Anyone else with no sound in Mail?

I have been growing increasingly frustrated with Apple. I have been a loyal mac user since the 90s and as of right now I don't even know how to shut down a PC (if they are still called that). BUT I will, I don't think I will buy another Apple computer after my newest macbook pro. They are just not worth the extra $ any longer. I came here for a seemingly simple problem of no sound in Mail and to find out there is no solution is ridiculous. Just another in a very long list of small disappointment in the last several years.

Used to be we would say "They just work" when referring to why we buy Apple computer. I was in the music industry and for that it was essential but now it seems the rest of the competition has caught up and that makes this a luxury brand, plain and simple. Im too frugal for that.

"1 - Mail message incoming sound intermittent - possibly resolvable by switching to IMAP (not tried because want to stick with POP)."

Just for info : I use Capitan 10.11.6 on a desk iMac, with an IMAP account, on a Belgian provider.

I am facing exactly the same troubles.

Open system preferences > Notifications > check the box of play sound for notifications .

When you send a mail a sound comes when it is sent , and keep do not disturb as off and make sure on the keyboard F12button is on higher side , F10 is for mute the sound .

carefulowner wrote:

Would that extra USB drive need to be bootable? If so, would executing the Installer on the first USB drive include the means to make it so automatically?

Yes, it needs to be formatted so it can be bootable, this article (again in John's How-to) talks you through it,

How to set up and use an external Mac startup disk - Apple Support

This is the part:

Make sure that your storage device is properly formatted

For best results, your external hard drive, thumb drive, SDHC or SDXC card, or other storage device should be formatted as Mac OS Extended, not FAT, ExFAT, or NTFS. And to function as a startup disk, it needs to be using a GUID partition map.

Not sure about using a USB for the external drive due to speed, might be better to use a hard drive - but as you can see from the above you do have a selection to choose from.

carefulowner wrote:

but the implication was that I'd have to use either Cmd-R or Cmd-Opt-R to get into OSX Utilities.

When you double click to run the Install macOS Sierra.app (that's on your USB) it takes you first to the macOS Utilities screen (it's not the one on your mac or from the net - it's from the installer app itself you have just clicked, but it gives you the same options).

From that screen you can for example prepare your target drive and when ready launch install macOS (Reinstall macOS might read Install macOS) - Can't remember when I ran mine the other day.

Then you just follow the instructions making sure you choose the external drive when asked were you would like macOS to be installed.

carefulowner wrote:

That being so, if I then selected Reinstall OSX, I think it'd install a long sequence of downloads from the Internet (as per my original attempt at upgrading from Mavericks to Sierra), including all my personal settings (which clearly in this situation I don't want).

No, it will not - you have already downloaded all you need to install macOS, it's already on the USB stick, that's were macOS Utilities is loaded from and it is were the installation of macOS will come from as well (that's why it's nearly 5Gb in size).

I'm back at the iMac now so can add to the above - the Combo is downloaded direct from Download macOS Sierra 10.12.4 Combo Update and you just install it like you would for any other App, just make sure you point it to the Sierra version on your USB Stick when going through the setup process at the beginning.

You will not require the "Combo" if the Sierra you downloaded to create your Bootable USB Installer was the latest version from the App Store, because Apple updates the "Sierra" available each time they do a point update - the current one available is now at 10.12.4 (see below).

Trust the above helps.

Would have thought if you had the Ethernet cable connected during setup it would have seen it and set things up accordingly, but if that's not the case then, yes, try manually via System Preferences - Network.

I connect via wireless hence the green dot (and it's at the top of the list), if no option for Ethernet exists use the "+", also the order can be changed using "Set Service Order..."

This might also help How to use network locations on your Mac - Apple Support

carefulowner wrote:

could complain to Apple via http://www.apple.com/feedback. Over the last few years I've used that to inform Apple about various hard bugs in OSX I've encountered.

Done that twice, but via Developer Bug Reporter - first opened case (22970215) back in Oct 2015, which was closed-out due to the fact it was a duplicate of another (20998385).

