Instability of Apple Studio Display audio and camera devices in MacOS (latest).

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Level 1

12 points

Instability of Apple Studio Display audio and camera devices in MacOS (latest).

Studio Display microphone, speakers and camera *still* repeatedly disappear from MacOS system device list. I see postings about this dating back to 2022. A reboot often clears the issue, but this is a *bug*. 😬 Does anyone at Apple care? 🤷🏻‍♂️. It’s very inconvenient to reboot when you discover during a teleconference session that your preferred A/V devices have become unavailable.

2025 Mac Studio M4 Max, 27” Studio Display. Latest MacOS update applied.

Mac Studio, macOS 26.1

Posted on Dec 16, 2025 10:21 AM

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Answer 1

Dave.NH.USA Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 18, 2025 8:07 AM in response to Dave.NH.USA

It's an ongoing issue. Attached are before and after reboot screen shots from this morning. The Studio Display audio devices (and I presume camera) spontaneously disappear from the system configuration, and reappear after a reboot.

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Answer 2

Dave.NH.USA Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 18, 2025 8:25 AM in response to Dave.NH.USA

Is this issue possibly USB (Thunderbolt) related? For example, some energy management feature that powers down the USB interfaces after the display goes into a sleep mode (or something similar)? USB settings information is attached.

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Answer 3

Dave.NH.USA Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 22, 2025 5:56 AM in response to tbirdvet

Thanks, that's a very good suggestion. While I was waiting for ideas to be posted, I did change the system setting under Energy that prevents automatic sleeping when the monitor is "off", and a couple of other sleep related settings. Since doing so, I haven't seen the problem occur. Maybe it's fixed.

The link to the Studio Display *is* a USB variant, and USB interfaces are notorious for power management and sleep related issues.

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Answer 4

Dec 22, 2025 5:13 PM in response to Dave.NH.USA

are you using the Apple-Engineered 0.8 meter ThunderBolt cable that shipped with that display?

if using a Brand-X Thunderbolt cable, most are limited to 0.5 meters, maximum. Unless you buy a much more expensive (starts at US$125) ACTIVE Thunderbolt cable.

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