Playback not working on Mac OS
I've tried as many of the suggestions as I could find for this seemingly common issue, yet I'm still dead in the water.
The only thing that worked is switching to another Mac user, so it's obviously something I have installed that's creating the conflict. I have many audio apps and plugins installed, but nothing is running that prevents any other apps from using the audio.
I don't know how to pinpoint the conflict but I'm happy to follow instructions on getting diagnostic info if you tell me what to do.
Here's all the info. Thanks in advance for the help!
- Amy
Problem:
Cannot playback scores or access playback/audio options
Symptoms:
No sound can be heard when placing notes
Playback Controls toolbar is visible but is greyed out/unavailable
View > Synthesizer menu option is greyed out/unavailable
View > Play Panel menu option is available, but choosing it or using the key command) does nothing
MuseScore > Preferences > I/O has all blank menus under PortAudio
System info:
MacOS Catalina 10.15.7
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)
2.5 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 processor
Other info:
MuseScore version 3.6.2.548020600
Problem is the same with all audio sources: headphones connection, built in output, and Native Instruments USB audio interface
Not using bluetooth audio
Troubleshooting info:
TRIED, IT WORKS but is not a solution:
Switching to another mac user
TRIED, DID NOT WORK:
Everything applicable on: https://musescore.org/en/node/96811
tried numbers 1, 3, 4, 5, 6
the others don’t apply
Disabling Native Instruments components, then restart
as per https://musescore.org/en/node/317382#comment-1063622
Disconnecting audio interface, then restart without it
Safe mode restart, then restart
Reinstalling MuseScore, then restart
Resetting the PRAM
Giving MuseScore Full Disk Access in Sys Prefs > Security & Privacy
Adding MuseScore to Accessibility in Sys Prefs > Security & Privacy
Comments
Interesting that you said that switching to another mac user worked. Do you mean another user account on your computer? If so, user accounts can be a problem on Windows, also. There may be a problem with the main account that you are using. It can happen. Otherwise a different account wouldn't work either
In reply to Interesting that you said… by bobjp
Yes, I do mean another user account under Mac OS. Obviously, something installed under this user is the issue. I just don't know how to figure out what.
In reply to Yes, I do mean another user… by little-island
You might never figure it out. Oh, maybe if you start removing all your programs one by one and test after each. But even if a program is uninstalled, it leaves things behind.
OTOH, I googled how to fix troubleshoot mac user accounts. There are several things you can try.
In reply to You might never figure it… by bobjp
True, I might not be able to solve it on my end, but there are probably some debugging and/or logging procedures that I could run (if instructed how) that could help the developers understand the issue. Thanks for the suggestions.
In reply to True, I might not be able to… by little-island
The problem is that the developers don't have your computer in front of them. I have heard them say before it might be some kind of permissions issue. Which is one of the things listed in the links I found that you would have to check yourself. At least look at some of the links and see what you think. When I wrote that post I stopped in the middle to look some things up. After which I started again with "OTOH". You're already a step farther than most people because you found that MuseScore works on a different account.
In reply to The problem is that the… by bobjp
Well, of course they don't, but there may be information I can capture from a log of some kind that would give them info that would help.
I have been pretty thorough on my end (including checking various kinds of permissions) and I've tried every other viable suggestion I've found on this forum.
So now I'm here asking for help: concrete suggestions on things to try, or ways to uncover the source of the problem. Tx
In reply to Well, of course they don't,… by little-island
So (on the same computer), for one user account playback works and for another it doesn't.
On Mac OS, is there a way to investigate what background programs (or processes) load upon activation of the different user accounts?
If there is a difference, the user account that works may not be running a conflicting "hidden" process.
In reply to So (on the same computer),… by Jm6stringer
Yes, good thoughts.
In MacOS, optional startup programs will show under System Preferences > Users & Groups > [user] > Login Items. And all currently running processes can be seen in the Activity Monitor app.
I have looked in both places to see if I could spot anything obvious. I disabled a few things, but it didn't help at all. The problem is, for me, that the two user accounts are so vastly different (one has been my main account for many years and has a ton of audio apps, the other is a rarely used basic install) that it doesn't really narrow it down.
I feel like I really need some kind of focused logging or debugging to see where it's going wrong.
Thanks!
In reply to Yes, good thoughts. In MacOS… by little-island
I think I would suspect one of those audio apps. I've seen this before.
Have you tried faffing with the Audio MIDI Setup app to see if that gives you any clues?
In reply to Have you tried faffing with… by dyrck
Cheers for the reminder! I forgot to mention it, but yes, I did but nothing helped. There aren't many options for audio devices in Audio MIDI Setup to faff with, but I did switch the audio sources and sample/bit rates around between app restarts, and I deleted a couple virtual audio sources. But no joy.
I also just experimented with quitting processes in the Activity Monitor utility, with no results.
In reply to Cheers for the reminder! I… by little-island
Does the coreaudiod show up in Activity Monitor?
