still using the same underlying system that Jim Reekes started developing for System 7 in the early 90s.

 

[MajorFubar]

Apple needs a group that reads the top 5 forums where users post about this stuff other than their failed online support site.

Apple almost certainly does this. Anyone who thinks Apple doesn't have 'insiders' here and elsewhere, either lurking or posting as regular users, is very naive (I'm not specifically saying you are naive!)

But...and here's the big but...devoting resources to fixing these 'in the margins' fixes isn't sexy, and they just get ignored.