You restart your Mac in a quiet office. The meeting room is dead silent. Then — BONG — the startup chime blasts at full volume. Everyone looks at you. The chime is iconic, but it's also uncontrollable and often embarrassingly loud.
How to disable the startup sound
macOS lets you turn off the startup chime entirely:
- Go to System Settings → Sound
- Find "Play sound on startup"
- Uncheck it
Done. Your Mac will start silently from now on. No Terminal commands needed — this setting has been available since macOS Big Sur.
Terminal method (if you prefer)
You can also disable it via Terminal:
sudo nvram StartupMute=%01
To re-enable:
sudo nvram StartupMute=%00
Can you lower the startup sound instead of disabling it?
Not directly. The startup chime plays at a fixed volume that's determined by the system volume at the time of shutdown. If your Mac was at 80% volume when you shut it down, the chime plays at roughly 80%. If it was at 20%, the chime is quieter.
Workaround: Before restarting your Mac, lower the system volume to 10-20%. The startup chime will play at that lower level. Not ideal — it requires remembering — but it works if you want the chime at a reasonable volume rather than silenced entirely.
The broader Mac sound control problem
The startup chime is just one example of macOS's limited audio control. System sounds, notification sounds, and app audio are all mixed together with minimal independent control. If you find yourself regularly adjusting volume to manage different audio sources throughout the day, per-app volume control solves the broader problem.
SoundDial gives every app on your Mac its own volume slider. Set notification apps low, music at a comfortable level, and calls at full volume — all independently. Save configurations as profiles and switch with one click.
Get SoundDial on the Mac App Store — €14.99 one-time purchase, no subscription, macOS 14.2+.