Enable Mac Volume Control for HDMI and DisplayPort Audio Devices

When you hook up an HDMI TV or DisplayPort monitor with built-in audio device, you might discover that you can't change the volume with the Mac software mixer any more. Volume buttons on your keyboard won't work. You're expected to use the TV remote or volume control on the device.

Here's a trick to get around this limitation. Grab Soundflower and switch the output to your HDMI or DisplayPort device as shown here:

Soundflower menu

Then option-click the speaker icon in the menu bar. Switch your Mac audio output device to Soundflower:

Mac audio

Here, 34UM95 is the display with audio device that won't let me adjust volume.

38 ResponsesLeave a Reply

  1. AlPonRock

     /  December 30, 2014 Quote

    Works perfect, even the volume controls on the external keyboard!

  2. It works great on my DELL U3415W, thanks a lot 🙂

  3. Worked great but then I noticed a sound distortion, switched back to hdmi and sounded good again. Anyone else with this problem?

  4. hutsori

     /  February 16, 2015 Quote

    It works with my 34um95. But it sometimes stops working after wake up. One thing I found is you can control the volume of the warning sound without using soundflower. Only the warning sound though. Nothing else. There must be a way to control the volume without soundflower but don't know how.

  5. Damon

     /  March 14, 2015 Quote

    dan: Worked great but then I noticed a sound distortion, switched back to hdmi and sounded good again. Anyone else with this problem?

    Yes.. tons of distortion for me as well.

  6. JimmyDelta

     /  March 26, 2015 Quote

    I've just been controlling the volume of the individual apps (PandoraAir, YouTube, etc.) directly and leaving the system volume alone. Not ideal, but it works.

  7. holy crap thank you. i thought i needed an hdmi-cec adapter to control the tv volume. this works exactly as it should. i no longer need my tv remote!

  8. there are some issues with soundflower that cause audio delay and occasional distortion. seems like a recent bug...

  9. Cagonet

     /  June 3, 2015 Quote

    Works like a charm!

  10. Marcus Zanona

     /  July 16, 2015 Quote

    Thanks a lot Matt, works perfectly on 34UM95

  11. Jody

     /  July 23, 2015 Quote

    I wasn't able to get it to configure correctly. I had no sound, which means something wasn't working along the way. I'm going to give it a shot again later.

    Any suggestions of what to make sure I've checked?

    My monitor: LG 34UM67

  12. Hi. Thank you. Is there a way to make a microphone plugged into a macbook bro play along with the video audio? I am giving a presentation from a macbook pro over Apple TV to a projector (and bluetooth speakers). I need the microphone hooked up to the laptop to project over the speakers as well as the video from the machine. Thank you,.

  13. Delta_HF

     /  October 1, 2015 Quote

    Nice tip, but I'm also getting a lot of distortion (the sound starts "glitching" every 15 seconds or so). Probably a bug in Soundflower.

  14. Installed it on Macbook Air, and it works.

    But uninstalled it again after experiencing the following problems:

    1. Occasional distorted sound.

    2. A constant 5-7% CPU usage, even when no sound was being processed, leading to reduced battery time on my MacBook Air.

  15. Thanks for the tutorial. Had some issues getting Soundflower installed using the beta binary (2.0b2) on OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite but worked perfectly with the v1.4 GitHub .Zip, using Soundflowerbed.app within the Build directory to set Soundflower 2ch Input to DisplayPort (GitHub .zip source: https://goo.gl/3UdCN7)

  16. Michael Timpano

     /  May 20, 2016 Quote

    I have this same monitor. How did you manage to get audio from display port? I don't have an option as shown above.

    Ludovic: It works great on my DELL U3415W, thanks a lot

  17. JonnyB

     /  July 6, 2016 Quote

    hennwei: this is a much cleaner solution.http://osxdaily.com/2013/05/04/use-hdmi-audio-output-mac-os-x/

    How is this "cleaner"? All this site does is explain how to get HDMI audio to work and states that you must use the monitor's volume adjust for HDMI audio. This doesn't resolve the issue of NOT being able to control HDMI audio with OSX volume sliders.

  18. Jamie Morgan

     /  July 19, 2016 Quote

    Does not work on OSX 10.11.5.
    The Kext installed correctly with the device showing up in audio devices, but the soundflower app was not installed.

  19. mvaneijgen

     /  July 27, 2016 Quote

    The first screenshot you show is not accasble on OS 10.11.5. I can create a new device with sunflower via audio MIDI Setup in the Utilities folder, but this doesn't allow for volume adjustment via the mac.

  20. Michael

     /  August 7, 2016 Quote

    I think what we really need is Sunflowerbed

  21. macload

     /  August 17, 2016 Quote

    Running OSX 10.9.5 I installed Soundflower 1.6.5 (including Soundflowerbed)…

    https://soundflower.googlecode.com/files/Soundflower-1.6.5.dmg

    …and followed your instructions to allow a Mini DisplayPort with USB audio to HDMI adapter to use the standard system audio volume control.

    Works like a charm!

