Turn off the sound effects a Mac plays for the Trash and screenshots
· 6 min read
To turn off the sound effects a Mac plays for everyday actions, open System Settings, Sound, and switch off “Play user interface sound effects”. That one switch silences the Trash crunch when you empty it, the camera shutter when you take a screenshot, and similar Finder sounds, while leaving music, calls and videos untouched.
The Mac has several separate sound settings, though, and people often turn off the wrong one or mute the whole machine to get rid of one noise. Here is which switch controls which sound.
The Sound settings, one line at a time
Open System Settings and choose Sound. The top section is headed Sound Effects. On recent versions of macOS it contains:
- Alert sound: the sound played when an app wants your attention or you try something that is not allowed, such as pressing Delete at the start of an empty field. You can choose a different sound here, but not “none”.
- Play sound effects through: which output the effects use. Choosing your Mac’s built-in speakers keeps beeps out of your headphones during a call.
- Alert volume: a slider for effects only, separate from the main volume. Dragging it all the way left is the nearest thing to switching alerts off.
- Play sound on startup: the chime when the Mac powers on.
- Play user interface sound effects: the Trash, screenshots, dragging items to certain places, and other Finder and system actions.
- Play feedback when volume is changed: the pop you hear each time you press a volume key.
Each is independent. If the only sound that bothers you is the volume pop, turn off that one and keep the rest.
Silencing the common culprits
The screenshot shutter. Turn off “Play user interface sound effects”. The shutter sound goes away for keyboard screenshots and the Screenshot toolbar alike. If you also want the preview thumbnail gone, see turn off the floating screenshot thumbnail.
The Trash. Same switch. Emptying the Trash becomes silent.
The volume pop. Turn off “Play feedback when volume is changed”. A useful alternative if you want to keep it most of the time: hold Shift while pressing a volume key to invert the setting for that press.
The startup chime. Turn off “Play sound on startup”. The Mac then starts silently. You can turn it back on the same way.
Alert beeps. There is no off switch for the alert sound itself, but lowering the Alert volume slider to its minimum makes it effectively silent without muting anything else. Choosing a softer alert sound from the list is a gentler middle ground.
Notification sounds. These are set per app. Open System Settings, Notifications, choose the app, and switch off “Play sound for notifications”. Doing this for the two or three chattiest apps is usually enough; you do not need to go through every app.
App sounds. Some apps have their own sound effects that ignore the system settings. Mail and Messages, for example, have their own choices in their Settings windows. If a sound persists after all of the above, look in the app’s own settings.
When you want silence only some of the time
Most people who look for this are not trying to silence the Mac forever. They want quiet during a call, a recording or a presentation, and the usual sounds back afterward.
Focus. A Focus mode set from Control Center silences notification sounds while it is on, and can turn on automatically at a time, when you open a particular app, or when you share your screen. It does not touch the interface sound effects, so the screenshot shutter still plays.
Mute. The mute key silences everything, including the call or video you are trying to hear. It is the wrong tool when you only want the effects gone.
Two switches and a slider. For a recording or a presentation, turning off “Play user interface sound effects” and “Play feedback when volume is changed”, and pulling the Alert volume down, gets you a quiet Mac that still plays audio normally. Getting a Mac ready to record a screencast covers the rest of that checklist.
The annoyance is remembering to flip it all back afterward, and remembering what it was set to before.
Making it one click, and reversible
Mainspring is a Mac app that exposes settings like these as one-click “power-ups”, each labelled in plain English. Silencing interface sounds is one of them. Each power-up is a real macOS setting, and Mainspring takes a snapshot before changing it, so turning it off restores exactly what you had rather than a guessed default.
Where it earns its place is the some-of-the-time case. You can build a scene from any mix of power-ups, for example silent interface sounds, no floating screenshot thumbnail and password on sleep, and switch into it in one click. Scenes can also apply themselves on a trigger such as connecting a display or a time of day, so a presentation setup can turn itself on when you plug into a projector. Switch a Mac between work, focus and presentation setups in one step goes through that approach in more detail.
For a one-time change, System Settings is all you need, and everything in the first two sections works on any Mac.
Questions
Why can I still hear the screenshot sound after turning off UI sound effects? Check that the Mac is not sending sound effects to a different output than you expect, under “Play sound effects through”. If you use a screenshot feature inside another app, that app may play its own sound.
Does turning off interface sounds affect accessibility features? It removes audible feedback for actions like emptying the Trash. If you rely on sounds to confirm actions, consider lowering the Alert volume instead of turning effects off.
Will a macOS update turn the sounds back on? Updates occasionally reset settings. If sounds return after an update, Mac settings that revert after a macOS update explains why and what to check.
Can I turn off the startup chime on any Mac? The switch appears on Macs that support it, which covers recent models. If you do not see “Play sound on startup” in Sound settings, your Mac does not offer the option there.