Support and help
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Volume Lock sets a maximum output volume for your Mac and holds it there. You choose a ceiling, switch the lock on, and anything that tries to push the volume above that ceiling is pulled straight back down: the keyboard volume keys, Control Center, System Settings, scripts, and other apps.
Lowering the volume and muting always work. The cap is a ceiling, never a floor.
macOS has no built-in way to cap output volume. Screen Time has no audio controls, and the parental controls do not cover the volume slider. Volume Lock fills that gap, whether you are protecting a child's hearing, a shared machine, or your own ears.
Volume Lock is a menu bar app. It has no Dock icon and no main window by design. After you install it and open it once, you will find a small lock icon in the menu bar at the top right of the screen, alongside Wi-Fi and the clock.
If you cannot see it, the menu bar may be full. Quit another menu bar app, or check whether the icon is hidden behind the notch on a laptop. Widening the menu bar space by quitting other icons is usually enough.
The panel also shows a live Current volume readout and names the output device the cap currently applies to.
With the lock on and a cap set below the current volume, press the volume-up key on the keyboard, or drag the slider in Control Center. The volume rises for a fraction of a second and then snaps back to the cap. The "Current volume" readout in the panel shows the same thing happening. Nothing beeps and nothing pops up, deliberately, so that reverting the volume never becomes a game for a child to play.
A cap of 0% is allowed and mutes all sound while the lock is on. The panel says so under the slider when you drag it that far.
Volume Lock has a Settings window with a sidebar: General and About as rows on the left, the selected row's content beside them, and Quit Volume Lock pinned at the bottom. You can open it in three ways:
There is no Command-Comma shortcut, because the app has no menu bar of its own.
Volume Lock can start automatically when you log in, so the limit is in place before anyone uses the Mac. This is a normal login item and it is yours to control: open Settings › General and use the Start Volume Lock at login switch. Turning it off unregisters the login item, and the app will not start by itself after that.
The first time macOS sees the login item it may show a notification saying an app "added items that can run in the background", and in some cases it asks you to approve the item in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions. If approval is needed, the General tab shows an Open Login Items button that takes you straight there.
If the app is not running, nothing is enforced. That is the honest trade: the limit applies while Volume Lock is running, which is why launching at login is worth leaving on.
Open Settings — the gear button at the bottom right of the panel — and click Quit Volume Lock at the bottom of the sidebar.
You can also hold Option and click the menu bar icon, then choose Quit Volume Lock. That works without opening Settings.
Command-Q does nothing, and there is no Quit item in a menu at the top of the screen, because a menu bar app has no menu bar of its own. Activity Monitor also works if you prefer.
Your saved cap and lock state are a few hundred bytes of preferences stored by macOS under the app's identifier. They do nothing on their own once the app is gone. If you want them gone too, run this in Terminal:
defaults delete is.wednesday.VolumeLock
A volume cap is a safety tool, so here are its limits, stated plainly rather than buried.
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| The app is not running | Nothing is enforced. Leave Start Volume Lock at login on so it comes back at the next login. |
| Output device has no software volume (some HDMI, USB and optical devices) | macOS gives no volume control to set, so the cap cannot be applied. The panel shows a yellow warning naming the device rather than pretending it is protected. Switch to an output that does have volume control, such as the built-in speakers or headphones. |
| AirPlay speakers | AirPlay output is not visible to the audio system in the way Volume Lock needs, so it is not covered. |
| Hardware volume steps | Some devices only accept volume in fixed steps, so the volume can settle up to one step above your cap. That is a limit of the hardware, not of the app. |
| A tiny raise, within half a percent of the cap | Ignored on purpose, so the app does not fight itself over rounding. |
| Someone with the Mac's administrator password | They can quit or uninstall the app, or switch the login item off in System Settings. No setting inside any app can prevent that. If the person you are limiting has admin access to the Mac, consider giving them a standard account instead. |
The lock is probably on. Click the menu bar icon and switch it off, or raise the maximum.
Some HDMI, USB and optical outputs report no volume control to macOS at all. There is nothing for Volume Lock to set. Switch the output to the built-in speakers or headphones in System Settings › Sound.
macOS keeps a separate volume per output device. Volume Lock follows the device you are actually using and re-applies the cap when you switch, so the ceiling holds on the new device too.
Yes. Open System Settings › Control Center › Sound and choose "Don't Show in Menu Bar".
No. It waits to be told the volume changed rather than checking repeatedly, so it uses no measurable CPU while nothing is happening.
On your Mac, and nowhere else. See the privacy policy.
Email customercare@wednesday.is and describe what you expected and what happened instead.