How do you un-mute a Mac?

[Lawlass]

Okay, my MacBook Pro seems to have decided to mute itself - I don't recall doing anything to mute it. The little speaker sign at top right is all greyed out and none of the volume buttons work.

When I plug in headphones, the speaker sign goes black again and I can hear through the headphones but upon unplugging them, it all goes mute again.

Checked my sound settings, but no luck there.

Tried a shut down of course, but no luck.

Any ideas?

 

[alieninperth]

Put it back in its box, take it back to the mac store for a refund then buy a proper laptop.

 

[TonyHancock]

Might be worth a look here. If that doesn't help I'm not sure what is next.

 

[drron]

Lift up his sporran-they usually say something then.

 

[markis10]

If you pull the headphones out they can sometimes think that the optical interface is in use, try:


https://josephhall.org/nqb2/index.php/stuckonmute


Here's what you do:

1. Plug your headphones back in.
2. Play a bit of sound through them (e.g., a song), then stop the sound.
3. Make sure Preferences is quit.
4. Launch Preferences and open the Sound pane.
5. While the Sound pane is open and set to Headphones, pull out the headphone plug from the jack.
6. It will reset itself to "Internal Speakers" and you are good to go.

My theory is that running the Sound preferences pane fresh does some sort of check on the sensors that clears this up. Others noted that you can launch Garage Band and this same check is performed and that can fix it too (but Garage Band is a seriously lame sound editing tool... I uninstalled it in favor of Amadeus Pro a long time ago).

 

[djfuzz]

Assuming you've done the old 'turn it on and off again', my initial suggestion would be to reset the PRAM (restart and press Command + Option + P + R at the chime).

If still no luck, then book in a Genius Bar appointment - don't waste your time on the phone to Apple Care as you're unlikely to have much joy there if it's a real problem.

 

[Lawlass]

None of the above worked, though thanks for the suggestions. Guess it's off to the Genius Bar for me.

 

[dfcatch]

Lawlass - if it's 'your' laptop on mute...... Isn't that a good thing?

 

[Simo]

And you know the worst thing about it they will fix it in 2 seconds.

 

[markj23]

Get one of those cotton tip/ear cleaning things. Stick it in the headphone jack & give it a clean

The same thing happens with my wife's iPhone after a prolonged period in her handbag

 

[The Rok]

Have you tried a hammer Lawless?

 

[The Rok]

If you have and it has not worked can I suggest a small amount of gunpowder mixed with black powder and some fuses????

 

[Lawlass]

Lawlass - if it's 'your' laptop on mute...... Isn't that a good thing?

cough without sound just isn't the same...

 

[Mal]

cough without sound just isn't the same...

Isn't that what headphones are for? To ensure that the person next to you on the plane isn't subjected to the sound?

 

[codash1099]

Isn't that what headphones are for? To ensure that the person next to you on the plane isn't subjected to the sound?

The idea is to let them have the sound but not the vision.

 

[drron]

The idea is to let them have the sound but not the vision.

And then lip sync?
:shock:

 

[TonyHancock]

And then lip sync?
:shock:

...or look for subtitled material!