Macbook pro 16" M1 pro 2021 popping sound OS 12.0.1

Ok, I have just tried this and seems to be working ok for now (i have managed to listen to one full song without the issue which is a win at the moment)

1. Go > Computer > Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences > Audio
2. Delete the com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist and com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist files
3. Empty bin
4. Restart your Mac
5. Keep your fingers crossed

I've made some progress on this issue. It was discovered earlier in the thread that the audio glitches/pops start to occur when there is high memory swap activity. I've found that 9 times out of 10 the cause of my high memory usage is Safari - typically when I have several YouTube tabs open. So today I searched the Apple discussion forums for a fix to Safari using excessive memory...

...and I seem to have stumbled upon a workaround fixing my audio glitching issue. A post in a MacOS memory leak thread suggested that switching the MacOS appearance to "Light" mode instead of "Dark" or "Auto" would prevent MacOS from using swap memory so aggressively. My MBP M1 Max 32gb has been set to "Dark" mode since the day I bought it, so I switched to "Light" mode and...it worked! Safari still uses a silly amount of memory but it now uses the actual RAM pool first, rather than utilising swap memory so soon. I'm currently sitting at 28.3gb of memory used but only 1.38gb of swap used now that I'm in "Light" mode, compared to over 10gb of swap memory when I was in "Dark" mode, with the same session of Safari tabs open.

Now my audio is crystal clear with zero pops or glitches. It's not an ideal workaround - I much prefer "Dark" mode as I find it less fatiguing on the eyes but if it means my audio stays clean then tolerating "Light" mode is the lesser of two evils I guess.

Obviously, Apple still needs to fix this issue. There's no reason why switching between Dark and Light modes should have such a significant effect on MacOS memory allocation behaviour! It's a ridiculous workaround and shouldn't be necessary but here we are.

For anyone interested, here's the memory leak thread I'm referring to, and the helpful reply with the "Light" mode fix is by "Tyronne98" - Macbook M1 Pro 2021 memory leak - Apple Community

I personally suspect this could be related to restoring a backup from a pre M1 machine. dan1829's solution seems to have worked for me: Macbook pro 16" M1 pro 2021 popping sound… - Apple Community

Or it could just be alleviated by having restarted but it's been going an hour with no popping.

The conditions it happens appears to be:

• Playing something on Spotify
• Some other audio event happens (even if it doesn't play a sound), such as a notification in another app.

Currently using: Discord, Slack, Skype and Whatsapp.

In fact, I just got an email "ping" which I don't remember hearing recently, so again I think it's related to notification sounds that should play but mess up.

Hi,

Unfortunately I am also facing this issue…

The A-mac store told me that Apple is not able to source this problem. For those reason they are not able to fix this problem for me…

You would not expect this from a machine with this price tag on it.

I’m very disappointed that I bought this laptop.

MacBook Pro (16 pouces, 2021)

MacOs Monterey 12.3.1

What worked for my case :

1. (Menu Bar): Go > Computer > Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences > Audio
2. Delete the com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist and com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist files
3. Empty trash
4. Restart your computer

Hi Tommy8850,

Sorry to hear you're experiencing issues with you new Mac.

I feel I can shed some light on this as an owner of several 2021 16" models (of which all of them experience this crackling noise) as well as having a background in Audio engineering.

This speaker popping is sadly - and more frustratingly - an issue that stems back some time and occurs across apps: both native to Apple and 3rd party ones. Apple support are aware of the issue (I've been frequently advised of this each time I log the issue with Apple support directly). When I first got the 16" model back in 2019 not long after buying it, it started exhibiting this issue. The crackling/popping started when scrubbing through videos in YouTube, then would move into apps: Final cut, logic and even Adobe at times, as well as the music app (to name a few).

I've seen numerous reports across forums about the popping appearing when the machine undertaking high CPU tasks: this is certainly one of the ways the popping becomes visible, but from my new 2021 machines I've had the popping sound appear across both native Apple and 3rd party apps with varying CPU usage. I am certain it's a deep rooted software issue: so deep rooted in fact I'm using some of my own monitoring equipment to try and send data to help Apple as this issue has been going on - in my eyes - a bit too long now and is starting to become frustrating.

I'm not aware of 12.1 completely fixing the issue, as I've had a couple of crackles and pops here and there but so far if it's stopped for the time being, fingers crossed you're system will continue to work popping free - it'd be great if you could keep us posted on this.

All the best!

