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

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

I had the same problem when I opened up my macbook pro this morning. I saw the red (digital) light and plugged/unplugged a pair of headphones a few times then left them plugged in for about 30 seconds then unplugged them. Went to system prefs and my audio slider was no longer grayed out. Audio works.
 
A possible FIX for a STUBBORN version of this problem

I had been sadly stuck with the red light in the headphone jack and no sound out of the MacBook Pro speakers for many months—even after visiting this thread. I tried most of the suggestions, except perhaps those that involved alcohol. After many tries, I couldn’t even get the light to go off temporarily!

What worked for me was this: After cutting the cotton section off a Q-tip, I shaved a small wedge off the tip, so that the tip had a scoop-like shape. After locating the small switch towards the back on the left side of the Macbook Pro jack hole (very hard to see, but you can eventually spot it if you look into the hole from different directions until you see the tiny rectangular switch silhouetted against the red light), I stroked the jack hole with the scoop in an anticlockwise direction starting from above the switch. I could hear that I was jiggling, and sometimes catching, the switch and at the same time the light would sometimes flicker on and off while I moved the Qtip inside the hole. It took a while to get the knack, but with some patience eventually the light went off and stayed off!

I hope this helps those with a more stubborn version of this problem and who are as close to giving up as I was!
 
no sound, red l.e.d, macbook

thanks for the great advice....the matchstick thang worked! Glad I found this forum.
I have another little problem relating to my email client. I'll search the threads for a fix!
Thanks All!
 
Atila-theHungry said:
I had been sadly stuck with the red light in the headphone jack and no sound out of the MacBook Pro speakers for many months—even after visiting this thread. I tried most of the suggestions, except perhaps those that involved alcohol. After many tries, I couldn’t even get the light to go off temporarily!

What worked for me was this: After cutting the cotton section off a Q-tip, I shaved a small wedge off the tip, so that the tip had a scoop-like shape. After locating the small switch towards the back on the left side of the Macbook Pro jack hole (very hard to see, but you can eventually spot it if you look into the hole from different directions until you see the tiny rectangular switch silhouetted against the red light), I stroked the jack hole with the scoop in an anticlockwise direction starting from above the switch. I could hear that I was jiggling, and sometimes catching, the switch and at the same time the light would sometimes flicker on and off while I moved the Qtip inside the hole. It took a while to get the knack, but with some patience eventually the light went off and stayed off!

I hope this helps those with a more stubborn version of this problem and who are as close to giving up as I was!
Click to expand...

Well, I wish I knew you in real life. I've been having a terrible time trying to fix this. I'd just pay you to do it if I could.
 
Got my speakers to work again... Red light gone!!

Last night, I switched on my Macbook to find that I couldn't adjust the volume control at all..There was a RED light in the headphone slot and no volume at all.... I was stumped... I was wondering whether to take my Macbook to the Apple vendor when I found out about the fix from this forum...

So, I took an earbud, snipped off one of its ends, and gently (OK...a little firmly) wiggled the headphone slot... and Voila!! Now I can hear its sweet sound again... And the RED light has gone away too...

A big thank you to all you guys here...Thanks for the 'tip'.. :)
 
Ive tried sooo many of the suggestions here but just today saw that one of them was to use rubbing alcohol and it worked. I love you guys. A lot. Like a lot a lot.
 
Same problem Jigled my headphone, and gues what? it worked! Low-Tech headphone jiggle FTW!! it saved me a trip to the genius bar^^
 
I got it in the end too - really weird, I have to say. I used a inner ballpoint tube thingy too, and it worked after ten minutes of "ok, why isn't this working...." I know it sounds like it's a "that's what she said" joke, but honestly it appears that wiggling it around and seeing if it works is really the only thing. I can't discern the switch by eye.
 
The same thing happened to me and I was surprised that this was such a common problem. I was using external computer speakers and I lost my sound with the red LED light. I took the plug and gently maneuvered it around my Mac Book Pro's port. Within a minute the light went out and my sound was back.
 
YAY FIXED!

I tried inserting and removing headphones, match, paperclip then to my final attempt i used a Qtip and nothing. So then i tried putting it in vinegar (didnt have alcohol) and then dried it off so it wasnt like "wet" (turned off macbook) stuck it in and twisted, then turned on macbook and sound ahoy!!
 
Partial Fix

For all of you people who like me tried all the precedures in this post and many more and lost all hope of ever hearing again from your internal speakers i have news, not a solution, but news. I recently installed ubuntu in a partition in my macbook and i stumbled upon the sound settings in ubuntu and apparently my speakers were muted. I unmuted them and voila! my speakers were working after almost 3 years muted. Red light is still on but the speakers work. So I guess this isn't a problem that can only have a hardware solution. My hope is that now someone will make some software that will make it work in osx . i will stick with ubuntu till then. hope this helped you.
 
No sound out of MacBook speakers & red LED in Headphone jack

This weekend I had a similar problem. It began when the external speakers
were plugged into the wrong mini port.

