How does one silence mountain lion startup sound?
iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
This is no definitive solution for this issue on Lion or Mt. Lion.
Some utilities worked on certain Macs with Mt. Lion or Lion.
Some of the start up sound mute utilities haven't worked with Macs.
Try this one.
Someone posted that this worked on a 2010 iMac and OS 10.8.1
If it doesn't work it's easy to uninstall.
http://www.satsumac.com/Psst.php
Good Luck!
You do realize that the startup sound as well as several other sounds/alarms/beeps are system checks and if you do mute it, you will not be able to hear them?
Thanks for your advice and help. I have tried PSST. It didn't work. I have version 10.8.2. As an aside 'Face Time' doesn't work with this version eithr.
I understand that the startup sound has a purpose. I still would rather not have the sound as I work at night and restarting the computer or turning it on disturbs some sleepers.
How about letting it sleep rather than shutting it down?
Have you tried pressing the mute button on the keyboard before shutdown? It should then boot without the chime -at least, it does for me.
After asking this question many times and always getting the ususal fixes (that don't work in Mountain Lion) Psst, Startninja, turn down the sound when you shut down, yada yada yada. And the "why don't you just put it to sleep" comments :/ duh.. Sometime we want to shut it down!! Even Apple support has no idea how to do it. Here's is the fix and it is so simple it hurts.
Controlling the volume of the startup chime is easy to set in the System Preferences Sound panel, but you need to make two different settings if you have external speakers connected to your Mac. There is no need to use scripts or any other coding to make this adjustment.
There are both internal and external speaker output settings in the sound preference pane. In order to adjust (or turn off) the volume of your Mac's internal speakers, nothing must be plugged into the headphone jack. Keep in mind that this setting completely controls the volume of your internal Mac speakers, so if you mute the sound, and have no external speakers, you will get no sound at all from your Mac.
To adjust the volume on your Mac's internal speakers:
To set the volume for your external speakers:
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20120513121111656
Lovin my Mac but thanks for nothing Apple support and community on this very easy to adjust issue.
After asking this question many times and always getting the ususal fixes (that don't work in Mountain Lion) Psst, Startninja, turn down the sound when you shut down, yada yada yada. And the "why don't you just put it to sleep" comments :/ duh.. Sometime we want to shut it down!! Even Apple support has no idea how to do it. Here's is the fix and it is so simple it hurts.
Most everyone is aware that you can mute it. The point remains: if you mute it, you will not hear the "this Mac passed the startup test" sound nor any alarm sounds (advising you of bad/incorrectly seated RAM for instance):
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2538#
You're entitled to your opinion of course. Personally, I prefer being able to be hear a warning.
If "Most everyone is aware that you can mute it" plezse pray tell me why there are countless threads on this very site asking how to do it with no answer, and why are there third party apps (psst, startninja, and others) for solving this. It is very easy yes but there has been no help in asking this community as to how to do it, only the usual "why don't you just put it to sleep" ? comments. I had to search extensivly to find the website which had the very simple solution. I even called tech support and they had no idea how to do it. It doesn't matter why, but I have my reasons, oh I don't know maybe we had a thunderstorm and I needed to shut down and the next day it was 5am and everyone was asleep in the house and I didn't want to wake them up among other reasons.
"You're entitled to your opinion of course. Personally, I prefer being able to be hear a warning."
And Personally I prefer having an option to silence it it many cases. It's there but I sure didn't get it from this site or Apple anyone, I had to go search and find the site http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20120513121111656
Why is it so dificult for this community and Apple in general to provide me this simple adjustment instead of trying to tell me what I want ? This adjustment is on the Mac and easy to do wihout any harm.
Here is one thread containing the muting solution.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4499833?answerId=20259705022#20259705022
Why is it so dificult for this community and Apple in general to provide me this simple adjustment instead of trying to tell me what I want ? This adjustment is on the Mac and easy to do wihout any harm.
No one told you what you want. This community consists of users just like you, volunteers helping others. Apple employees do not participate here. If you will look at your owners manual, you will see that Apple recommends letting the Mac sleep instead of shutting it down, hence the suggestion to let it sleep since that is the method recommended by Apple.
Good luck in the future.
#1 The link you posted is for a 2009 Mac and the "solution" of going to sound and sliding it back before shutdown does not work in Mountain Lion. You must unplug your external speaker if using one, go to sytem preferences and follow the instructions in the link I posted. It is the only way to silence the startup sound. The link to the thread you posted for the fix is useless as it doesn't work. But never mind I had to go to another website to find the solution everyone was looking for which is why I posted it to help those who were grapling with it. The link is there in my post and I'm sure any user will be able to follow the instructions even if you can't follow my question.
I don't care what Apple recommends, in some cases I need to shut down, storms and the like and I don't want to wake the dead early the next morning when I start up. Forget it, problem solved, thanks for nothing.
