Can't change audio output in System Preferences

I have installed an M-Audio Firewire Solo interface on my Mac Mini and have made it my default audio output device in System Preferences. When I go to change the audio output back to "Headphones" (the built-in output on the computer), it will not allow me to do so. I click on Headphones, close the window, reopen the window, and the Firewire Solo output is still selected. I'm guessing there's an easy solution to this?

Welcome to the Mac and Apple Discussions.
Open the Preferences folder in the Library folder on the hard drive and look for the files com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist and com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist and perhaps any others. Move them to the desktop and restart or log out and in. The system will rebuild them when it starts up again. You might try removing them one at a time so you are able to identify which is the corrupt .plist file, if in fact it is a .plist problem.
If that doesn’t fix anything, look for similar files with .audio.xxxxxx.plist in your Users Preferences folder: Users/yourusername/Library/Preferences and try removing those. The .plist files usually can be removed without causing problems as they are automatically rebuilt. If it does cause a problem, you can move the originals back to their respective folders from the desktop, replacing the ones that were reconstructed after the restart and you’ll be back to the way it was before you removed them.
And then I’m out of ideas. But keep posting until you get it solved. There are a lot of very knowledgeable people on this forum. If you don’t get any response for a while, respond to your own post with the word “Bump” to get it to the top of the stack again.

Similar Messages

  • Can't choose speaker output in system preferences anymore.

    Hi,
    Can't choose speaker output in system preferences anymore.  The only option is optical digital output. Any suggestions?
    Thanks

    Look at the headphone port to see if there's a small red light inside. Doing this in a darkened room might help. If you see the light, try inserting and removing a headphone jack a few times. Sometimes the port gets stuck on optical. If the headphone jack trick doesn't work, insert a plastic toothpick or maybe one prong of a plastic fork and gently jiggle it around. Don't use too much force, since you don't want to break that off inside.

  • Can't change Desktop background in System Preferences

    Hi. When I try to change my desktop background, either by right-clicking on the desktop or by opening System Preferences, the screen for Desktop options is blank. None of the options show up, grayed out or otherwise. While in System Preferences, if I click on Screen Saver, everything there works fine. But the button for Desktop becomes grey and I can't click on it.
    I've tried Repair Permissions and this didn't work. I've seen similar posts here, but they don't seem to have the same problem I do, nothing freezes up, the Desktop screen is just blank. Do you have any ideas?
    Thanks!
      Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

    1. OK, let's try some more trashing: 1. Quit System Preferences if it is open.
    2. Open your Home > Library > Caches folder, then trash the following two files therein:
    - com.apple.preferencepanes.cache
    - com.apple.preferencepanes.searchindexcache
    3. Trash the file
    com.apple.systempreferences.plist
    in your Home > Library > Preferences folder.
    4. Trash the file
    com.apple.systempreferences.xxx.plist
    in your Home > Library > Preferences > ByHost folder, where xxx is an alphanumeric string.
    5. Empty Trash.
    6. Launch System Preferences and see if the problem is resolved.2. You wrote"I still have my Desktop Pictures folder."I presume you mean the Macintosh HD > Library > Desktop Pictures folder I cited previously. How about the contents of that folder? It should contain five folders:• Abstract
    • Black & White
    • Nature
    • Plants
    • Solid Colorsand a collection of .jpg images for a total of 28 objects.
    3. I know you earlier said you ran Repair Permissions. I presume the permissions on Macintosh HD > Library > Desktop Pictures are:You can: Read & Write
    Owner: system
    Access: Read & Write
    Group: admin
    Access: Read & Write
    Others: Read OnlyYes?
    4. If none of the above sorts it out, let's see if it's isolated to your account. Do you have a second user account defined on your system? If so, log in to it and see if the problem happens there. If it does, it is probably a system-wide problem. If not, it is something with your user account. If you don't have a second account on your system, you can create a new one using System Preferences > Accounts. See "Mac OS X 10.4 Help: Adding a new user account to your computer."
    5. Immediately after the problem occurs — i.e. you open Desktop & Screen Saver preferences and either cannot select Desktop or Desktop is blank — check the ends of these Console logs for clues. Let's see if console can tell us if the Desktop preference pane is corrupted.
    6. Do you have any personal Web space? If so, can you take a screen shot of the problem and upload it to your personal Web space? If so, post a link back here to the image. It may help if I can see what you're seeing, though I think I understand it from your description, "a picture is worth..." etc.
    7. As a general check, run the procedure specified in my "Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption" FAQ. Perform the steps therein in the order specified.
    8. To what was / is your Desktop image presently set? One of the Apple collections or images? Something from your iPhoto Library?
    FYI: I number my points so you can respond by number.
    Good luck!
    Dr. Smoke
    Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
    Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
    I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

  • Can't change desktop picture in System Preferences or iPhoto

    For the last two days, I've been unable to change my desktop picture in System Preferences or iPhoto. When I select a picture (Apple's or one of my own) in the Desktop pane of System Preferences, it won't put the picture on my desktop. I tried the same thing in iPhoto with the same results. I installed Google Earth a few days ago; I thought it might be causing the problem so I erased it from my computer. Could it have left anything on my computer that would cause this problem? (sorry if the answer to this is obvious; I'm a newbie). I also just installed the latest version of Tiger; could this be the cause? Has anybody else had this problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated...
    iBook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.5)  

    Never mind, I fixed the problem. I was reseting the Help Viewer and had to restart my computer. I was able to change the desktop pic after that.

