Headphones play new mail sound upon plugging in

I solved it at least for my situation.

When you plug in usb audio such as a monitor with speakers, or other speakers go to the sound settigns in system prefernces and select sound effects and then select internal speakers. The problem seems related to the sound effects going through external audio or USB audio.

Make sure internal or headphones is selected instead of usb while the usb audio device is plugged in. Unplug the device and then plug it back in verifying that the setting stays changed to internal speakers for usb audio devices and it should fix your problems.

Yes that makes sense, however in my case at home I do have speakers but they are not USB. Other peripherals connected to a USB port are the bamboo drawing pad, iPhone dock via usb cable and an external hard drive. So no audio there. At work the only thing connected is the iPhone cable (no dock).

This event happens only sometimes. I wish I could figure out under which conditions it happens but seems pretty random to me. Will try to disconnect all USB stuff and see if it happens again.

Do you have an external monitor?

Nope, only the iMac display :)

Happens to me too, but I kind of like it - it's both Mail sounds and Outlook sounds played rapidly and seemingly at random. It's sounds like when a child is so eager to tell you a story and she stumbles over the words ... Ok, maybe not, but it makes me smile.

I have a mbp/Lion at home and a retina/mountain lion at work. I do not use any special USB devices or airplay stuff, and I have not changed anything in the sound settings on either machine.

It happens sometimes when I connect my headphones, but not always.

If I disconnect them while the mail sound symphony is playing it just continues to play through the speakers.

Sometimes it plays only a few sounds, sometimes it goes on and on, maybe for a full minute or so.

I can see how it would be annoying for some, but it does make me laugh whenever it happens.

Had this problem with iPhone headphones too (MBP 2010, Mountain Lion).

Solved for me after I opened System Preferences -> Sound (with headphones UNPLUGGED!) and changed "Play sound effects through" from "Internal Speakers" to "Selected sound output device" and BACK.

So now sounds in Mail are not queued until I plugin headphones and are played immediately (with both "Internal Speakers" and "Selected sound output device" options).

FatalGlitch wrote:

Try going into System Preferences->Sound, and then on the first tab named "Sound Effects", towards the bottom is a "Play sound effects through:". Make sure that is set to "Selected sound output device"

If it's set to headphones, then it appears all the sounds just get queued up to a virtual device, as noted above.

This solved my problem.

Having the same issue here! Running a brand new iMac on 10.8.2. What's the deal here? It doesn't solve the problem to select "PLAY SOUND EFFECTS THROUGH" ....it was already set to that and I'm still getting the email alert noises for over a minute through my headphones.

And I don't even have an option that says "INTERNAL SPEAKERS", why not? And for some reason it shows that I have a "LOG ME IN SOUND DRIVER", what is that?!

You need to unplug headphones and select it.

Sounds like you have "Log Me In" installed an app for iphone and ipad to view your computer.

Thanks! There goes my morning "alert all the things" dance...

Same here, it's a shame that Apple has ignored this bug for so long.

Issue still exists in Mavericks!

Yes, same here with 10.9.2, the latest Mac OS. This is unbelievable! Who is able to fix this?

Checking in here too!

I have noticed this bug since I bought my 15" retina macbook pro over a year ago.

I am Running 10.8.5 currently. Bummer to hear WMarek, I was hoping that upgrading to Mavericks would fix the solution. Every time I unplug my external speakers (mini-stereo-audio jack) I get a ton of mail sent/receive alerts. Also happens when I launch iShowU-HD .

Time to squash this bug Apple!

Same issue here! Running 10.9.2. When I plug in my headphones, it plays the new mail sound -- and not only does it play it, but it BLASTS the sound, regardless of the volume; **** near blows my eardrums out. I've learned to plug the headphones in before I put them on. It's ridiculous that Apple has let this bug go on for almost three years without so much as an acknowledgement. Get on the stick, Apple!