Doing something about the *(^@#ing Camera Sounds

[twelfth]

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.)

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.

 

[mknollman123]

Thanks for packaging it up all pretty for us!

Sent from my HTCEVOV4G using Tapatalk 2

 

[Bigtuna00]

No go with Harmonia 3.10. After following these steps Camera disappears from the app list, pressing the camera button does nothing. Clicking the APK with a file explorer to "install" results in an error.

Maybe there's a step missing?

EDIT: reboot didn't help. Probably it won't work for anything except the stock ROM?

 

[koopakid08]

Yeah your file doesn't work for me either and I'm too lazy to open it up myself right now.

Sent from my HTC Evo V 4G

 

[twelfth]

No go with Harmonia 3.10. After following these steps Camera disappears from the app list, pressing the camera button does nothing. Clicking the APK with a file explorer to "install" results in an error.

Maybe there's a step missing?

EDIT: reboot didn't help. Probably it won't work for anything except the stock ROM?

Interesting. All I did was modify the original APK to silence the OGG files and then re-sign the APK. It's probably something to do with the ROM if the supplied APK isn't working, though you could try it yourself to see if re-signing your version of the Camera APK works for you.

 

[fourpac]

Are you odexed or non-odexed? If you are odexed you have to put that camera odex file back as well. If that's not the problem check those permissions. They are tricky. You shouldn't have to install the camera app once it's back in the sys folder with the correct permissions. You also may have run into a problem putting the APK back together. The easiest way to remove the sounds from the APK is to use 7-zip or WinRAR. Don't extract or unzip the APK, just open it so you can explore the files inside and delete those sound files twelfth mentioned. Then move it back into your sys folder on your phone, change your permissions, and voila.

 

[twelfth]

Are you odexed or non-odexed? If you are odexed you have to put that camera odex file back as well. If that's not the problem check those permissions. They are tricky. You shouldn't have to install the camera app once it's back in the sys folder with the correct permissions. You also may have run into a problem putting the APK back together. The easiest way to remove the sounds from the APK is to use 7-zip or WinRAR. Don't extract or unzip the APK, just open it so you can explore the files inside and delete those sound files twelfth mentioned. Then move it back into your sys folder on your phone, change your permissions, and voila.

Oooooooooooh, I think this may be it. I did not do anything to deodex the files. I'm still on stock ICS that came with the phone and there is indeed a separate ODEX file.

Attaching it for those on Harmonica who want to give this a retry.

RENAME HTCCamera.zip to HTCCamera.odex BEFORE YOU PUT IT IN /SYSTEM/APP

 

[rat_t]

Thanks for taking the time with this matter, twelfth. I'm still using stock, that means I only need to download the first zip from the OP? And the Second zip is only for Harmonica users?

Thanks

UPDATE: Yup. In stock only the first one on OP is needed

 

[twelfth]

Thanks for taking the time with this matter, twelfth. I'm still using stock, that means I only need to download the first zip from the OP? And the Second zip is only for Harmonica users?

Thanks

UPDATE: Yup. In stock only the first one on OP is needed

You figured it out, yes. Because Harmonica is "deodexed"... any APK that is not recombined with the original ODEX file is not going to run... So the second file is only for Harmonica users who wish to silence their Camera sounds with my modified APK.

 

[twelfth]

Since I went Harmonia after doing the radio fixes, I ended up redoing the sound file modification above (just wanted to keep things clean without having to throw an ODEX file in there to use the camera)... so here's the DeODEXed version of the silenced HTCCamera app for ROM users.

You don't need this if you're on stock. Only for users who have a DeODEXed ROM... and even then, it's not really necessary if you used the attachment in one of my previous posts.

 

[smel]

Bloody hell, this has been a frustrating experience! My half-baked workaround for a non-rooted HTC EVO V from Virgin Mobile is to use the burst mode feature (with 1 burst shot) within the Camera Zoom FX app. Although the resolution is lower, there is no @*#& shutter sound. Until I decide to root my phone this is the only "solution" I've found.

Really though.... if someone wanted a silent camera for nefarious purposes, they'd buy a silent camera, not a phone. /sigh