Your MacBook lid sounds like an old wooden door.
A lightweight daemon reads the MacBook's built-in Lid Angle Sensor at 30 Hz and plays a creak sound in real-time as you open or close the lid. Faster movement = faster creak. Every creak is slightly randomized in pitch so it never sounds repetitive.
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/placeholder-demo.mp4
MacBooks (M4 and 2019 16") have a Hall-effect magnetic angle sensor near the hinge. The daemon reads it through IOKit HID and maps lid movement to audio playback via AVAudioEngine:
Lid moves → sensor reports angle → daemon detects velocity/direction
→ picks random creak sound → adjusts rate + pitch → plays through speakers
→ fades out when lid stops moving
| Model | Works |
|---|---|
| M4 MacBooks (all) | Yes |
| MacBook Pro 16" 2019 (Intel) | Yes |
| M1 / M2 / M3 MacBooks | No — sensor exists but Apple doesn't expose it |
Run this in Terminal:
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/the-codingninja/mac-lid-sound/main/install-app.sh | bashThis downloads the latest release, installs to /Applications, and launches it. No Gatekeeper issues.
The app lives in your menu bar — no dock icon. From the menu you can:
- See the live lid angle
- Switch between Door Hinge and Garage Door sounds
- Mute/unmute
- Enable Launch at Login
- Download
Door-Hinge.dmgfrom Releases - Open the DMG, drag Door Hinge to Applications
- Clear Gatekeeper:
xattr -cr /Applications/Door\ Hinge.app - Open from Applications
git clone https://github.com/the-codingninja/mac-lid-sound.git
cd mac-lid-sound
./build.sh
open "build/Door Hinge.app"App: Quit from menu bar, drag from /Applications to Trash.
CLI daemon:
./uninstall.shThe lid angle is read from Apple's Sensor Processing Unit via HID:
- VendorID:
0x05AC(Apple) - ProductID:
0x8104(Sensor Processing Unit) - UsagePage:
0x0020(HID Sensor) - Usage:
0x008A(Orientation) - Data: Feature Report ID 1, byte 1 = angle in degrees (0° closed, ~130° fully open)
Check if your Mac has it:
hidutil list --matching '{"VendorID":0x5ac,"ProductID":0x8104,"PrimaryUsagePage":32,"PrimaryUsage":138}'- Door creak sounds from BigSoundBank.com — CC0 (public domain)
- Garage door sounds from SoundEffectsPlus.com — royalty-free
MIT