  22. PantsOnFire

     /  September 13, 2016 Quote

    This! Thanks poyntz
    Install the Beta Dmg -https://github.com/mattingalls/Soundflower/releases/tag/2.0b2
    Then unzip (https://goo.gl/3UdCN7) and copy the Soundflowerbed.app

    poyntz: Thanks for the tutorial. Had some issues getting Soundflower installed using the beta binary (2.0b2) on OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite but worked perfectly with the v1.4 GitHub .Zip, using Soundflowerbed.app within the Build directory to setSoundflower 2ch Input to DisplayPort (GitHub .zip source: https://goo.gl/3UdCN7)

  23. On sierra:

    - Search and download for: Soundflower-1.6.6b.dmg;
    - Install and copy Applications/Soundflower folder on desktop;
    - Than run the unistaller and reboot;
    - Now, download and install Soundflower-2.0b2.dmg;
    - Copy old Soundflower (app) folder from desktop to Applications folder;
    - Click on sound icon (topbar) and enable: Soundflower (2ch);
    - Open Soundflower app and set "HDMI" under "Soundflower (2ch);

    Enjoy 😉

  24. Thanks for that Nate. It did the trick.

  25. NateFisher: On sierra:- Search and download for: Soundflower-1.6.6b.dmg;
    - Install and copy Applications/Soundflower folder on desktop;
    - Than run the unistaller and reboot;
    - Now, download and install Soundflower-2.0b2.dmg;
    - Copy old Soundflower (app) folder from desktop to Applications folder;
    - Click on sound icon (topbar) and enable: Soundflower (2ch);
    - Open Soundflower app and set "HDMI" under "Soundflower (2ch);Enjoy ?

    Last step, where can i find the Soundflower app. not showing on aplication folder, try use spotlight also no luck.

    cheers

  26. Fachri Faisal

     /  January 26, 2017 Quote

    iwan:
    Last step, where can i find the Soundflower app. not showing on aplication folder, try use spotlight also no luck.cheers

    iwan:
    Last step, where can i find the Soundflower app. not showing on aplication folder, try use spotlight also no luck.cheers

    I found a solution
    When install the soundflower 1.6.6b
    You must customize installer,tick the "install soundflowerbed only"
    Then install soundflower 2.0b2 normally
    Enjoy!

  27. NateFisher: On sierra:- Search and download for: Soundflower-1.6.6b.dmg;
    - Install and copy Applications/Soundflower folder on desktop;
    - Than run the unistaller and reboot;
    - Now, download and install Soundflower-2.0b2.dmg;
    - Copy old Soundflower (app) folder from desktop to Applications folder;
    - Click on sound icon (topbar) and enable: Soundflower (2ch);
    - Open Soundflower app and set "HDMI" under "Soundflower (2ch);Enjoy

    +1 this

  28. James

     /  March 3, 2017 Quote

    On macOSX Sierra, all I had to do was:
    1. Download and install the latest release of Soundflower kernel from: https://github.com/mattingalls/Soundflower/releases/
    2. Download and install the latest release of SoundflowerBed from: https://github.com/mLupine/SoundflowerBed/releases

    And do what the above article asks to do. That's it, and now everything works fine. I can control volume of my external speakers connected via my Dell monitor through displayport, using the wireless keyboard.

    Thanks to Maciej Wilczy?ski for providing SoundflowerBed 2
    Thanks to Matt Ingalls for updating Soundflower kernel
    And thanks to Matt Montag for writing this article that's the first hit when I googled "mac hdmi displayport speaker volume control".

  29. James

     /  March 3, 2017 Quote

    After using it for a while, I do see the distortion. And also after the computer has been idle for a while, it'll stop working so I have to change output in SoundflowerBed from monitor to internal back to monitor for it to start working. And I can never get it to keep playing music keeping the computer screen locked or idle, it instantly stops playing as soon as I lock the computer. I'm on Sierra. Not sure if this is an issue with Soundflower or SoundflowerBed. But if any of the developers are listening, would be great to fix this. Thanks!

    James: On macOSX Sierra, all I had to do was:
    1. Download and install the latest release of Soundflower kernel from: https://github.com/mattingalls/Soundflower/releases/
    2. Download and install the latest release of SoundflowerBed from: https://github.com/mLupine/SoundflowerBed/releasesAnd do what the above article asks to do. That's it, and now everything works fine. I can control volume of my external speakers connected via my Dell monitor through displayport, using the wireless keyboard.Thanks to Maciej Wilczy?ski for providing SoundflowerBed 2
    Thanks to Matt Ingalls for updating Soundflower kernel
    And thanks to Matt Montag for writing this article that's the first hit when I googled "mac hdmi displayport speaker volume control".

  30. Damon:
    Yes.. tons of distortion for me as well.

    Damon:
    Yes.. tons of distortion for me as well.

    I fixed it by turning down the external monitor/tv volume and turning it up through my mac.

  31. Hazel

     /  July 26, 2017 Quote

    This method seems to take up an unreasonable amount of CPU time...

  32. Another option: using headphones that have a tiny "volume" control inline with the cord. Unfortunately with my dell monitor it *doesn't have* any volume controls within the monitor, the docs say the monitor "doesn't support headphones" LOL. Soundflower might work as well.

  33. I had the same distortion issues with Soundflower, but found a YouTube that demonstrates accomplishing the same thing using the Demo version of Sound Siphon.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD5u8Zmd21Q

    It works like a charm. Just set the DisplayPort as the output in the Sound Siphon settings then set Sound Siphon as the output for the Mac. Tested on Sierra.

  34. Alexander Rose

     /  December 8, 2017 Quote

    Lame. Latest version doesn't have the actual app required to actually HEAR the sound.

    "The soundflowerbed has been retired. You can take your chances with the old version." Old version which I cannot find anywhere.

    I uninstalled Soundflower and am forced to use my monitors extremely unergonomic controls and not the wonderful volume slider on my $200 Corsair keyboard.. THANK YOU APPLE for ASSUMING what everyone likes and not giving options.

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