Dive into the technical aspects of audio on your device, including codecs, format support, and customization options.

Audio Documentation

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What causes "issue_type = overload" in coreaudiod with USB audio interface?
I have a USB audio interface that is causing kernel traps and the audio output to "skip" or dropout every few seconds. This behavior occurs with a completely fresh install of Catalina as well as Big Sur with the stock Music app on a 2019 MacBook Pro 16 (full specs below). The Console logs show coreaudiod got an error from a kernel trap, a "USB Sound assertion" in AppleUSBAudio/AppleUSBAudio-401.4/KEXT/AppleUSBAudioDevice.cpp at line 6644, and the Music app "skipping cycle due to overload." I've added a short snippet from Console logs around the time of the audio skip/drop out. The more complete logs are at this gist: https://gist.github.com/djflux/08d9007e2146884e6df1741770de5105 I've also opened a Feedback Assistant ticket (FB9037528): https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/feedback/9037528 Does anyone know what could be causing this issue? Thanks for any help. Cheers, Flux aka Andy. Hardware Overview:  Model Name: MacBook Pro  Model Identifier: MacBookPro16,1  Processor Name: 8-Core Intel Core i9  Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz  Number of Processors: 1  Total Number of Cores: 8  L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB  L3 Cache: 16 MB  Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled  Memory: 64 GB  System Firmware Version: 1554.80.3.0.0 (iBridge: 18.16.14347.0.0,0) System Software Overview: System Version: macOS 11.2.3 (20D91)  Kernel Version: Darwin 20.3.0  Boot Volume: Macintosh HD  Boot Mode: Normal  Computer Name: mycomputername  User Name: myusername  Secure Virtual Memory: Enabled  System Integrity Protection: Enabled USB interface: Denon DJ DS1 Snippet of Console logs error 21:07:04.848721-0500 coreaudiod HALS_IOA1Engine::EndWriting: got an error from the kernel trap, Error: 0xE00002D7 default 21:07:04.848855-0500 Music HALC_ProxyIOContext::IOWorkLoop: skipping cycle due to overload default 21:07:04.857903-0500 kernel USB Sound assertion (Resetting engine due to error returned in Read Handler) in /AppleInternal/BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/AppleUSBAudio/AppleUSBAudio-401.4/KEXT/AppleUSBAudioDevice.cpp at line 6644 ... default 21:07:05.102746-0500 coreaudiod Audio IO Overload inputs: 'private' outputs: 'private' cause: 'Unknown' prewarming: no recovering: no default 21:07:05.102926-0500 coreaudiod   CAReportingClient.mm:508  message {   HostApplicationDisplayID = "com.apple.Music";   cause = Unknown;   deadline = 2615019;   "input_device_source_list" = Unknown;   "input_device_transport_list" = USB;   "input_device_uid_list" = "AppleUSBAudioEngine:Denon DJ:DS1:000:1,2";   "io_buffer_size" = 512;   "io_cycle" = 1;   "is_prewarming" = 0;   "is_recovering" = 0;   "issue_type" = overload;   lateness = "-535";   "output_device_source_list" = Unknown;   "output_device_transport_list" = USB;   "output_device_uid_list" = "AppleUSBAudioEngine:Denon DJ:DS1:000:1,2"; }: (null)
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Oct ’24
SpeechAnalyzer speech to text wwdc sample app
I am using the sample app from: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/277/?time=763 I installed this on an Iphone 15 Pro with iOS 26 beta 1. I was able to get good transcription with it. The app did crash sometimes when transcribing and I was going to post here with the details. I then installed iOS beta 2 and uninstalled the sample app. Now every time I try to run the sample app on the 15 Pro I get this message: SpeechAnalyzer: Input loop ending with error: Error Domain=SFSpeechErrorDomain Code=10 "Cannot use modules with unallocated locales [en_US (fixed en_US)]" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Cannot use modules with unallocated locales [en_US (fixed en_US)]} I can't continue our our work towards using SpeechAnalyzer now with this error. I have set breakpoints on all the catch handlers and it doesn't catch this error. My phone region is "United States"
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AirPlay v1 is broken in iOS 18.4?
