switchaudio-osx

A command-line utility to switch the audio source on Mac OS X.

Description

This utility switches the audio source for Mac OS X.

You specify the name of the audio source, such as Built-in Digital Output, and the utility switches the source immediately without any GUI interaction.

This is a command-line utility only and has no graphical user interface. Tested on OS 10.7 - 11.2.

Installing from homebrew

brew install switchaudio-osx

Usage

SwitchAudioSource [-a] [-c] [-f format] [-t type] [-n] -s device_name | -i device_id | -u device_uid

• -a : shows all devices
• -c : shows current device
• -f format : output format (cli/human/json). Defaults to human.
• -t type : device type (input/output/system). Defaults to output.
• -m mute_mode : sets the mute status (mute/unmute/toggle).
• -n : cycles the audio device to the next one
• -i device_id : sets the audio device to the given device by id
• -u device_uid : sets the audio device to the given device by uid or a substring of the uid
• -s device_name : sets the audio device to the given device by name

Muting

The -m flag can be used to mute input or output devices.

Define the device via -t.

Example for toggling the mute state for the currently selected input, e.g. microphone:

SwitchAudioSource -m toggle -t input

This is useful on a hotkey, e.g. to mute your Teams or Zoom input.

Thanks

Thanks to Christian Zuckschwerdt for migrating this to github and adding the next option.

License

MIT License, see license.txt

Copyright (c) 2008-2021 Devon Weller wellerco@gmail.com
Copyright (c) 2011 Christian Zuckschwerdt zany@triq.net