How to: Silence your Mac startup sound

Author: Cezar Renta

May 7th, 2011

There are people, Mac fans even, that find the startup sound annoying. As a proud Mac owner, I don’t find the startup sound stressful or annoying in any way, on the contrary, not only that lets everyone know that there’s another Mac user in range but the sound itself indicates that the hardware startup testing has been successful.

Now, for all those who need to know how to disable the startup sound, there are 2 methods, the easy mode or the software mode.

Method 1

Before you shutdown your Mac, mute the system sound. That’s it! The Mac volume will stay muted as long as you turn it up again.

Method 2

There’s a nifty software called StartupSound.prefPane (as shown in the screenshot) that will mute/lower the startup sound for you. The good part is that no matter how you alter the startup sound, the system sound remains the same, unaltered. We stronly recommend this method, it’s elegant, the software is getting updated constantly and it’s hassle free.

Download StartupSound.prefPane free

Travelbat

Thanks for the tip!! I will try the download. This will help because we have more than one person using our Mac, and no one remembers to mute it. It’s loud boom scares the bejesus out of me in the morning, especially if the speakers have been turned up the previous night! It’s even more annoying because the bedrooms are right next to the computer room. I’ve jolted many with the booming tone, which is like my shouting, “Wake Up I’m On My MAC Now!” I can imagine students would like it for their laptops so they don’t annoy the classroom when then open them, too.

Next, I need to figure out how to stop the annoying startup sound on my TV!!! Honestly, it seems a little egotistical or vain for manufacturers to “announce” themselves! I could care less that people in my house know there is a Mac in range. But then, I also find it annoying that I can’t turn off the chirps on my car when I use the remote to lock it. I like to be able to control my environment, and to me, it’s “noise pollution” — so this download should do the trick!