How to Turn Off Annoying Notifications on Mac in 2026

To turn off notifications on your Mac, go to System Settings → Notifications, click the app under Application Notifications and switch off Allow notifications. To silence everything for a while instead, click Control Center in the menu bar, click Focus and choose Do Not Disturb. Website alerts are switched off in Safari, Chrome or Firefox settings.

Notifications on a Mac rarely feel like a problem one at a time. It's the pile: a calendar reminder over a slide you're presenting, a shopping site you visited once, five Slack banners while you're writing something that needs your full attention. This guide covers each source of noise on macOS 27, the current version: single apps, websites, the whole Mac for an hour, and a Focus that lets the important people through. The menus are the same on macOS Tahoe 26, per Apple's Tahoe guide.

Quick answer: which setting stops which notifications

How to turn off notifications for one app on Mac

You turn off notifications for a single app in System Settings → Notifications, where every app that has asked to notify you is listed. Apple's notification settings guide describes each option; these are the steps:

1. Choose Apple menu → System Settings.
2. Click Notifications in the sidebar (it sits lower down the list).
3. Under Application Notifications, click the app.
4. Turn off Allow notifications. The other options for that app are dimmed once it's off.

Switching an app off completely is the right call for apps that only want your attention back: games, news apps, shopping apps, anything that pings you about "deals". For apps you do need, like Calendar or Messages, a quieter setting usually works better than off.

Make an app's notifications quieter instead of off

The same app page in System Settings → Notifications has finer controls, per Apple's guide. Which ones appear depends on the app:

• Alert Style: choose where notifications show (Desktop, Notification Center, Lock Screen) and whether a banner is Temporary (it slides away) or Persistent (it stays until you dismiss it).
• Badge application icon: the red count on the app's Dock icon. Turning it off removes the count without hiding the notifications.
• Play sound for notification: switch off the sound and keep the banner.
• Show previews: Always, When Unlocked or Never, so message text doesn't appear on screen.
• Notification grouping: Automatic, By Application or Off, which decides how a run of alerts stacks up.

My own setup is simple. Calendar and Messages keep their desktop banners, because a meeting reminder is no use sitting in a list. Almost everything else goes to Notification Center only, so it waits quietly until I click the date and time in the menu bar. Persistent banners I keep for nothing, since a banner that never leaves is the most annoying kind there is.

How to silence all notifications on Mac with Do Not Disturb

Do Not Disturb mutes every notification on your Mac for as long as you choose, or until you switch it back off. It's one of the Focuses built into macOS. Apple's Focus guide gives three ways to turn it on:

1. Click Control Center in the menu bar, click the Focus section and choose Do Not Disturb. Then pick how long, such as For 1 hour, or Until the end of this event if you're in a meeting that's on your calendar.
2. Hold Option and click the date and time in the menu bar to switch Do Not Disturb on or off in one move.
3. Press the Do Not Disturb key in the top row, if your keyboard has one.

To turn it off, open Control Center and click the active Focus again. The Option-click on the clock is the one I actually use. Before a run of back-to-back calls I Option-click, and I don't have to remember to undo anything if I chose Until the end of this event.

Watch for one side effect: if you share Focus across your Apple devices, turning a Focus on or off on the Mac changes it on your phone and tablet as well, per Apple. That's handy for deep work and less handy if you forget it's on and miss a call on your phone.

How to let important notifications through with a Focus

A Focus can block everything except the people and apps you choose, which is usually better than Do Not Disturb for a working day. You build one in System Settings → Focus, as Apple's Focus setup guide explains:

1. Open System Settings → Focus and click Add Focus. Pick Work, another preset, or Custom to name your own.
2. Click Allowed People, then in the Notifications pop-up choose Allow Some People and add the few who should always reach you.
3. Click Allowed Apps and choose Allow Some Apps, then add the apps that matter, such as Calendar.
4. Turn on Time Sensitive Notifications if you want urgent alerts, like a meeting starting, to break through.
5. Under Set a Schedule, click Add Schedule to turn the Focus on at a Time, at a Location, or when you open an App.
6. Click Done.

Choosing who gets through is a judgment call, so keep the list short. For a writing block, mine is my manager, my family and my calendar. Everyone else can wait an hour, and the messages are all still there when the Focus ends.

Two details trip people up. Time Sensitive alerts only show during a Focus if the app is also allowed to send them, which you check under that app's Allow time sensitive alerts in Notifications settings, per Apple. And Allow critical alerts lets an app break through even when a Focus is on, so leave it off for anything that isn't truly critical.

