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Yowl for Mac

Menu bar theft alarm that sounds a siren and locks a MacBook when unplugged, with optional motion detection.

By nejcar20. Free and open source, MIT licence.

Get it with OpenDMG View source on GitHub

Yowl at a glance

Version
1.3.2
Released
8 October 2026
Download size
1.4 MB
Works on
Apple silicon and Intel
Licence
MIT
Category
Security and Privacy
Developer
nejcar20
GitHub stars
11

About Yowl

Yowl — a free, open-source laptop theft alarm for Mac and Windows. Unplug it or lift it and it screams over mute and headphones, locks the screen, and photographs whoever is there.

Screenshots

Yowl screenshot 1Yowl screenshot 2Yowl screenshot 3

How to install Yowl on a Mac

  1. Get OpenDMG. It is a free app store for open source Mac apps. Download OpenDMG.
  2. Search for Yowl and press Get. OpenDMG downloads version 1.3.2 from nejcar20's own GitHub release.
  3. Open it. The download is checked against its SHA-256 fingerprint and its signature is checked on your Mac before it lands in Applications.

Updates to Yowl show up in OpenDMG and install with one button. No account is needed.

Prefer to do it by hand? The developer's file is on GitHub: Yowl-1.3.2.dmg (1.4 MB).

What is new in Yowl 1.3.2

**On Windows?** Get Yowl from the [Microsoft Store](https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9NM387X4WVV2). The download below is for Mac.

**Keep screaming with the lid closed:** if installing the helper fails, Yowl now says why, instead of only showing "Helper: not installed". Cancelling the password prompt still reads as not authorised; anything else shows the underlying error (#1).

The install now checks only Yowl's own sudoers file afterwards. Before, a broken rule left by another app in /etc/sudoers.d failed the install even though Yowl's was valid. A rule that fails the check is removed rather than left behind.

309 tests. Signed and notarised, universal.

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