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Balance Lock

Prevents audio balance from drifting left or right

Lock it to the center or custom point
Screenshot of the drop down menu in Balance Lock showing that the audio balance was recently fixed.
Download on the Mac App Store

Requires macOS 10.12 or later

Supported macOS versions:
macOS 10.12 Sierra - macOS 14 Sonoma

Latest Version:
Balance Lock 1.1

Release Date:
May 15, 2021

Noticing that the audio balance for your headphones is going slightly to the left or right? Balance Lock was designed to solve this by keeping the audio centred either in the middle or to a custom lock point. No more annoying left/right audio drift!

It runs unintrusively in the background, monitoring the audio levels to ensure that when plugging and unplugging headphones, the audio stays centered. It even has special support for USB audio devices so ensure all types of headphones are supported.

There's no cost for Balance Lock. No purchase, no in-app purchase and no ads. We wanted to make a simple to use utility that was useful to the Mac community at large, for everyone to use.

It's compatible with both Intel and Apple Silicon architectures so it's ready for all current and future Mac models.

Featured by Mac Geek Gab in Episode 1027

No More Drifting

Balance Lock will keep the audio balanced in the middle (or a custom point) so you don't have to worry about checking the System Preferences every time you plug or unplug your headphones.

The dreaded balance drifting bug in macOS is now a thing of the past.

Icon showing a slider for left and right  audio balance with a blue lock in the middle.
Icon of an ear with lines next to it, representing sounds.

Helps Hearing Impaired

At people's request, we've added in the ability to set the lock point on a left-right slider. Instead of locking the balance to the center, it can be customized to either side or anything in-between.

This is a handy feature for those who are hearing impaired and want the sounds to only be available in one ear.

Get Notified

Get an optional notification when Balance Lock restores the audio balance after detecting that it has drifted to the left or right.

In addition, it also shows the last time and device that was fixed in the drop down menu.

    Notification
    Screenshot of a notification showing that Balance Lock has restored the audio balance.
    Drop Down Menu
    Screenshot of the drop down menu in Balance Lock showing that the audio balance was recently fixed.
Icon of the Universal Binary 2 logo.

Fully Optimized

Balance Lock is a Universal App, so it's built natively for all architectures. Whether it's running on an Intel or Apple Silicon chip, it's fully optimized.

This translates into a near zero CPU usage while it runs in the background waiting to fix any balance issues.

Multiple Languages

Balance Lock has been translated to the following languages to ensure that it's easy to use for all users:

  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Spanish
  • Russian
  • Japanese
  • Chinese (Simplified)

    English
    Screenshot of the drop down menu in Balance Lock showing that the audio balance was recently fixed.
    German
    Screenshot of the drop down menu in Balance Lock in German, showing that the audio balance was recently fixed.

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Screenshots

  • Screenshot of the settings for Balance Lock.

    Settings

  • Screenshot of the drop down menu in Balance Lock showing that the audio balance was recently fixed.

    Drop Down Menu

  • Screenshot of a notification showing that Balance Lock has restored the audio balance.

    Notification