Struggling to focus (or sleep) amid grating background noise? Tired of hunting for the perfect white, brown, pink or grey noise track, the one that loops flawlessly even as Apple Music keeps playing? Look right into macOS itself and find out here how to turn your Mac into a white noise machine with just macOS.
First, Wash Your Hands
Wash your hands, then flush the toilet.
There’s quite a bit of time between the two actions, of course, two actions that together let you save water use like so many things do in Japan. The smart design has a sink atop the water reservoir at the back of a toilet, and you flush with the water the previous person used to wash their hands.
while the sink-toilet will get recycled like the water in it, do you like the idea of having water flowing without wasting it? Your Mac can play rain and ocean and river and more (with maybe using a bit of hydropower-generated electricity):
How to Turn Your Mac into a White Noise Machine with macOS Alone
Time needed: 1 minute
To have macOS play white noise and masking nature sounds in the background on your Mac:
- Open System Settings on the Mac.
- Go to the Accessibility category.
- Pick Audio under Hearing.
- Turn on Background sounds under, well, Background Sounds.
- Click Choose… for Background sound to pick a sound.
Your pick: You can choose between white, pink and brown noise as well as rain, ocean waves and a bubbling stream.
- Choose a volume for the background sound.
- Optional: Enable Turn off background sounds when your Mac is not in use.
Here’s why: This stops background sound from keeping your Mac awake, but it also means you cannot use the Mac as a white noise machine; if you want to have a Mac just sit there and play background sounds, leave this off.
Control center: You can turn background sounds on or off from macOS menu control center; see below.
Mac humming you to focus?
Tips help fuel these email and tech how-tos.
Add Controlling White Noise to the Mac Control Center or Menu Bar
macOS Tahoe and Later
To add a control for background sounds to Control Center:
- Open Control Center.
Here’s how: Click the Control Center button in the menu bar, for example. - Select Edit Controls.
- Go to the Hearing Accessibility category.
- Drag and drop the Hearing item to either the menu bar or Control Center for a control that lets you pick background sounds and change the volume.
One click on/off: Drag and drop the Background sounds item for a toggle that turns background sound on or off with the last-used settings.
Now, to turn masking sounds on or off:
- Open Control Center.
- Click Hearing.
- Now turn white noise on or off using Background Sounds.
Also on iPhone: How to Mix White Noise with Everything on iPhone
macOS Sequoia and Earlier
To add controls for background sound to Control Center in macOS Sequoia and earlier:
- Open System Settings.
- Pick Control Center.
- Select Show in Control Center for Hearing.
Direct menu access: You can also add the hearing right to the menu bar with Show in Menu Bar.
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How to Turn Your Mac into a White Noise Machine with macOS Alone: FAQ
Can I add different sounds?
No
The list of available sounds is fixed.
(On the flip side, you can remove downloaded sounds in System Settings to save a minuscule amount of space.)
With turning off background sounds when the Mac is not in use enabled, will the sounds turn back on automatically?
No.
The sound remain off if you unlock the Mac. Start it again using the steps above.
Will background sounds drain battery?
Not much.
Playing white noise does use energy, of course, but compared to heavy computing or lighting up the screen, the amount of battery drain is limited.
Can I set up a keyboard shortcut for background sounds?
Not easily, no.
Neither Automator nor Shortcuts let you access Mac background sounds easily. The shortest path to controlling the sounds with the keyboard is full keyboard access, pressing Fn C to open Control Center.
(Tested with macOS Tahoe 26.0, Sequoia 15.1–15.4, Sonoma 14.2 and Ventura 13.4; first published June 2023, last updated December 2025)