Automator - Toggle Sound Output Device

Hi.
I have an audio interface with headphone output, and the internal imac speakers. I like to toggle between them very often Right now I have to open system prefs, click on sound, and select the sound output. This is a pain. Ideally, I would like a keyboard shortcut t do this for me, but I can't find a way to do it. I had a play with automator and thought I'd solved it by getting it to record me changing sound output - but it didn't work.
Can anyone give me some relatively simple instructions on how to make this task feasible?

edit: (i know it's a 3 year old thread)
not sure why you would say that automator can't do it. if you can do it with a gui, there is almost certainly a way to do it using automator. this is what i use for os x to switch to bluetooth (using ifttt to trigger a certain playlist when i'm almost home).
tell application "System Preferences" to set current pane to pane id "com.apple.preference.sound"
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "System Preferences"
        tell window "Sound"
            click (radio button 2 of tab group 1)
            delay 0.0
            select row 2 of first table of first scroll area of first tab group
            delay 0.0
        end tell
    end tell
end tell
tell application "System Preferences" to quit

Similar Messages

Sound output device

Hello,
Recently I have been experiencing problems with my sound in my iMac with OS X 10.6.2
In my sound output device list, I have the following:
- Headphones (Should be selected)
- Soundflower (2ch)
- Soundflower (12ch)
To hear sound from my iMac speaker or headphone, the Headphone option should be selected. However, everytime I reboot the OS, it go to the soundflower and I have to manually go to system preferences and select the Headphones. I don't even know what the Soundflower is and why it is there. How do I make the "Headphones" as the default selection?
This has been an issue for the past month or so.

Soundflower is an audio routing program that emulates an output. It comes in very handy for people like me who use studio monitors through an audio interface as Apple doesn't allow you to adjust the volume on such setups with a keyboard (no idea why, since it works PERFECTLY under Windows 7 on Bootcamp, but I digress). I'm not sure how you installed it by accident, but you can delete it if you don't need it.
To fix your issue you need to delete the audio preferences file (I forget where it is, hopefully someone can help me out), then select the headphone output again and it should remember your setting.

How to use Airport Express as a sound output device

Guys,
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thanks in advance

In order to listen to the non-iTunes audio streams through your Airport Express you will need to use the third party software Airfoil.
http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/
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A new Idea has been added to the Adobe Idea's website for this discussion. Please vote if you are interested and would find this valuable!
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when i run bootcamp on my mac book pro, sometimes the sound output device keeps changing between speakers and headphones (even if I don't have any plugged in). This is very annoying since you can really do anything with sound without hearing constant skips. Please help! Thank you.

is nobody going to reply?...

Sound output device problem since 10.6.2 upgrade...

wHey, I've had a look through some other forums and have found solutions and so on to this problem, which is basically this:
Since the 10.6.2 Upgrade my sound output device changed from 'Headphones' to 'Soundflower (2ch)'...The three options are as follows on Sound preferences through System Prefs...
Headphones
Sondflower (2ch)
Soundflower (16ch)
I use external speakers, so headphones is important to me, but everytime I change it back to headphones, the next time I restart the computer it switches back to Soundflower (2ch) ... It's only on my user account as all other accounts are fine, I've reinstalled OS X already, and have even since this problem started, bought a new iMac (no, not just cause of the problem lol)... Done a timemachine restore, yet the same is happening on the new iMac, and it's driving me nuts... I've called Apple Support they suggested reinstalling OS X, I've done just that, but it's still doing it... There must be something I have installed...Any help?
I'm hoping someone has some sort of Terminal code to switch it to set to 'Headphones' as DEFAULT Output, as there is no such way to do it on Sound preferences.
Any help greatly appreciated, thanks

Refer to Apple - Support - Discussions - System does not store my sound preferences or Apple - Support - Discussions - Sound preferences sometimes messed up after boot for removing Soundflower from your Mac.
However, AFAIK, there is no way to make 'Headphones' the default sound output device, since the switch among built-in audio, headphones, (& optical output on Macs with a dual purpose optical/analog output jack) is controlled by what you do or don't insert into that jack.

How do I restore missing sound output device in system preferencces?

