imicanada

Q: How do I turn off startup sound?

Every computer I ever had, the first thing I do is to turn off the startup sound because it is very annoying in a public place and sometimes in a quiet place. I have not been able to find out how to trun it off on my Air. I asked the guys at the stores and they just say you can't. That is really dumb. I turned off my speaker but that is not a practical way because I may not remember to turn it off when I shut down.

The question is how do I turn it off permenantly.

Love to know.

Thanks.

Glenn

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jun 4, 2012 12:50 AM

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Q: How do I turn off startup sound?

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  • by K Shaffer,

    K Shaffer K Shaffer Jan 22, 2015 10:03 PM in response to gotham1
    Level 6 (14,340 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 22, 2015 10:03 PM in response to gotham1

    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):

     

    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!

  • by gotham1,

    gotham1 gotham1 Jan 23, 2015 6:51 AM in response to K Shaffer
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 23, 2015 6:51 AM in response to K Shaffer

    Thanks for the detailed reply -  you rock : )

  • by lonestarry,

    lonestarry lonestarry Jan 23, 2015 9:16 AM in response to K Shaffer
    Level 1 (115 points)
    Jan 23, 2015 9:16 AM in response to K Shaffer

    Cocktail Yosemite version seems to be working for me.  Thanks for the info!

  • by Mactivity,

    Mactivity Mactivity Jan 27, 2015 7:47 PM in response to drjamez
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jan 27, 2015 7:47 PM in response to drjamez

    Perfect fix!

  • by Luke_mac,

    Luke_mac Luke_mac Feb 10, 2015 2:31 PM in response to Michael Hall5
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 10, 2015 2:31 PM in response to Michael Hall5

     

  • by shazam456,

    shazam456 shazam456 Mar 4, 2015 8:08 PM in response to imicanada
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 4, 2015 8:08 PM in response to imicanada

    You can turn off the startup sound — at least on some Macs — by turning down the volume "slider" control located in the upper left of the OS X display ***AND*** doing the same in iTunes before you shut your computer down.  When you start the computer again, it should be silent.  The volume must be turned down both on the desktop ***AND*** in iTunes or the sound will persist.

     

    This definitely works with a 3.2 GHz Intel Core i3 iMac running OS 10.6.8 and will probably work with other models as well.  Nothing else I tried was successful, and I finally figured this out by accident.  The startup chime can be extremely annoying, particularly when you want to work on a Mac after everyone in the house has gone to sleep or in environments where quiet is essential.


    I hope this will be helpful, even though my reply is coming long after the initial post.  :-)

  • by giessen,

    giessen giessen Apr 6, 2015 7:33 AM in response to Hippomormor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 6, 2015 7:33 AM in response to Hippomormor

    On my MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) running 10.9 Mavericks, the solution

    sudo nvram SystemAudioVolume="%80"

    didn't work for longer than a few days.

     

    The solution first mentioned by Hippomormor, perhaps originally proposed by Macworld Hints in 2003, worked on 10.9 but became problematic after I upgraded to 10.10 Yosemite. Although turning the sound off before shutdown still worked, turning it back on after boot-up often failed and had to be done manually.

     

    To solve this, I kept the part that mutes at shutdown:

    sudo nano /Library/Scripts/mute-on.sh

    and pasting

    #!/bin/bash
    osascript -e 'set volume with output muted'

    and saving, and then

    sudo chmod u+x /Library/Scripts/mute-on.sh
    sudo defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LogoutHook /Library/Scripts/mute-on.sh

    all as described by Hippomormor. But I had to make changes in the part that puts the volume back on at boot:

    sudo nano /Library/Scripts/mute-off.sh

    with an extra line in the script to make it wait until the Applescript system is ready:

    #!/bin/bash
    sleep 10;
    osascript -e 'set volume without output muted'

    and after saving and closing, I created a new file /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.giessen.soundon.plist with these contents:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
    <plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>com.giessen.soundon</string>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
        <key>Program</key>
        <string>/Library/Scripts/mute-off.sh</string>
    </dict>
    </plist>

    Now it all works again on 10.10. From the reactions above, it seems to me that mileage may vary in big and unexpected ways. That is strange, since we're all using the same operating systems.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Apr 6, 2015 7:32 AM in response to imicanada
    Level 9 (50,412 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 6, 2015 7:32 AM in response to imicanada

    imicanada wrote:

     

    Thanks,

    I have checked previous discussions. I think it ought to be user's choice to use it or not.

