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Repair guides and disassembly information for the 16-inch MacBook Pro released in October of 2021, featuring Apple-designed M1 Pro and M1 Max SoCs. Model A2485.

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MBP M1 2021: Strange Issue with Media Playback: No Sound/Stuck Video/

Hi, I am getting no sound from speakers. Tried restarting and shutting down. Different apps are behaving differently.

  • Firefox/YouTube: Video plays without audio.
  • Safari/YouTube: Sometimes no audio/video (but seeker moves, subtitles come). Sometimes video just stuck on loading—in which case after a while it tells me to “try restarting the device” if playback doesn’t resume.
  • Apple TV: Media cannot load/play. Instantly media player is “killed” for the lack of a better term.
  • Apple Music: Track auto skips to next. Similar to Apple TV. It attempts to play, can’t play, then instead of killing the media it skips to next song, repeat.
  • Many streaming services in Firefox, Chrome, Safari: The playback technically begins, I can see the seeker/playhead move in time and subtitles come and go, but video is black and there’s no sound.

What’s common in all scenarios is there’s no sound. It happened abruptly one day. Default device is set to “MacBook Pro Speakers”.

More strangely, in the past week I've been having this problem, there have been two times when it became completely fine. That too, mid-playback. And randomly, it goes away too. For example, most recently when it started working again, I was watching a video on YouTube. I pause it for a bit to do something and when I come back and resume it, suddenly there's no sound again.

Further clarifications:

  • I opened OBS Studio and added window capture of Firefox while playing a YouTube video. The sound bar was not moving at all.
  • I have removed all Bluetooth devices and kept Bluetooth off while I have tested all this.
  • It's not just media, no alert sounds are coming either, including the boot-up sound.
  • Sound works fine when using a headphone (via aux for example).
  • No crackling or weird noise to tell me that speakers are damaged in any way. When they started working again twice randomy during the last week, they worked 100% fine with complete clarity and volume.

Video here.

MacBook Pro 16-inch 2021 with Apple M1 Pro, 16 GB RAM, and Sequoia 15.5 operating system.

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Not sure if this will fix things, but a common issue in Mac's is within the headphone jack. There are a few switch elements within it that alter where the signal goes, either staying at the headphone jack feeding the headphones or goes on to the speakers so you can hear through them.

In the newer M series Apple improved how they did this, instead of the analog signal running around, they moved the switching to an electrical means so now the switches within the socket are now digital telling the Amp logic which output to send the analog signal to headphone or speaker.

The part that holds the physical switches maybe bad MacBook Pro 14" (A2442, A2779, A2918, A2992) and 16" (A2485, A2780, A2991) Headphone Jack

To verify, plug in a headphone set to see if the signal is getting out that way.

crwdns2886500:0Replace a damaged or corroded 3.5 mm audio jack compatible with a model A2442, A2779, A2918, A2992 14" or model A2485, A2780, A2991 16" MacBook Pro Retina.crwdne2886500:0

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MacBook Pro 14" (A2442, A2779, A2918, A2992) and 16" (A2485, A2780, A2991) Headphone Jack

$39.99

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When I plug in a headphone, the sound comes via the headphone correctly. But when I remove it, no sound from speakers. Do you mean to say that someone the laptop is detecting a headphone is always plugged in? Isn't there a way to check it? But more importantly, if that's what the laptop was thinking, won't it keep playing music and TV shows normally instead of skipping/killing them? It seems to be a problem with playback internally somehow.

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@tomadobi - Think it like a train running on a track hitting a switch it normally goes straight but the switch got stuck aiming the train to a side line. So the train never makes it the ret of the way. The switch needs to be replaced. The physical switch is within the socket. You've proved the switch and/or the digital logic within the audio is messed up.

Did the system get wet? It's starting to sound like some liquid damage is involved as the added info of play back failure beyond not sound.

I think it's time to visit a good repair tech who has the tools to dive deeper into the system to diagnose what needs repair.

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Understood. I'll get it repaired now.

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