After upgrading to iOS 18.4, I'm no longer able to establish an AirPlay v1 connection to an audio system. The symptom is that the AirPlay route picker just spins when trying to connect to an audio system. It eventually gives up. I tested this on an iPhone 14, connecting to a HomePod, AirPort express, AppleTV and a Wiim Pro. If I try connecting with AirPlay v2, ex: using Apple Music, the connection succeeds and audio can be played. I'm the developer of an app that plays audio over AirPlay while also recording. My app has to use AirPlay v1 because AvAudioSession doesn't allow the policy .longFormAudio when the category is .playAndRecord. This issue is a real pain as it means my app is suddenly broken for many thousands of users. Is anyone else seeing this issue? Any suggestions for a workaround?
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Jun ’25
Mac OS Tahoe 26.0 (25A354) Sound Glitches When opening the simulator app
Hey there, I just upgraded to Mac OS Tahoe ,son an apple MacBook Pro 2019 16inch. am using IntellijIDEA and Flutter to develop a mobile app which I test on the simulator app running iOS 18.4 . the issue: when I start the simulator app. ( while in the loading phase and in the operation phase as well ), the audio from an already open YouTube tab on safari (this happens on chrome browser as well). the sound glitches and becomes Noise. a fix I found online is to kill the audio deamon on Mac OS, This works using the command: "sudo killall coreaudiod" this kills the audio process, (while the emulator is operational), then the macOS restarts the audio deamon then the audio works fine alongside with the simulator being open. I just want to ask is there a permanent fix for this? is Apple working on a fix for this in the upcoming update?
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How can third-party iOS apps obtain real-time waveform / spectrogram data for Apple Music tracks (similar to djay & other DJ apps)?
Hi everyone, I’m working on an iOS MusicKit app that overlays a metronome on top of Apple Music playback, using ApplicationMusicPlayer. To line the clicks up perfectly I’d like access to low-level audio analysis data—ideally a waveform / spectrogram or beat grid—while the track is playing. I’ve noticed that several approved DJ apps (e.g. djay, Serato, rekordbox) can already: • Display detailed scrolling waveforms of Apple Music songs • Scratch, loop or time-stretch those tracks in real time That implies they receive decoded PCM frames or at least high-resolution analysis data from Apple Music under a special entitlement. My questions: Does MusicKit (or any public framework) expose real-time audio buffers, FFT bins, or beat markers for streaming Apple Music content? If not, is there an Apple program or entitlement that developers can apply for—similar to the “DJ with Apple Music” initiative—to gain that deeper access? Where can I find official documentation or a point of contact for this kind of request? I’ve searched the docs and forums but only see standard MusicKit playback APIs, which don’t appear to expose raw audio for DRM-protected songs. Any guidance, links or insider tips on the proper application process would be hugely appreciated! Thanks in advance.
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Jul ’25
AVSpeechUtterance Mandarin voice output replaced by SIRI language setting after upgraded the IOS to 18
Hi, Apple's engineer. Hoping that you can reply to this one. We're developing a Text-to-Speak app. Everything went well until the IOS got upgraded to 18. AVSpeechSynthesisVoice(language: "zh-CN") is running well under IOS 16 AND IOS 17. It speaks Mandarin correctly. In IOS 18, we noticed that Siri's Language setting interrupted the performance of AVSpeechSynthesisVoice. It plays Cantonese instead of Mandarin. Buggy language setting in Siri that affects the AVSpeechSynthesisVoice : Chinese (Cantonese - China mainland) Chinese (Cantonese -Hong Kong)
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Jan ’25
AVAudioEngine Voice Processing Fails with Mismatched Input/Output Devices: AggregateDevice Channel Count Mismatch
