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.

the more I read this forums,the more fun i have... a sound to tell you critical things? really? what century is this? people are supposed to have evolved, and know how to read stuff. give a **** message, telling what is wrong, not a sound! who remembers sounds codes, multiple keyboard shortcuts an terminal commands? 21st century ...MG..

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.

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.

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!!.

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...

I usaly reboot my imac from 50 miles away. Does anyone know how to make the noise louder so I can hear it, otherwise I don't what is happening?

Oh yes the people in my office call me up anyway - no problem.

Running OS 10.8.2 on Mac book air. This link took me to a free application called "Start Ninja". Downloaded the program and it works perfectly. Thanks so much Rockhopper 09!

See also:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3208783?start=120&tstart=0

Does not work with iMac - pity - that piano chord noise reminds me of my Grandad playing hymns on a Sunday morning!

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!!!

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