You open your MacBook to take notes in class or during a meeting, and your music starts playing. Loudly. Not only did you disrupt everyone, you also revealed your passion for 90's boy bands to a room full of people who once respected you.
It's too late to win back that respect, but you can stop this from happening again. Just install AutoVolume, a tiny open source program that automatically sets your volume to any level when your MacBook goes to sleep. Whether you leave music, a video, or even a game running, this program makes sure no one can hear that later when you wake your Mac up.
Installing is simple: download the latest version, then open the ZIP file to unarchive it. Next, drag the icon to your Applications folder.
Open the software and you'll see a single window used to edit the settings.
The main toggle lets you decide what the volume should be set to when your MacBook goes to sleep. Two check boxes allow you to start the software every time you log into macOS, and to turn the service on and off. Note that closing the window will not close the software: it continues to run in the background. There's no menu bar or dock icon, so you'll have to open this window again to disable the service, or fire up Activity Monitor and quit the process from there.
Once you've set everything up, AutoVolume will set the volume at your desired level every time you close the lid or otherwise put it to sleep. I recommend just muting things: it's simple enough to turn the volume on later.
I hope this saves you from revealing any more embarrassing details about your musical preferences. While we're talking about volume, did you know you could adjust your Mac's volume in smaller increments? It's one of those Mac tricks everyone should know, so check it out.
Image Credit: bixentro