I'm encountering errors while using AVAudioEngine with voice processing enabled (setVoiceProcessingEnabled(true)) in scenarios where the input and output audio devices are not the same. This issue arises specifically with mismatched devices, preventing the application from functioning as expected. Works: Paired devices (e.g., MacBook Pro mic → MacBook Pro speakers) Fails: Mismatched devices (e.g., AirPods mic → MacBook Pro speakers) When using paired input and output devices: The setup works as expected. Example: MacBook Pro microphone → MacBook Pro speakers. When using mismatched devices: AVAudioEngine setup fails during aggregate device construction. Example: AirPods microphone → MacBook Pro speakers. Error logs indicate a channel count mismatch. Here are the partial logs. Due to the content limit, I cannot post the entire logs. AUVPAggregate.cpp:1000 client-side input and output formats do not match (err=-10875) AUVPAggregate.cpp:1036 err=-10875 AVAEInternal.h:109 [AVAudioEngineGraph.mm:1344:Initialize: (err = PerformCommand(*outputNode, kAUInitialize, NULL, 0)): error -10875 AggregateDevice.mm:329 Failed expectation of constructed aggregate (312): mInput.streamChannelCounts == inputStreamChannelCounts AggregateDevice.mm:331 Failed expectation of constructed aggregate (312): mInput.totalChannelCount == std::accumulate(inputStreamChannelCounts.begin(), inputStreamChannelCounts.end(), 0U) AggregateDevice.mm:182 error fetching default pair AggregateDevice.mm:329 Failed expectation of constructed aggregate (336): mInput.streamChannelCounts == inputStreamChannelCounts AggregateDevice.mm:331 Failed expectation of constructed aggregate (336): mInput.totalChannelCount == std::accumulate(inputStreamChannelCounts.begin(), inputStreamChannelCounts.end(), 0U) AUHAL.cpp:1782 ca_verify_noerr: [AudioDeviceSetProperty(mDeviceID, NULL, 0, isInput, kAudioDevicePropertyIOProcStreamUsage, theSize, theStreamUsage), 560227702] AudioHardware-mac-imp.cpp:3484 AudioDeviceSetProperty: no device with given ID AUHAL.cpp:1782 ca_verify_noerr: [AudioDeviceSetProperty(mDeviceID, NULL, 0, isInput, kAudioDevicePropertyIOProcStreamUsage, theSize, theStreamUsage), 560227702] AggregateDevice.mm:182 error fetching default pair AggregateDevice.mm:329 Failed expectation of constructed aggregate (348): mInput.streamChannelCounts == inputStreamChannelCounts AggregateDevice.mm:331 Failed expectation of constructed aggregate (348): mInput.totalChannelCount == std::accumulate(inputStreamChannelCounts.begin(), inputStreamChannelCounts.end(), 0U) Is it possible to use voice processing with different input/output devices? If yes, are there any specific configurations required to handle mismatched devices? How can we resolve channel count mismatch errors during aggregate device construction? Are there settings or API adjustments to enforce compatibility between input/output devices? Are there any workarounds or alternative approaches to achieve voice processing functionality with mismatched devices? For instance, can we force an intermediate channel configuration or downmix input/output formats?
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Mar ’25
Increased and Mismatched Audio Buffer Sizes on iOS 18 when Sound Recognition or Vocal Shortcuts Is Enabled
Description As of iOS 18, AVAudioSession.setPreferredIOBufferDuration ignores the requested buffer size when Sound Recognition or Vocal Shortcuts is enabled. This results in 1) much larger buffer sizes and 2) mismatched buffer sizes between input and output buffers, which causes ‘glitchy’ audio and increased latency. Additionally, when this issue occurs AVAudioSession.setPreferredIOBufferDuration continues to return ‘true’ and no error is produced. Steps to Reproduce: Enable Vocal Shortcuts on a device running iOS 18. Enable at least one shortcut (e.g. Control Center). Open or clone the example project (https://github.com/cwalo/SoundRecognitionBug) Build and install the example project Attach a headset and launch the application Observe console logs showing a requested buffer size of 0.005805 (256 samples @ 48k) an actual buffer size of 0.023220 (1104 samples @48k - this is regularly the resulting buffer size in all of our tests) Quit the app and detach the headset. Enable mutesOutput in AudioSystem.mm (to avoid feedback) Launch the application Observe Same result from step 4 Mismatched hardware buffer size of 1104 and recorded frame count of 1024 Mismatched playbackCount and recordCount Quit the app and disable vocal shortcuts Launch the app Observe IOBufferDuration matching the requested duration and matched buffer sizes (expected behavior) Expected results: Requested IOBufferDuration is respected or AVAudioSession returns false or error is produced Input and output buffer sizes match Device(s): iPhone 11 Pro, iPad Pro OS: iOS 18.0.1 Environment: Xcode 16.1 FB: FB15715421 Related to: https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/765477
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Dec ’24
MusicKit: Multichannel Dolby Atmos Limited to Stereo Output - Is This Intended Behavior?
