How do I turn off startup sound?

To disable the startup sound that plays when you turn on your mac, simply hold down the mute button while pressing the power button. Keep it held down for a while, until after the sound would have normally played.

I'm sorry but Hippomormor's suggestion did not work for me... this, however, did.

1. Launch Terminal (from Applications > Utilities > Terminal);

2. Wait for the Terminal UI to display your computer’s name (root directory) and punch in:

CODE

sudo nvram SystemAudioVolume=%80

3. Hit Return/Enter;

4. Now you’ll be prompted to type in your administrator password. Do that, hit OK, and you’re done.

When you restart your Mac, the OS X boot chime should no longer play. If you somehow decide you want the boot sound back, simply fire up Terminal again and, instead of the aforementioned command, use sudo nvram -d SystemAudioVolume.

Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Disable-the-OS-X-Startup-Sound-on-Mountain -Lion-365852.shtml

And yes, I'm on Mavericks. Hope this helps, cheers.

Have you tried the free app 'volume reset' by Avery deGruchy?

Free from the app store, mute or reduce the volume of the startup chime and no longer be hated or mocked by anyone nearby. It's a must have. Gets rid of Apple one big problem lack of volume adjustment of the BOINGGG!!.

Usually, if you press the Mute button (do not hold it at any time) that will set

audio to Mute on startup. On some models, it was possible for a headphone

plug to be in the audio-out jack to effectively turn off audio to built-in speaker.

Since most who reply to topics here, are not Apple employees and do not at

any time represent Apple, Inc. a better idea would be to send Feedback to

an appropriate department of the Company via their Feedback site links, as

provided on the Apple web site in various locations. Following links are from

the Apple Contact Us page: http://www.apple.com/contact/

"Tell us how we’re doing. Select the appropriate feedback option "

(we read everything, but can’t always respond):

• Support Feedback
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Some of the command-line methods successes varied over time and between

different OS X system build versions. There may be some successes in how

to attempt to Mute system audio, with the AppleScript angle; that too will vary

depending on where the command was said to begin implementation... If it

was in the wrong location in the system or written incorrectly, it may not work

if the computer was not awake to run it. (Poorly written commands need repair.)

I'd try a third party tool such as Cocktail or OnyX to see if they offer a simple

tool in their tweaks that may perform this task. There is a build of either one

of these tools for each OS X. There are no guarantees, so if you suggest to

Apple Feedback your concern & question, someone will likely read through it

but you may not see a reply. And If some aspect of the OS X function appears

to have a Bug, you may seek to read about how to File a Bug report instead.

Sorry that you find issue with those who are here, as part of a user-to-user

product owner network of volunteers, who do not represent Apple and cannot

reply about any issue in authority on behalf of Apple, Inc. Almost nobody here

has an official capacity in the ASC discussions, other than Community Hosts.

So these are my recommendations for you to consider. Or not...

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

NONE OF THE ABOVE WORKS FOR ME!

imac/Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5

I find this great solution...

<This is a Direct Download Link>

MuteCon for Mac OS

or go to http://homepage1.nifty.com/macbs/download.htm#MuteCon

mutec202.dmg(90.3KB)(recent version)

is a japanese site but the app is in english.

this app mute the sound before exit and demute after boot.

works with Lion/snow leopard/ Mointain Lion

set the preferences like this

and add to Admin User acount to launch on startup.

So easy...I can not believe I lost so much time.

Help to spread the word!!!

<Edited By Host>

Why use third party stuff for something you can do yourself in terminal?

1. Login as administrator and open a terminal window

2. Create scriptfile for muting
sudo nano /path/to/mute-on.sh

3. Enter this as content, when done press control+O to save and control+X to exit:
#!/bin/bash
osascript -e ‘set volume with output muted’

4. Create scriptfile for unmuting
sudo nano /path/to/mute-off.sh

5. Enter this as content, when done press control+O to save and control+X to exit:
#!/bin/bash
osascript -e ‘set volume without output muted’

6. Make both files executable:
sudo chmod u+x /path/to/mute-on.sh
sudo chmod u+x /path/to/mute-off.sh

7. Check if any hooks already exist (these will be overwritten, so make sure it is OK for you)
sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook
sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LogoutHook

8. Add hooks for muting
sudo defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LogoutHook /path/to/mute-on.sh
sudo defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook /path/to/mute-off.sh

Notes:
- /path/to/ is the location of the scripts, I used /Library/Scripts/
- you can skip the unmuting loginhook (i.e. each logout will silence your machine), but I like it this way because I always have sound available exactly at the volume level I set last time
- root has to be the owner of the script files – running an editor from command line with sudo is the easiest way to achieve that (otherwise you need to chown)
- to delete the hooks, use the following:
sudo defaults delete com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook
sudo defaults delete com.apple.loginwindow LogoutHook

OR

hold down the mute key when turning it on 😉

There are third party utilities like Psst that can control the boot chime volume. But I recommend you really don't want to turn it off. It's not just there to say "hey, I'm booting successfully". It's also there to say "hey, I can't boot, there's something wrong, and I'll send you a special beep code to tell you what my problem is".