  • System Preferences quits suddenly. I have lost the dock, including the trash and ability to change desktop image. How can I replace this part of System Preferences? Where can I find Trash?

    System Preferences quits suddenly. I have lost the dock, including the trash and ability to change desktop image. How can I replace this part of System Preferences? Where can I find Trash? All other aspects of System Preferences work.

    just that that is one method, and lacks provision for working boot image and for an emergency - Lion gives a small minimal emergency boot environment but may lack all the utilities you need to use and run, even some drivers that your mac requires for add on PCIe.
    Just grab and look through Help in Carbon Copy and SuperDuper, both excellent and each has their use - together - for cloning.
    And do you have two TM backup sets? ought to consider that also, rotate daily or make a weekly set. Otherwise you are putting all your eggs in the proverbial one basket.

  • Hi i upgrade from lion to mountain lion to day on my mini mac,Since the upgrade i am getting no sound through my HDMI cable which was working fine on lion Checked the midi audio settings and system preferences to out on HDMi nothing no sound whats so ever

    Hi i upgraded from lion to mountain lion to day on my mini mac,Since the upgrade i am no longer getting sound through my HDMI cable which was working fine on lion Checked the midi audio settings and system preferences to out on HDMi nothing no sound whats so ever.Any one any ideas?
    I use a samsung TV for my monitor via HDMI.Tried all the system Audi setting nothing .Head phone and internal speakers are fine.

    Similar issue; Audio was working fine on Lion, now not on Mountain Lion. Have a Macbook Pro early 2011 with AMD Radeon HD 6750M, connected by thunderbolt through a Lacie LBD to a mini-displayport to HDMI adapter (n.b. same problem when not going through the LBD) to a Pioneer VSX 521 AV receiver. For me when I go into audio Midi settings all the volume sliders for the displayport device are greyed out and at zero. But when I click 'configure speakers', it's able to send out the test signals to each speaker. Part of the problem could be that I'm not getting the option to put out 6channel sound, only 2 or 8 channel. Since my system is Dolby 5.1, and I only have 6 speakers, I would have expected the 6ch option to be available. But I imagine there's more to it than that. Elsewhere someone has suggested playing with Remote Interactive over HD on an Onkyo device; I'll see if there's something similar on the Pioneer that can be changed. Any other suggestions welcome.

  • None of the changes I make to system preference or the dock will hold after restart. I've cleared the RAM, run disk repair and reinstalled the OS. Now what?

    None of the changes I make to system preference or the dock will hold after restart. I've cleared the RAM, run disk repair and reinstalled the OS. Now what?

    MobileMe closed on July 31, 2012.
    It is true that the only way to sync your Mac with iCloud is to upgrad.  You need to be running OS X Lion 10.7.2 or higher in order to sync your Mac with iCloud.  At this point, you can upgrade directly to OS X Mountain Lion from the version of OS X you are now running (10.6.8).   You can purchase and download the Mountain Lion upgrade from the Mac App Store for $19.99.  After upgrading you will see iCloud in System Preferences.  This guide explains how to sync your Mac with iCloud after upgrading: http://www.apple.com/icloud/setup/mac.html.
    Once all your devices are signed into the same iCloud account and you have turned on your iCloud data syncing, you will be able to keep them all in sync using iCloud.  You will still have to sync with iTunes to manage your iTunes media such as music, movies, podcasts, etc.  You will have the option to either continue backing up automatically with your computer when you sync with iTunes, or to back up your iOS devices automatically to iCloud every 24 hours (as long as they are connected to wifi and your chargers).

  • HT201364 since I updated my system to Mavericks my computer colour is always grey. I have tried to change the colour via system preference without any success. What should I do to so that my screen will be colourful?

    since I updated my system to Mavericks my computer colour is always grey. I have tried to change the colour via system preference without any success. What should I do to so that my screen will be colourful?

    Please post a screenshot that shows what you mean. Be careful not to include any private information.
    Start a reply to this message. Drag the image file into the editing window to upload it. You can also include text in the reply.

  • Changing audio output device for currently running program

    I'm not sure where to put this question, but all my searching hasn't seemed to find an answer...
    If I have a program running, iTunes, VLC, a game, whatever, and want to change audio output from say Line Out to Headphones, I have to restart the program for the change to take effect. Is this by design/normal or am I missing something somewhere?

    this is actually a quiet significant issue. There is no way in Flash to select the audio output device.
    Today  people have regular speakers and a separate headset. They all use the  speakers for music and the headset for voice. Skype i.e. has the option  to choose audio output device and its really handy, because
    you dont  have to bother to set the default device to the headset everytime you  want to use it.
    If you set the default device to the headset all other apps will send their audio  output to the headset - which is not what you want either.
    So people  really want to leave the default device set to the speakers and not to  the headset.
    Nokia did this for Java
    JRT 2.1 / Nokia UI API updated to version 1.4:
                AudioOutputControl extension for controlling which audio output device, for example the device loudspeaker or earpiece, is used to play back audio
    This really is an issue.