The problem was solved when, after opening the sound panel, I plugged the
head phone jack into each of the two ports. You can see, on the sound panel,
how the digital out changes to headphones but when the headphone jack is
placed into the other port it seems to correct the problem and the internal
speakers comes back as a choice. Richard
 
no sound on the headphones

I had the same problem of red light but after i insert the mini jack of the headphones many times the light is gone and the sound of the speaker is back but the problem now is when i insert a headphones jack for listening with the headphones i don't have sound on the headphones the sound still come from the speakers.

any help thanks.
 
Q-tip / cotton bud method

I had the same headphone jack optical red light issue... so I logged on here.. just tried the cutting the end off the Q-tip / cotton bud & wiggle method.. & it's fixed the problem.. thanks for the advice folks!
 
I had the same problem and I fixed it!

I had the same problem of no sound and a red LED light in the headphone jack. I didn't know where the button was that I was trying to push, so I looked closer and found it on the right hand side of my Macbook (pre-2009). Using a rubber-ended bobby pin, I pressed the button, and after a few tries, it stuck and I could hear out of my speakers again!

So...look for the button on the right hand side if you've been wiggling objects in there aimlessly!
 
Deleted Preferences

I have a Mac Pro (not MacBook Pro) but same issue. Toothpick did not cure problem. But based on another post, I deleted both plists in ~/Library/Preferences/Audio. The two were: com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist and com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist. Rebooted. Red optical light no longer on and external speakers now working fine.
 
God I love these forums!

Same problem (headphones work, speakers don't) - Apple dealer support department told me it would no doubt be a faulty logic board (AUD75 to diagnose and logic board AUD800). So I was prepared to try anything first (it's an old MacBook well and truly out of warranty).

Tried everything everybody suggested, with no luck. I also noticed (no one else has mentioned this) that when I hit the mute button on the keyboard - the mute symbol appeared on the screen, but also a "NO" symbol (circle with line through it). And Sound Prefs didn't have internal speakers as an option, just "digital output". Finally pulled some of the fluff off a cotton bud to make it small enough to fit, dropped a couple of drops of Eclipse camera sensor/lens fluid on the bud and gave it a good clean inside the headphone socket. The cotton bud came out leaving the fluid-soaked cotton wool inside, but easily removed with sharp-nosed tweezers. My speakers worked!!! I'm so pleased I kept at it.

So if you've found this forum for the same reason, don't give up! Keep trying everything before taking to Apple.
 
Ok so i accidently tripped over the charger wire and the laptop landed on the floor with the speakers cable plugged in and igot the red light, i just tried a matchstickbut the red end got stuck a bit in there and i got it all out and the red light is gone but it still doesnt work and i just tried a q tip no luck thre either and now the speaker cable doesnt go in all the way and the sound is bad quality now :( i think i broke the sensor or something!! what do i do? any ideas? :( shouldi just take it to apple?
 
Dental brush and vodka!

Tried the tooth pick, paperclip, match stick, pen liner, Q-tip, all to no avail. Got the red LED light to go out, but still no sound.

Finally took an Oral-B "Proxy Brush" (looks like a little Christmas tree and is used for cleaning between teeth), dipped it in vodka (because I didn't have any isopropyl alcohol), and began rubbing it in and out of the headphone jack and, at last, success!

Took about a dozen tries, during which I began to hear encouraging sputs and pops from the speakers, then SOUND! Obviously having tried all the hard objects it wasn't a case or resetting a button or a sensor in my case, it was plain old dirt.

Hope this helps, and thanks to all those who posted!

BTW, I'm now taking the precaution of cleaning the plugs of all the devises I use in the macbook head phone jack.

*********UPDATE*****

Continued to happen and needed swabbing almost every time I used the headphone input (even with really clean jacks). I'm finally forced to use an iMic in the USB to connect for external sound, but at least it keeps the internal speakers functional.
 
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Totaly different solution

I turned on my macbook pro half an hour ago and experienced the same problem all of you had. I tried virtually all the objects mentioned to no avail the light would go out temporarily but would return as soon as I removed the object no matter how much I wiggled, jiggled or pushed. Finally I took my headphone jack and plugged it into the OTHER port next to the headphone jack (the optical audio port?) the light on the headphone jack went out and my internal speaker functionality has returned. HOPE this helps people!
 
i have tried the qtip and many of the things you have all listed, but the red light is still on. i can listen to sound through head phones but when i take the head phones out, there is no sound. what should i do?
 
wHAT if mine only happens in windows , not mac, that's a software problem right?. this only happens after i updated the bootcamp , i should never have :(
 
fixed

hey guys, had the same problem with my macbook pro late 2007 model and after reading this thread i fixed it. i used a cotton bud. i cleaned the jack with the cotton bud and a lenses cleansing liquid and the red light turned off and my speakers started working again!

All thanx to you, THAAAAANX!!!!!
 
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