This guide contains instructions on how to get audio working on a CoffeeLake/KabyLake/SkyLake hackintosh, aswell as older motherboard chipsets. This guide covers the new ALC1220 codec, as well as other codecs such as ALC1150, 892, 887, and the ASUS S1220A. If you followed one of our audio should already be working for you and you don’t need to follow this guide.
This guide uses the AppleALC method which is the easiest way to get audio working for beginners without tampering with the files of macOS and it’s the easiest way to debug if there is a problem. Other methods can be difficult to reverse if a mistake is made. If used a different method beforehand that didn’t work that modifiedAppleHDA this guide may not work for you and I suggest doing a clean install of macOS before following this guide again.
If you have any problems afterwards you can see if your problem is listed in the Audio Problems Section with a list of common problems that can happen on Kabylake/Skylake motherboards.
Step 1: Mount EFI Partition
- Open Clover Configurator
- Select Mount EFI under TOOLS
- Click Mount Partition for Install macOS….
- Click Open Partition (This is your EFI Folder)
Step 2: Audio Kexts
There are two files called AppleALC.kext and Lilu.kext that work in tandem to get audio working on a hackintosh. You’ll will need to first download these kexts.
Download the latest version of each file you will need to download the package RELEASE.zip at the bottom of each version.
Example Download X.X.X.RELEASE.zip location
Download Links
- Download AppleALC.kext
- Download Lilu.kext
Kext Placement
- Copy the the files called AppleALC.kext and Lilu.kext in each respective RELEASE folder
- Paste them in the location EFI/Clover/kexts/Other of your EFI partition. (If these files already exist in this location replace them with the latest version)
Step 3: Audio Device ID
You need to know what audio chipset your motherboard uses, it needs to be a compatible ALC chipset to work. High end motherboards with Creative Sound chipsets wont work, you’ll need to use an alternative audio solution.
One way you can find out your chipset through your motherboards product page or by typing your motherboard into Newegg.com and looking at the specifications tab.
- Open config.plist using Clover Configurator
- Click Apci
- Verify the HDAS to HDEF patch exists under DSDT -> Patches box.If not click the add “+” button and enter:
-
- Comment: Rename HDAS to HDEF
- Find* [HEX]: 48444153
- Replace [HEX]: 48444546
-
- Next click Devices on the left column
- Check ResetHDA checkbox
- Above Inject you will type in the audio ID number based on what audio codec your motherboard is using you will need to experiment with different numbers if the one is bold doesn’t work for you. For a complete list of supported codecs see AppleALC Supported Codecs
- ALC1220, Inject = 11, 1 , 2 , 5 , 7
- S1220A, Inject = 7 , 1 , 2 , 5
- ALC1150, Inject = 1 , 2 , 3 , 5 , 7 , 11
- ALC892, Inject = 1 , 2 , 3 , (4 for laptop) , 5 , 7 , 28 , 92 , 99
- ALC887, Inject = 7 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 5 , 11 , 13 , 17 , 18 , 33 , 99
- Save and close your config.plist file
- Restart your Hackintosh
Note: If your ALC codec isn’t on the above list you can check this supported codec list for all of them.
Since I have a motherboard with ALC1220 as the audio chipset I set Inject to 11 in the right most box.
Step 4: Setting Audio Output
In order to get audio output through your rear audio jacks and the headphone jack at the front. You will need to set your output device to Internal Speakers for sound to work.
- Open System Preferences
- Select Sound
- Click the tab called Output
- Select Internal Speakers
- Also click checkbox Show volume in menu bar
These options should show if you setup audio properly using the guide above. Select Internal Speakers for output.
Done.
Audio Problems
This basic guide wont work for every motherboard, check to see if you have one of the common problems below.
Audio options not showing in Step 4.
Experiment with different Audio ID numbers that work for your ALC audio codec in Clover Configurator in Step 3 saving your config.plist and restarting your machine each time until you find an inject layout that works. A full list of audio layout id’s can be found here
No Audio after selecting Internal Speakers in Step 4.
Video Playback Freezes
If video playback freezes when playing videos in youtube; disorted audio when using QuickTime player after adding AppleALC.kext & Lilu.kext you are most likely using a Gigabyte or ASROCK motherboards that has trouble with the specific version of the audio kexts you are using causing the problem. Solution:
Boot to Black Screen
After I added the kexts and restarted my machine I get a black screen?
