How Do I change the Big Sur screenshot app sound?

[gogreen1]

The Catalina and Mojave screenshot utility played grab.aif, but Big Sur plays something else. I know that grab.aif is still a part of Big Sur, but how do I change the screenshot sound back to grab.aif? Same deal with the "empty trash" crumpling paper sound. Thanks.

 

[pm-r]

but how do I change the screenshot sound back to grab.aif? Same deal with the "empty trash" crumpling paper sound. Thanks.

I'm not an Apple BS user, but I wouldn't think they would change the option too much from the previous macOS versions.

Have a look and read here:
Change the alert sounds on Mac

Change the alert sounds on Mac

On your Mac, change the alert sounds and other sound effects using Sound settings.

support.apple.com

I would expect what they say to actually work.


- Patrick
=======

 

[MacInWin]

Patrick, none of the available sounds that article shows are like the previous sounds. And I cannot find where to change the default sounds, either. Yes, what they say at that article works, but only for the "alert" sound fo when you do something that cannot be carried out.

 

[pm-r]

Patrick, none of the available sounds that article shows are like the previous sounds.

Then maybe they forgot or just left out all the old normal sounds one would be expecting to have.

Or any of these help???:

Here are Apple's macOS 11 Big Sur system and alert sounds

Apple's new macOS 11 Big Sur (don't call me 'X'") represents a system-wide macOS visual redesign, plus completely overhauled the Mac's sound effects…

macdailynews.com

And I guess that any thought about messing about with the BS System Sounds and files Is strictly prohibited with Apple locking down the OS. Unlike the good old days when one could customize and have fun with their Macs.



- Patrick
=======

 

[Rod]

"How do I change the Big Sur screenshot app sound?" My immediate response would have been, you can't. If it's part of the Macintosh HD Volume (as opposed to Macintosh_Data) it may be even more difficult than the old chestnut, how to turn off/change the startup chimes.
Maybe a Terminal command?

 

[pm-r]

it may be even more difficult than the old chestnut, how to turn off/change the startup chimes.

It seems that some options have been provided in the new BS System Prefs Sounds:

It looks like one can possibly get some of the old familiar sounds back.


- Patrick
=======

 

[MacInWin]

Nope. The video says you will "get used to the new sounds." Doesn't show any mechanism to change any. Maybe someone will come up with a hack, but I think, as Rod suggests, it will be significantly harder given the increased security Apple baked into BS.

 

[pm-r]

Nope. The video says you will "get used to the new sounds."

Hmmm...??? I got the impression that they could be changed by unchecking the option box that would allow the use of the old system sounds, like crumpled paper for emptying the trash etc.



I can't believe that Apple would force new system sounds on old veteran Mac users, and no option to disable the new ones!!! That would earn them one huge big black mark from me!!! ?


- Patrick
=======

 

[MacInWin]

I tried that. Went from sounds to no sounds. Not back to old sounds. I don't have the visceral reaction you do. I don't think of it as a badly. It's just a change, I'll get used to it. In six months (or less) I won't even notice.

 

[chscag]

Patrick:

Apple has been locking down system items now ever since High Sierra. So it's no surprise that the sounds have now been included.

I'm sure that someone will come up with a hack, perhaps by turning off SIP.

Keep in mind that Big Sur is a dual operating system in that it must support both Intel and M1 machines.

 

[Rod]

I'm sure that we will all get used to the new sounds over time but I have to admit they are a bit bland and generic. The scrunching paper sound when placing something in the bin was very recognisable, a sound that clearly represented the action, now it's just a sort of Pfft. The screen shot sounds like a stone dropped into a bowl of water, hardly representative of a photo shot.
Things change, I became quote aware of that a couple of days ago when I resurrected an old 2010 white unibody 13" MBP. When I turned it on I was greeted with the familiar boot chime, Bwahhh! Wow! It was like going from mono to stereo. I had forgotten what the chime sounded like in Mac OSX Lion on these old machines.

 

[pm-r]

Patrick:
Apple has been locking down system items now ever since High Sierra. So it's no surprise that the sounds have now been included. ...

Yes, I am quite aware of that change thanks Charlie, and possibly one of the reasons I'm still on Mavericks where I have a lot of my System resources modified, some visually and some with audio, including real voice announcements.

