How to Turn Off Ringer on Mac

It can be nice to receive phone calls on your computer, but in certain situations you may want to silence the ringer on your Mac.

By Rachel Needell Updated 10/17/2022

When all of your devices are connected, it's nice to be able to answer a phone call from your MacBook or iMac. But there are many reasons you'd want to know how to turn the ringer off on a Mac. This way, you can silence calls to your Mac when you need to. We’ll walk you through a few different options to disable call notifications on your Mac.

Silence Ringer on Mac Through Settings

Because your computer is not a cellphone, it receives phone calls through the FaceTime app even if the caller is not using video chat. This is a feature of the FaceTime app that allows you to place audio-only calls over the internet. Therefore, to disable your Mac from ringing when you receive a phone call, all you need to do is disable notifications from FaceTime on your Mac.

On your Mac, click the Apple Icon in the top left corner.
Select System Preferences.

Click Notifications & Focus.
Scroll down and click FaceTime.

Toggle Allow Notifications to Off.
It will appear gray when disabled.

Disable Calls on Mac with iPhone

To disable phone calls from ringing on your Mac, one of the simplest ways is to disable this setting directly on your iPhone.

First, go to Settings.
Scroll down and click Phone.

Select Calls on Other Devices.
From here, you can manage which of your devices receive calls.

Disable Call Notifications on Mac via FaceTime Settings

If you want to disconnect your iPhone from your Mac via the FaceTime app on your Mac:

Open FaceTime.
Click FaceTime on the menu bar at the top right.

Select Preferences from the drop-down menu.
From here, you can uncheck Enable this Account.

When you uncheck this box, you will have logged out of FaceTime on your Mac, but you will still be able to use FaceTime on your phone or other devices.

There you have it! A few simple ways to make sure your Mac doesn't ring when you don't want it to. For more helpful tips about how to silence or mute your devices, be sure to sign up for our Tip of the Day! If you're new to using a Mac, you can also learn some easy ways to shut down or force restart your computer.

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Author Details

Rachel Needell

Rachel Needell is a Feature Writer at iPhone Life, and a poet and author. With 10-plus years of experience working with Apple devices, she specializes in all-things iPad and is a Notes App expert, having worked on both the 2023 iPad Guide and the Notes App Guide. You can usually find her writing in the Daily Tip newsletter as one of our senior Tip writers. Rachel received her Master’s degree in English Literature in 2021 and her most recent work appears in the Winter ’21 edition of New Note Poetry. When she’s not obsessing about Apple products, you can find her voraciously reading fantasy books with her cat in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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