Audio volume at half on Boot/Wake
Can happen with budget motherboards. Requires two fixes.
- Darkwake Fix
- CodecCommander Fix
- Restart Hackintosh
Sleep Breaks Audio
I’ve experienced this issue with ASUS and MSI motherboards. These steps may help:
- Darkwake Fix
- CodecCommander Fix
- Restart Hackintosh
Audio Fixes
Incompatible Kext Fix
This happens when the version of AppleALC.kext & Lilu.kext that you are using isn’t compatible with your motherboard due to unknown issues.
- Download AppleALC.kext – v1.1.0
- Download Lilu.kext – v1.0.0
- Copy the kext file in each folder
- Paste them in the location EFI/Clover/kexts/Other of your Mounted EFI Partition replacing the existing AppleALC.kext + Lilu.kext
- Restart Hackintosh
Darkwake Fix
- Mount your EFI Partition
- Open config.plist with Clover Configurator
- Click Boot on left column
- Under Arguments, set Darkwake = 8
CodecCommander.kext Fix
Helps fix half volume bug on certain motherboards on boot/wake from sleep
- Download latest version of CodecCommander
- Copy CodecCommander.kext located in Release folder
- Mount your EFI Partition with Clover Configurator
- Paste CodecCommander.kext in EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other
Unclean Install
If you used a different method to try and get audio working before following this guide like VoodooHDA or cloverALC.command this could be interfearing with AppleALC.kext
- Either remove the changes made with other audio solutions or do a clean install of macOS.
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64 Comments on "This is how to get Hackintosh audio working"
so im suposed to leave all 3 config. plist in clover folder? also would this work with
EVGA Z270, i7700K, SSD CRUCIAL 525 GB, 32 GB, RAM, 1.5 TB. STORAGE
and most important for me GTX 1080 Ti
thanks
You can have many “config” files only the one called “config.plist” will load with clover, you can boot from other config’s like config-iGPU by manually setting it in Clover Bootloader on startup. Getting audio working is dependent on the motherboard not your other hardware parts.
Some info on what the audio layout ID is for and why you might want to use a different ID would be helpful
Why does installing v1.1.0 help fix incompatibilities?
Thanks for all the great posts btw
Owww man i lov you !!! You are the best !!
Hello
I install Mac OSX Sierra 10.12.6 on a GA H270 gaming 3 motherboard with a ALC 1220 sound controller.
I put the latest revisions of AppleALC.kext (1.14) and Lilu.kext (1.1.7). Audio is working, except there is a permanent whistle very disturbing.
Any idea how to have a proper sound ?
Thanks
Patrice
kaan me tel daal ke rui thoons le be
lol
very useful guide. this help me alot on my High Sierra
my sound is now working fine. ALC877. i have Gigabyte GA-Z270-HD3
hello,
theres no lilu kext in the zip, only applealc kext? do i need download somewhere ? thanks
You don’t own the file “config.plist” and don’t have permission to write to it.
https://github.com/vit9696/Lilu/releases
still can’t edit config.plist with this messages :
“You don’t own the file “config.plist” and don’t have permission to write to it.”
please help
Does anyone know of way to remove the auto sense of AppleALC? I want both Internal Speakers and Headphones to show and I choose either one or the other myself. I want this because I have both headphones and speakers plugged in to my PC. Cheers!
You Rule! Another great guide!
I Have an MSI Z170A Tomahawk, i6700k, EVGA GTX1050ti
I just went through this for each value, and then inserted the “Rename HDAS to HDEF” Patch. When I now look in ioRegistryExplorer I see it in there, but still don’t have output options. Any suggestions?
hi!
First of, thank you so much for this wonderful website of yours, it really helpt me a lot with setting up my very first Hackintosh. I’ve used one of your guides for the entire installation and practically everthing works except for one pesky thing: onboard sound. So far I was able to identify which codec I am using and according to what I’m reading on this page it should be working right after install. Unfortunately, it does not. After inserting every ID applicable, not once did the internal audio out, line out, internal speakers, etc showed up in my output preferences.
I’m using a GA-Z270-X Ultra Gaming motherboard with Realtek ALC1220.
I hope either you, or someone else reading this, has come across this problem before and/if knows how to fix it. *I must add: I’m still don’t fully understand every technical term.
