Subject: Right Speaker Crackles / Stops Working After Sleep or Restart – macOS Tahoe 26 (MacBook Pro 14” M1 Pro 2021)
Description:
After updating my MacBook Pro (14‑inch, M1 Pro, 2021) to macOS Tahoe 26, I’ve encountered a recurring audio issue affecting the right internal speaker. After waking from sleep or restarting, the right speaker starts crackling (“zzz / krrrr”) and often stops producing sound entirely.
If I keep the Mac awake continuously, both speakers work perfectly — so this seems tied to power management or the CoreAudio driver, rather than a hardware defect. Both left and right channels appear in System Information, showing the device is still recognized correctly.
Temporary workarounds tried:
- Resetting NVRAM / PRAM
- Full DFU restore via Apple Configurator
- Clean macOS Tahoe reinstall
- Deleting CoreAudio / MIDI preferences
- Running Apple Diagnostics (no issues found)
- Restarting CoreAudio using sudo killall coreaudiod (temporarily restores sound)
- Adjusting CoreAudio process priority (temporary improvement only)
Despite all these steps, the issue persists consistently after every restart or sleep–wake cycle.
Impact:
The right speaker becomes unusable until I manually restart CoreAudio or reboot several times. This severely affects media playback and everyday usage.
Request:
Please investigate this potential macOS Tahoe 26 audio driver or power management bug on M1 Pro models, as multiple users are reporting the same symptoms online. Any acknowledgment or fix in an upcoming update would be greatly appreciated.
System:
- MacBook Pro 14” M1 Pro (2021)
- macOS Tahoe 26 (latest public release as of report)
Thank you for your attention and support.