IMac force select "Display Audio" when headphone jack is in use

I have a new 2012 iMac and Thunderbolt Display. I use the Display Audio from time to time, but also use a set of high quality speakers plugged in to the headphone jack.
Some applications, like Chrome (Google Hangout, Gmail phone calls) will default to using the Display Audio as the speaker. If I have the headphone jack in use (using the desk speakers), then the Audio System Preferences will NOT let me select the "Display Audio" device. It will immediately highlight "Headphone" again. The problem is if I want to change the "Display Audio" volume, I have to remove the cable from the headphone port, then change the audio, then plug it back in the headphone port.
It's quite annoying.
Is there any way to change this?
As a second request, is there an app that allows you to select which audio device applications will use? Like, if I wanted to change Chrome from using the Display Audio (not sure why thats the default anyway), or another application to only use the headphone port...

Hi,
The problem with the selection of the headphone port is something I reported to Apple back in October 2012. After some time, the reply came back that this was intended behaviour, and my bug report was subsequently marked as, "behaves correctly"! I agree with you that this is a pain in the backside and certainly appears to be bug-like behaviour. If you can take the time, I'd ask you to file your own bug report on this matter here. Perhaps it'll help cause a re-think. You should be able to log in with your Apple ID.
As for your second question: many people are asking this now. Rogue Amoeba made such a thing years ago, but it doesn't work on modern, Intel-based Macs. Maybe they'd consider updating it if enough people asked?
For Chrome, you can use ChromeLauncherWithExtraAudio - I've tried it and it works fine, though once you've changed the audio output on launch you have to quit and re-launch to change it again. If you want to choose where to send audio from movies, radio and so forth you could start using VLC, which completely ignores the system audio settings, and lets you choose from any connected audio outputs.
HTH
<Links Edited By Host>

Similar Messages

The audio out (headphone jack) stereo just stopped working.

The audio out (headphone jack) stereo just stopped working. On all my head phones (which work fine on other devices), macbbok pro sound is only coming through the left speaker. Anything I can do about this, aside just bringing it in to the shop? btw: audio output is set to middle.

Before taking to the shop, try Reset PRAM.
Some sound settings are stored in PRAM.
Even though the article title says 10.7 it is applicable to 10.4.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.7/en/mh26871.html

How to select Thunderbolt audio with headphones plugged in?

Hello,
I'm currently using a late 2011 MacBook Pro with a Henge dock and two Thunderbold displays. If you're not familiar with the Henge dock, it has the connectors for the MacBook at the bottom and you drop the MacBook in to place. Very convenient when coming to the office in the morning.
My biggest issue has to do with headphone audio and the Thunderbolt audio. With the Henge dock I always have the headphone cable plugged in. It's imply an extender that allows me to plug headphones in when I want to use them. I've found that with the headphones plugged in, I'm unable to select the USB audio device for either Thunderbolt display.
When selecting either Display Audio device, it simply autoselects itself back to the headphones. I can't seem to use Thunderbolt audio if headphones are plugged in. This seems like a pretty large oversight, so I wouldn't be surprised if I was just missing something.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get this working? If it's not possible, any workarounds that won't cause me massive amounts of pain?
Thanks!
//Tim

Does anyone have any suggestions for this, been quite awhile. :/
-Tim

Audio via headphone jack is really low

The sound from internal speakers is fine, but audio via the headphone jack is really low.

Hi Krich918,
Your computer can tell when you have something plugged into the headphone port, and it remembers a separate volume profile for each (internal speakers vs. headphones). You may want to double check that the volume is up on the Sound preference pane in System Preferences when you have your headphones plugged in, as outlined in the following article (apologies if you have already done so):
Mac Basics: Set your preferences
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2490
Regards,
- Brenden

10.9.4 upgrade - Audio from headphone jack overdriven

I have a 24-inch, Early 2009 iMac. 3.06 Core 2 Duo.
Using it as a projection computer at my church, running iTunes and ProPresenter 5.
After upgrading to 10.9.4 last week, the audio coming out of the headphone jack is distorting really badly at about the 1-1.5khz range. I have to turn the system audio down well below half to get the signal to to come through weakly enough to not sound overdriven. I first discovered this problem in iTunes, but it is doing the same thing for any media (Spotify, ProPresenter, Quicktime, Youtube through a browser, etc.). I know way more about sound systems than I do about computers, but it sounds to me like the system is telling the preamp in the headphone jack to run at way higher gain than it can safely put out. The audio from this jack isn't any louder than it was with the previous OS, just distorted now.
After reading some other forum posts about audio ceasing to work after the upgrade, I downloaded the 10.9.4 combo install from Apple.com and reinstalled it that way. Before that I tried a recovery install. No luck either way.
Any ideas on how to resolve this issue?
Thanks!

