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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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).
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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

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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
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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.
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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.

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I can't access Users & Groups in System Preferences please help thanks

Check the following:
First, do you see the "User and Group" icon?
If not, open the "presentation" menu and look under the "personalize" option to see if the icon is uncheck.
Second, try to set a new account and see if you can access it from that account.
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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.
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Hello comunity: I describe the problem as follows (sorry for my english, not a native speaker):
Background: Macbook air OS X 10.9 Mavericks (just updated), but changed my Apple ID just after that.
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-I have read many (a lot really) about keychains and similar problems and cant find the solution.
I would appreciate your help!
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I think that is likely why you're having the problems with signing in. My keychain has been added to over many years. It has email addresses from 1997. I don't know how to clean that up. It would be nice if Apple redesigned Keychain Access to be something that actually allowed you to envisage their network. That's what bothered me about iCloud Keychain. There are so many places to change settings, type a password, and think about what that setting means. Knowledgable people who can manage a network from the Terminal, good for you. I want to launch software that finds all servers, and paints a good connection green and trouble yellow, etc. Hover your mouse over a red drive, it tells you the password needs. I think this is good enough implementation, except it is difficult for people who've never had a cryptography class to get a good idea of what their network topography is. Tell me, can you log on to iCloud.com on Safari?
I'll hang around here to see if somebody else gives a suggestion. Sorry I can't do more.

Can't login to iCloud via System Preferences

I am trying to login to iCloud through System Preferences but each time I get a message saying "You can't sign in at this time. Try signing in again".
I've read about moving the iCloud folder from the Application Support folder, to the desktop, which didn't help.
Does anyone have the same issue since upgrading to Yosemite?

Reset key chain DID NOT, work for me, and I renamed the backup it made back to the original. (Note to others: I may have had permissions or other issues due to the way I upgraded to Mountain Lion by creating a new user and moving things over manually.)
HERE IS HOW I FIXED IT: (I don't know what the ramifications are, so this will make you a backup too.)
I threw away my Library > Application Support > iCloud folder.
In the Finder, choose Go, hold down the option key (alt) and choose Library which will appear in the menu.
Navigate to Library > Application Support and option-drag the iCloud folder to your desktop (that will make a copy).
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Then try entering your info in the Preference Panel again.

How do I set up iCloud if I can't acces it in my system preferences?

All I want to do is turn on 'Find My Mac' in iCloud. Unfortunately I never moved my mobileme account over to icloud before mobileme was shut down (because it wasn't actually my account. My mom and I shared it but it was hers so I didn't want to mess with it). I have set up iCloud on my iPhone and i now have a @me.com email seperate from my apple ID, but when I go to system preferences and click on 'iCloud' under 'Internet and Wireless'
^^ this pops up. So then I click 'Move to iCloud' and
^^ this pops up. SO then I 'Visit iCloud.com' and
I am directed ^^ here. As I've said, I've already created an iCloud account and I have an Apple ID so everything works fine once I log in except I don't know how to add my Macbook as a device in the 'Find My iPhone' section. But from what I know the only way to turn on 'Find My Mac' is to go through the iCloud selection in system preferences, which I am unable to do. So. What do I do?
Basically I can't access the iCloud settings in system preferences like I should be able to.
Thanks!

Welcome to the Apple Community.
Have you logged out of Mobile Me.

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The computer would have to have absolutely identical hardware and have been manufactured at the same time. Discs for a 20" iMac from 2009 will not work with a 20" iMac from 2007 and vice versa.
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~Lyssa

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Found the solution:
http://lockergnome.net/questions/27875/why-is-my-accounts-preference-pane-crashi ng
it suggested I use Terminal. Now granted, I am a complete noob with terminal, and especially Sudo command, as I’ve heard it can cause havoc on your machine, but seeing as I’ve scoured the internet and have tried EVERYTHING else, including a fresh OS install and update, I figured this couldn’t hurt too much. I checked the Users folder and found I had an extra “Guest” folder called Guest1.
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I can't open ANY of my System Preference panes.

I can't seem to find quite this exact problem in the archives anywhere, so here goes.
I can open the System Preferences application just fine. But I cannot open any of the individual preference panes. This is no matter how I try to access them: by clicking on an icon in the main System Preferences window, through Spotlight, via specific menu items like "Open Network Preferences..." in the WiFi menu...
Whenever I try to open a preference pane, the System Preferences title bar reads "Loading [Whatever]..." and the window just sits there. It's not frozen, per se; I can still hit the red (X) to quit without difficulty, for instance. I also get the following 3 messages in my Console:
09/13/12 2:49:27.339 p.m. System Preferences: +[NSPrefCrossFadeView createCGImageOfView:rect:superview:windowRect:]: unrecognized selector sent to class 0x7fff733d1570
09/13/12 2:49:27.339 p.m. System Preferences: +[NSPrefCrossFadeView createCGImageOfView:rect:superview:windowRect:]: unrecognized selector sent to class 0x7fff733d1570
09/13/12 2:49:27.344 p.m. System Preferences: (
0   CoreFoundation      0x00007fff880e0fc6 __exceptionPreprocess + 198
1   libobjc.A.dylib     0x00007fff8bfc0d5e objc_exception_throw + 43
2   CoreFoundation      0x00007fff8816d1ee +[NSObject doesNotRecognizeSelector:] + 190
3   CoreFoundation      0x00007fff880cde73 ___forwarding___ + 371
4   CoreFoundation      0x00007fff880cdc88 _CF_forwarding_prep_0 + 232
5   System Preferences 0x000000010ab14383 System Preferences + 37763
6   System Preferences 0x000000010ab12d32 System Preferences + 32050
7   Foundation          0x00007fff838e41aa __NSFireDelayedPerform + 392
8   CoreFoundation      0x00007fff88095c24 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_TIMER_CALLBACK_FUNCTION__ + 20
9   CoreFoundation      0x00007fff88095776 __CFRunLoopDoTimer + 534
10 CoreFoundation      0x00007fff88076001 __CFRunLoopRun + 1617
11 CoreFoundation      0x00007fff88075676 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 230
12 HIToolbox           0x00007fff8954e31f RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 277
13 HIToolbox           0x00007fff8955551b ReceiveNextEventCommon + 181
14 HIToolbox           0x00007fff89555456 BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode + 62
15 AppKit              0x00007fff85580e31 _DPSNextEvent + 659
16 AppKit              0x00007fff85580735 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 135
17 AppKit              0x00007fff8557d071 -[NSApplication run] + 470
18 AppKit              0x00007fff857f9244 NSApplicationMain + 867
19 System Preferences 0x000000010ab0cb30 System Preferences + 6960
Can anybody tell me what's going on / what I can try to fix it? Let me know what I can clarify or what additional information I can provide.

Mac-Forums came through! This suggestion by harryb2448 did the trick for me:
Go to the Apple web site and download the latest Lion Combo Updater and see if that helps. http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1524
Thankfully I did not have to reinstall Lion entirely.

Can't choose speaker output in system preferences anymore.

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