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I discovered this not so long ago, when I started using Skype. I get notification sounds even though my speakers are on mute. The same thing happens with email. Suddenly there's a notification/alert sound for everything during mute. Is there a setting where I can disable this "feature"?

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  • I have been noticing this for months on macOS 10.12.6, I thought I was going crazy because my iMac stays on Mute all the time at work yet I still hear the constant "ding" noise from Outlook every time I get a new email, very very softly in the background, with no other audio devices attached.
    – user5359531
    Commented Mar 28, 2019 at 16:04
  • Macs are weird. When I mute mine, I can still hear it if I put my ear to the speaker, it's just very very quiet.
    – Aaron
    Commented Feb 2, 2021 at 17:45

2 Answers 2

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The most likely explanation for this is that you have multiple sound output devices. When you mute, only the current output devices is muted — the rest are not.

The next time you hear a sound when you think you shouldn't, go to Sound Preferences > Output and check your Output devices one by one. It's almost certain that at least one of them isn't muted (a headset, for example), and that's how you're hearing the mystery sound.

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I have noticed that my virtual speaker (System Preferences/Settings > Sound > Output) has a software update as the macOS audio driver was reworked for Apple Silicon, the older one is unstable on new Macs, so updating/removing additional speakers might fix it too

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