TechNote (Archived)

Flash Player audio failure on Intel-based Macintosh

Issue

Flash Player audio output stops working on Intel-based Macintosh computers when you change specific system audio settings, or when those settings are changed byother third-party software. This issue in not strictly isolated to Intel-based Macintosh computers and may occur on any Macintosh system that is equipped with a sound card capable of exceeding 44Hz. However, this issue will be more prevalent on Intel-based Macintosh computers, because the majority the sound cards on other Macintosh systems do not exceed 44Hz.

Reason

Flash Player sound output does not work for Mac OS X Audio MIDI sample rate settings higher than 48Khz. Some third party applications, such as Audacity, and MIDI breakout boxes will change the system wide audio settings on launch, and fail to return settings to default on close. To workaround this issue, choose Applications > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup, select sound output and change the properties for the 'Built-in Output' to a setting less than or equal to 48Khz.

Solution

Flash Player 9.0.20.0 resolves this issue. To install the latest Flash Player, please visit the Player Download Center here.

If you are unable to update to Flash Player 9.0.20.0, then you can work around this issue by selecting Applications > Utilities> Audio MIDI Setup and under 'Built-in Output' change the 'Format' property to 44100.0 Hz. If you are using a program such as Audacity, then make sure that the Default Sample Rate is set to 44Hz. To make this change with Audacity select Preferences > Quality > Default Sample Rate and change the rate to 44Hz.