Audio stopped working after upgrade to 26.05 (macOS)

Anki Help
1

I’ve updated Anki to 26.05 by deleting and reinstalling it. Sound is no more. It just shows:

Sound and video on cards will not function until mpv or mplayer is installed.

Debug log shows this:

Traceback (most recent call last):

File “/Users/runner/work/anki/anki/out/installer/build/anki/macos/app/Anki.app/Contents/Resources/app_packages/aqt/sound.py”, line 944, in setup_audio

File “/Users/runner/work/anki/anki/out/installer/build/anki/macos/app/Anki.app/Contents/Resources/app_packages/aqt/sound.py”, line 456, in _init_

File “/Users/runner/work/anki/anki/out/installer/build/anki/macos/app/Anki.app/Contents/Resources/app_packages/aqt/mpv.py”, line 465, in _init_

File “/Users/runner/work/anki/anki/out/installer/build/anki/macos/app/Anki.app/Contents/Resources/app_packages/aqt/mpv.py”, line 107, in _init_

File “/Users/runner/work/anki/anki/out/installer/build/anki/macos/app/Anki.app/Contents/Resources/app_packages/aqt/mpv.py”, line 217, in _start_socket

aqt.mpv.MPVProcessError: unable to start process

mpv too old or failed to open, reverting to mplayer

Turning off add-ons does nothing. But that’s when I run Anki the normal way. If I open the insides of “Anki.app” and run it from there, the sound works. Still, it shows the error message in the logs.

That’s macOS 13.7.8. The lack of sound is pretty annoying, so I’m looking forward to any solutions.

2

Are you on an older Intel-based Mac? I had to fix an audio issue there before the stable release.

Can you paste debug info from the Info screen?

3

Yes, Intel mac.

Debug info:

Anki 26.05 (e64c6b1a) (ao)
Python 3.13.11 Qt 6.11.0 PyQt 6.11.0
Platform: macOS-13.7.8-x86_64-i386-64bit-Mach-O

===Add-ons (active)===
(add-on provided name [Add-on folder, installed at, version, is config changed])
Anki Leaderboard - Compete with friends to boost motivation Custom by Shige [‘175794613’, 2026-06-04T15:02, ‘None’, mod]
Debug Log Viewer [‘1232458693’, 2025-10-07T13:42, ‘None’, ‘’]
Deck name in title 21 [‘699175524’, 2019-06-01T03:05, ‘None’, ‘’]
FSRS Helper Postpone Advance Load Balance Easy Days Disperse Siblings [‘759844606’, 2026-05-14T08:49, ‘None’, mod]
Multiple type fields on card for 21 [‘711285688’, 2024-12-08T16:18, ‘None’, ‘’]
Review Heatmap [‘1771074083’, 2022-06-30T03:43, ‘None’, ‘’]
Search Stats Extended [‘1613056169’, 2026-05-14T23:07, ‘None’, ‘’]

===IDs of active AnkiWeb add-ons===
1232458693 1613056169 175794613 1771074083 699175524 711285688 759844606

===Add-ons (inactive)===
(add-on provided name [Add-on folder, installed at, version, is config changed])
AnkiHub [‘1322529746’, 2026-03-25T19:20, ‘None’, ‘’]

4

It looks like audio support is broken on macOS 13. If you’re willing to run some terminal commands, you should be able to work around the issue for now:

  1. Install Homebrew
  2. Run brew install mpv in Terminal and accept any prompts.
  3. Run the command sudo cp /usr/local/bin/mpv /Applications/Anki.app/Contents/Resources/app_packages/anki_audio/

Issued logged in mpv is broken on macOS 13 · Issue #5040 · ankitects/anki · GitHub

5

Installing mpv from brew requires XCode and I don’t have enough disk space for that. Would that work if I download built mpv for mac?

6

That should work. Maybe try one of the builds here: mpv.io | Installation

This one for example has builds for macOS 11 and later: mpv / os x

7

I had the same problem, but with an Apple chip (M4 Pro). Couldn’t play audio:

Sound and video on cards will not function until mpv or mplayer is installed.

Couldn’t record audio either:

Couldn’t record audio. Have you installed ‘lame’?

I ran Anki from the terminal and the log mentioned:

aqt.mpv.MPVProcessError: unable to start process

followed by:

mpv too old or failed to open, reverting to mplayer

FIX:
I simply downloaded the latest version (I was using v24), after wasting an hour of my time overengineering a fix. Thought this might help someone.

8

New user. Just installed Anki on Mac OS 13.7 (M1 chip). I’ve created a card with sound on as the Front side - uploaded as MP3 file. It shows in the field as: [sound:rec1781860668.mp3]

When I “study now” the deck I see a play button, but nothing happens. When I close Anki and restart, I get a message saying “Sound and video on cards will not function until mpv or mplayer is installed.” In the video driver field I have Metal selected, but also get a negative result if I change this to either of the other 2 options (Open GL, software).

Any ideas?

9

The latest release introduced an issue affecting macOS 13.

For now you can try the workaround explained in Audio stopped working after upgrade to 26.05 (macOS) or downgrade to 25.09