The Audio Ducking Problem
If you use your Mac to listen to Spotify or Apple Music while you work, you may have noticed an incredibly annoying behavior: whenever an alert pops up, an email arrives, or someone sends you an iMessage, your Mac will automatically instantly drop the volume of your music by 50%, play the small notification “ping,” and then slowly fade the music back up. This feature, known in the audio industry as “ducking,” is meant to ensure you never miss a system alert, but it completely destroys the flow of your music and focus.
How to Disable Notification Audio Ducking
To stop this behavior, you need to dig into the system’s sound settings and disable the specific feature that ties system alerts to your master volume output.
1. Click the Apple logo () in the top-left corner of the menu bar.
2. Select System Settings (or System Preferences on older versions).
3. In the left-hand sidebar, scroll down and click on Sound.
4. Look at the top half of the window, in the section labelled “Alerts and Sound Effects.”
5. Locate the toggle switch labelled Play feedback when volume is changed (or similar depending on your OS version). Ensure this is off to prevent the annoying popping sound when adjusting volume.
6. Most importantly, look for the option labelled Play sound effects through. Change this from your main speakers or headphones to Internal Speakers. By separating the audio streams, your Mac will play the “ding” out of the laptop chassis while your music continues playing undisturbed at full volume through your connected Bluetooth headphones or external monitor.
Managing FaceTime Interferences
If your volume drops dramatically and permanently when you receive a FaceTime call or open an application that uses your microphone, this is a different feature entirely. macOS intentionally lowers all media volume to prevent audio feedback (screeching) when a microphone is active. To fix this, you must open the specific app causing the issue (like Zoom, Teams, or FaceTime) and look for the internal setting called “Automatically adjust microphone volume” or “Reduce background noise” and turn it off.