Resolved CMD+C now making a sound effect???

[Twimfy]

Weird one here,

Was changing some settings in the sound panel in system preferences (I turned off system sound effects as they were annoying me) anyway I realised I missed them so I turned them back on but now my CMD+C and CMD+V for copy and paste are making sound effects and it's really annoying, they match whatever SFX that is selected in the list.

In 7 years of being an OS X user I have never come across this before. How do I make it stop?

EDIT: They still make a sound when the SFX option is disabled!!

 

[G0meZ]

fun

i've never heard of this before.
I'd guess there's some additional software like launchbar involved?

 

[Twimfy]

I've made no changes to software at all in the last few days.

 

[G0meZ]

hm, strange indeed...I'd still check for some software causing this. never heard of osx doing this by itself...

did you check behind the sofa...maybe some joker sits there making the noises

 

[GlenK]

Mine is doing the same thing. Had not noticed it which is even more concerning..

 

[nyolc8]

Sound effect when pressing cmd+c happens here too. BUT not all the time, just sometimes, randomly.

 

[adnbek]

I believe it's always done it. It's an "error" sound and it plays if you try cmd-c or cmd-v when you cannot such as if you haven't selected anything to copy or cannot paste to a location.

 

[G0meZ]

any news on this oddity?

pls keep us posted if you find out anything
thanks

 

[MacMan988]

I get a sound effect when there is no text selected. If I select some text from a webpage or a text document and press CMD + C then I don't hear the sound. I guess that is not what you are talking about?

 

[Twimfy]

I believe it's always done it. It's an "error" sound and it plays if you try cmd-c or cmd-v when you cannot such as if you haven't selected anything to copy or cannot paste to a location.

Yes but it still does it when there's something to select. e.g. if I copy my own text from this box now and copy it to the clipboard it still plays a sound.

I'm still no closer to figuring this out.

 

[maflynn]

Mine doesn't for some reason, I've not noticed any sounds for cmd-c

 

[chown33]

Yes but it still does it when there's something to select. e.g. if I copy my own text from this box now and copy it to the clipboard it still plays a sound.

I'm still no closer to figuring this out.

Please provide more details.

For example, exactly what OS version does this happen with?

Also, does changing the alert sound in the System Preferences list of sounds also change the cmd-C sound?

Does the sound occur if you choose the Copy menu-item from the File menu, rather than doing cmd-C? In other words, is the sound effect tied to the use of the cmd-key, or is it tied to any use of the Copy functionality? When you test this, please identify exactly which app you're testing it in, and exactly what you did to test it. Example: "In TextEdit, I typed the words 'this is stupid' into a new Rich Text window, then selected the word 'stupid' and chose 'Copy' from the 'File' menu. The result was __describe_result_here___.".

Have you tried a "safe boot"? Does the sound occur then or not?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564

Does the alert sound play at all under safe boot, if there's nothing selected? The latter is to confirm that the normal alert-sound plays correctly, in the proper context.

 

[Twimfy]

Please provide more details.

For example, exactly what OS version does this happen with?

Also, does changing the alert sound in the System Preferences list of sounds also change the cmd-C sound?

Does the sound occur if you choose the Copy menu-item from the File menu, rather than doing cmd-C? In other words, is the sound effect tied to the use of the cmd-key, or is it tied to any use of the Copy functionality? When you test this, please identify exactly which app you're testing it in, and exactly what you did to test it. Example: "In TextEdit, I typed the words 'this is stupid' into a new Rich Text window, then selected the word 'stupid' and chose 'Copy' from the 'File' menu. The result was __describe_result_here___.".

Have you tried a "safe boot"? Does the sound occur then or not?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564

Does the alert sound play at all under safe boot, if there's nothing selected? The latter is to confirm that the normal alert-sound plays correctly, in the proper context.

Ok. I'm running 10.9.1

The sound does not occur when using any mouse selected menus. Only when a keyboard combo is pressed. For the record it makes the same noise if I haven't got any text selected as when I do have some text selected. I know the sound effect for none selected is standard on OS X as it's simply an "error" sound to remind you that nothing is chosen to be copied/pasted, I'm used to that.

The sound is whatever I choose it to be in the sound panel in system preferences. I currently have 'Tink' selected as it's the shortest and "quietest".

My keyboard is a standard Apple USB wired keyboard.

The issue does not occur in safe mode and in my guest account it makes the standard error sound but the issue I'm having does not occur.

All my accessibility settings are set to OS X default (quickly checked that now in case it had something to do with it).