Hope to hear from you soon, in kind regards, Stefano
Hi im using gigabyte 270 md3h
i used combo update 1.0.12.5.
My codec is Alc 892.
i used alc 1.1.0 and lilu 1.0.0 with inject 1
.audio works fine but it breaks…help me
Big thank you. it works without troubles, MB Gigabyte GA-Z270X-UD5
ALC1220 Inject value 11.
thanks for your guides. working great except audio has a lot of white noise along with the signal it is playing… any thoughts on fixes
What ALC codec?
thanks for your guides. working great except audio has a lot of white noise along with the signal it is playing… any thoughts on fixes
Thank you so much for this clear, legible and effective guide. It worked a treat!
AS Rock Z270 with High Sierra on NVME drive.
🙂
With all due respect to Tonymacx86, you are THE BEST.
Your guides are clear and friendly and up do date, and every solution you’ve written has actually worked the first time I used them, including this one. THANK YOU!!
Hello! Thanks for the guide – it worked great, I have all of the output/input options available but all I get through any of the ports is static. The strange thing is that when I adjust volume while playing music to test the quality of the static changes with my volume adjustments. Very strange! I’ve tried all the suggestions, including codec commander and still just the list of outputs with static on every one. Would it make sense to try installing AppleALC and Lilu in my Extensions folder instead?
Is it possible I fried my built-in audio at some point? How would I test that?
Also I recently installed a Nvidia GTX Titan Card – could that somehow be interfering? Are there any know issues there? My audio worked great last week so maybe related?
Any guidance/suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thank you so much.
Dan
Excellent guide! For some reason I didn’t read all of your relevant blogs and installed VoodooHDA and it seemed to get the sound working intermittently for a while, but manually removing all the VHDA files and editing the /Library/Preferences/Audio files to remove all VoodooHDA references worked. I guess I wasn’t clear from Multibeast what to install for a Z370 build in general. Thanks again!
I used your EFI folder and after updating the Lilu and WhateverGreen kexts to the latest versions from SourceForge, it seemed to give me a ‘headphones’ in SystemPrefs/Sound/Audio/Output that I needed as I was relying on a headphone jack for my external speakers.
Thank you. I’ve tried many other methods and failed. This happened for a few days.
Then I came across this and everything was clear and my sound worked as it should.
I have a Gigabyte motherboard (GA-Z270-D3) with built-in sound Realtek (ALC887).
I tried each layout_id, number 2 gave me the most IO options – but the sound had random crackles. Number 99 gave the best output, but had less IO options.
Installed Hackintosh using Kaby Lake guide. The sound output works but not microphone. I’ve updated AppleALC, Lilu on my MSI Z270 Gaming M7 (Realtek 1220)/i7-7700K. Tried different Audio IDs, all of them (11, 1, 2, 5, 7) and different connections (motherboard, front panel). The hardware is ok (tested on Windows). Any suggestion?
I have the same motherboard – did you ever fix this?
No.
Hey! Looks like updating to latest AppleALC + Lilu + setting Audio ID to 13 + unchecking dart=0 in Boot -> Arguments allowed me to use back side ‘mic’.
I’m using an MSI B250m Pro-VDH Mobo and AMD RX 560 Graphics Card. I already tried all IDs and HDMI Audio works fine but I can’t get the audio jacks to work. Any ideas?
Thank you so much for this guide! I just ran into some trouble because I previously tried with cloverALC.command, and could not make it work. You explanations were so much clearer!
I love you. You saved my life. I have z270x-u5d (ALC1220 codec) and i7 7800. Worked perfectly. Thanks.
Z97X-UD5H Board
ALC1150 Audio codec
No audio after sleep even after
Darkwake=8 + Codecommander kext
There is a change I had to make to the Codecommander plist under
Realtek ALC1150
Custom Commands
Update Nodes = No <~ had to change that to yes
Audio now works after sleep
sauce:
https://github.com/Dolnor/EAPD-Codec-Commander/issues/14
Thank you!!!!!!
My mainboard ASUS B150I finally get audio after sleep~~~
Also fixed the issue on my GA-Z97X-UD5H
I put followed all the settings for ALC1150, since i have a gigabyte h97 gaming 3 motherboard, i also put the codec commander and darkwake fix but still my audio after sleep its not working what should i try thanks!
