MacBook Pro (2021) Users Complain of Crackling, Popping Noise When Playing Sound

MacBook Pro (2021) users are complaining about hearing a crackling and popping noise when they play music or any sound. The issue seems to have impacted a number of users as there are multiple complaints detailing the problem on the Apple Community forum as well as on Reddit. It is also not limited a particular MacBook Pro (2021) model as while some users are facing it on the 14-inch version, the others have reported it on the 16-inch option. Apple has not yet publicly acknowledged the issue, though.

The user complaints on the Apple Community forum and Reddit suggest that the crackling and popping audio emerge randomly when a song, video, or any other sound is being played on the MacBook Pro (2021). It becomes prominent and more noticeable to users when the volume level is high or the machine is playing a high-pitch sound, though the odd audio appears even in low volume levels for some users.

A number of users have raised complaints about the issue since at least January. Some of them were able to even get replacements from Apple when they reached out to a service centre. However, replacing their existing units with new ones did not help as the issue still persisted for most users went for the replacements.

Although user complaints on the crackling and popping audio issue impacting MacBook Pro (2021) models are from earlier this year, 9to5Mac has brought it into the limelight with a report based on a video that covered the audio effect.

The issue seems to be due to software bug as replacing the hardware has not solved problems for many users. A Reddit user also indicated its roots in the software as they were able to fix the speaker crackling by killing a process called "coreaudiod" from the Activity Monitor app.

"After quitting the process your audio should cut out completely. The system will start the coreaudiod process again and it should work without crackling," the user wrote.

Gadgets 360 has reached out to Apple for a comment on the matter and will update this article when the company responds.

This is not the first time when we are seeing issues impacting the MacBook Pro (2021) models that debuted in October last year. In December, some MacBook Pro (2021) 16-inch users complained about its MagSafe 3 charging. Some users on both MacBook Pro (2021) 14-inch and 16-inch also reported accessibility issues with SD cards in the same month.

Crackling and popping audio problems are also not that new in the Mac world as they had surfaced on some previous MacBook Pro models in the past. In 2019, Apple had acknowledged through an internal memo that the crackling and popping noises emanating from the earlier 16-inch MacBook Pro were coming due to a software bug that it would patch in a future macOS update.