Using my own sound file for Mac mail alerts

[pine man]

I use Mac Mail as my email client and I am more than happy with it apart from the sound alert for new mail.

Following some research I found that, in theory, if I had an .AIFF sound file of my own I should be able to drag and drop it into the Sounds Folder contained in Mackintosh HD/System/Library but it will not accept it and shows the 'No Entry' sign.

When choosing the Sound Alerts in Mail the only files I can access are those contained in the Sounds folder.

Is there a different way of getting my own sound file into Mail or, am I doing something wrong in the way I am trying to add my own sound file to the Sounds folder?

Not a life threating problem but any assistance would be gratefully received.

 

[rachalmers]

I use Mac Mail as my email client and I am more than happy with it apart from the sound alert for new mail.

Following some research I found that, in theory, if I had an .AIFF sound file of my own I should be able to drag and drop it into the Sounds Folder contained in Mackintosh HD/System/Library but it will not accept it and shows the 'No Entry' sign.

When choosing the Sound Alerts in Mail the only files I can access are those contained in the Sounds folder.

Is there a different way of getting my own sound file into Mail or, am I doing something wrong in the way I am trying to add my own sound file to the Sounds folder?

Not a life threating problem but any assistance would be gratefully received.

The system is locked, unless you unlock it. It’s locked for just that reason. To keep malicious attempts at breaching your system out.
You can unlock your system and put the files where you want them, then relook it.


Sent from my iPad using Mac-Forums

 

[pine man]

Thanks, that makes sense, I suppose. At the risk of sounding silly, how do I unlock the system?

 

[rachalmers]

Thanks, that makes sense, I suppose. At the risk of sounding silly, how do I unlock the system?

Here it is
How to turn off System Integrity Protection on your Mac | iMore

Cheers


Sent from my iPad using Mac-Forums

 

[pine man]

Thanks for that. They really don't want you to mess with things do they!

 

[pine man]

EUREKA!!!

I baulked at turning SIP off - you never know what damage can be caused!

All of the Sounds used for alerts can be found in the Sounds folder in Mackintosh HD/System/Library BUT it is impossible to add to them without disabling SIP. I thought about looking in the 'Hidden' Library folder and found a Sounds folder there which was empty. Uh Oh! whats all that about?

Throwing caution the the winds I dragged and dropped my desired Alert sound into that 'Hidden" folder and, Lo and behold, it appeared at the bottom of the list of Sounds availabe for Alerts - and it works

 

[rachalmers]

I gather you are talking about ~/Library, your own Library folder? Well found.

 

[pine man]

That was a quick reply!

Yes it was my own Library folder and now I've got an alert that I can actually hear!

 

[Slydude]

I should have thought of that. Nice detective work pine man. Thanks for posting back with that answer.

 

[chscag]

I wonder if turning off SIP will still be available in Catalina, can anyone confirm that?

Sly?

Dennis?

 

[pm-r]

Thanks for that. They really don't want you to mess with things do they!

That was a quick reply!

Yes it was my own Library folder and now I've got an alert that I can actually hear!

Gee, maybe one day I really should enable my SIP, but I just like modding my Macs too much and it gets in my way.

I added two alternative Mail sounds just to make sure they would work for a friend that needed something louder, and a modified Canadian Stamp for my Mail App:
George Carlin.wav and gotmail.wav (remember the old explorer "You got Mail" voice???)




I wish .wav files could be included here!!! These ones would sure get one's attention!!! :Blushing:

EDIT:
Found a source:
http://www.wavsource.com/snds_2018-06-03_5106726768923853/people/comedians/carlin_letter.wav
Play your favorite Sound Archive Sound Files - email/youGotmail.wav.




- Patrick
======

 

[Slydude]

@Patrick wav files can't be incuded there. They won't work. The Mac expects alert sounds to be in .aiff format.

To use custom sound effects, they have to be in AIFF format. If they’re not in AIFF, then they’ll need to be converted first. Read the next section to learn how to do that using iTunes, otherwise drag your custom sound AIFF files to the ~/Library/Sounds folder.

See here

The necessary conversion can be done with msny different sound programs. iTunes used to be able to do it but I haven't done that in a while. Several other programs also work.

 

[pm-r]

@Patrick wav files can't be incuded there. They won't work. The Mac expects alert sounds to be in .aiff format.
... ... ....

Thanks, and that's a rather interesting article Sly, even considering it's date: 04, 2011 when I thought the old sound formats still worked officially.

And yes, it is suggested to use .aiff format as a sound file but I just wanted to mention the .wav sound files I installed for use with Mail work just fine, and I just checked and tried them both just to test, and that is using Mavericks 10.9.5 in case that makes any difference.

Anyway and regardless, I thought the OP might appreciate the type of sound file I ended up using for getting attention with new Mail email. And there is a lot of variety and options available out there, and the format is easily changed as well if needed.

PS: Maybe my friend and I both have something extra installed that allows the .wav sound to play in Mail, but if so, I have no idea which one it would be.



- Patrick
======

 

[Slydude]

That's interesting Patrick. I coould hac sworn that the last time I tried this I had to use AIFF files as the article suggests. Glad to know WAV files seem to work as well.

Both filetypes are uncompressed file formats. Perhaps I will get a chance to try some compressed files in the next day or two and see if they work as well.

 

[pm-r]

Both filetypes are uncompressed file formats. Perhaps I will get a chance to try some compressed files in the next day or two and see if they work as well.

I don't know if there's any real advantage to using compressed files as they sure don't take up very much room in their present state of 57 KB on disk and 12 KB on disk.



- Patrick
======

 

[Slydude]

There isn't really much of a difference. Alert sounds for things like mail are usually short so they don't take up much space no matter what format is used. About the only difference is that if other file formats are used there is no need for any type of file conversion.