They also required a couple of log files (MailSounds and Sysdiagnose), the latter being quite large if I remember correctly and came with a warning that personal information could also be collected which I was not comfortable with so held back sending that one.

The second was Oct 2016 but again they required that Sysdiagnose file which I still was not happy sending, plus it was over 400Mb in size and didn't just have Mail related data, but appeared to have captured every other process on my machine as well!

Long story short, gave them all the other info plus highlighted the fact that this was an "old" issues reported by others previously. Again, it was closed out on two accounts, no Sysdiagnose file and there inability to reproduce in the latest seeds.

It's good to know that Apple are (again) aware of this issue from what johnbear1952 has reported and I would think by now they will be realising it's something that has persisted for some time across a few OS releases, maybe now it might be taken more seriously, we can but hope.

Just a thought on passing on such large amounts of data to "third parties", even if it is Apple - I still remain uncomfortable forwarding such info especially when it's so large (400Mb plus) because it makes it impossible to visually check beforehand. In this age of data security issues having passwords or other important info going outside your control just doesn't seem wise and the problem regarding Mail sound just didn't seem bad enough to risk that - just my view though.

I just looked at an earlier forum from a year ago, i.e., prior to Sierra, with the same issue. It appears that even updating Do Not Disturb in Notifications does not register. The solution is to go up to the Notifications pane in your right sidebar and change it there. Even when changing it in Preferences did not alter this setting. Once this was changed mine worked perfectly. Hope this helps.

Do a backup, using either Time Machine or a cloning program, to ensure files/data can be recovered. Two backups are better than one.

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.

Isolating an issue by using another user account

If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer or by using the developer’s uninstall instructions. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.

Safe Mode - About El Capitan also Sierra

Safe Mode Startup – El Capitan. also Sierra

If it works in the Safe Mode, try running this program when booted normally and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. On the screen with Options, please open Options and check the bottom 2 boxes before running. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown.

Etrecheck – System Information

Yes, but only sometimes and just with the incoming - I also use a POP account but never been certain if that is the reason, but there is a few posts regarding this issue if you search, this is one no mail sounds after installing El Capitan , although it's on El Capitan.

Don't think those having issue ever fully resolved, I personally just put up with it because like keeping POP - also not sure if I had switched to using IMAP that would have sorted anyway, but again it's an option to try. Did run one idea, created a "Rule" to play a sound script but that didn't fully work, got an echo effect if more than one message received at a time - but this might help to resolve that, this post talks about same problem but on Mountain Lion, and Mikaeldo88 has suggested using a different script (but not tried) No new mail alert sound in Mountain Lion .

I've read some consider it's linked to "Notifications" but not sure if that would explain loosing the outgoing mail sound.

So, long story sort - I'm still hoping a fix will come along in one of Apple's many updates - but as the above links show the issue has been around on and off over a few OS releases so not holding my breath.

Best of luck though, may be you might find one of the ideas in the above links that work for you.

Read some articles : macOS Sierra: If you can’t hear sound from your speakers

: macOS Sierra: Adjust your computer’s sound input settings

: How to use Night Shift on your Mac - Apple Support

: macOS Sierra: Use Notification Center

: macOS Sierra: Use Night Shift

: macOS Sierra: Night Shift pane of Displays System Preferences

John Galt's article for running either Sierra from an external disk or from the existing OS on the Mac doesn't go into quite enough detail in its links to describe how to install the downloaded Sierra on to the external disk.

Thanks for your comments. I intentionally avoid more explicit instructions because Apple's link describes that procedure in detail. Apple can (and does) quietly change their procedures from time to time, and when that occurs it can be challenging even for them to update their own Support documents. If a particular step is unclear to someone, I prefer that he or she should just ask for clarification because an essential detail may have changed.

The salient point is to be sure to designate the proper installation location for Sierra. The "Show all disks" button provides the means to do that. Once that selection is made, another dialog box appears offering a final opportunity to confirm the destination.

In the subject case Apple writes "Follow the steps for reinstalling macOS, but select your external storage device when the installer asks you to choose a destination disk."