Comments on: How to Mute the Mac Startup Sound

By: John

John — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 21:00:03 +0000

Help! My Air chimes…at weird times…how do I stop it?

By: ks

ks — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 05:56:54 +0000

Works perfectly on my MacBook Pro OSX 10.8.2

Thanks ….

By: Every Apple Startup Chime [Video]

Every Apple Startup Chime [Video] — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 20:15:38 +0000

[...] Most longtime Apple fans have fond memories of boot chimes and the dorkiest amongst us can even identify a Mac by that startup sound alone. Interestingly, a lot of newer Mac users are annoyed with the sound, which can be stopped temporarily by holding the Mute button during boot. [...]

By: Lloyd Sevold

Lloyd Sevold — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 18:25:30 +0000

You “sudo” command for killing my boot chime did not work on my iMac 10.8.2

By: Co-ords

Co-ords — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 13:35:24 +0000

Thanks a lot! Been looking for this since 10.8! Much appreciated!!

By: How to Disable the Mac Boot Chime Completely

How to Disable the Mac Boot Chime Completely — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 00:00:56 +0000

[...] know that every time the Mac reboots or starts up it makes a startup chime sound. Though you can temporarily mute the chime by holding down the Mute key on any Mac keyboard, you can also choose to disable it completely by [...]

By: Answer Man

Answer Man — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 01:31:45 +0000

Go into Terminal.

Type:

sudo nvram SystemAudioVolume=%00

enter your Mac password at the prompt.

Done!!!

By: Krazy Jay

Krazy Jay — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 02:40:44 +0000

I bought an old Mac G4 it’s kinda like Windows 3.1 got frustrated with the bong…F’it…cut the wire.

By: WTF is wrong with Apple?

WTF is wrong with Apple? — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 12:08:48 +0000

Why the hell would they not just have a setting turn startup sound off?

By: Nilesh Parmar

Nilesh Parmar — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 07:49:24 +0000

Startup Sound works well for me on Lion, another tip i do is upon firing up the imac, i hold the low volume button down and this stops the startup tone.

By: How to Completely Disable Audio & Sound in Mac OS X

How to Completely Disable Audio & Sound in Mac OS X — Wed, 30 May 2012 17:55:36 +0000

[...] disabling the boot sound but don’t want to remove all system audio functionality, you can silence it on a per-boot basis or mute it completely with StartupNinja. stLight.options({ [...]

By: Dragonfly

Dragonfly — Wed, 02 May 2012 22:52:10 +0000

“A solution for the startup sound from the early days of the Mac was to simply plug a headphone or external speaker into the sound output port (with volume set way down)”

Unfortunately Apple thought of that and seems to have disabled that loophole. Now you just grit your teeth when starting at 11pm, through fear of waking neighbours. “BOOONNNGG!”

By: Koninda

Koninda — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:53:56 +0000

Muting before shut down doesn’t work for my MacBook Pros, both a 2008 model and a 2011 model. Neither does holding down the mute key at startup. Nor plugging in headphones, nor a mini-plug adapter (actually, a 1/8″/3.5mm “mini-jack” is the right size, but it doesn’t work either). Whatever settings and incantations I have tried, the startup chime comes out loud and clear through the built-in speakers. And for those who say that I shouldn’t be shutting down or restarting, it is required for many Software Updates. This is among the more user-hostile features of my Macs. I’ve talked to AppleCare, and was told that Apple doesn’t provide a method to silence the chime, and doesn’t endorse any third parter methods. I hope everyone will post a message on http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html, asking for a fix to this problem.

By: Set the Volume Level to a Hidden Ultra Low Setting in Mac OS X

Set the Volume Level to a Hidden Ultra Low Setting in Mac OS X — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:23:52 +0000

[...] enough that you can identify them. This is a perfect setting to couple with temporarily muting the boot sound for using a Mac in meetings, libraries, classrooms, or other places where silence is necessary, [...]

By: Mellington

Mellington — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:12:16 +0000

A solution for the startup sound from the early days of the Mac was to simply plug a headphone or external speaker into the sound output port (with volume set way down). Another was to plug in a mini-plug adapter into the sound port, connected to nothing. The disadvantage of these methods is that after booting, if you want to hear normal sound levels from your speakers you have to take an inconvenient action to restore the sound by unplugging something from the sound port or turning up the speakers/headphones. Alternatively, if you know Applescript/shell scripting you can write scripts to mute or lower the volume upon shutting down and to restore the volume automatically after the normal boot process.