Xcode Simulator causes Mac audio crackling and distortion

Question

Bikrrr OP

Created 1d

Replies 1

Boosts 2

Participants 2

[Submitted as FB20950954]

Xcode Simulator causes crackling and distortion in audio playback across all apps (Apple Podcasts, Music, third-party).

REPRO STEPS

Open any audio app and start playback
Note the audio quality
Launch Xcode Simulator
After a few seconds, note audio quality again
Quit Xcode Simulator
Audio returns to normal

CURRENT

Audio has crackling and distortion while Simulator is running.

EXPECTED

Clean audio playback regardless of whether Simulator is running.

SYSTEM INFO

macOS 26.1 (25B78)
Xcode 26.1 (17B55)
Simulator 26.0 (1058)

Boost

Answer 1

RickMaddy OP

1d

There are various reports of this issue scattered about.

Any time I start to hear the crackle I run the following command from a terminal window:

sudo pkill coreaudiod

That fixes the issue for a while. If you run that while playing music or other audio, the sound will stop for a couple of seconds as the process restarts and then the audio will come back without the crackle.

1