How to Change or Disable System Alert Sounds in Ubuntu

Whenever you hit the Backspace key at the start of a terminal line, reach the boundary of a document in an editor, or enter an invalid character into a dialogue prompt on Ubuntu, the desktop environment plays a sudden acoustic chime. Depending on your active sound theme, this alert—often known as the “Drip”, “Bark”, or classic bell sound—can ring out piercingly loud through laptop speakers or headphones, startling colleagues in quiet offices or disturbing household peace late at night.

Fortunately, Ubuntu’s GNOME desktop environment includes straightforward controls to adjust the alert volume, choose softer acoustic themes, or mute system event beeps entirely without affecting your music, video, or call audio. This guide explains how to customize or disable system alert sounds in Ubuntu.

Configuring Alert Sounds in Ubuntu Graphical Settings

On modern releases of Ubuntu (including 22.04 LTS and 24.04 LTS), adjusting alert sounds takes less than a minute:

1. Click the System Menu in the top-right corner of your desktop panel (the volume/battery cluster) and open Settings.
2. In the left-hand navigation sidebar, click on Sound.
3. Scroll down to the System Sounds section.
4. Locate the System Volume / Alert Volume slider.
5. To Mute Completely: Drag the slider all the way to the far left (0%). System beeps and error bells are now permanently silenced while your media volume remains untouched.
6. To Soften: Lower the slider to approximately 20% to keep audio feedback subtle and non-intrusive.

Choosing a Different Alert Sound Theme

If you want to keep audio feedback but prefer a more melodic chime instead of an abrupt beep:

1. In the same Sound settings menu, look at the Alert Sound selection buttons.
2. Click each available preset sound to hear a live preview:
   • Default (Bark / Bell)
   • Drip (Soft water droplet tone)
   • Glass (Subtle chime)
   • Sonar (Subdued pulse)
3. Click your preferred tone to make it your active system alert.

Disabling Terminal Bell Audio in Ubuntu Terminal

If your primary irritation comes from acoustic beeps inside the GNOME Terminal when pressing Tab for autocomplete:

1. Open the Terminal by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T.
2. Click the Hamburger menu (three lines) in the top-right corner of the terminal window and choose Preferences.
3. In the left sidebar, click on your active profile under Profiles (typically named Unnamed).
4. In the Text tab, locate the checkbox labelled Terminal bell.
5. Uncheck the box next to Terminal bell.
6. Close Preferences. The terminal will now remain completely silent during command navigation and autocomplete attempts.

Muting Alert Sounds via Terminal (gsettings)

If you are provisioning multiple workstations or scripting an automated desktop environment:

# Mute system alert sounds
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.sound event-sounds false

# Disable input feedback sounds
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.sound input-feedback-sounds false

The changes apply immediately across the entire desktop session.