In reply to Does the coreaudiod show up… by dyrck
Yes, it does. Here's a screenshot of all processes matching "aud"
![Screen Shot 2021-12-31 at 9.52.39 AM.png]( "Screen Shot 2021-12-31 at 9.52.39 AM.png")
In reply to Yes, it does. Here's a… by little-island
That is pretty much what I have too, although I have many instances of the Sandbox helper. I'm out of ideas for the moment, sorry I couldn't help more.
In reply to Cheers for the reminder! I… by little-island
It seems to me that at this point you have two choices.
If you have Apple Care you could take your Mac to a professional and let them fix it.
But it is clear that there's nothing wrong with your computer. There is only a problem with that account. You can create a second admin account and start migrating to it. Then delete the bad account. I suppose you could wipe the computer and start over. While this is never a bad thing, It might not be needed at this point.
In reply to It seems to me that at this… by bobjp
I think it's a bit of a leap to say it's just a "bad account"
In reply to I think it's a bit of a leap… by little-island
But it happens.
Besides, activity may be the wrong thing to look at. You have some kind of conflict. You've been dealing with this for at least four days.
One thing that is account specific are the MuseScore preferences; so it's probably worth it to compare those between both user accounts.
Location of those files can be seen in the revert to factory settings page in the handbook.
In reply to One thing that is account… by jeetee
Thanks for the suggestion, I had reverted to factory settings through the app, but hadn't trashed the pref files or launched in Terminal before. They didn't fix it, but Terminal did report a bunch of stuff going wrong!
I don't have any idea what all this means, I'm going to search around for cluse and suggestion. If anyone has experience with this stuff, I'd appreciate suggestions.
Thanks!
Here is the Terminal output (with personal info made generic):
Disk:~ user$ /Applications/MuseScore\ 3.app/Contents/MacOS/mscore -F
dlopen error : dlopen(libjack.0.dylib, 1): image not found
dlopen error : dlopen(/usr/local/lib/libjack.0.dylib, 1): image not found
No device selected. PortAudio detected 3 devices. Will use the default device (index 2).
||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| Failed to open AUHAL component.||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| Error on line 1263: err='-50', msg=Unknown Error
||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| Failed to open AUHAL component.||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| Error on line 1263: err='-50', msg=Unknown Error
Portaudio open stream 2 failed: Internal PortAudio error
init PortAudio failed
Portaudio close stream failed: Invalid stream pointer
no audio driver found
ZoomBox::setLogicalZoom(): Formatting logical zoom level as 100% (rounded from 1.000000)
JIT is disabled for QML. Property bindings and animations will be very slow. Visit https://wiki.qt.io/V4 to learn about possible solutions for your platform.
qrc:/qml/TelemetryPermissionDialog.qml:37: ReferenceError: globalStyle is not defined
qrc:/qml/DialogButton.qml:74: ReferenceError: globalStyle is not defined
qrc:/qml/DialogButton.qml:74: ReferenceError: globalStyle is not defined
ZoomBox::setLogicalZoom(): Formatting logical zoom level as 100% (rounded from 1.000000)
Cannot start I/O
sequencer init failed
ZoomBox::setLogicalZoom(): Formatting logical zoom level as 100% (rounded from 1.000000)
zero glyph, id 923
ScoreFont::draw: invalid sym 0
zero glyph, id 2582
zero glyph, id 2588
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 335
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
zero glyph, id 422
ScoreFont::draw: invalid sym 0
acceptNavigationRequest( QUrl("https://connect2.musescore.com/?version=3.6.2.548020600") , QWebEnginePage::NavigationType(NavigationTypeTyped) , true )
js: Mixed Content: The page at 'https://connect2.musescore.com/?version=3.6.2.548020600' was loaded over HTTPS, but requested an insecure image 'http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/qLR40BGNy68/hqdefault.jpg'. This content should also be served over HTTPS.
js: Mixed Content: The page at 'https://connect2.musescore.com/?version=3.6.2.548020600' was loaded over HTTPS, but requested an insecure image 'http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/XGo4PJd1lng/hqdefault.jpg'. This content should also be served over HTTPS.
js: Mixed Content: The page at 'https://connect2.musescore.com/?version=3.6.2.548020600' was loaded over HTTPS, but requested an insecure image 'http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/E12CZH9VJFw/hqdefault.jpg'. This content should also be served over HTTPS.
^[[B
In reply to Thanks for the suggestion, I… by little-island
Cautiously and optimistically I say hooray! I may have solved it!
I tried the solution found here: https://musescore.org/en/node/320037
Except my solution seems to be opposite that user's.*
Specifically, what worked was this:
1. Download the zip file from that thread and open it
2. Rename the one called "libportaudio.2_3.5.0.dylib" to "libportaudio.2.dylib"
3. Go to Applications, find MuseScore
4. Right-click the app, choose "Show Package Contents"
5. Inside there find Contents/Frameworks/libportaudio.2.dylib
6. Drag the downloaded file into that directory, replacing the file of the same name
7. Start up MuseScore
I'll keep testing, but hoping all is well for now and won't be back!
*The OP on that thread seems to have used the other version (3.6.2) of the file, so your mileage may vary.
In reply to Cautiously and… by little-island
It worked for me! Cautiously I say - THANK YOU!