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I know there's a lot of other questions similar to this, but none of them seem to be right. My problem's nothing to do with the headphone jack - I haven't used it for ages and there's no red light - it's just the speakers not being an option in System Preferences or Audio MIDI Setup. Plugging in headphones changes nothing.

I've previously had Soundflower installed.

The problem started today when I was using Dropbox, which was installed on an external HD. My computer went to sleep and wouldn't wake up, so I force-restarted. All was fine but for the volume icon being grayed out.

The only option in System Preferences for sound output is Airplay, which I've never used. With this selected (I can't unselect it because there's no other options) the volume is no longer grayed out, but of course there's no sound.

I restarted on an external drive, and it had the same problem. Next step is to reinstall the OS, but I don't think it's going to help.

My computer is a white Macbook from early 2009 running Mavericks. I've recently replaced the internal HD with an SSD, and upgraded the RAM to 4GB.

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  • SMS reset should fix that.
    – Ruskes
    Commented Apr 26, 2014 at 8:31

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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I just recently has the same issue on my Macbook Pro 13" (late 2011). To fix the problem, I first reset my PRAM, and then my NVRAM. To reset your PRAM, shutdown your computer, press the power button, then immediately hold command-option-p-r until you hear the startup chime. To reset your NVRAM, keep the four buttons pressed in until your computer restarts again and you hear the chime one more time.

At this point, you won't see any difference; the audio will still be grayed out or not in your preferences window. Plug a headset, earbuds, or anything into the audio jack. Take them back out again, and your audio should be back to normal!

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  • You can't reset both the PRAM and NVRAM, as Macs do not have both. Older Macs had what's called Parameter RAM (PRAM), newer Macs use Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM). They basically serve the same purpose.
    – Monomeeth ♦
    Commented Oct 21, 2017 at 0:08
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I reset the PRAM and the NVRAM and this did the trick!

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  • Welcome to Ask Different. We're looking for in-depth answers, would you mind elaborating a little bit (step-by-step process)?
    – Munesawagi
    Commented Jan 28, 2017 at 2:21
  • You can't reset both the PRAM and NVRAM, as Macs do not have both. Older Macs had what's called Parameter RAM (PRAM), newer Macs use Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM). They basically serve the same purpose.
    – Monomeeth ♦
    Commented Oct 21, 2017 at 0:09
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I tried many solution, the one that worked with me is to force shutdown. press and hold power button till macbook turn off completely then switch on again.

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