Awesome
Hackintosher, really thank for your great work. But how about painless VoodoHDA install? What the point to dance around ALC if exist -install&forgetSoundTrouble- way?
I’ve been using VoodooHDA with a Ryzen hackinosh as that’s the only option that just works. So I was thinking I would include that method too.
Worked perfectly!!
many thanks
10.13
Z370XP SLI
i7 8700
Thank god I found this website, I was reading another tutorial on how to do this but I got way to confused. This is confirmed working on my MSI H170 Gaming M3 on macOS 10.12.6. I am so thankful.
Cant go past step 3 I tried all the options and restarted many times 🙁
What to do?
Thanks!!!
Brilliant guide, thank you very much. I’d previously got audio working on my Intel NUC5i5MYHE using the “audio_cloverALC-130.command” script, but for some reason it stopped working. This guide worked perfectly – better than before in fact because now I have both the DisplayPort audio AND the front headphone jack, both tested. FWIW the audio ID number for this system is 1.
Thanks for the the excellent guide. Got ALC887 working on Z270-HD3P with inject=99.
Unfortunately, 8 days later, after a security update, sound was broken again, and I could not get it to work again. No audio devices show up.
Ideas welcome.
Z270-HD3P, 16GB RAM
Radeon RX 580
High Sierra 10.13.4
Changing HDA -> HDEF following the first method under ‘IX Unsupported’ from https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/applehda-realtek-audio-guide.234732/ saved the audio!
I am not able to get my audio working with any method at all.
It was working fine few days back.
Tried updating to the latest kexts. Tried changing the value under audio in clover.
Nothing seems to help really.
I have a Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 5 with i7 8700K.
Just updated to 10.13.5.
hope this helps somebody looking for the answer :
The issue with audio is the Microsoft folder in the EFI partition.
I removed it ( I know I can’t boot into Windows without it) but it seems to sort the issue!
I have the audio working with Audio Inject= 1 and no patches needed at all.
Just the two kexts in the EFI/Clover/kexts/Other folder
Let’s find a way to rectify it properly.
thanks bro works great
Thanks for the guide!
Sadly it does not work. No audio outputs in sys prefs, and with the DSDT patch my screen goes into christmas mode (tv snow). Once I disable it the screen is mostly fine (besides a few glitches every once in a while).
Running Asus mobo z370-p, i5-8600k coffee lake, 10.13.6 high sierra. Got any ideas on what could be wrong? Any help is greatly appreciated!
Anyway to boost microphone? Now the microphone volume is too small. If I go to Windows and set microphone boost to 20db, and go back Hackintosh without power down, it will keep the microphone boost and make the microphone usable.
Hi, I can’t get Realtek ACL892 on a MSI Z97s SLI Plus to work on Mojave. Any help (not to technical) would be very welcome
Hey, thank you very much – worked on Mojave!
Though I have the feeling that the audio is pretty quiet compared to the AUX output of my MacBook Pro. Is it possible that it’s a driver / kext thing or does Hackintosh audio either work or not (so it being quiet would simply be my MB outputting a low signal)?
Thank you in advance!
After step 3 I am not able to boot my hackintosh. Please explain
Followed these instructions and it killed my whole system.
Those kext files should NOT go into the Other folder.
My desktop is now in an infinite boot loop now.
Thank you thank you thank you.
Anyone have success with cx 20672 on vivobook (x405u)?
Your same page #hash links dont work.
E.g Clicking on link “1. Incompatible Kext Fix” doesn’t jumps to “Incompatible Kext Fix”.
Answer: change href to id of ‘jumps/sections’ not of links
e.g id=”Incompatible-Kext”
I’m struggling getting ALC1220-VB to work on the Gigabyte z390 Aorus Master. I wonder if the “VB” part is what prevents it from working. Any tips?
Carl,
Try this… Toleda over on tonymacx86 has a pre-release of AppleACL.kext listed in post #1456 (listed as 1.3.4 (debug).zip). it worked for me on the z390 Aorus Master.
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/no-audio-devices-applehda-realtek-audio.234729/page-146
Which layout are you using for this Mobo?
layout 1 with the new kext (1.3.4)
The only issues I still have are:
1) KP on shutdown or restart
2) No kext available for the Intel wifi/bluetooth