How to stop website notifications on Mac

Website notifications come from sites you once clicked Allow on, and they can arrive even when the site isn't open. Each browser has its own switch to stop them, and macOS lists Safari sites alongside apps in System Settings → Notifications.

I was halfway through a long email one afternoon when a shopping site I'd used once started announcing a sale, and that's when I went through all three browsers on my Mac and blocked notification requests everywhere.

Safari

Safari can stop one site, or stop every site from asking. Per Apple's Safari guide, sites can notify you even when Safari isn't running.

1. To stop one site: open System Settings → Notifications, click the website under Application Notifications and turn off Allow notifications.
2. To stop every site from asking: in Safari choose Safari → Settings, click Websites, click Notifications and deselect Allow websites to ask for permission to send notifications.
3. To block a site for good, set it to Deny in that same Websites → Notifications pane.

Google Chrome

Chrome keeps its own list of sites allowed to notify you, per Google's Chrome help:

1. Click More (the three dots, top right) → Settings.
2. Click Privacy and security → Site settings → Notifications.
3. Choose the default you want. The option that doesn't allow sites to send notifications blocks them all; if you'd rather let sites ask, Use quieter messaging swaps the pop-up for a small bell icon by the address.
4. Under the list of sites allowed to send notifications, remove or block any you don't want.

On a site you're already visiting, click View site information to the left of the address and turn off Notifications. Chrome also blocks notifications on its own from sites it flags as intrusive or misleading, Google says.

Firefox

In Firefox, open Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to Permissions and click Settings next to Notifications. There you can remove sites and tick the box that blocks new requests asking to allow notifications, then click Save Changes, as Mozilla's support forum describes.

How to turn off notifications from Mail, Slack and other work apps

Work apps have their own notification settings inside the app, and those are usually better than switching them off in macOS, because you can keep the messages that matter. Turning Mail or Slack off entirely in System Settings means you also miss the one email you were waiting for.

• Mail: in Mail, choose Mail → Settings → General, and use New message notifications to pick which mailbox triggers an alert, per Apple's Mail guide. Choosing a narrower mailbox, such as your VIPs, cuts most of the noise. Our guide to Mail notifications on Mac goes through every option.
• Slack: click your profile picture → Preferences → Notifications, and change Everything to Mentions and direct messages, per Slack's help center. A notification schedule there pauses Slack outside your working hours.
• Google Calendar open in Safari or Chrome sends alerts through that browser, so a default reminder that fires too often is fixed in Calendar's settings, not macOS. Our guide to automating Google Calendar covers default alerts.

With Slack, the change from Everything to mentions and direct messages is the single biggest drop in noise most people will get on a work Mac. Channels are still there when you open the app; they just stop tapping you on the shoulder.

How to hide notifications when sharing your screen or locking your Mac

macOS can hold back notifications while you share or mirror your screen, while the display is asleep, or while the Mac is locked. These switches sit at the top of System Settings → Notifications, per Apple:

• when mirroring or sharing the display: set it to Notifications Off so nothing pops up over a presentation or a Zoom screen share.
• when screen is locked: pause notifications so they don't show on the Lock Screen.
• when display is sleeping: pause them so they don't wake the screen.
• Show previews: set it to When Unlocked so a message's text never shows to someone standing near a locked Mac.

When I'm about to share my screen in a meeting, the mirroring setting is the one I'm glad I set months ago. A private message sliding in over a client's slide is the kind of thing nobody forgets.

Why do notifications keep coming back on my Mac?

When notifications return after you turned them off, the cause is usually a second source sending the same alert. Check these in order:

1. The website, not the app. A Gmail or Slack tab in Safari or Chrome can notify you separately from the Mac app. Check the browser's site list as well as System Settings → Notifications.
2. A Focus that lets the app through. If a Focus is on but an app still pings you, look at that Focus's Allowed Apps, and at Allow critical alerts and Allow time sensitive alerts for the app.
3. Another device. When Focus is shared across your devices, turning it off on your iPhone turns it off on your Mac as well, per Apple.
4. A reinstalled app or a new browser. A fresh install can ask for permission again, so decline the prompt this time and check the app's entry in Notifications settings.

If a pop-up claims your Mac is infected and pushes you to download something, that's a site or app you shouldn't trust, not a macOS notification. Close it, then remove that site from your browser's notification list.

A five-minute cleanup I'd do today

1. Open System Settings → Notifications and turn off Allow notifications for every app you wouldn't miss.
2. Move the rest to Notification Center only, except Calendar and the one or two messaging apps you need live.
3. Set when mirroring or sharing the display to Notifications Off.
4. Stop websites from asking in each browser you use.
5. Set up one Work Focus with a short list of allowed people and a schedule for your working hours.