Member Avatar for Gunzoo

I just got my first mac - a MacBook Pro - and I am loving it except for one little annoyance: the startup sound.

Do any of you know how to turn that annoying jingle that is played along with the grey Apple splash screen during startup of OSX off?

I need a permanent solution and not something like "always remember to mute the speakers before shutting down".

Thanks.

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Quick summary and context: the startup chime is the firmware’s “everything passed” sound and can be useful for diagnosing boot problems (it’s not just decoration). ’s reminder about using the chime for troubleshooting is correct — some beep patterns indicate hardware issues. The third‑party StartupSound prefPane (the utility pointed to) has long been a practical solution for older Intel Macs and early OS X releases when a built‑in toggle didn’t exist. (support.apple.com)

Practical options (short to long term):

  • Temporary: mute the Mac before shutting down or use the keyboard’s mute/volume keys at power‑on (some people report holding the mute key works on a subset of models; it isn’t reliable across all Macs).
  • Permanent: modern macOS has a GUI option to disable the chime in Sound settings; older systems need an NVRAM change. Choose the method that balances convenience with keeping the chime available for future diagnostics. (support.apple.com)

Terminal/NVRAM approach (works on many models but can be hardware/OS dependent). To silence:

sudo nvram SystemAudioVolume=%80

To restore:

sudo nvram -d SystemAudioVolume

Alternately (on some machines and macOS versions) the StartupMute variable can be toggled:

sudo nvram StartupMute=%01   # mute
sudo nvram StartupMute=%00   # unmute

If a command doesn’t work on a particular Mac, that’s expected — behavior changed across years and chipsets. (howtogeek.com)

Recommendation: for most users on recent macOS releases, use the System Settings > Sound toggle when available. If keeping the chime off is critical, use an NVRAM command but record what you changed so you can re‑enable it before any hardware troubleshooting. If odd audio/boot behavior appears later, resetting NVRAM/PRAM can restore defaults. (support.apple.com)

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Member Avatar for DavidRyan

A quick google of "macosx" "startup sound" gives you your answer.
The jingle is hardwired into the bios, it can't be changed, the closest to a solution their is is to remember to hold down F3 to mute the sound on boot.
Oh, you wanted more. Well, there was a mention of a patch being available from apple.com which removes it, but I couldn't find it or any official mention of it.

Member Avatar for yellow

It should be noted that the chime is a sign of a successful POST (Power On Self Test), and can be quite useful for troubleshooting hardware issues.

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