# Sound on Mac Mail has completely disappeared--what to do? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 12, 2007, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-on-mac-mail-has-completely-disappeared-what-to-do/407691 "2007-06-12T12:24:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-on-mac-mail-has-completely-disappeared-what-to-do/407691/1 "2007-06-12T12:24:05Z")
Don’t know what I did, if anything, but Mac Mail has no sound now. Sound is otherwise OK on the Mac. I checked out everything in Preferences but could find nothing I’d messed up, not that I’d been fooling with it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-on-mac-mail-has-completely-disappeared-what-to-do/407691/2 "2007-06-12T13:32:48Z")
Does your keyboard have a mute button? My Dells system does. I have accidentally hit it before and lost all sound. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-on-mac-mail-has-completely-disappeared-what-to-do/407691/3 "2007-06-12T13:52:49Z")
Yep. But other sound works–only Mail is silent. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-on-mac-mail-has-completely-disappeared-what-to-do/407691/4 "2007-06-12T13:57:07Z")
Been a while since I was on a Mac … You already checked MacMail prefs, and notification is on … Maybe the sound file it’s pointing to is gone or corrupted? Can you check your sounds file (the one for everything, not the MM prefs) and see if the assigned sound works? ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-on-mac-mail-has-completely-disappeared-what-to-do/407691/5 "2007-06-12T15:05:33Z")
Thanks. The sound file exists and works because under Pref it will actually play the sample. Confusing! ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-on-mac-mail-has-completely-disappeared-what-to-do/407691/6 "2007-06-13T01:00:12Z")
Ideas? ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-on-mac-mail-has-completely-disappeared-what-to-do/407691/7 "2007-06-13T02:28:26Z")
When you say it works in Prefs, is that system sound prefs, or Mail prefs? ---
**Author:** ![MrJackboots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MrJackboots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrJackboots)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-on-mac-mail-has-completely-disappeared-what-to-do/407691/8 "2007-06-13T02:34:44Z")
I’ve had iChat go wonky on me in much the same way. I haven’t found a cause yet. Macs aren’t supposed to use reboot-and-it’ll-go-away as a solution, but it’s always worked for me. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-on-mac-mail-has-completely-disappeared-what-to-do/407691/9 "2007-06-13T11:38:30Z")
Thank you! Rebooting solved the problem. How odd!