Time Announced Every Hour

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Level 1

25 points

Time Announced Every Hour

Has anyone run into the issue of the Mac Mini announcing the Time every hour? I got a new Mac Mini a few days ago and it screams the hourly announcement; it's an M4 Pro, running Sequoia 15.1.1.

The announce time option is turned off under the Control Center / Clock Options. I've turned it on, rebooted, and then turned it off and rebooted again, but it made no difference.

I've been talking to Apple Tech Support and each time I get a different advisor, they come up with different suggestions. So far, I've done the following, though I'm probably forgetting some steps:

--I set up a new user account, logged into the test account and waited: it continued to announce the time under the test account.

--I reinstalled the macOS: it continued to announce the time when I rebooted into my account

--I rebooted the Mac Mini into Safe Mode: it made no difference, it continued announcing the time

Now Apple wants me to erase the Macintosh HD and reinstall the OS from scratch and then migrate my date from a back up. That's the last thing I'll try before I ask them to send me a new unit.

In the meantime, I wanted to see if anyone else has experienced something similar and if so, how were you able to resolve the issue. Thanks for your feedback.

Mac mini, macOS 15.1

Posted on Nov 27, 2024 06:48 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,080 points

Nov 27, 2024 08:17 PM in response to philliprodo

It does not scream, it just announces the time. If you want to turn that off:

Open System Settings
Select Control Center
Choose Clock options
Turn off the Announce the time toggle.

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Answer 2

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,080 points

Dec 3, 2024 01:29 PM in response to philliprodo

Well glad you fixed it, but your solution was like doing a heart transplant when only a little pill would have fixed the issue. You never answered if you had any of the following third party apps installed:

Antivirus apps
Cleaning apps
VPN apps
Security apps
Maintenance apps

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Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,080 points

Nov 27, 2024 09:28 PM in response to philliprodo

Okay, sorry I missed that. Do you have ANY of the following types of third party apps installed:

Antivirus apps
Cleaning apps
VPN apps
Security apps
Maintenance apps

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Answer 4

philliprodo Author

Level 1

25 points

Nov 27, 2024 09:25 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Thanks for the reply, but you obviously didn't read what I wrote. That's the first thing I tried and the toggle switch was off to begin with. And yes, it screams--it's very loud and it echoes through the house especially at night.

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Answer 5

philliprodo Author

Level 1

25 points

Dec 3, 2024 12:24 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Thanks for the feedback. I was offline for a few days, because everything I had tried and everything Apple Support had suggested to try, had not worked and did not fix the problem. I finally bit the bullet, wiped the drive, and reinstalled the macOS. Thankfully, after reinstalling the OS, the problem was finally fixed. I'm now reconfiguring my MacMini and customize my user preferences, apps, etc.

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Answer 6

philliprodo Author

Level 1

25 points

Dec 4, 2024 11:03 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Well, I said that I had spent several hours on the phone with Apple Tech Support and we had checked all the answers they could come up with. And no, I didn't have any of these apps on my MacMini. In the end, the last support tech I spoke with offered a couple of solutions but they didn't work and the last one was to nuke the drive and reinstall the macOS.

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