[MAC] "CoreAudio driver went missing" error

Marco

If you encounter a "CoreAudio driver went missing" error on your Mac device, check the troubleshooting steps in this guide that should help with removing the error. 

 

In this article:

 

CoreAudio driver went missing

This error message was introduced in the SoundID Reference standalone app since version 5.7.3 to signal a failure to communicate with CoreAudio for various reasons and conditions. Our developers have included a button directly in the error message to offer a quick resolution. 

 

CA went missing.png

 

What can be done to fix this?

If the error persists, there is a list of actions and workarounds that could potentially help. 

  1. Click on the 'Restart CoreAudio' button within the error message.
  2. Restart the playback engine: SoundID Reference app > Output Panel > '…' > Device settings > Restart playback engine
  3. Quit and relaunch the SoundID Reference app: How to fully quit the SoundID Reference app?
  4. Clear the configuration data: Deleting the config file in SoundID Reference standalone app 
  5. Update the drivers of the interface to the latest version available
  6. Fully uninstall SoundID Reference. Then reinstall the latest version - download here
  7. Uninstall other Virtual Devices active on your machine (Blackhole, GroundControl, LoopBack, etc.). There may be a clash between our Virtual Output Device and another. If it then works, it's worth adding them back one by one, to see which one is the culprit. 
  8. Try different sample rates and buffer sizes: Buffer size setting in the SoundID Reference app

 

Uninstalling conflicting audio devices/drivers

Most of the time the issue is caused by a conflict between the SoundID Reference audio device and other audio devices installed on the computer (virtual audio devices, third-party routing software, audio/video capture software, etc.). We have documented a list of potentially conflicting devices below. 

The issue can likely be resolved (or at least detected) by removing such audio drivers from your system. These drivers can always be reinstalled if needed. To remove these components, uninstall the respective applications, and remove their HAL drivers from this location:

 

Macintosh HD/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/driver.name.hal

 

Known conflicting audio devices:

  • MS Teams
  • Zoom
  • SoundGrid
  • BlackHole
  • Loopback
  • SoundSource

 

If the issue reoccurs often and heavily disrupts the workflow (present constantly or several times daily), please submit a support request below, and include the following information: 

 
  1. What happens when clicking on "Restart CoreAudio", does it resolve the issue temporarily?
  2. Are you asked to enter your Mac user password when clicking on 'Restart CoreAudio'?
  3. When resetting CoreAudio, what happens after entering your Mac user password?
  4. How often does the issue occur?
  5. What devices are you using in your signal chain (both hardware and software), especially any virtual audio devices and Aggregate devices? Please include a screesnhot of devices showing in your Audio MIDI Setup
  6. Collect and send HAL logs, and also the regular software log files:

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4 comments

info
0

This article is outdated. It will result in:

Could not kickstart service "com.apple.audio.coreaudiod": 1: Operation not permitted

Before proceeding to the next step solution, reduce the output volume, disconnect all loudspeakers and audio devices. DO NOT keep your monitoring devices connected. Restarting the service can lead to short, uncontrolled audio output with ANY volume.

The correct command to restart the Core Audio service from macOS 14.x on is:

sudo killall coreaudiod

Contrary to intuition, it will restart the service, as macOS defines Core Audio as a critical service. So any stopping leads to an immediate restart.

If your system has still trouble talking to the Core Audio Service, it's likely that HAL drivers are affecting its functionality. 

To fix this, list the HAL drivers:

ls -la /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/

Any driver that has your suspicion can safely be temporarily disabled by moving it one folder back. 

For example:
drwxr-xr-x  3 root   wheel   96  7 Aug  2023 MSTeamsAudioDevice.driver
drwxr-xr-x@ 3 admin  staff   96 21 Aug 16:34 ReincubateCamoAudio.driver
drwxr-xr-x  3 root   wheel   96 23 Jul 12:11 SoundID Reference.driver
drwxr-xr-x  3 root   wheel   96 17 Jul 11:22 ZoomAudioDevice.driver

Let's say you suspect Camo to cause issues (which it did in my case), you may move it one folder down (into: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/). 

The following command will make sure that the Camo HAL driver is not loading it upon Core Audio Service restart:

sudo mv /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/ReincubateCamoAudio.driver /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/ReincubateCamoAudio.driver

To restart the Core Audio Service, run sudo killall coreaudiod again.

Repeat this routine until Core Audio works well again. You can then proceed to move the HAL drivers back in place by running, i.e.:
sudo mv /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/ReincubateCamoAudio.driver /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/ReincubateCamoAudio.driver

Thank me later ;)

Paolo Balestri
0

On a Mac Silicon running Sonoma, I added Sonarworks to Privacy & Security under "Screen Recording and System Audio" in the subsection "System Audio Recording Only" as SoundID Reference. Only this way was I able to integrate the software with the Apollo, and only this way did it stop asking me to restart Core Audio, which wasn’t starting anyway. The conflict with Rogue Amoeba products and others would have been quite limiting, so I hope I’ve resolved the issue.

Guy Vago
0

Any solutions or advise on how to work with Loopback?

Marco
0

info fo Thank you for the update! We have tested the in-app error message button on both macOS 14 and macOS 15 and it works. I have made changes to the manual instructions above and removed the outdated manual instructions. 

@Paolo Balestri Thanks for sharing. If an issue persists, certainly let us know here or by submitting a support request. 

 

Guy Vago As Loopback is another virtual audio device, there may be a conflict over the output, resulting in either the above error, no audio or another issue. If it can be avoided, it’s recommended not to use both at the same time. It will need investigation to see if it is possible to make it work on your device. If this is still actual, I can recommend submitting a support request.

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