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New iMac volume fluctuating/going up and down

D

drawnacrol

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 23, 2009
31
2
Just got my new iMac, listening to iTunes and the volume is fluctuating up and down every 10-20 seconds.

Does it just take time to break the speakers in or is something up?

Cheers!
 
Not on mine. Is it during the same song or different tracks? If you got them from iTunes or off a CD they have different volumes sometimes. If during the same track it sounds like a faulty sound card or internal connection.
 
Update: After 4-5 days of usage playing lots of music through the speakers the fluctuations went away.

Very strange but if anyone else has this problem just leave an album on loop and hope it goes away.

I'm honestly clueless as to why it happened and went away:confused:

EDIT: New iMac 21.5 with max specs is awesome! I upgraded from a 2008 Macbook pro and the difference is insane for recording music and editing video.
 
Yep... I got this... Playing a podcast on a brand new 27"iMac with Fusion drive. Had to keep adjusting the volume every 30 seconds or so. I'll keep using the speakers and see what happens...
 
Eagle-Eye said:
Yep... I got this... Playing a podcast on a brand new 27"iMac with Fusion drive. Had to keep adjusting the volume every 30 seconds or so. I'll keep using the speakers and see what happens...
Click to expand...

Same iMac... same problem. I only notice it with Podcasts. Sometimes it seems like longer than 30 seconds, maybe every couple minutes. But I definitely get the 30 second fluctuation often. Been happening since day one.
 
Last edited:
It's happening on the new 2013 MacBook Air 13" as well. I am seeing it in QuickTime.
 
i have got the latest iMac, 27".. Same problem.
Soundvolume goes down after a while. when i crank up the volume to 10 it restores itself. Very annoying.
Is there a fix for this?
 
On the iMac the problem seems to have stopped with one of the iTunes 11.x updates.
 
I'm still having this problem and it has not been fixed by the latest iTunes update. I've tried resetting the PRAM and that hasn't helped either. The volume fluctuates wildly; it is very annoying.
 
27" iMac (mid 2011)
Same problem. The volume keeps fluctuating up and down. It is extremely annoying. All the latest updates are installed. Resetting the PRAM did not help.
 
I received the 10.8.5 update in there somewhere too. Podcasts now stay at one volume for the entire podcast.
 
Last edited:
Volume fluctuations from audible.com audiobooks

I have still the same problems as described above from audible sound files on my iMac 27" 3.4 Ghz i7. Does anyone have any more ideas how to fix this?

Thanks
 
I am having this problem, the volume is jumping up and down. What the hell is going on and how do I fix it? I really hope I don't have to take my iMac in. :mad:

Fwiw my iMac is not the most latest latest the one right before though. 27" Fusion.
 
I'm also having this problem when I listen to podcasts on iTunes (I have no trouble when watching video clips on VLC). Has anyone found out what the issue is?

Mine is a brand new iMac 27" with 500GB SSD that I just recently purchased
 
vishae said:
I'm also having this problem when I listen to podcasts on iTunes (I have no trouble when watching video clips on VLC). Has anyone found out what the issue is?

Mine is a brand new iMac 27" with 500GB SSD that I just recently purchased
Click to expand...
I find that any volume fluctuation tends to go away if I raise and keep app volumes to max and only adjust volume exclusively using the system volume slider (or volume keys on keyboard).

You can see my issue related to the internal speakers fluctuating volume here: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/18971933/

Better way to solve it completely is just to plug in external speakers, especially if you are going to do any serious audio work.

I don't think this is hardware related BTW. The MacBook Airs were previously notorious for having very bad volume fluctuations, but Apple fixed with a software update. Nothing yet for the iMac.
 
drawnacrol said:
Just got my new iMac, listening to iTunes and the volume is fluctuating up and down every 10-20 seconds.

Does it just take time to break the speakers in or is something up?

Cheers!
Click to expand...

I also have this with my early 2013 iMac. I have all the latest updates, and it still persist. Apple needs to fix this already, this problem has been going on for a long time now.
 
Same here

I just received my iMac 27 inch last week and I am noticing this on itunes and lately on a few youtube vide4os too. I have the app volume now on full and use the keyboard volume to control it but it is still noticable (although better).

----------

I should also mention that all updates are installed for everything
 
More people need to complain directly to Apple, otherwise this is not going to get fixed it seems...
 
Agreed

I agree. I'll be getting in touch with Apple by phone tomorrow and mentioning how widespread this problem seems to be. We;ll see what a brand new 3 year apple care purchase fares.
 
The solution?

Just finished talking the issue through with apple and this is what they told me to do
1. Shut down computer then start up while pressing CMD+ALT+P+R
2. Open Finder
Click on Go
Press ALT (Library will appear - select library)
Delete the following files
com.apple.iTunes.plist
com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist
(nothing else)
Then restart computer

This seems to have worked so far
 
Using Safari and for instance youtube, turning up the sound volume to maximum in the youtube player also helps...

Colin4226 said:
Just finished talking the issue through with apple and this is what they told me to do
1. Shut down computer then start up while pressing CMD+ALT+P+R
2. Open Finder
Click on Go
Press ALT (Library will appear - select library)
Delete the following files
com.apple.iTunes.plist
com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist
(nothing else)
Then restart computer

This seems to have worked so far
Click to expand...
 
Limited success

Although the alterations apple suggested have improved the sound on iTunes it is still fluctuating slightly and I am still experiencing it on youtube on chrome too at times.
 
More things to try courtesy of apple

I called apple back because, although the sound is improved it is still not quite right and fluctuates a little.

They suggested the following

Shut down the computer
Unplug everything even power and ethernet then start up. Then replace everything.

If this has no effect

go to system preferences … user … groups …(unlock) set up a new user …log out of current user and in to new user …



If still happening try listening to iTunes with all other apps switched off i.e. mail in order to see if another app is effecting the sound somehow.



Try loading media file directly onto computer and playing it from there rather than an external drive (if applicable) to check if the drive connection is not causing issues.



Then call back to inform apple if the problem persists or will only be solved with other apps switched off.



Apple also urged everyone having this problem to log it on their forum too so that they are aware of the issue.
 
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