Prevent All Alerts from Notification Center in Mac OS X Without Disabling the Feature

Notification Center in Mac OS X delivers alerts and messages from Mac system functions, software updates, and various applications. While these notifications and messages can sometimes be helpful or informative, they can also be disruptive and incredibly annoying if you’re trying to focus or get things done on the Mac. Additionally, some users may not like the Nuisance Center feature at all.

While users can temporarily disable Notifications with Do Not Disturb or even go all out and completely disable the feature and remove the Notification menu bar item from Mac OS X entirely, these may not be appropriate solutions for everyone.

Instead, we’re going to demonstrate an alternative method of getting Notification Center in Mac OS X to leave you alone completely, effectively disabling the alerts feature while still allowing users to manually review notifications and the Today view if they’d like to. This effectively puts your Mac into permanent “Do Not Disturb” mode, enabling the feature for perpetuity.

Disabling Alerts from Notification Center in Mac OS X with Continuous Do Not Disturb

1. Go to the  Apple menu and open System Preferences, then go to the “Notifications” panel
2. At the top of the left side list, choose “Do Not Disturb”
3. Look for “Turn on Do Not Disturb:” scheduler, and check the box next to “From”
4. Set the first time from one minute ahead of whatever time you’re going to set in the second box, for example: “7:01 am” to “7:00 am” – this is essential to get right, the first time can be anything as long as it’s exactly one minute ahead of the second time set, this effectively keeps Do Not Disturb mode on continuously with no letups



5. Close out of System Preferences as usual and enjoy your newly disabled Notification Center alerts system

This places Do Not Disturb Mode on all the time, no longer requiring toggling the Notification Center icon or turning Do Not Disturb on manually to enable for just 24 hours. Instead, it’s on all the time, which is perfect if you find the feature to pester you more than help you.

You can continue to click on the Notification Center icon to access the Today view and Notifications list, but the constant stream of notifications about X Y and Z will no longer come through to cover the Mac desktop and disrupt your focus.

This is the least intrusive and easiest way to effectively disable the notification alerts system without completely disabling the entire Notification Center feature in OS X, which is a bit drastic and also prevents access to things like the Today view. I use the constant Do Not Disturb mode method myself because I got tired of enabling it manually every morning after waking up to the endless “Updates Available” alert for updates I do not need on my Mac. Yes that means you’ll have to manually check for available software updates yourself, but that’s not too big of a deal for most users. Another approach would to be to simply mute the alert sounds if only the auditory component bothers you.