After checking all of this I can only assume that it is a software change that is influencing it. However I have been running the same setup for the last 6 months. The ONLY new software aside from updates that has been installed in that time is Spotify and Google Chrome (which I only use for US Netflix). Both of those apps I have removed using CleanMyMac to ensure there are no remnants, followed by automated scripts via Onyx. Didn't fix the issue.

My start up items are the same as they have always been, and looking at my console logs I cannot see anything unusual loading upon start up.

Basically nothing has changed. I just booted up one morning and there it was. However to begin with it was the typical Mac error sound. It was at that point I headed to system preferences to see if anything had changed and I noticed that I could control the sound effect.

The only thing I haven't tried yet is a different keyboard (I don't have one). It's an unlikely culprit but I'd like to rule it out.

 

[maflynn]

What applications does it occur in, e.,g., Finder, Safari, Notes, Text Edit, etc?

 

[Twimfy]

What applications does it occur in, e.,g., Finder, Safari, Notes, Text Edit, etc?

Everything. Appears to be system wide.

 

[maflynn]

Are you using any clipboard utilities or have any other utilities running or just a vanilla version of OSX?

 

[Twimfy]

Are you using any clipboard utilities or have any other utilities running or just a vanilla version of OSX?

Just vanilla. The machine basically does the following and nothing else:

Netflix, iTunes Music, Web Browsing (safari no extentions) Mail, Xcode (standard IDE setup, again nothing fancy) and Gimp.

I don't use any plugins or interface changers (such as BTT or anything). I don't use any external audio devices or plugins, heck even the wallpaper is stock.

It's a total mystery. What I'd like to know is where those systems sound live. I'd just use Audacity to blank the sound out and save over it. At least then I could pick a "silent" sound effect from the list.

 

[LCD]

I had a problem with time announcement settings in my Account when the female voice I chose with its custom rate and volume did not work properly. Both the male system voice and the female voice would announce the time simultaneously. If I turned off the time announcement option, the male voice would do it anyway.

My problem started in 10.9.0 after I allowed System Preferences to restart in 32-bit mode to get rid of a pane from an outdated version of A Better Finder Attributes that became problematic in Mavericks. Removing that pane fixed ABFA as well as the time announcement problem but I still had to restart my 2012 Mini a number of times when the problem in Date & Time would return. I haven't seen it again in 10.9.1.

 

[chown33]

The sound does not occur when using any mouse selected menus. Only when a keyboard combo is pressed.

This strongly suggests it's tied to the cmd-key, not the Copy or Paste action.

The sound is whatever I choose it to be in the sound panel in system preferences. ...

This means it's almost certainly being triggered by the NSBeep function that plays an alert sound.

The issue does not occur in safe mode and in my guest account it makes the standard error sound but the issue I'm having does not occur.

This means it's happening because there's a per-user setting or preference that's causing something which leads to an NSBeep.

All my accessibility settings are set to OS X default (quickly checked that now in case it had something to do with it).

Did you check System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts?

I suggest a two-step process:
1. Go through every pane and setting under Keyboard Shortcuts, and write down the state of everything.
2. Click the "Restore Defaults" button.

I don't know if "Restore Defaults" applies to just the current subpane, as selected in the left-hand list, or whether it means all shortcuts in all subpanes will be restored to the defaults. If you don't care, then feel free to ignore step 1.

After clicking "Restore Defaults", do a cmd-C test in TextEdit. Is the problem solved or not?

If solved, then the likely culprit is that some Service or Shortcut was assigned to cmd-C and/or cmd-V, but that Service or Shortcut was actually unable to run, and that failure to run lead to the NSBeep.

If the problem is solved, go through your written-down list and set the shortcuts to the correct on/off state and keystroke. Manually test cmd-C in TextEdit after each one, to confirm it still works.

If the problem isn't solved, go through every subpane of Keyboard Shortcuts and manually uncheck every item in every subpane. Is the problem solved then?

After checking all of this I can only assume that it is a software change that is influencing it. However I have been running the same setup for the last 6 months. The ONLY new software aside from updates that has been installed in that time is Spotify and Google Chrome (which I only use for US Netflix). Both of those apps I have removed using CleanMyMac to ensure there are no remnants, followed by automated scripts via Onyx. Didn't fix the issue.

CleanMyMac is not considered harmless:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/18271411/

The only thing I haven't tried yet is a different keyboard (I don't have one). It's an unlikely culprit but I'd like to rule it out.

I think it's very unlikely to be related to the attached keyboard.

