Change System Volume from Command Line on Mac OS
Oftentimes the awesome GUI applications we love are simply gloss over a command line functionality. While I do love a visual app, it's always good to know how to do things from command line, if only for the sake of automation. I've covered loads of command line secrets, most notably Mac Camera Access, so I wanted to figure out if I could control volume from command line.
Change Mac System Volume
The secret to changing Mac system volume from command line is through osascript:
# Max volume
sudo osascript -e "set Volume 10"
# Mute
sudo osascript -e "set Volume 0"
# 50% volume
sudo osascript -e "set Volume 5"
Values range from 0 (muted) to 10 (maximum volume). Note that you don't get to see a nice volume change indicator -- the volume simply changes without any feedback.
![9 Mind-Blowing WebGL Demos]()
As much as developers now loathe Flash, we're still playing a bit of catch up to natively duplicate the animation capabilities that Adobe's old technology provided us. Of course we have canvas, an awesome technology, one which I highlighted 9 mind-blowing demos. Another technology available...
![I’m an Impostor]()
This is the hardest thing I've ever had to write, much less admit to myself. I've written resignation letters from jobs I've loved, I've ended relationships, I've failed at a host of tasks, and let myself down in my life. All of those feelings were very...
![MooTools Star Ratings with MooStarRating]()
I've said it over and over but I'll say it again: JavaScript's main role in web applications is to enhance otherwise boring, static functionality provided by the browser. One perfect example of this is the Javascript/AJAX-powered star rating systems that have become popular over the...
![Image Data URIs with PHP]()
If you troll page markup like me, you've no doubt seen the use of data URI's within image src attributes. Instead of providing a traditional address to the image, the image file data is base64-encoded and stuffed within the src attribute. Doing so saves...
Thank you for this tip. Are you sure that the maximum value is 10? On my Mac with High Sierra, the maximum value get on 7. The 8, 9, 10 also change the value to maximum. I did double check it by viewing the pop-up small window on volume indicator on menu bar.
This is how it’s done on Mojave:
The deprecated way is to specify a number between 0 and 7 for “set volume”
Is there a way to similarly look up the current volume setting (let’s say, in Mojave or Catalina)?
Options to get the current volume setting:
or