You Can Make Your MacBook Chime Like an iPhone When Plugging it in to Charge

As you most likely know, when you plug in your iPhone or iPad to charge, it’ll make a cute little chime indicating it’s charging. The MacBook doesn’t have this feature. Instead, it uses a light indicator on the MagSafe connector for your MacBook that displays an amber color while charging and a green light when the battery’s at 100%. This changed with the new 2015 MacBook due to it not having a MagSafe charger. Instead it uses a USB Type-C connector which doesn’t display any light indication. In place for the missing indication, if the computer is on, it’ll chime just like an iPhone when plugged in. By default, this chime is disabled on your MacBook.

But now, thanks to dodgeunhappineson Reddit over the weekend, you can enable the little chime to sound when plugging in your MacBook using your terminal. Here are the steps to get that iconic sound you know and love on your MacBook:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Type (or copy and paste) the following command into the Terminal console.

defaults write com.apple.PowerChime ChimeOnAllHardware -bool true; open /System/Library/CoreServices/PowerChime.app

Now, restart your Mac, then let your MacBook deplete passed 100%, then plug it in. You’ll here that little addicting chime found in iOS indicating your MacBook is charging. If you wish to not hear the chime any longer, just follow these steps:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Type (or copy and paste) the following command into the Terminal console.
defaults write com.apple.PowerChime ChimeOnAllHardware -bool false; open /System/Library/CoreServices/PowerChime.app

Now all your Macs can sound like your iOS devices when they charge! Note that this tip is obviously undocumented and future OS X updates may stop this from working. For now though, it’s been tested on OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 and later as well as the current OS X El Capitan beta.