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PhilipGearSolid

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 3, 2022
19
3
I have a Mac Studio and Mac Studio Display and for the past two months I've been experiencing this weird type of lag/delay with certain functions and audio/video playback will not work. Everything else will work fine on the computer and display with no other noticeable lag/delay, except the following when it occurs:

-Volume and Brightness control from the Magic Keyboard will have a 30-60 second delay.
-Clicking on About this Mac, Force Quit, Restart or Shutdown will have a 30-60 second delay.
-Screenshot commands (Shift + Command + 3 or 4) will not work.
-Audio and video playback of any kind will not work (Notification sounds, video or audio files will not play, video streaming on websites won't load).
- If you try to open Music or TV apps they will just perpetually bounce in the dock and if they were already opened you cannot play any audio or video file.

In order to resolve this issue, I either have to unplug the Mac Studio Display from power or disconnect the Thunderbolt cable. Immediately after doing this, every single audio notification will play through the Mac Studio computer's internal speaker one right after another. As soon as I plug the Thunderbolt cable back into the Mac Studio Display, every single thing that wasn't working will show up or play fine. Sometimes too, the Recent file directory in Finder will get emptied out after this occurs.

Example #1: Everything is working perfectly fine, writing an e-mail or something (no noticeable lag/delay, no beachballs, etc.) when I notice Notification banners from Messages or Mail have no sound. I then try to adjust the volume and get no response (if I press volume up or down, there will be a 30-60 second delay) and I now know the lag/delay issue is present. I'll try to open About this Mac or Force Quit and those won't work. I'll try to take a screenshot (Shift + Command + 3) and that won't work. As soon as I unplug the Thunderbolt cable from the Mac Studio Display, every single Notification sound (even the snapshot sound effect of the screenshot I tried taking) will play in succession from the Mac Studio computer's internal speaker. When I plug back in the cable, About this Mac and Force Quit windows (even the screenshot I tried taking will now show up on the bottom right corner as a preview or my cursor will now be changed to the crosshairs to take one) will be present, and audio/video playback works fine.

Example #2: Watching a Twitch stream using Safari, stream suddenly stops and the last two seconds of audio will play back in a loop indefinitely from the Mac Studio Display's speakers. As soon as I unplug the thunderbolt cable, the sound stops, and when I plug it back in I can now refresh the page and watch the stream again fine.

I've been experiencing this issue as frequently as two times a day and sometimes it might be 2 or 4 days before it occurs. I've only been using Mail, Messages, Music, TV and Safari apps (sometimes Twitter) with no real change in what I'm doing day to day. Because EVERYTHING ELSE works fine (except audio/video playback, and the affected functions previously mentioned) I've now grown accustomed to testing the brightness or volume of the Display every 15-30 mins to see if the lag/delay is present. When I get a delay with brightness or volume control, I'll try playing a video file on the TV app and it will not play. As soon as I unplug the Thunderbolt cable from the Mac Studio Display, the video starts playing immediately as you can hear it play from the internal speaker of the Mac Studio computer, and when I plug the Thunderbolt cable back into the Display the video/audio plays fine on there.

I've reinstalled macOS, I've done a full erase and started over (never did a Time Machine transfer), tried three different Apple Thunderbolt cables and I've even tried a second Mac Studio Display and I still get this issue. I should note that this has occurred a few days before the most recent Mac Studio Display firmware update (version 15.5) and after ever since.

Anyone have any clue what could be going on, or anything peripherally similar in which you have to power cycle or unplug the Thunderbolt cable from your Mac Studio Display to get things working?

I'm currently working with an Apple Senior Advisor and recently submitted a data capture of my Mac so they could forward it to some engineers, but I would like to see if I could get some further info from anyone else experiencing anything similar. Thanks!

TLDR version: Discovered this weird lag/delay issue with my Mac Studio and Mac Studio Display where certain F-function keys (volume, brightness) and audio/video playback will stop working entirely. Mac Studio Display has to be unplugged from power or Thunderbolt cable in order to get it working again.
 
