why do i get occasional beeps from my imac

What you’re describing is unusual, but not unheard of. An iMac in sleep mode should be almost silent—no fans, no hard drive activity, and certainly no beeps. When you hear a beep from a Mac, it’s usually tied to system-level alerts (like memory or hardware issues) or specific apps that can “wake” the machine slightly to push a notification with sound. Since you’ve already turned off notification sounds, it’s worth considering whether something is preventing the Mac from staying fully asleep. Background services such as iCloud sync, Time Machine backups, or even apps like messaging services can momentarily wake the system and trigger sounds.

Another possibility is that the beeps are not software-based at all, but diagnostic. Apple hardware uses audible beeps to signal RAM or logic board issues, especially if the machine attempts a wake cycle but hits a problem. If the beeps are single tones (not a repeating error pattern), they may still be linked to macOS rather than hardware. I’d recommend going into System Preferences > Notifications again and double-checking apps like Mail, Calendar, and Messages. Also, look in System Preferences > Sound > Sound Effects and set “Play sound effects through” to something other than the internal speakers, or lower “Alert volume” to zero for a test. If the beeps continue, running Apple Diagnostics (restart and hold D at boot) will confirm if it’s hardware-related.

That sounds like the internal battery is critically low. ⇠🪫

You should ⇢ Get Service before it’s too late.

Good luck! 👋🏼😉