Bugs & Fixes: Work-arounds for sound loss, trailer failure, and over-full iPads

My Apple hardware has recently been bothered by several unrelated bugs—ranging from alert sound loss on my Mac Pro to free space mysteriously disappearing from my iPad. While I’ve figured out satisfactory work-arounds for most of these symptoms, they still defy a complete and permanent solution. Here are a quartet of the ones that have frustrated me the most:

Alert sound loss

Periodically, my 2009 Mac Pro appears to stop playing alert sound effects. I typically first take notice of the problem because Office for Mac’s Outlook stops playing the sounds that accompany sent or received mail. Finder alert sounds similarly vanish. Sounds in most other situations, such as music in iTunes, continue to play just fine. Of possible relevance, I have external speakers connected to my Mac via Line Out.

When this sound loss occurs, I can get things working again via the following fix:

1. Go to Sound System Preferences. Switch the source for “Play sound effects through.” In my case, I switch from Line Out to Display Audio and then back to Line Out.

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