Hi Jordan PH ,
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!
I know how frustrating sound issues can be. One troubleshooting step I would definitely recommend in this situation would be to reset the NVRAM / PRAM. Please use the following article as a reference and let me know if the issue continues after the reset.
About NVRAM and PRAM
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
Have a great day,
Joe

5.1 audio with headphone jack

Hi guys:
I have a question...
I need to get 5.1 in iTunes.
I have a 2ghz intel core 2 duo mac mini and a LG FA-3000 that i love.
(this one http://www.productreview.com.au/p/lg-fa-3000awe.html)
The thing is that i've been reading that the TOSlink cable or something will do the trick, the problem is that the optical input on my home theather is being used by my PS3 and the Mini doesn't have a coaxial output so that doesn't work hehehhe.
Can i make it work with a headphone jack?
Thanks so much!!!
Greetings
PS: I'm using Lion

The Plex app can output 5.1 audio, but your mac will downmix back to 2-channel when you have headphones (or any other 2-channel device) connected. Open the Audio MIDI Setup app on your mac to see your current sound output config - this is probably also required once you get digital audio working.
One idea - you could take the Toslink and DVI connections from the back of your mac into a DVI/Digital-Audio to HDMI converter box, then take the HDMI cable into your A/V setup (TV, etc). You still need the mini-Toslink to Toslink cable to connect to your headphone/optical jack on the mini, of course.
Good luck! I ran an older mini with DVI and Toslink in my home theater for years with Plex, worked great once I got everything dialed in.

MacBook speaker disabled when headphone jack is removed

I've been having increasing difficulty getting my MacBook's speaker to work when I remove the headphone jack.
The speaker icon goes grey, rendering the speaker 'unavailable.' So far, I've eventually been able to restore the speaker by jiggling the jack, but the amount of jiggling I have to do before I have success with that is increasing, and I'm expecting to get to a point where it just won't happen.
An Apple Store employee I spoke to, and claimed to be familiar with the problem, said that the repair for this involves replacement of the entire logic board.
Does anyone know whether that's accurate?
If so, are there any other workable fixes for this?
I'm not eager to replace an otherwise perfectly functioning logic board just because of a faulty headphone jack connection problem. (In fact, given my MacBook's vintage, the fact that it's well out of warranty, and the cost of replacing a logic board, I won't even be considering doing that.)
Thanks.

I keep a matchstick handy because the wood end is just the right size and works well to move around til you can trigger that red light to go off in the jack.
Just a thought, although sometimes I get tired of doing it...
Thanks. For the time being, I can still get the speaker back by jiggling the headphones plug. But, like you, "sometimes I get tired of doing it". And the number of jiggles required is unpredictable and seems to be growing.
I had also seen the following remedy, which unfortunately has not worked for me. Maybe you'll have better luck. Then you can retire your matchsticks.
Is there a red light coming out of your headphone jack? If so the Mac is stuck in optical audio mode.
Try plugging in/unplugging headphones or the following longer steps:
Plug your headphones back in.
Play a bit of sound through them (e.g., a song), then stop the sound.
Make sure Preferences is quit.
Launch Preferences and open the Sound pane.
While the Sound pane is open and set to Headphones, pull out the headphone plug from the jack.
It will reset itself to "Internal Speakers" and you are good to go.
URL . . . https://josephhall.org/nqb2/index.php/stuckonmute

No audio from headphone jack

I've just taken delivery of a new 24" iMac and while setting it up have noticed that plugging external speakers or headphones into the headphone jack does not disconnect the internal speakers, or play sound through the external device. In the output tab of Sound preferences it only shows 'Internal Speakers' even if external speakers are connected.
SMC reset hasn't helped. I've seen a couple of threads mentioning this issue, but no obvious solution. Any ideas?

AndyO wrote:
By the way, when external speakers are connected, would you normally expect
to see them come up in the output tab of the Sounds preference panel?
Yes. When a plug is inserted in the headphone jack (regardless of whether the
plug is connected to anything) the Sound preference panel should immediately
indicate "Headphones" or "Digital Out" (depending on the type of plug). If it
still says "Internal Speakers", something is wrong. Either the headphone jack is
defective or the physical dimensions of the plug are abnormal.
BTW, that's how it works on my 20" late-2006 white iMac running 10.5.1 --
I believe it's the same on other models and OS revs, but I can't be 100% sure.
Looby

K7N2G-L no cd audio from headphone jack

Can someone please help me I have a K7N2G-L motherboard and I cant get it to play music cds through the cd roms headphone jack. When I play a music cd it plays through the external speakers but does not play in the cd roms headphone jack. This is a motherboard problem because when I replace the onboard sound with a separate sound card it plays like this. I would like to use the onboard sound any suggestions ive tried.
-swapping the cd rom the cd data and cd audio cables (they are in the right way)
-updated the audio drivers to nvida latest
-upgrading the bios
-gone through all the windows xp audio controls.
The only thing I can think of to do next is to rebuild the system as 98 to rule out a any possible software cause

if you use xp music cd are played by drawing the sound from the ide cable and not the sound cable.
its digital and analog playback.
what you need is analog playback
somewhere in window is a box you need to tick.
i dont know right now where it is but if i find it i will post it

HT2844 When I plug my LED cinema display into my macbook Pro, the video switches automatically but the audio still plays via the macbook speakers by default. Is there any way to make the audio default to the display audio when plugged in?

