6.08 Introduced the Audio Popping/Static to Mac players

[cbackas42]

While I was happy for my PC playing friends when I saw that 6.08 finally seems to have resolved the audio popping/static issues they've had since Endwalker released, I was dismayed to find that it *introduced* this problem to the Mac build for the first time.

Prior to 6.08 I never had audio issues with the game. SINCE, I have static/popping/crackling 100% of the time immediately after launch right from the title screen. I have three friends also playing on Mac with the same experience.

I found that I could make it a little better by running "Audio MIDI Setup" and changing the system's sampling rate to a higher setting - 44.1khz sounds horrendous, 48khz is just "kinda scratchy". 88.2khz sounds perfect at first, but eventually breaks down Results consistently replicate across different models of Mac and different players.

Observed on:
M1 Mac Mini (2x)
M1 Macbook Air
M1Max Macbook Pro 14"
All running latest Monterey, all were fine before 6.08.

[miragedive]

I'd really recommend making a post in the Bug Reports forum using the official template, because that is definitely an important development. So far every single report has been from Windows users, afaik, so your bug report would definitely add that as something to take into consideration!

[cbackas42]

Will do, thanks for the pointer!

[Teena]

I shall post my own Bug Report with my set up in the morning, but can confirm that I too am now experiencing low level 'static' in my audio since today's patch (was completely fine previously) and am playing on an iMac.

[cbackas42]

I posted in the bug report forum here:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...to-Mac-players

I'm new here, but it looks like they'd like "Me too!" posts to be replies in general to avoid duplicate report threads. BTW, if you read my report I worked out a workaround/mitigation that might help you, depending on your setup.

[cbackas42]

Seems they moved my bug report to the "Not a bug report" forum for some reason. It clearly IS a bug, so I'm not sure what was wrong with it.

[miragedive]

Mine's been moved to accepted if you'd like to reply to that one! Be sure to include your System Information available from the game launcher (the sticky should have info on how to get that).

Link

[Roekrs]

I'm also encountering this issue on my MacBook Pro. Specs:

• MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021)
• macOS 12.1 (21C52)
• Apple M1 Max
• 32 GB

Looks like I can't +1 the link bug reports, though I have submitted one directly.

[TaleraRistain]

Oh no!

I hope they can fix this quickly for you! I'm sorry the fix we've been waiting for so long has broken your experience now

[Korvin]

Hi everyone,

I've encountered the same thing in patch 6.08 on Mac Mini M1 2021 edition Big Sur.
I've done some testing on my end and after 4 hours of continous play with gathering and combat sessions, the "Audio MIDI Setup" workaround posted by original poster works for me when it is set to 88.2kHz. The stuttering hasn't returned yet.
The difference is that I'm still on Big Sur as I'm waiting for the patch notes to say Montenery is fully supported.