[FIX] Annoying camera sounds on the HTC EVO

[twelfth]

Requires root.

Camera makes noises. Even when the sound is muted. There is no option within the camera app to silence the camera. This is annoying. Very annoying.

After not being able to find a fix for this issue elsewhere, I dug in.

The HTC Camera app is called "HTCCamera.apk", it is ODEXed and resides in /system/app

The sounds are inside the APK.

HTCCamera.apk\res\raw

You will find 6 ogg files inside that folder inside the APK.

Replacing the files with a silent OGG file using identical filenames works, but you need to re-sign the APK for it to be something that can run since the original APK had to be modified in order to silence the sounds. (Easy enough to do if you theme icons occasionally or do other things to APKs.) Don't worry if you've never done it before and don't know how. Modified APK is signed and attached.

Using a program like Root Explorer, rename the original HTCCamera.apk to something like HTCCamera.bak so that you can restore the file in the event (ha! unlikely!) that there's an OTA update and you need the original file.

Paste the attached ZIP to /system/app and rename to HTCCamera.apk. Set permissions so that it's rw-r--r--

Ta-dah. No more camera sounds.

Since I am unable to upload the file as an attachment here, it is hosted on my own personal webhost.

http://ergh.org/misc/HTCCamera-Modified_PK-signed.zip

[Churner]

In some countries, it's illegal to have a silent camera shutter on your phone. This is probably why HTC made it the default.

[jeffmd]

pretty much this. Cameras have been hard to silence for a while now on phones. Even optimus v camera wasn't silent unless the phone was on silent.

[corrupt81]

What do other countries have to do with an American phone locked down to an American carrier? They need better QA than that.

As I was at a wedding not long ago with my Optimus Elite that suffers from the same problem, every time I took a picture you heard a loud "Cliiicckkk!!!" I was like damn this sucks lol, took another one and another loud click.. people started looking at me so I gave up.

I can't believe they don't give you an option to turn the shutter sound off out of the box. You'd think that'd be standard for a 2012 US-only phone.

[twelfth]

In some countries, it's illegal to have a silent camera shutter on your phone. This is probably why HTC made it the default.

Innnnnnnnteresting. It would appear that in the United States, a bill was introduced but stalled in committee... meaning being able to silence your camera is still legal.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquer...:@@@L&summ2=m&

Bill was introduced in January of 2009... 3 1/2 years. It's dead.

Not easy finding a list of which countries it is illegal in, though. Suggestions that it might be the case in Japan and Korea, but that's about it.

Shame it has to be like this because the HTC shutter sound is VERY annoying. Sounds like someone crunching a bag of potato chips. Not exactly something you want heard during, say, a wedding, like in corrupt81's case...

[jeffmd]

2 reasons we still see it on our phones... tis built into the app that is used in several countries in which changing it would cost money and they have taken up a moral stance to require the sound in a company backed stance against voyeurs and public peeping toms.

[corrupt81]

2 reasons we still see it on our phones... tis built into the app that is used in several countries in which changing it would cost money and they have taken up a moral stance to require the sound in a company backed stance against voyeurs and public peeping toms.

Pretty sure those type of people would be using a high powered 16mp "regular" camera and not some under powered 5mp phone camera. (And ironically most "regular" cameras can have the sound turned off without issue.)

I don't use my phone camera a lot but was glad I had it at my dad's wedding.. until I tried taking pictures.. I'm still pissed off about that and am thinking of just buying a "regular" camera now so I can choose whether it plays the sound of someone "crunching a bag of potato chips" as the above poster mentioned.

[jeffmd]

Clearly you don't watch any tv's/movies in the past ohh.. 8 years. Anyone holding a camera low would obviously be suspicouse, someone holding a phone low would not. Everyone has phones today so we filter it out subconsciously when looking for out of place things to alert us.