Headphone Jack Stuck on Digital Out

This is not a fix, but if it comes down to logic board or bust, i'd get something like a griffin imic, it's small enough that it shouldnt be a huge burden and will you give you in and out via usb.

I had this happen with my MacBook Pro.

My electronic technician neighbor squirted a little alcohol into the red eyed headphone jack and inserted a headphone jack a few times. Instant fix.

this actually worked, it is a silly simple fix, but worked :)

https://josephhall.org/nqb2/index.php/st...

I’m glad others have had success sticking things in their jacks to fix this issue—that’s worked for me a couple times but the jack still gets stuck eventually even though I never insert a headphone plug. Finally I came across a real solution at this thread. It’s a very iFixit-style fix, as you should definitely do it with at least a boardview for your computer and only if you’re confident you know what you’re doing, but if done right it’s actually the perfect solution.

Since what I propose below is a permanent, hardware-level fix, also look earlier in the thread I linked to find dondavanzo’s software solution. It didn’t work for me, but if it works for you it’s easier, more elegant, and reversible, so worth a shot before going further. The VoodooHDA kext for hackintoshes can force the audio codec to ignore the presence of an optical plug and give you normal behavior switching only between headphones and speakers.

By removing a resistor (or inductor, depending on your exact model - my comment over on the macrumors thread specifies) from the circuit that detects as SPDIF optical plug, you completely disable the digital output. So, you can still use the headphone jack without worrying about the switch getting stuck, and unplugging headphones will seamlessly switch back to internal speakers. I triple and quadruple-checked to make sure I had found the proper resistor (R6805 on A1286 models with board 820-3330-B; my educated guess without having an A1502 model in front of me is either L6607 or L6608), then it took less than a minute to scrape off the tiny SMD resistor with an exacto knife. Obviously, if you ever need to use SPDIF, this won’t work; but, if you use SPDIF, you probably know what you’re doing and can figure something else out.

As much as I would like for there to be an easy fix, there isn't. The same thing happened to my MacBookPro. The toggle switch inside of the port is defective. The only true fix is to replace the Logic Board which Apple will do for free, it's a known issue. If that is not an option for you, the "toothpick fix" listed in the forums at apple may work.

Ok so I used a tiny metal screw driver. The switch at 3 o’clock toggles between headphone on/off. Switch at 9 o’clock toggles between digital out on/off. So you need to determine in preferences which switch is stuck, then put your toothpick massaging at that switch.

I fixed it using a digital optical cable. A couple of times inserting and removing did the trick :)

If it's any consolation, I, too, have this problem and am going to attempt the solutions offered above. My "workaround" right now is some Logitech USB speakers which clip on to the top of my screen.

As a last resort before a whole logic board replacement it looks as though you can remove the metal housing as shown in this blurry low res video

http://youtu.be/yIVYacOKzOs

The bent paperclip trick does work--but only as long as I hold the paperclip in place. Help!

Hello Tony Tone,

Same problem here with a MacBook Pro 13 (2010) mini jack is stuck on digital out. The jack was totally damaged by a stupid guy, so I had to remove the jack. I'm searching for replacement, but could not find anything.

So my question is, Can you help me which pins need to be connected so that the internal speakers will work again?

I couldn't find the information anywhere any help or pictures to solve this problem. I'm from Germany so no way to come by.

Thanks very much.

Adrian

Nothing works and the red light disappeared but its still stuck in digital out mode. I have a 2013 MacBook Pro

Isn't there some sort of a software loophole? I've searched and searched came up with no results. This Sucks!

As far as paper clips and tooth picks and Q-Tip tricks, None of that $@$* worked, if anything it made the red light disappear and god knows what the f that means. lol

I'm new to Mac's, excuse my french!

Switch off your Mac, unplug the power adapter. With pressure blow into the mac head phones port(mouth to port). Plug in any working head phones jack into the port and move the jack in different directions(gently)

A few days ago my digital output stopped working altogether. I had no problem switching from built in output to digital, i just had no audio at all via digital. I ended up fixing it by using the cotton bud fix given in this page (above).

I removed the cotton from one side of the cotton bud, leaving just the plastic bit remaining, and very gently put it into the headphone jack, then twisted it around slowly. I also blew into the headphone jack which might have dislodged a tiny bit of dust.

I'm assuming that the optical red light in my macbook jack port, had been partially blocked by dust.

Thankfully its now working fine now, no problem with audio either digital or built-in.

Thanks for the useful advice!

Tried wiggling the headphone jack, and then ear bud (without cotton). I was able to toggle to 'Internal Speaker', but still didn't behave consistently when I inserted/removed jack. I then used a can of Air Brush (compressed gas) which seemed to do the trick.

For me I had forgotten that I had connected to a Bluetooth Airplay speaker from my MacBook Pro.

When I turned it on next, the Digital Out interface was active, plugging in headphones would allow sound through the headphones but once unplugged would return to Digital Out.

The solution to this case was to simply turn off bluetooth. and the Internal Speakers showed up immediately.

Very helpful!!! Just some qtip of the cotton buds and patience!!!

I tried most of these things but it worked when I didn’t fully insert the headphones in (very loose) and it picked up on the comp that headphones were there and I pulled it out. The it reset itself to internal speakers. (I did this a few times for it to work.)

Been without sound for months and I tried almost everything on the internet!!! I tried this with a toothpick with no success, but I cut a Q-Tip and put a little bit of alcohol on the tip and ran it through the port several times and finally success!! Thanks a million!!

i done this my light is out in the head phone jack but still know sound coming through the speakers

As for me, i found out that my hardware part is broken. every time i sock in the headphone jack, it will have sound in and out intermittently… that’s how i know my jack phone socket have problem.

Azry Al-Yahya

Now I plug my headphone port with the tapered end of a wooden chopstick. Just enough to be snug. Blocking the port from all light seems to work (it is not necessary to scrape around inside). Simple and effective. No more fiddling around with bent paper clips.