Power On Self-Test Beep Definition - Part 2

It's also there to tell you "hey, you can push your special key sequence to to a pram reset, smc reset, boot into lion recovery partition, and a bunch of other special boot sequences.

Startup key combinations for Intel-based Macs

So if you use these utilities, I recommend you turn the volume down if you want, but not completely off. Check out Psst and look at the Similar Software section lower in that page I linked to.

You are addressing a user-to-user discussions area and not Apple Inc.

New to the community? Start here.

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of the content on this site are subject to the Apple Support Communities Terms of Use..."

In any event...

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

If one is looking for a temporary solution, this is exactly how it works in Mavericks. The Mac remembers the volume set for the system before reboot, so if one mutes the system first and then reboots, the start-up sound will be muted. Holding down the mute button while rebooting won't help at all. It all depends whether the system was already muted before reboot.

It's necessary, however, to unplug headphones, etc., since adjusting the volume while one has the headphones plugged in only changes the volume that goes into the headphones. And as we know, the start-up sound overrides the volume settings for the headphones, etc.

So:

1. Unplug the cord that leads up either to your headphones or stereo, etc.
2. Mute the system.
3. Reboot – without sound.

I think the system should remember its volume settings even if one plugged the cord back after step 2, but I haven't tried this, and won't, since all the house is sleeping at the moment.

I use external speakers (hi-fi connected for Garage Band and iTunes), so this solution works for me:

1. Unplug Audio-out cable from back of Mac
2. Go into volume settings and click mute (or just hit F10)
3. Plug audio-out cable back in
4. Adjust volume for everyday use (volume settings, or F11/F12)

Now, when you turn on the Mac, as long as my external speakers are turned off, I get no sound when I boot up.

Once booted, I turn on my speakers/hi-fi and I'm sorted.

We'll agree to disagree. Those beep tones may not be useful to you but if you post here with a boot problem odds are someone is going to ask you if you are getting any warning chimes. And even if you are not odds are even higher you might be asked to to a pram reset, safe boot, or boot from the lion recovery partition to run Disk Utility to repair your drive, and so on. These are all standard basic diagnostic techniques that require the boot chime to do them.

I agree with the OP on this one. The default startup sound should be an option.

On the rebuttal regarding warning chimes, why can't they be separate? Not having the default startup sound shouldn't necessarily disable warning chimes.

If anyone here knows of a way to disable the default startup sound for Mac OS 10.6.8, please chime in (pun intended). Thanks.

Glenn,

I agree that the Startup sound is annoying. A simple option in General settings would fix this, but I guess Apple will never make this possible.

I found this app which appears to work with Mountain Lion

http://www.allvu.com/index.php/sndownloadpage.html

I hope Apple will actually hear the millions of users that want this option. My ipad and iphone do not go BONNNG!! so why does my Mac have to do the this. How about at least make the option to change the sound to be the iphone "Drop" or some Apple chime that is quieter.

i recently bought an iMac and having used windows PCs previously, i find this lack of being able to turn off the start up sound down right annoying. i am usually awake when the rest of my household is asleep, so to have my iMac tell the whole world it's starting up is not in the least bit useful.

i have earphones constantly plugged in, and i thought, oh the sound will play through them, like it does on windows, but oh no... i tried muting the sound, like i have on my windows computers, but again to no avail. say what you will about windows, they've got the sound settings i like!

why must apple dictate to us like this? it really is the simple things like this that make people see brands in a negative light. and have me saying, you know what? macs aren't all they're cracked up to be!!

@X423424X - surely apple are genius enough to let us turn the startup sound off, yet if there is a problem on boot up, a 'special chime' would still sound. doesn't seem that hard to me, microsoft clearly managed it.

plus if my mac isn't going to boot up, i don't really need a little chime to tell me that, i'm going to notice...