disable start up sound

With New version of OSX, sometime New solution is needed. Instead of closing maybe just not came if your problem is fixed. Just an idea

It's interesting how everyone seems obliged to say that the startup sound is a 'necessary' diagnostic tool for macs. This has been an issue for 25 years and will remain an issue until someone in Apple decides to listen to posts like this. If you mute the sound before shutting down there will be NO startup sound therefore it fails as an 'indispensable' diagnostic tool. For a number of years we were able to plug a mini-jack plug into the headphone port and mute the startup sound but Apple in their wisdom decided this was a no-no. It would be possible for Apple to write the HUGE chunk of code which would play a startup sound only IF there was a problem, but they don't. I work at night and can't count the number of times I have cringed at the bellow my mac has let out when started up, waking my wife and kids. There have indeed been times when I have just not bothered starting it up to avoid the hassle. And please don't give me that nonsense about leaving it asleep, for reasons I don't need to go into I switch my machines off when they are not in use.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. Apple obsesses with every last detail of the user experience, a big factor in their success. So when Apple goes out of their way to break startupSound.prefPane in Lion -- spending more time and energy in the process than they ever would making muting or "gong only if something went wrong in startup" user-defined System Preferences -- you know there has to be a good reason. And you're absolutely right that the stated reason ("a necessary diagnostic tool") doesn't pass the giggle test. Even Microsoft doesn't hide behind that lame excuse, but rather makes startup sound user-configurable in their Control Panel.

So why would Apple stubbornly stick with such a clumsy and annoying approach? It's quite simple when you think about it. It's not you they want the startup sound to be heard by. It's the people around you who they want to hear it. When you're in an airport, coffee shop, or some other public place everyone hearing the sound of another MacBook starting up is thought by the marketing crowd to be highly effective advertising. Oh, someone else is using a MacBook. If you were watching the crowd you'd notice all the aluminum tablets and notebooks in use, but most of us are absorbed in our own circle of distractions rather than scanning to see how many people are using MacBooks. Using the startup sound allows omnidirectional coverage so that people who couldn't see your MacBook from across a crowded room in any case can still hear it turning on. Beautifully effective advertising. And free.

I know it sounds cynical, but given that the sound is close to worthless as a diagnostic tool and that very little escapes the notice of the designers there aren't a whole lot of other rational explanations. The fact that they crippled startupSound.prefPane in Lion confirms this isn't just a legacy feature that they keep forgetting to pay attention to.

Ha! Another enlightened soul! This is more or less exactly the rant my wife had to listen to after I had posted above.

gortdromagh,

I agree with you and zrdonnelly but as I mentioned in one of my previous posts, MacPilot has not failed me if you want to get rid of the startup sound. For something that is so annoying for some people, I don't know why they are opposed to spending a few bucks. I'm not trying to convince you to buy it, that's not my thing, but I am saying that it works and it's supported by the company and still being developed.

http://www.koingosw.com/products/macpilot.php

I'm not opposed to trying third party software, and have indeed have tried several already. My frustration -- and that of others who've posted here if I'm reading them right -- is that nothing yet _consistently_ solves the problem. I have three Macs with Lion installed on them: MacBook Air, Mac Pro, and a Mini. All run OS X 10.7.2. Nothing I've tried works on the Mac Pro. Some work on the Mini, but MacPilot is not one of them. Interestingly, startupSound.prefPane does work on the Mini, but it's the only one of the three it does so for. On the MBA the only thing that has consistenly worked is the process described by Acid near beginning of this thread back on 28-Jul-11.

Bottom line: prior to Lion this senseless behavior seemed to be easily, unobtrusively, and elegantly solved by using startupSound.prefPane. And that plug-in did only that, making it a clean solution that didn't carry along other undesired functionality (like MacPilot provides). The best part was that it took longer to steer to the Arcana web page than it did to apply the change, and "it just worked." In Lion, by contrast, there is no clear solution. There doesn't appear to be anything that works on all of their hardware, forcing us to waste a lot of time trying different solutions, none of which are optimal. If were were talking about changes to the kernel or tweaking essential services I could see why Apple would make it deliberately hard. But to disable a viral marketing "feature" of the system? Seems like a they've stooped to an uncharacteristic level of pettiness.

Hi zrdonnelly

May I ask if making adjustments to System Preferences > Sound settings [see Page 6 of this discussion] do not work on your Mac Pro, or are you only interested in preventing the POST Sound/Start Up Sound occurring?

My interest is finding out what the differences are, that might cause changes to Sound Controllability, between similar Hardware running similar Software.

My Mac Pro has total control over the POST Sound, in that it could be completely silenced using the Slider Control, and does not require the Mute Checkbox to have a Tick placed in it. As of this afternoon I am running 10.7.3 and the POST Sound situation is still controllable [Apple have yet to provide a 10.7.3 label].

Clearly there are alternative ways to approach the situation of advising about impending issues with Operating Systems.

