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Move your MacBook lid.
It creaks like a rusty door.
That's it. That's the app.
Why does this exist? Because someone had to do it. Your MacBook's hinge has always sounded wrong — too smooth, too silent. We fixed that.
Download for macOSRequires macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon
How it works
Open, close, or wiggle your MacBook lid. Even a tiny movement counts.
A rusty door creak plays in real time. Slow movements are louder. Fast ones fade out.
That's literally the entire app. You're welcome.
The "science"
RustyMac reads your MacBook's hinge angle sensor at 60Hz and converts lid velocity into the most realistic rusty door creak you've ever heard from a laptop.
Slow, deliberate lid movements produce a loud, painful creak. Fast movements are quiet — just like a real rusty hinge.
Playback speed shifts between 0.95x and 1.05x so each creak sounds slightly different. Organic. Authentic. Terrible.
Sound kicks in instantly when you move and cuts out just as fast when you stop. No lag. No lingering. Just creak.
A dead zone filters out sensor noise so your MacBook doesn't creak while sitting perfectly still on your desk.
Features
Lives in your menu bar. No Dock icon. No window. Invisible until it creaks.
Launch it and forget it. There are no settings because there's nothing to configure.
Uses a real door creak recording that loops seamlessly. No synthesized nonsense.
Built in Swift. Tiny footprint. Your battery won't even notice.
Creaks from the moment you open your MacBook. Every. Single. Time.
FAQ
Because someone had to do it. Your MacBook's hinge has always sounded wrong — too smooth, too silent. We fixed that.
No. Apple Silicon only. The hinge angle sensor we use (via IOKit HID) is only available on M-series MacBooks.
Nope. The sensor polling is lightweight and the audio engine only activates when the lid actually moves. Impact is negligible.
Not yet. But the source is open, so you can swap in your own creak sample if you're handy with Xcode.
The app is real. The creak is real. Whether it's a joke is a philosophical question we're not prepared to answer.
Download RustyMac. Open your lid. Listen to the beautiful sound of regret.
Download for macOSFree · macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon
Installation
xattr -cr /Applications/RustyMac.appThis removes the macOS quarantine flag (the app is unsigned).