I'm experiencing a significant limitation with MusicKit's Dolby Atmos implementation on macOS and would appreciate clarification on whether this is intended behavior or if there are solutions available. When streaming Dolby Atmos content through MusicKit's ApplicationMusicPlayer, the output is limited to 2-channel stereo, even when: Audio MIDI Setup is configured for 7.1.4 (12-channel) output The same tracks play in full multichannel through the native Apple Music app Dolby Atmos is set to "Automatic" in Apple Music preferences Please let me know if there is anyway to enable this. If not, is this documented anywhere? Thanks!
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Aug ’25
Creating an initial Now Playing state of paused - impossible?
I am working on an app which plays audio - https://youtu.be/VbAfUk_eYl0?si=nJg5ayy2faWE78-g - and one of the features is, on restart, if you had paused playback of a file at the time the app was previously shut down (or were playing one at the time of shutdown), the paused state and position in the file is restored exactly as it was, on restart. The functionality works. However, it seems impossible to get the "now playing" information in iOS into the right state to reflect that via the MediaPlayer API. On restart, handlers are attached to the play/pause/togglePlayPause actions on MPRemoteCommandCenter.shared(), and the map of media info is updated on MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.default().nowPlayingInfo. What happens is that iOS's media view shows the audio as playing and offers a pause button - even though the play action is enabled and the pause action is disabled. Once playback has been initiated (my workaround is to have the pause action toggle the play state, since otherwise you wouldn't be able to initiate playback from controls in a car without initiating it once from a device first). I've created a simplified white-noise-player demo to illustrate the problem - simply build and deploy it, and then start the app, lock your device and look at the playback controls on the lock screen. It will show a pause button - same behavior I've described. https://github.com/timboudreau/ios-play-pause-demo I've tried a few things to narrow down the source of the issue - for example, thinking that not MPNowPlayingInfoPropertyPlaybackProgress and MPMediaItemPropertyPlaybackDuration might be the culprit (since the system interpolates elapsed time and it's recommended to update those properties infrequently) on startup might do the trick, but the result is the same, just without a duration or progress shown. What governs this behavior, and is there some way to explicitly tell the media player API your current state is paused?
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Apr ’25
AudioConverterFillComplexBuffer not working for (E)AC3 in tvOS 18
Since upgrading to tvOS 18, the above function isn't working for me in converting a stream with these formats. It does work in decoding AAC, however. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/audiotoolbox/1503098-audioconverterfillcomplexbuffer?language=objc I pass a valid ioOutputDataPacketSize in, but it always comes out as zero. Has anyone else observed this too? I wonder if this is related to the issue being discussed widely about 5.1 sound being broken for many people after upgrading to tvOS 18? https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255769102?login=true&sortBy=rank EDIT: further information; the callback gets called once, asking for 1 packet (which is ok). I give it one packet and return noErr. However, after this, the callback is never invoked again. Must be a bug? EDIT2: the same code continues to work correctly on macOS in decoding the same audio stream.
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Nov ’24
SFCustomLanguageModelData.CustomPronunciation and X-SAMPA string conversion
Can anyone please guide me on how to use SFCustomLanguageModelData.CustomPronunciation? I am following the below example from WWDC23 https://wwdcnotes.com/documentation/wwdcnotes/wwdc23-10101-customize-ondevice-speech-recognition/ While using this kind of custom pronunciations we need X-SAMPA string of the specific word. There are tools available on the web to do the same Word to IPA: https://openl.io/ IPA to X-SAMPA: https://tools.lgm.cl/xsampa.html But these tools does not seem to produce the same kind of X-SAMPA strings used in demo, example - "Winawer" is converted to "w I n aU @r". While using any online tools it gives - "/wI"nA:w@r/".
