4 ms·

Semi-related: But does anyone know why unplugging headphones while audio is muted causes the audio to become unmuted? This is easily my least favorite bug and r

Semi-related: But does anyone know why unplugging headphones while audio is muted causes the audio to become unmuted? This is easily my least favorite bug and results in a 10 second shuffle of frantically finding the mute button again, sometimes with the laptop closed. It seems like something that would never pass QA in previous iterations of Apple, though I could be remembering the past more fondly than was true.

godzilla82 8y ago
Have you tried reproducing this with other headphones, 2 channel ones etc.
- _asummers 8y ago
  I have not tried that, though I will experiment. It seems to be an issue with the latest OSX version (Mojave), as I cannot recall it happening on the last OSX major version (High Sierra?). I do not have new headphones across this version switch. As a workaround, I have to go to the audio app and explicitly pause, which I frequently forget to do if the audio is muted. My desk mates have heard way more samples of my library than they'd like, I'm sure.
- PascLeRasc 8y ago
  Not sure if it's present in OS X, but I know at least iOS has impedance memory, so it'll recognize specific headphones and set the volume to what it was last at when they were plugged in. It's a really nice feature.
  - shorts_theory 8y ago
    TIL. That's really cool.
dahfizz 8y ago
Was the audio unmuted last time the headphones were unplugged? I don't have any apple hardware but this is a common feature of Android. Your laptop might remember the state "speakers are on but headphones are muted". So when you remove headphones, it switches to the speakers and starts playing.
sudhirj 8y ago
Volume value is stored separately for each audio interface, and I don’t think they’ve added a special case to zero all interfaces of one is zeroed. Also begs the question of the reverse. If I muted my headphones and then slightly raised the volume, did I intend for my speakers to start very softly when I do go back to them?
pfranz 8y ago
I see this with other stereo systems. It remembers the volume for each input used. If you were playing out of your speakers and you had the volume set low, it remembers. If it was playing through headphones with the volume high, it remembers. It also remembers if you had it muted or not. It can be frustrating if you don't know what's going on, but if you do its a really nice feature.
csomar 8y ago
It is not a bug. It is the default behavior. If you don't want to have sound after unplugging headphone, just set the volume of the speakers to mute.
- _asummers 8y ago
  This does not persist for me. I will mute, then unplug, and audio begins playing. I have to either explicitly pause audio or have muted before plugging in the headphones.
  - qntty 8y ago
    You have to mute while unplugged, then next time you unplug it will be muted.
vortico 8y ago
if (unplugged) { mute = false; } Some Mac developers thought this was a good idea. It's clever on paper I guess, but it completely breaks the typical sane user's expectation of volume control behavior.
rsynnott 8y ago
This is actually by design, I think, though it's arguably pretty surprising behaviour. Every audio output has an independent volume; it's just reverting to whatever the speaker volume happened to be.
anentropic 8y ago
My favourite bug is the one where your audio gets randomly panned until one day you realise you're only listening to the Left channel of the music, and you have to go into audio settings and pan it back to the centre
- _rs 8y ago
  Yep, I've had this problem too many times. This app seems to fix it for me: https://www.tunabellysoftware.com/balance_lock/ https://www.tunabellysoftware.com/balance_lock/
  - anentropic 8y ago
    dude, thanks so much!

godzilla82 8y ago

Have you tried reproducing this with other headphones, 2 channel ones etc.

_asummers 8y ago
I have not tried that, though I will experiment. It seems to be an issue with the latest OSX version (Mojave), as I cannot recall it happening on the last OSX major version (High Sierra?). I do not have new headphones across this version switch. As a workaround, I have to go to the audio app and explicitly pause, which I frequently forget to do if the audio is muted. My desk mates have heard way more samples of my library than they'd like, I'm sure.
PascLeRasc 8y ago
Not sure if it's present in OS X, but I know at least iOS has impedance memory, so it'll recognize specific headphones and set the volume to what it was last at when they were plugged in. It's a really nice feature.
- shorts_theory 8y ago
  TIL. That's really cool.

dahfizz 8y ago

Was the audio unmuted last time the headphones were unplugged? I don't have any apple hardware but this is a common feature of Android. Your laptop might remember the state "speakers are on but headphones are muted". So when you remove headphones, it switches to the speakers and starts playing.

sudhirj 8y ago

Volume value is stored separately for each audio interface, and I don’t think they’ve added a special case to zero all interfaces of one is zeroed. Also begs the question of the reverse. If I muted my headphones and then slightly raised the volume, did I intend for my speakers to start very softly when I do go back to them?

pfranz 8y ago

I see this with other stereo systems. It remembers the volume for each input used. If you were playing out of your speakers and you had the volume set low, it remembers. If it was playing through headphones with the volume high, it remembers. It also remembers if you had it muted or not. It can be frustrating if you don't know what's going on, but if you do its a really nice feature.

csomar 8y ago

It is not a bug. It is the default behavior. If you don't want to have sound after unplugging headphone, just set the volume of the speakers to mute.

_asummers 8y ago
This does not persist for me. I will mute, then unplug, and audio begins playing. I have to either explicitly pause audio or have muted before plugging in the headphones.
- qntty 8y ago
  You have to mute while unplugged, then next time you unplug it will be muted.

vortico 8y ago

if (unplugged) { mute = false; } Some Mac developers thought this was a good idea. It's clever on paper I guess, but it completely breaks the typical sane user's expectation of volume control behavior.

rsynnott 8y ago

This is actually by design, I think, though it's arguably pretty surprising behaviour. Every audio output has an independent volume; it's just reverting to whatever the speaker volume happened to be.

anentropic 8y ago

My favourite bug is the one where your audio gets randomly panned until one day you realise you're only listening to the Left channel of the music, and you have to go into audio settings and pan it back to the centre

_rs 8y ago
Yep, I've had this problem too many times. This app seems to fix it for me: https://www.tunabellysoftware.com/balance_lock/ https://www.tunabellysoftware.com/balance_lock/
- anentropic 8y ago
  dude, thanks so much!