This article explains ways to mute an iPad and what happened to the tablet’s mute button.

What to Know

  • To mute iPad via Control Center, swipe down from the top right corner > move the volume slider to the bottomTo mute iPad via Volume settings, go to Settings > Sounds > Ringer and Alerts.To mute iPad via Do Not Disturb, open Control Center > Focus > Do Not Disturb.

How Do I Mute and Unmute My iPad?

The iPad can be muted in several ways

  • Physical volume buttons
  • The Settings app
  • Control Center

Mute an iPad With the Volume Buttons

The easiest way to mute an iPad is using the volume buttons. Like any standard volume buttons, all you have to do to mute an iPad is to hold Volume Down until the sound is gone. Some models also have a hardware mute button.

Mute iPad Using Volume in the Settings App

Another way to silence is an iPad is to use the options in the Settings app. These settings don’t apply to every sound. They control ringers and alerts and alarms, but not, for instance, audio coming from a streaming video. To adjust those settings, follow these steps:

  • Tap Settings.
  • Tap Sounds.
  • In the Ringer and Alerts section, you have these options:
  • Set the overall volume for all ringers and alerts by dragging the slider to the volume you prefer.
  • The iPads’s volume buttons won’t affect ringers and alarms unless you move Change With Buttons to on/green.
  • You can also control iPad ringers and alerts by type in the Sounds section. Tap each type of sound and choose either silence or an alert tone.

Quickly Mute an iPad With Control Center

Other than the Volume Down button, Control Center gives you two great, quick options. Here’s how to use them:

Tap Settings.

Tap Sounds.

In the Ringer and Alerts section, you have these options:

  • Set the overall volume for all ringers and alerts by dragging the slider to the volume you prefer.
  • The iPads’s volume buttons won’t affect ringers and alarms unless you move Change With Buttons to on/green.
  • You can also control iPad ringers and alerts by type in the Sounds section. Tap each type of sound and choose either silence or an alert tone.

The Do Not Disturb feature lets you schedule times to mute your iPad (while you sleep, for instance), as well as to create different Focus scenarios with different mute options depending on your context.

  • Open Control Center by swiping down from the top right of the screen.
  • To mute the iPad using the volume control, swipe the volume slider (it’s on the right, under the playback controls) all the way to the bottom.
  • You can also use the Focus feature to mute the iPad by tapping Focus > Do Not Disturb.

Open Control Center by swiping down from the top right of the screen.

To mute the iPad using the volume control, swipe the volume slider (it’s on the right, under the playback controls) all the way to the bottom.

You can also use the Focus feature to mute the iPad by tapping Focus > Do Not Disturb.

  • How do I mute a tab on an iPad?
  • Unlike its counterpart on Mac, Safari for iPad doesn’t currently have a way to mute a tab. If you start audio in a new tab while sound is playing in another, however, Safari will automatically mute the one in the background.
  • Why doesn’t my iPad have a mute button?
  • From the first model until the ones introduced in 2017, iPads had a mute switch just above the volume controls which silenced it with one movement (the iPad mute switch could be used for many things, in fact). But, starting in 2017, Apple removed the mute switch.

Unlike its counterpart on Mac, Safari for iPad doesn’t currently have a way to mute a tab. If you start audio in a new tab while sound is playing in another, however, Safari will automatically mute the one in the background.

From the first model until the ones introduced in 2017, iPads had a mute switch just above the volume controls which silenced it with one movement (the iPad mute switch could be used for many things, in fact). But, starting in 2017, Apple removed the mute switch.

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