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Dec ’24
Audio clipping - macOS Tahoe 26 - Beta 5
I was testing audio playback from YouTube in Safari, and the sound was clipping heavily. At first, I thought it might be due to the poor quality of my small sound system. However, when I took a screenshot and the screenshot sound effect itself produced a loud clipping noise, it became clear that this is not a mechanical problem with my speakers, nor an issue specific to YouTube or Safari. This appears to be a system-wide audio issue in macOS Tahoe 26 - Beta 5.
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Aug ’25
AVSpeechSynthesizer - just not working on 15.1.1
So get a swift file and put this in it import Foundation import AVFoundation let synthesizer = AVSpeechSynthesizer() let utterance = AVSpeechUtterance(string: "Hello, testing speech synthesis on macOS.") if let voice = AVSpeechSynthesisVoice(identifier: "com.apple.voice.compact.en-GB.Daniel") { utterance.voice = voice print("Using voice: \(voice.name), \(voice.language)") } else { print("Daniel voice not found on macOS.") } synthesizer.speak(utterance) I get no speech output and this log output Error reading languages in for local resources. Error reading languages in for local resources. Using voice: Daniel, en-GB Program ended with exit code: 0 Why? and whats with "Error reading languages in for local resources." ?
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Dec ’24
CheckError.swift:CheckError(_:):211:kAudioUnitErr_InvalidParameter (CheckError.swift:CheckError(_:):211)
I'm getting this error when I launch my application on the iPhone 14 Pro via Xcode. Everything builds OK. I"m using the audio kit plugin and Sound Pipe Audiokit. The error starts as soon as I start the app and will carry on repeatedly. I have background processing turned on as I'd like the sounds to play when the phone is locked via the headphones. I can't find anything online about this error. None of my catches are printing anything in the logs either. So I don't know if this is just something that pops up repeatedly or whether there is something fundamentally wrong. private func setupAudioSession() { do { let session = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance() try session.setCategory(.playback, mode: .default, options: [.mixWithOthers]) try session.setActive(true, options: .notifyOthersOnDeactivation) } catch { errorMessage = "Failed to set up audio session: (error.localizedDescription)" print(errorMessage ?? "") } } // MARK: - Background Task Handling private func setupBackgroundTaskHandling() { // Handle app entering background notificationObservers.append( NotificationCenter.default.addObserver( forName: UIApplication.didEnterBackgroundNotification, object: nil, queue: .main, using: { [weak self] _ in // Safely unwrap self guard let self = self else { return } self.handleBackgroundTransition() } ) ) I'm not sure if this is the code causing the issue. Any help would be gratefully appreciated. This is my first app I'm working on .
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Apr ’25
How to use the SpeechDetector Module
I am trying to use SpeechDetector Module in Speech framework along with SpeechTranscriber. and it is giving me an error Cannot convert value of type 'SpeechDetector' to expected element type 'Array.ArrayLiteralElement' (aka 'any SpeechModule') Below is how I am using it let speechDetector = Speech.SpeechDetector() let transcriber = SpeechTranscriber(locale: Locale.current, transcriptionOptions: [], reportingOptions: [.volatileResults], attributeOptions: [.audioTimeRange]) speechAnalyzer = try SpeechAnalyzer(modules: [transcriber,speechDetector])
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Aug ’25
Audio session activation occasionally fails from CarPlay
I'm working on adding CarPlay support to an audio app and am running into an issue. Occasionally, when a user opens the app from CarPlay while the main app scene is either not connected or is currently in the background, I will receive an error when attempting to activate the audio session. The code below mimics my setup: do { try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(.playback, mode: .spokenAudio) try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(true) } catch { print(error) // NSOSStatusErrorDomain - 560557684: Session activation failed } That error code maps to AVAudioSession.ErrorCode.cannotInterruptOthers. Once in this state, all subsequent attempts to play different pieces of content will fail. However, things will start working normally if the user opens the app on their phone and tries again from CarPlay (while the app is in the foreground on their phone). I'm not sure why it would behave this way and want to note that I do have the audio background mode capability enabled. Has anyone else encountered this? Are there any workarounds or changes I could make to prevent this from happening?
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Apr ’25