How do I restore a missing sound output device in the System Preferences. My MacBook Pro only shows a Digital output in the Sound pane and a red light at the Digital Output Port.

If your model has an audio-out (headphone) port, and a red light is coming from it, the internal switch is stuck in the position for digital output. You may be able to free it by inserting and removing a mini-stereo jack of the proper size. Inserting any kind of tool in the port may cause damage that won't be covered by your warranty.

Control sound output device

If I want to change where my sound is piped out, I have to open the Sound preferences>Output and choose Line Out, USB speakers, Digital Out, etc.
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There was such an animal, but I don't know if it's still around or works in SL. You'll need to search at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.

Help, no sound, no sound output devices

Hi all,
I tried this over in the Tiger section with little help. About a week ago I told my grand-daughter she could plug her iPod headphones into the headphone jack on the the front of the G4. Now, I have no sound at all except for through the headphones and only the headphones show up as an output device. I have tried trashing the "com.apple.soundpref.plist" and rebooting thinking that the OS would creat a new one during startup but that didnt work (there was TWO of them in there). I also tried trashing "com.apple.audio.AudioMIDISetup.plist" but that didnt help either. I put them both back where I found them later. Those files both belong in library-preferences right? I tried zapping the Pram but having no sound I didnt get a "bong" I just listened for it to rev-up twice, still no change. I also tried the PMU reset switch. I can change the volume level with no effect except for the headphones and the sound is not muted.
System Profiler does not recognize apple pro speakers that are plugged in, I do have sound sticks to try but they are boxed up in the garage.
So I am wondering if the phone jack got messed up by the iPod plug, a hardware issue, or does this seem to be software related problem? I did an archive & install today with still no sound so now I am thinking that the plug is messed up inside and still thinks the headphones are plugged in.
Does anyone out there have any advice to offer?
I am going to do surgery next to explore the headphone jack and the tiny speaker above it.

Slimtech,
I don't have a solution for this, but maybe some comments might help a bit...
com.apple.soundpref.plist and com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist should be at /Library/Preferences.
com.apple.audio.AudioMIDISetup.plist should be at ~/Library/Preferences.
The "Audio (Built In)" section under System Profiler for my QS G4 shows no attached devices, but merely shows information about the sound card itself, with three generic outputs listed as "Internal Speaker, External Speaker, and Headphones".
Normally, you should get a startup Chime from your internal speaker even with headphones plugged in, unless perhaps the sound setting is on Mute at shutdown, which sometimes will affect/mute the startup chime at the next startup.
I would think that if the Mac thought that the headphone were still plugged in after removal, your Sound Preference Pane Output window would indicate this. If the Headphones appear in the Output window when plugged in, then disappear when removed (refresh the window by clicking another Tab then going back to the Output Tab), the System obviously recognizes their removal. Apparently, it doesn't recognize the internal speaker that it's supposed to switch back to though, for reasons unknown to me.
You might try vigorously and repeatedly plugging/unplugging the headphone plug into the headphone jack, which helped clean up the jack and restore the sound on my G3 some time back.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
Gary

No Sound OUtput Device

Morning All, Happy New Year and all that.
I have an imac G5 which is about a year old. For some time I had an optical device plugged in to the speakers, and everything was punchie keen. Now, however, I am using said device ofer an Airport Express, which if all hunky-dorie-like. Except I can no longer get sound to output on the infernal speaker. An old set of USB headphone still work, as do the speakers plugged in to the Airport.
There is no Output Device selectable if I do not use these options (and system sounds do not go through the airport thingie whatsis, but they do sound through the USB headjamacallit.
I did check to see if there is a red light on in the Headjack phoney thingie on the back of the computer, but there is no light (and I did read the fine white print above it which said "Please do not look into laser with remaining eye)
Thanks for answers and commets or suggestions.

Suggest that you also cross-post in the AirPort Express Forums where the Airport users hang out.
You may also wish to search Knowledge Base for your issue: http://search.info.apple.com/
Happy New Year to ya & all that also.

Sound "output device" not recognized

Out of the blue I get no sound on my computer. I tried all sound preferences and it says that "no output device is found." I even tried headphones, but nothing works. The mute button is checked, but I can't uncheck anything. Everything's gray -- can't be accessed/clicked on.
Help! Thanks.