Hi,
Pretty much as the tital says really. I'm fed up of having to manually select my audio output every time I plug my macbook pro into me LED display. Can I make it default the audio to the display when plugged in?

yeah- I think so, AlexGrady. see if your machine supports hdmi audio out, it should say under "about this mac"
then buy the correct adapter to your LED display. I think you also have to enable audio out via HDMI, and the adapter has to support HDMI audio passthrough
sorry, that's all I have for now
John b
oh, and this forum is for Mac Pro's (just sayin')

Front panel audio wont mute rear audio when headphones are in.

Hello,
As the title says my sound isn't muted on the rear speakers when I plug in my headphones. The front panel audio didn't work at first, it said in the manual to disable front panel jack detection. Once I did this the audio came through the front panel, but is not muted at the rear, so I have sound from both the headphones that are plugged into the front and the speakers that are in the rear. The option to mute the rear output when headphones are plugged in is enabled, the speakers are plugged into the green jack, the rear speakers are set to stereo line out and the front is set to headphones.
Can anyone help, at the moment I have to keep unplugging the speakers to listen through the headphones without disturbing anyone else, which with the placement of my computer is not convenient.

Hello,
I have used the link, but the drivers just install the same one I already had (both the rar and the exe do this), even if I remove the previous drivers via programs and features. Unfortunately the problem still persists, I am really stumped as to what is causing it. I am not sure if I have AC'97 or HD Audio connectors on the front of the case, as the case came with absolutely no documentation. I have provided a link to the manufacturers website if that could help in anyway.
http://www.xionusa.com/Product-case-Xion2.asp

Installing Photoshop cc on a new iMac with retina display , but when PS opens , i receive following message;

i installed photoshop on my new iMac with retina display. I worked always with a windows pc , and i am completely new in the macworld. When i opened photoshop the first time , i saw the following message ;
open system preferences, click on design (in dutch it calls vormgeving) and switch off the function for smooth text for fontsize 8 and smaller to display the user interface off photoshop correctly.

10.9: Ps Error message "...to display correctly...turn off text smoothing for font sizes 8..."

Cannot output audio via headphone jacks with Mac Mini (2012) and Boot Camp

Hi all,
I have a brand new (2012) Mac Mini with a Boot Camp partition running Windows 7. It's connected directly to an HDTV via HDMI cable. I have external speakers hooked through the headphone jack on the back. The speakers work fine if I'm in the Mac environment, but I cannot get the audio output to go through the headphone jack while in Boot Camp/Windows- it will only go through the speakers on the TV. Any suggestions? I think I've downloaded every driver I can think of, and the installation of Windows on the Boot Camp partition went well otherwise. Thanks.
John

Nevermind, I was missing one driver. Installed it, fixed.

No Audio From HeadPhone Jacks !! ? !!

Product: dv2500tv CTO Notebook PC
Out of the blue, both the headphone jacks placed infront of the laptop WONT work !! This is utterly frustuating as the laptop speakers are working fine. I didnt change anything prior to the 2 headphone jacks stopped working.
I searched over internet and tried so many things but, unfortunately the issue has boosted my frustuating levels. Im sure there are so many people who face this problem and still not able to get the audio jacks working.
IS there ANY solution for this? HP should be in a position to look into the matter and resolve this ridiculous issue.
Sorry for my french. Credits to the Device: Conexant High Definition Smart Audio 221
Can someone show some light on this and let the problem wash out?
Thanks

do you have idt audio monitor? (if you do there will be an icon in your sys tray). if so go to run msconfig an administrator and disable idt from the startup programs. restart you unit and see if your jack is working. let me know what happens.

Playback PAUSE when Headphone Jack is removed

iPod works great, one feature I'm wondering if you can disable - playback pausing when the headphone jack gets pulled out. Any way around this?

Hey there,
As of right now, you cannot disable it. Supposedly, there is a hardware mod you can pull off to make it happen, but there is no direct way of doing it. Sorry. Hope this helps.
B-rock

IMac force select "Display Audio" when headphone jack is in use

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for