How To Mute Notification Center Alert Sounds in OS X Mountain Lion

Notification Center alert sounds are annoying. Period.

For a smartphone and a tab, that’s okay. They’re built for notifications (up to a certain limit, though). But when it comes to system sounds, I generally mute them all. Music and video’s sound is the only thing I want to hear.

And so, when Apple decided to bring notification nirvana to Mountain Lion it was all good but then you get those notification sounds – constantly – which is pretty much annoying.

Most users turn down the sound. Not a good option.

Others turn off notifications completely. Again, not exactly a good option.



So here we are. Here’s how to mute notification center alert sounds in OS X Mountain Lion:

First, open System Preferences from the Apple menu.
Click on Notifications.
Choose an app.
Under the options you see on the left, turn off / uncheck Play sound when receiving notifications.
Do this for all the apps which you want to mute the sound for.
Yes, it’s a long process if you have a lot of apps on the notification center. But it’s a standard option if you just want to mute the notification center alert sounds.

From this preference setting, you can also change the way you get the alerts. You can opt for Banners which disappear after sometime or go for Alerts which stay on screen till you shoo them away. You can also configure how many notification items you want on the badges.

Notifications are generally sorted by time – as that makes a clear sense. But you can also order the apps in a particular way that you want so that notifications from certain apps – like Twitter or Mail – stay on top.

If you are serious about your productivity though, you can use the Do Not Disturb option – found right on top of the Notification drop down as Show Alerts and Banners. Turn this off and there would be no alerts or notifications.