You're very welcome.
I agree there should be an option to shut off only the startup sound and make it a visual queue that "everything is fine" with the boot process. Firstly because someone that is deaf can never "benefit" from this audible queue that "everything is fine" so they will never know if their computer is going to explode right? Second, because many people may need to boot without making any noise, without having to make that decision prior to the most recent shut down.
So, that would be a good feature to add. Having used Windows, Ubuntu and OSX I must say it is a bit surprising to have this feature missing. It's an odd argument to say it is done like this so the user is aware the boot process worked, when you can circumvent it by turning off the internal speakers anyway. All we are missing is the ability to turn off the start up sound itself while leaving other sounds (which the user has control over in using the interface, and which can be adjusted after logging into the GUI) on. I had read that you could hold the mute button while turning it on to temporarily mute the startup sound, but that doesn't seem to work.
Doesn't that seem like an odd way to do it? Make a sound everytime things are fine, why not just make a sound when things are NOT fine? Silence = good, sound = bad. Like imagine having your computer make a constant sound which only silences when something goes wrong...seems backwards.
Anyway, too bad there is no way to do this built into OSX and I don't feel like messing around in the terminal. I will have to remember to turn off the internal speakers everytime I shut down, and turn them back on when needed. On the upside, OSX boots FAST so if this is the price I pay for speedy performance I guess it is worth it!
I could give you a BIG HUG "Jwandta"! Thank you.
I have been going insane trying to work this out and have been trawling the net trying to find a solution. I did see something similar, a while back, to what you posted, tried it and it didn't work. However, I suspect I wasn't following the instructions closely enough. I also managed to mute my headphones so no one could hear me on Skype!
Anyway, I have an iMac running OS X 10.8.2 and the chime seemed to me to be getting louder and louder (not really, it was just that it was irritating me more and more!). I followed your instructions and voila, the chime on startup is a subtle sound rather than the sound of Big Ben...(I can still hear it and know everything is running as it should).
The only thing I wanted to add to your post was in point 3 of adjusting volume for your external speakers. "You will then see Headphones (Type built-in) highlighted in the window"
When I plugged my headphones back into the headphone jack, this showed as "Headphones (headphone port)...". Thought it might be helpful in case anyone else sees the same thing.
Again, thank you so much. Happy Festive Season and a great 2013 to you.
Many people who desire the same solution, are fully aware the startup sound and chimes signify mac health or a lack of it.
Regardless … your reply's (babowa) in a forum are not helpful when your are merely trying dissuade a person from seeking a solution to their question ? or asking them to accept a status quo that involves them living with the problem they are asking for a solution to, or to presume their question is subjectively invalid from your own standpoint and thence to proceed to project your dismissal of their need for an answer … as a solution … back at them.
somebody may have very solid reasoning behind wishing to disable the startup sound ? working in a sound sensitive environment studio etc, not wishing to disturb others who are sleeping, you should not be questioning somebody's desire for a solution to this question.
sleeping the mac is not resolving the issue they requested as regards disabling the startup chime ? and who knows the machine longevity / health benefits / energy use, of leaving your apple in sleep state forever versus powering it off properly now and again ?
methods for disabling startup sounds varying success :
mountain lion cocktail application setting startup sound disabled
the mountain lion version of 'cocktail' claims of being capable of disabling startup sound, though I think 10.8.3 either broke or restored the sound so I had to reapply the disablement from cocktail.
volume setting method with headphones in and out as listed here in this forum post
I have also tried the volume setting method with headphones in and out, and that also does not seem 100% reliable as at some point the startup sound returned at some point and had to be disabled again.
in snow leopard you can use 'startupsound' prefpane
there was a prefpane I used that worked perfectly in snow leopard called startupsound.prefpane 1.1b3, which can be found on macupdate still, but this seems broken in mountain lion.
psst
dificult to find but is claimed to work on lion still and intel core duos, have not tried. but also relies on running a process that sets the volume prior to shutting down and resetting it on startup, so its bound to be a little clumsy but it maybe the only current solution that works. someone test back and report for mountain lion ?
tinkertool
like cocktail I believe it can also disable the startup sound
start ninja
another tool for disabling startup sounds but its states quite clearly that it doesn't work on imacs, though appears lion compatible also available on macupdate.
auto mute
finally another one claimed to work on at least macbooks on 10.8 another person says mac pro and 10.7.2 no, so your mileage may vary, also available on macupdate.
nb: I have only personally tried a few of the methods above tinker tool, cocktail and startupsound.prefpane so you will have to experiment at your own risk with the other methods.>
which of these methods is the most reliable in mountain lion ?… im not sure, at the moment im testing the cocktail method, and will report back.
How does one silence mountain lion startup sound?