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eRondeau

macrumors 65816
Mar 3, 2004
1,183
432
Canada's South Coast
+1 here for audio abruptly cutting-out. I was away for most of July and hardly used my Mac Studio Display, but when I did -- crickets. Unplugging both it and my M1 Mac Mini from power overnight seems to have fixed it. I always try to give Apple the benefit of the doubt, and I suppose my Studio Display hadn't ever been unplugged and "restarted" since the day I bought it. Hoping Apple finds a better way ASAP.
 

BrianBaughn

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2011
9,822
2,494
Baltimore, Maryland
Good description of the issue and what you've done.

I've got no help but I'll mention this…other companies have put out digital audio devices for many years and have worked out the kinks that have arisen with Mac users, macOS updates and so forth. This is actually Apple's first digital music device and they don't seem to have gotten it right based on the "anecdotal" evidence I'm hearing.

I don't know if all the issues are audio device driven. One test would be to use the monitor but have another digital audio device attached and chosen as the active one. If that doesn't change the behavior a further test would be disable the display's audio device in macOS…if that's even possible.
 
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PhilipGearSolid

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 3, 2022
19
3
Good description of the issue and what you've done.

I've got no help but I'll mention this…other companies have put out digital audio devices for many years and have worked out the kinks that have arisen with Mac users, macOS updates and so forth. This is actually Apple's first digital music device and they don't seem to have gotten it right based on the "anecdotal" evidence I'm hearing.

I don't know if all the issues are audio device driven. One test would be to use the monitor but have another digital audio device attached and chosen as the active one. If that doesn't change the behavior a further test would be disable the display's audio device in macOS…if that's even possible.
I can use the Display and have audio out set to different speakers and never have this issue. It’s only when using the Display’s speakers when it occurs, every single time.
 

BanditoB

macrumors 6502
Feb 24, 2009
482
258
Chicago, IL
I would definitely file Feedback with Apple and also I would highly recommend that you contact Apple Support so that they can work through the issue with you. If they can't get it to work for you at tier 1, they should escalate it to one of their senior engineers who will gather detailed system logs so that they can try and analyze what is going on.
 
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PhilipGearSolid

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 3, 2022
19
3
I would definitely file Feedback with Apple and also I would highly recommend that you contact Apple Support so that they can work through the issue with you. If they can't get it to work for you at tier 1, they should escalate it to one of their senior engineers who will gather detailed system logs so that they can try and analyze what is going on.
Thanks, yeah, I have been in contact with senior support and uploading data logs and files for about 3 months now. Last communication was a few weeks ago when they said their engineers were aware of the issue and working on an update (this most recent firmware I suppose).

I'll be reaching out to them this week to see what the next step is. Since it's not like I can take this into the Apple store for a repair, and if it's going to be an undetermined amount of time for another update, I may try to ask for a replacement.
 

PhilipGearSolid

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 3, 2022
19
3
There are digital gaming headphone/mic sets that plug in to USB (like this). There are inexpensive to very expensive digital audio interfaces, mostly USB but some of the pricey ones also have a Thunderbolt connection (like this and this).
I have a gaming headset that uses a USB receiver I haven't had an issue with (plugged into the Display), the issue of audio/video not working all of a sudden only happens when the sound output is set to the Device's speakers.

Also seems I've had this issue occur a lot after waking the computer/display from sleep. Sound will just not be working, and you're not able to switch outputs (internal speaker of Mac Studio computer, gaming headset, Airpods etc) either until the Display is unplugged and plugged back in.
 

BrianBaughn

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2011
9,822
2,494
Baltimore, Maryland
I have a gaming headset that uses a USB receiver I haven't had an issue with (plugged into the Display), the issue of audio/video not working all of a sudden only happens when the sound output is set to the Device's speakers.

Also seems I've had this issue occur a lot after waking the computer/display from sleep. Sound will just not be working, and you're not able to switch outputs (internal speaker of Mac Studio computer, gaming headset, Airpods etc) either until the Display is unplugged and plugged back in.
If this isn't an issue only on some units it's sounding more and more like Apple is going to have to put the fix in a macOS update.
 
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