    But it isn't (unless by a 3rd party utility) so, bearing that in mind what would you like to do?

  • by killtrow,

    killtrow killtrow May 10, 2015 12:26 PM in response to Hippomormor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 10, 2015 12:26 PM in response to Hippomormor

    Thanks!!!... it works!.

  • by Jinius Evil,

    Jinius Evil Jinius Evil Jun 26, 2015 6:20 AM in response to Hippomormor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 26, 2015 6:20 AM in response to Hippomormor

    Thanks for this trick! I've modified the line from


    osascript -e ‘set volume with output muted’

     

    to

    osascript -e ‘set volume 0.1’

     

    I think it is just good to hear the start-up chime... someone once wrote that it is a part of a start-up troubleshooting feature, so silencing it might not be the best idea. So making it softer would and could be a better solution. I think one can go even lower than 0.1... so feel free to experiment.

  • by lonestarry,

    lonestarry lonestarry Jun 29, 2015 8:32 AM in response to Jinius Evil
    Level 1 (115 points)
    Jun 29, 2015 8:32 AM in response to Jinius Evil

    The P.O.S.T. (power on self test) sound is a nice tool, but as technical producer it compromises my work environment when I need to boot quietly on site..

  • by AviaUtrecht,

    AviaUtrecht AviaUtrecht Aug 15, 2015 5:22 AM in response to kuhak
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 15, 2015 5:22 AM in response to kuhak

    This really worked, it is that simple, thanks a lot, no more annoying sound!

  • by ruscle1,

    ruscle1 ruscle1 Sep 19, 2015 8:53 PM in response to imicanada
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 19, 2015 8:53 PM in response to imicanada

    I use Volume Reset from the Mac App Store, it is simple and works!

    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/volume-reset/id495705418?mt=12

  • by Captain_Dangerous,

    Captain_Dangerous Captain_Dangerous Dec 27, 2015 1:18 AM in response to kuhak
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 27, 2015 1:18 AM in response to kuhak

    The nvram solution works on Yosemite (10.10.5) too I'm glad to say. I'd reset nvram using Cmd-Opt-P-R on startup trying to rectify a failure during update to El Cap. The original software I'd used to mute the chime- chime? more like a discordant noise! - didn't work after the PPC emulation code was removed from OS X. All is well now as peace has been restored and I don't have to remember to hold down any keys during startup or shutdown. Thanks kuhak.

  • by Bmorgan5,

    Bmorgan5 Bmorgan5 Jan 2, 2016 9:50 AM in response to wariovonflutenhausen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 2, 2016 9:50 AM in response to wariovonflutenhausen

    For iMac users who don't want to hear the startup chime I have found a simple and permanent solution: mute the internal speaker and monitor sound through the headphone port or an audio interface (plugged into in the thunderbolt or USB port).


    First, just a little background:  Unlike many laptops, plugging something into the headphone (audio output) port of my iMac does not stop the chime, because the internal speakers continue to play the chime.  However, you can control the sound of the internal speakers separately from the headphone port.  If you mute the internal speaker it stops the chime.


    Like many people, I always listen to the audio of my mac either through a sound system or headphones plugged into the headphone port (or else through an audio interface plugged into the thunderbolt port).  So muting the internal speaker doesn’t affect me; I can still hear audio. Also, I don’t have to constantly mute and unmute anything, or put any code into the system.


    How to do thisWhen you have nothing plugged into the headphone port the system preferences for “Sound” let you mute the internal speakers.  Be sure nothing is plugged into your headphone port.  When you have something plugged into the headphone port the system preferences will allow you to change the settings for the headphone port only, and not the internal speakers.  (By the way this seems like a confusing set up.  Why not have these in the same menu at the same time?)

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