Chosen Solution
My MacBook has no sound except through headphones or external speakers. When I play a song, a red light appears inside my audio jack and there’s no sound. The volume controller in the menu bar is grayed out. I tried poking into the audio input jack as mentioned in many forums, with no luck. Can I fix it by opening my MacBook? Is there any way to fix this other than poking something into the audio jack?
The red light in the headphone jack means that the MacBook Pro thinks that an optical audio cable is plugged into the port. Try unplugging and replugging a headphone plug into the port several times. There is a tiny sensor inside the port that determines whether the port operates in optical or analog mode. Plugging something analog in should trigger the sensor and restore the analog signal.
just press shift+control+alt+Power button and the headphone will be corrected …the red light will go…no need of any apparatus ..
just had the same problem RIGHT NOW - i took an air duster can (those pressurized cans that are made for dusting computer components) and i blasted the headphone jack….worked like a charm…i guess there was some dust or debris in there that got in the way and confused the computer’s jack….i would suggest trying THIS method before sticking anything INTO the jack or blowing with your mouth (in fact, with all due respect, DON’T blow with your mouth…saliva will get in and RUIN the jack and sticking a screwdriver into the jack will only work against you, imho) all the best!
The Apple 3.5mm headphone jack may have multiple different failure modes, since it contains 4 equally flimsy electrical contacts. Staring into the glowing red Cylon eye, they are: 2 “sleeve” contacts (nearest you), one at 9 o’clock and one at 3 o’clock (positions on an imaginary 12-hour analog clock dial); 1 “ring” contact (farther in) at 12 o’clock; and 1 “tip” contact (all the way in) also at 3 o’clock. The one plaguing my Late 2006 MacBook is the tip contact. Tugging on it with a bent-tipped safety pin while watching through a magnifying glass works, but only until the next time I unplug the headphones, and so is too impractical. Jostling it with things like air, suction, Q-Tips, toothpicks, ballpoint pen inserts works for some, but not for me. What works for me 100% of the time is inserting a 1/8" metal rod all the way and then dragging it out while applying moderate pressure in the 9 o’clock direction (towards the MagSafe connector). There is no problem using metal, even powered on, because headphone circuitry supplies no power and is protected against short circuits and static electricity. Just be gentle. The shank end of a 1/8" drill bit works well, and burying the business end in a bottle cork prevents it from cutting you (it is sharp). But I settled on a piece of nail, snipped down to an inch and filed slightly rounded. As a bonus, it fits into the little plastic clip on the MagSafe cable so it is always handy.
This seems to be a fairly common problem. There is another thread about it here.
Put a screwdriver into the jack… you will feel a little piece of metal. Try to open that piece with your MacBook turned on, music on… and you will hear the sound when the piece of metal has in the correct place. IT’S VERY EASY. I made that in less of a minute. Sry for my english, i hope can help. Cheers!
i fixed mine without paying for pressurized air cans. it worked like a charm after brutally and angrily sticking the jack in and out a few times, as i was tired of having trouble with my macbook. now it works perfectly. :))
Toothpick trick did not work for me, or anything similar. So, I took it apart to get a look at the logic bord. I reverse-engineered the connections I could access from the bottom of the PCB under the audio jack. While doing so, I found that you can jump two connections (one is sleeve ground and the other I believe is a connection from the switch inside the jack. After doing so, the headphone jack will not work as an audio output for either analog or optical, but the internal speakers will work fine. This is b/c the switch is basically bypassed, the macbook will never know whether there is a headphone plugged in to the jack or not. This fix is fine for me, especially since I had no other option b/c I’m out of warranty and I’m not spending $400 on a new logic board haha. BTW, I’m a Ph.D. Computer Engineering student, I didn’t just do this all willy-nilly out of the blue, haha. You do need a decent sodlering iron to do this and you must make sure you have a very small gauge wire (insulated). This fix can always be undone… if you need to for some reason. Below is an imgur link to a couple photos I took of the area and connections to jump. NOTE: This is one a late 2008, a1278 MacBook unibody. The macbook pros may be slightly different, but you can figure it out with a connectivity meter and some fiddling maybe. :) They also could be exactly the same, I don’t know. http://rmn87.imgur.com/macbook_audio_jac… Good luck!
Awesome (temporary) solution Go to System Preferences-Sound- Outpot- look down Use audio port for Change audio Outpot to audio input So this will let the computer use its internal speakers for all outputs
Blow into the headphone jack a few times, worked for me.
I used a toothpick and worked!! THANKS EVERYONE, have to finish a video tonight and was desperate. I had to push it a bit harder towards the end of the jack, and the sound went out after I used a pair of JVC earbuds. Will stick to the Apple ones from now on. Cheers!
Apple told me I needed to replace the logic board. Repair quote was $822 dollars… I fidgeted around with a toothpick as some youtubers recommended, after several failed attempts the light is gone, my speakers play music and I’m $822 richer. Really disappointed with apple on this one.
The only thing that worked for me was to open the macbook, open the actual jack with a wirecutter. We can then clearly see the mechanism, and I just had to poke it with a toothpick. Has been working like a charm for a few months now. I downloaded a video off youtube a while ago and couldn’t find it, so I just uploaded it there: http://videobin.org/+7dy/9og.html
have to say a couple of old fashion blows (caution with saliva though) and wiggling the headphone cable jack in and out of the input hole sounded primitive but it worked! I simply just pushed it in and out rapidly till the red light disappeared and sound came on! Amazingly advanced mode of repair but worked!