... What I'd like to know is where those systems sound live. I'd just use Audacity to blank the sound out and save over it. At least then I could pick a "silent" sound effect from the list.

See here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1062929/

Resist any and all temptation to modify /System/Library/Sounds directly, because any changes may be overwritten the next time an OS update is applied.

Instead put your custom sound in either your per-user ~/Library/Sounds folder, or system-wide in /Library/Sounds.

 

[Twimfy]

Well here's the thing.

I just sold that iMac and replaced it with a 2010 Macbook White Unibody (love these machines and I'm on the go a lot at the moment).

I took it from 10.8.2 to 10.9.1 and then migrated my user account over.

The issue wasn't present, however being a second hand Mac I like to do check on speakers etc and usually make my way through all of the preference panes.

Out of curiosity I selected one of the sounds in the list in the sound preference pane...lo and behold, the issue has returned lol, for some reason that seems to trigger it happening.

I have tried all of the above suggestions and it still remains. I also went through my library folder to clean out any remnants of dead programs of the past followed by the usual cache and permissions repair etc.

It's now got to the point where I give up, I'm kinda getting used to it but it'll forever remain a mystery to me.

 

[heathf]

Well here's the thing.

I just sold that iMac and replaced it with a 2010 Macbook White Unibody (love these machines and I'm on the go a lot at the moment).

I took it from 10.8.2 to 10.9.1 and then migrated my user account over.

The issue wasn't present, however being a second hand Mac I like to do check on speakers etc and usually make my way through all of the preference panes.

Out of curiosity I selected one of the sounds in the list in the sound preference pane...lo and behold, the issue has returned lol, for some reason that seems to trigger it happening.

I have tried all of the above suggestions and it still remains. I also went through my library folder to clean out any remnants of dead programs of the past followed by the usual cache and permissions repair etc.

It's now got to the point where I give up, I'm kinda getting used to it but it'll forever remain a mystery to me.

[doublepost=1491001020][/doublepost]I don't know if you ever figured this out or not, but I made a little progress. It's been happening to me for about a year, and I finally got sick of it today. If you use Alfred, there is a feature in Preferences > Features > Clipboard > Merging that says "Play a sound when appending" and underneath it says, "Plays the system 'Purr' sound when an item is successfully appended". For me, the sound is definitely the system purr sound.

I did it on my MBP and it seemed to fix the issue. I also did it on my iMac however, and it doesn't seemed to have fixed that. I haven't had a chance to restart it yet because I have some work to do and don't want to have to re-find a dozen browser tabs and fire up my VMs again and all that, but I suspect it may work after a restart on the iMac too.

Hope this helps.

 

[kolobochka]

So I've been having the same issue for quite a while. My Mac would be making error sounds when using Cmd-C, Cmd-Z, etc combinations. Rebooting would usually help, but it would usually start on its own after a while. I checked with this thread to see if anything would help, and nothing seemed to help, and I was legit panicking about viruses or something. I think I got the issue right after I updated my system (now have Mac OS X Sierra 10.12.5)

So I figured out today, that at least in my particular case, it's a bug with the Dock application. In fact, when clicking on Launchpad (show all apps) button on my Macbook, it wouldn't open (like open and close instantly). And when I opened it with a hand-gesture, I saw that everything I've been typing has been also typed into the search bar at the top of the Launchpad. Basically, the Launchpad (technically part of the Dock process) for some reason continued 'seeing' all of the keyboard inputs and would sound the error sound when I pressed a combination that wasn't appropriate, like Cmd-C.

Killing the dock process and having it restart fixed the problem instantly!

 

[SuzProf]

I finally made a macrumors account to say thank you! Killing the Dock so it restarted fixed it for me. This had been driving me nuts for the past week. On top of the beeping, the beep would happen with a very short, but noticeable, delay — which made it just that much worse.

Killing the dock process and having it restart fixed the problem instantly!

 

[Borgand]

Killing the dock process and having it restart fixed the problem instantly!

It did sound (see what I did there? ) as if there was some dialog or something open blocking the keyboard focus. Only that it did not block it actually, just produced alert sound, so I couldn't figure out what might be causing it.

Thanks mate, for pointing us towards Launchpad and Dock.

 

[ankitjain]

I also just made a MacRumors account to thank you, kolobochka, for solving this incredibly frustrating problem for me. Worked like a charm! For those wondering, to "kill" the Dock you can open the Terminal app from the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder. Type in the following and then hit return:
killall Dock
The command is case sensitive. https://appsliced.co/ask/how-do-i-relaunch-the-dock-in-os-x