  • HT204053 I changed my AppleID in System Preferences, but the old ID comes up under iCloud and I get an error box saying my "ID or password are incorrect".  How do I get rid of the old ID which now doesn't work with either my old or new password??

    I changed my AppleID in System Preferences, but the old ID comes up under iCloud and I get an error box saying my "ID or password are incorrect".  How do I get rid of the old ID which now doesn't work with either my old or new password??

    Yes that makes sense, however have you updated it at My Apple ID before trying to change it in your system preferences > iCloud settings, you must do that first.

  • I accidentally deleted some drivers from my macbook air and now i can not access app store and system preferences as it says the following message (You can't open the application System Preferences because it may be damaged or incomplete)

    i accidentally deleted some drivers from my macbook air and now i can not access app store and system preferences as it says the following message (You can't open the application System Preferences because it may be damaged or incomplete)

    Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions - Lion/Mountain Lion
    Boot to the Recovery HD:
    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
    Repair
    When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.

  • Can't load Network Settings from System Preferences

    For some reason I can't load Network Settings from System Preferences anymore - it just stalls with the bar showing "Loading Network" and doing nothing. This is happening in conjunction with a new inability to connect to a network printer - it won't show up on the list of printers, even when I manually enter the IP address. Something is obviously mucked up - can anyone tell me what it might be & how I can fix it? Thanks!

    I was able to fix this myself by using one of the techniques suggested here for a different problem. Basically I went into Library/Preferences/System Configuration and deleted networkinterfaces.plist, preferences.plist & com.apple.nat.plist. All were rebuilt when I restarted and went to System Preferences/Network and I was able to load the Network Settings. This didn't fix the problem with my printer, but at least it got the settings up.

  • Changing desktop pictures locks system preferences

    Re MacBook Pro laptop (OS 10.7.5)
    Problem: Changing desktop pictures locks System Preferences
    If I try to open System Preferences, I get windows for the Change Desktop/Background and the whirling beach ball begins until I go to Activities Monitor to Force Quit System Preferences, which informs me that my "System Preferences is no longer responding."
    I have no trouble booting my Mac,
    checked my Disk Utility informing me that there are no errors,
    checked Permissions without errors,
    went to Users>"my name">Preferences>found the plist for com.apple.systempreferences, moved it to my desktop, tried the Apple System Preferences option with same result. Returned plist .  Hmm, just noticed that I have com.apple.systempreferences with one directly after Library ( i.e., not in any folder), and the other in the Library>Preferences folder. Could that be the foul up?  Perhaps one of these plists is misplaced.
    Any suggestions?

    First follow the instructions in this support article.
    If an iPhoto or Aperture library is the source of your desktop pictures, it may need to be rebuilt, or you may need to update the application to the latest version.
    Otherwise, continue as below.
    Back up all data.
    In the Finder, hold down the option key and select
              Go ▹ Library
    from the menu bar. From the Library folder, delete the following item, if it exists:
              Caches/com.apple.systempreferences
    and move the following items to the Desktop, if they exist:
              Application Support/Dock/desktoppicture.db
              Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
    Launch System Preferences and test. If you still have the issue, put the items you moved to the Desktop back where they came from and post again. Otherwise, delete the items.

  • Try to change table image but system preferences won't open

    Hello all. I need your help. My table image got all blue. Itried to change it but the system preferences doe not open. What should I do?

    Restart the machine, that's where I'd start.

  • Still can't sign into icloud in system preferences after many calls with support.  Beyond frustrated!

    Still can't sign into icloud in system preferences after many calls with support.  Beyond frustrated!

    Do you have 2-step verification on for your Apple ID?  I may have a solution.
    When I upgraded to Yosemite and subsequently updated my Apple ID, I would get errors when I tried to sign into iMessage and FaceTime using my apple ID (and my new password), I similarly was not able to sign in.  On FaceTime, I would get errors like "unable to sign in at this time" or some times just nothing at all (the spinning 'processing' graphic would grind away until it presumably just timed out). 
    Turns out that I enabled 2-step notification on for my Apple ID (totally forgot about it, I set it up a couple years ago), and apparently the regular Apple ID password that you choose is not usable when you try to log in to iMessage or FaceTime through the programs themselves (intuitively, this makes sense since these programs do not have a way to prompt you for the "2nd step" code). 
    To solve, you have to log in to your Apple ID online (appleid.apple.com or whatever), and look for the option to "Generate App-Specific Passwords".  These are unique, random passwords which are made to work around issues like these since they can be used in iMessage or FaceTime or what not.  This is the same idea as to what you have to do to log into gmail on your iPhone if you have Google 2-step verification on.
    This solved my issue (after lots of swearing and hair pulling!).  Would have been nice if a I got some sort of warning when updating my Apple ID password that "Hey, you have 2-step enabled.  Go make some app-specific passwords or you will lose 5 hours of your life trying to solve this mystery"
    Hopefully this may solve yours

Maybe you are looking for