Hi everybody,

(sorry in advance for my poor English. I'm French. Thx)

Here is what I found about this problem :

• Having "Intel app" opened creates the problem. So I'm not using any "Intel app" (except Boom 3D which doesn't create the problem). I deleted all "intel app" automatic launchers from Microsoft or Adobe that I found in my system.
• Having a lot of tabs opened in Safari or Chrome creates the problem right away. And in a painful frequency. It's worst when the tabs are Youtube tabs. Easy fix : I stopped opening 50 tabs at the same time :-D
• Using Photoshop creates the sound problem right away. Despite begin a "Universel app". I can create some crackling sounds at will with Photoshop :-D. When writing this message, I have some crackling sounds going every five minutes. ****! I forgot to close Photoshop. So I closed it and the problem was gone right away. The Photoshop problem is probably the only source of the crackling sound I cannot fix.

What I didn't work in my case :

• Changing the audio preferences as said in previous post didn't work for me
• Entering "sudo killall coreaudiod" in the Terminal cleans the problem if the sound problem persist after closing browser tabs or Photoshop. But it doesn't solve the overall problem.

My guess with all this : it's a memory problem in a way or another. The problem is linked to some apps and how they are used.

With all that said, I'm now a happy user of my M1 MacBook Pro.

I hope it will help.

I had this problem on a brand new MBP 16" M1 and it now seems to be resolved. Here are the steps I took:

• Deleted the two audio driver .plist files as described by others in this thread. I thought the problem might have been from bad settings migration from my previous system. This may have improved things, but did not completely resolve the issue, there were still glitches happening every minute or two.
• Updated the OS from 12.2.1 (I believe it was..) to 12.6.1

Since the update a day ago I haven't noticed any glitching. Knock on wood, will update if it comes back.

It's driving me crazy. The popping is still a thing in 2023. I'm just trying to enjoy some music while doing my work. The dozens of cracking per song completely ruins any good faith or mood for the day. Apple's audio performance is a complete dumpster fire at this point. Quality is no longer a concern for Apple anymore. I'm using a high quality external DAC and even like that I still can't avoid the mind boggling popping.

Apple better advertise this as a feature called "i-Popping" Otherwise I don't see how they can explain for such a horrible user experience. Back in the days, it was iPod that made Apple famous. They're about to revolutionize audio again with i-Popping in 2023.

A pattern I've noticed is that the poppings seem to be related to RAM or system load because it sometimes happens right after I've clicked the mouse, trackpad, or given any type of user input to the computer.

• Dragging a chrome window around can cause a popping or several popping sounds in a row.
• Clicking on something could cause it to happen
• Typing could cause it to happen
• Right after starting to play a YouTube video is an almost guaranteed several popping sounds in a row.
• Right after Apple music switching the song (manually or automatically) is an almost guaranteed several popping sounds in a row.
• In the middle of a song the music suddenly gets stuck for a short while then keeps playing (can happen 2 to 3 times per song when it's really bad)
• In the middle of a song the volume gets louder automatically (this happened just one time and it was on today. Never had this before. I don't know what's causing all these audio issues but apparently it's getting worse)
• etc.

I'm using a M1 Max 16-inch pro 32GB - Monterey Version 12.4 (21F79)

The fix for me after way too much troubleshooting:

• Had an intel audio driver from Microsoft Teams
• Had Chrome extensions in different Chrome profiles which were contributing - usually dark mode related
• USB mice - logitech. Had to switch to a mouse that uses a USB receiver

Still happens rarely under heavy load but I consider it fixed after a lot of work and unhappiness with my purchase.

Have the same issue with popping cracking sounds on my 14-inch MacBook Pro OS 12.4

After some Acitivity monitoring the issue seems to happen when Memory (not CPU) is moderatly loaded.

Below is the screenshot of when the memory pressure starting creating the sound.

The pops/cracking even appear when listing on AirPods Pro connected to the MacBook.

I spoke with Apple Support and they reccomended to send the Mac for repair, even though admitting that they don't know if the issue will be fixed.

Has anyone gave their MacBook away (for a week aparently) and had this succesfully fixed?

I have a 2017 Macbook Pro. After getting the battery changed by the apple service center I started hearing popping sounds. It has been almost a year since the battery replacement and I find the popping sound really annoying now.

I just discovered that if I am not charging the Macbook pro there is no popping. It is a temporary solution, but at least I don't get to hear the popping sound. So make sure to unplug the charging cable after the Macbook is charged.

Hope this helps others. I will also test it and see if I don't hear popping once the charging cable is removed.

If I start up Quicktime and open a new audio recording window...the popping disappears. As soon as I shut Quicktime down, the popping starts again.

I'm wondering if there might be some IRQ channel issues when the system isn't prepping for audio recording. Just spitballing because Apple Inc. seems to be pretty mum on the matter.