Welcome to Discussions - have you tried rebooting Also, take a look at the suggestions [here|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300832] and see if anything helps. If you hear the start-up chime but no other sound, the problem might be what another poster, First Magus has suggested:
Your digital out has been turned on. You will also notice a red light in the hole when this happens. Use a plastic toothpick to reach into the hole and around the 3 o'clock position try flipping the switch. An alternate method that has worked for some people is to plug and unplug the earphones a few times. This sometimes resets the switch.
Please post back with results,

Missing sound output devices

In Sound Output, only Internal speakers is listed. I used the headset jack (Apple supplied headset from iPhone) just a few days ago. Now the jack is not responding. Don't understand what happened to the rest of the list.

Go step by step and test.
1. Reset PRAM. http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4405
2. Reset SMC.     http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
    Choose the method for:
    "Resetting SMC on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own".
3. Applications > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup
    Audio Devices window
    Side Bar
    Click the Built-in Output.
    Now plug-in the headphone, does it show up?
    Under Mute any of the boxes checked? If so, uncheck it.

Toggling sound output

Is there any way, via AppleScript, to toggle the sound output between the internal speaker and digital out? I'd like to have a script for it that I can call via QuicKeys.

QuickKeys doesn't really seem to work--problem (in part) being that SoundSource wasn't supplied with a menu name. Even Applescripting, it seems is dodgy; here's what they came up with: ell application "System Events" to tell the front menu bar of process "SystemUIServer"
set foundMenu to false
set menu_extras to value of attribute "AXDescription" of menu bar items
repeat with x from 1 to the length of menu_extras
if item x of menu_extras is equal to missing value then
tell menu bar item x
click
tell first menu item of front menu
if name is equal to "Input" then
set foundMenu to true
exit repeat
end if
end tell
end tell
end if
end repeat
if foundMenu is equal to false then
keystroke return
end if
end tell
This doesn't work for me. SoundSource simply opens up, "Line in" under Input (the wrong item) highlights, and it them stops, the menu open and the (wrong) item still highlighted.

MBP Retina No Sound Output device found

I use my MBPR with thunderbolt monitor and often use the 'Display Audio' option when plugged into them. 2 days ago, when I unplugged the thunderbolt monitor, there was no longer an 'internal speakers' option in the sound prefs pane.
It does still show the 'Display Audio' option when plugged into the TB display, however that is the only audio option now, other than any available airplay devices in range.
I did SMC reset & PRam reset, multiple times to no avail. I then called apple support and they walked me thru the same things, as well as eventually deleting these 2 plists from the library > prefrences > audio folder:
com.apple.audio.SystemSettings
com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings
This also did not return the audio device to the sound prefs pane.
I had a friend with the same laptop, same specs, send me his version of those plists, as mine were missing sevral keys that his had. None of that worked. Wondering if anyone else has seen their internal audio device disappear on the MBPRs? I read up on HDMI audio threads, but the their problems seemed to be with MB Air & not very relevant to this problem.
Thanks.

Hi-
Does the G4 make the start up chime?
In System Preferences/Sound/Output, is the "Mute" button selected? Is the volume set?
Do you know that the internal speaker worked before you got the G4?
Have you tried headphones or speakers in the sound output jack?
If the output jack isn't shown in the preferences, and you have no chime on start up, you may have hardware problems.
Just for fun, try a PRAM/NVRAM reset:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
Maybe the sound problem is why the machine only cost you $20...........
G4 AGP(450)Sawtooth Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2ghzPPC,1.62gbSDRAM, ATI9800, DVR-109,(IntHD)120&160,LaCie160,23"Cinema Display

Upgraded to Lion and now my iMac doesn't recognise any sound output devices?

Any ideas on how to solve this? "No output devices found" is what the system preferences show under Output.

Hi Philip..
Preferences (.plist) may be corrupted after the upgrade ...
Go to ~/Library/Preferences
Move the com.apple.systempreferences.plist file from the Preferences folder to the Trash.
Restart your Mac.

Automator - Toggle Sound Output Device

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