But some like George Carlin's - There's a letter in your mailbox can get a bit much in a short time for incoming Mail emails:

English email sounds - Page 2

English sounds for your email

www.sounds4email.com

BTW: Any Mac oldtimers recall when you could make the Trashcan into a toilet complete with toilet flushing sound when emptyed and various other OS System modifications???


- Patrick
=======

 

[Rod]

After a little bit of searching I found this really good YouTube tutorial on how to save your old alert sound files to use in BS.

 

[MacInWin]

Watched it. Still can't put old event sounds back like the crumpling paper for trash. Just the generic event sounds, which is better than nothing, but I did like the crumpling paper for trash.

 

[Slydude]

Yes, I am quite aware of that change thanks Charlie, and possibly one of the reasons I'm still on Mavericks where I have a lot of my System resources modified, some visually and some with audio, including real voice announcements.

But some like George Carlin's - There's a letter in your mailbox can get a bit much in a short time for incoming Mail emails:

English email sounds - Page 2

English sounds for your email

www.sounds4email.com

BTW: Any Mac oldtimers recall when you could make the Trashcan into a toilet complete with toilet flushing sound when emptyed and various other OS System modifications???


- Patrick
=======

I don't remember that one but I remember using the Addams Family "Mail's In" sound. On my Apple IIGS I had Oscar The Grouch singing "I Love It Because It's Trash" every time I emptied the trash.

Just in case you're wondering that will tick off your spouse if you are deleting a large number of files in small batches.

 

[Rod]

This was all back in the days when we had pretty much complete access to and control of our Macs. It was the reason I bought my first Mac, autonomy. Those days are gone. Today we have SIP and 2FA and no sooner did we find ways to sidestep them than Apple locked up the OS in such a way that it's almost inaccessible. The questions are changing from, "How do I?" to, "Why can't I?" and that is a shame in a way. All this in a decade or so and all apparently to protect us from malicious intent or user error.
Of course this is just the down side, the upside is that in a few decades we have gone from a 20Kg device that looked like an oscilloscope with limited function to a device the size of a watch that can do so many times more than the 20Kg device ever could.

 

[sfdyoung]

The Catalina and Mojave screenshot utility played grab.aif, but Big Sur plays something else. I know that grab.aif is still a part of Big Sur, but how do I change the screenshot sound back to grab.aif? Same deal with the "empty trash" crumpling paper sound. Thanks.

I copied this from the Apple discussions forum. I haven't tried it myself, so use caution. Also I was able to navigate directly to the sound files, so you may not need to search from your menu bar.

Navigate to /System/Library/Components/CoreAudio.component/Contents/SharedSupport/SystemSounds/finder

*Note, this directory is hidden so you'll have to enter this in the search bar using the magnifying glass in your menu bar.

There you'll see two files: "move to trash.aif" and "empty trash.aif". While either is highlighted, click on the space bar to hear each of these. These are the files you'll want to replace, though I recommend keeping the old ones there and putting a ".bigsur" after the names for future reference.

Here's the delete trash sound

This should get you started. Obviously, you'll have to strip it from here, convert it to an .aif file and rename it then place it in the folder above. Hope this helps!

 

[MacInWin]

You probably cannot do what @sfdyoung suggested. The /System folder on Big Sur is both read-only and encrypted for any account except the system, as a part of the new security in Big Sur. You can give it a go, but I suspect the security will prevent deletion, renaming, replacing or any changes to the files in that folder. I just went to that folder and the two files are there, but when I tried to do anything with them (rename, copy and paste to get a duplicate in the same folder, delete) nothing worked. Either the option was not there in the Finder menu or it was greyed out.

 

[chscag]

It may be possible by first disabling SIP, which must be done from Recovery. Not recommended though. Best to leave alone the default system sounds and icons that Apple has implemented with Big Sur.

I'm afraid for the most part the days of "tweaking" macOS are over.

 

[MacInWin]

Charlie, would disabling SIP while booted from a Recovery partition do the decrypting necessary to see the Volume contents? If so, that would really surprise me that Apple left such a glaring hole in the security they so carefully strengthened.