Providing a POST Sound every time the OS starts, certainly annoyed me at high volume, but I certainly would not want it switched off completely.

I do not know what the outcome might be if the Mac is left to run when there is a problem, but even if there is only a possibility of corrupting the Start Up HDD I would not want to take that risk.

Providing a POST Sound only when there is a problem might itself be problematic in event of Sound system malfunctions?

Producing the POST Sound every time also checks Sound system functionality and if this can be achieved at the right volume it can be a source of comfort that all is well.

IMHO Apple have made the best choice, but it is not possible to please all users all of the time.

If audible output was the only way I could interact with my Mac then I suppose it would be helpful to hear it gong when finished booting up. Thankfully we have an incredibly richer information stream called a monitor (screen). Imagine if your car honked for a second every time you started it, just to let you know that it started okay. And of course each automaker would use a different horn sound to make their products unique and easily distinguishable from other brands. How long would you put up with that? Personally I’d much rather have the car honk on startup only if something wrong is detected. But how much better would it be to see an indicator light with specific shape to give me some clue what is wrong, or better yet, print a diagnostic message on the instrument panel?
The same metaphor, repeated in other human-machine systems from motorcycles to jet fighters, works the same. Countless studies in human factors engineering have shown that positive feedback (letting you know when something is wrong) is far more effective and less distracting than negative feedback (telling you that everything is working right). I don’t see a compelling reason for ignoring this reality when designing computers. What sort of market reception do you suppose the iPod would have received if Apple insisted on sounding a loud one-second tone every time it was turned on?
I’ll readily concede that a MacBook is more complicated and has more potential points of failure than an iPod. And yes, it’d be tragic if OS X miraculously managed to still boot up fine in spite of a low-level hardware problem, and as a consequence I mangled the file system when trying to use it. I’ve never heard of, much less experienced, such an outcome, but I suppose it’s possible. In fact, I’ve never had a Mac boot up normally in spite of hardware problems, and would be surprised to learn that Apple doesn’t check the hardware status before proceeding to spin up OS X. So I’m not too worried about unwittingly doing further damage because I failed to notice the gong failed to sound. Since most people tune out the gong anyway it’s highly questionable whether most would even notice if it didn’t sound.
So for me I’d rather silence the gong and live with slim chance that I’d notice it didn’t sound and that was my only clue I was doing further damage -- a pretty remote probability -- than endure the annoyance every time I turn the machine on. Leaving it on by default but making it straight-forward for users to silence it makes perfect sense to me. But for Apple to deliberately sabotage a program that does so, and makes it harder to silence than in previous versions of OS X, is something that belongs in a Dilbert comic strip, not my MacBook Air.

I just want a check box to be able to disable startup sound...JC...we are talking about the company with the biggest revenu in 2011. Why...because of us. Your client or customer.

Ok Ok, apple guys, you win. Make it, and sell it in the apple store. It seems that is the only way to have something.

Incredible...I'm sorry, someday it's like that.

Ridiculous that this option doesn't exist.

I have been trying for a long time to use all the third party software and terminal lines, to no avail. But at a certain point it dawned on me. Since it's the Lion, a new system, maybe there is a way to work it out in the System Preferences... To my surprise - there is.

I have a Mac Pro, in which other methods simply didn't work, but most Mac Pros have a sound card and one listens to the sound generated through is (a line out). Even the normal system sounds play through the sound card - all except the start up sound.

In lion, in the preference panel you can mute the internal speaker, not affecting any other output, and associate the system sounds with the line out (controlled separately).

The result: completely soundless startup. And everything else works like it's supposed to.

I am a happy camper now.

I agree. Different Mac models and different OS versions behave differently. None of the things that I have tried have worked long term on my MacBook Pros, a 2008 version and a 2011 version, running Lion. I'm glad if they work for others. I, and many thousands of other Mac users, would be glad if Apple provided a reliable way to have a choice in this matter.

Each of us has different needs and preferences. It is ironic that the Mac was launched with the "1984" commercial, and now Apple is telling us that THEY will control the behavior of the Macs that we buy, that every user should want the same things, and that we will get the same things, whether we agree or not. Apple has made sure that there will not be any easy, consistent, reliable way for us to get the startup chime behavior that we want, as individuals. Personally, I like the startup chime, and would be pleased to hear it nine times out of ten. The tenth time it may be a major annoyance. I want to decide on the chime at startup, not at the previous shutdown. Others have different desires. In any case, Apple prevents many of us from deciding, with any of several of the hardware and OS configurations.

When I've spent a couple of thousand dollars for a computer, why isn't it MY computer? Why is Apple deciding that they know better than I whether restarting after the latest Software Update should wake my wife or not?

Well said Koninda.

You get the gold star of the day for your soluton of removing external speakeers and muting internal speakers output. Thank you so much, I was going crazy.

I installed StartNinja on my OSX Lion and once enabled it has now successfully muted my startup sound.