How To Use Custom Lock / Unlock Sounds In Android

The default lock / unlock sounds of Android devices are neither too exciting nor very audible but that doesn’t mean you have to stay stuck with them as there is a way to change these sounds to those of your choice, provided your phone is rooted. If you are tired of the default lock/unlock sounds of your Android phone or tablet and want to replace them, read on for our complete guide.

Regardless of how much you want to like something, its human nature to get bored of it and the case is specially bad if you don’t like them at all in the first place. Same goes for the lock/unlock sounds of your Android device A good example would be the famous ‘Drrrroooooiiiddddd’ robotic sound that came default in the Motorola Droid by Verizon; it was loved by some and hated by a few others. If you are sick of your Lock/Unlock regardless of what it is, here’s how to set any custom sound as your lock/unlock sound:

Disclaimer: Please follow this guide at your own risk. AddictiveTips will not be liable if your device gets damaged or bricked during the process.

Prerequisites:

• A rooted Android Device. (See how to root Android devices)
• Root Explorer ($4.03) or Super Manager (free).

Procedure:

1. If you want to use your own sound that is not available on the phone, copy any ‘.ogg’ sound file from your PC on to your SD card. If you want to use a default sound that is available on the phone,  you can find those files at ‘/system/media/audio/notifications/‘ on your phone.
2. Launch Root Explorer or Super Manager on your phone.
   • In case of Super Manager, you will have to go to its Settings and check ‘Enable ROOT function’, confirming the SuperUser access prompt that you get. This needs to be done only once.
   • Also, in case of Super Manager, you will be using its ‘File Explorer’ tool for the following steps.
   • When accessing the ‘/system‘ partition using Super Manager’s File Explorer in the following steps, you will be asked if you want to mount it as read-only or with read+write (r/w) access. Choose r/w access.
3. Now copy the .ogg files that you want to use for the lock and unlock sound.
4. Navigate to ‘/system/media/audio/ui/‘.
5. Rename the current ‘Unlock.ogg’ and ‘Lock.ogg’ to ‘Unlock.ogg.bak’ and ‘Lock.ogg.bak’ respectively in case you need to move back to the original sounds. Doing this will not let these original files be overwritten.
   • In case of Root Explorer, you will need to tap ‘Mount R/W’ button on top of the screen before you can edit, rename or copy any file to the /system partition or any of its sub-folders.
6. Now paste your .ogg sound files into this location.
7. After you’ve copied the files to that location, rename them to ‘Unlock.ogg’ and/or ‘Lock.ogg‘.
8. Finally, close Root Explorer or Super Manager and reboot your phone.

Enjoy the new sounds on your device! In case you want to restore the originals, simply delete the custom ‘Unlock.ogg’ and/or ‘Lock.ogg‘ files that you had copied there and rename the ‘Unlock.ogg.bak’ and ‘Lock.ogg.bak’ fiiles there to ‘Unlock.ogg’ and ‘Lock.ogg’.

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Fahad Abdullah

A Robotics Engineer by profession, driven with a geek's urge to learn, to understand and to keep up with the rapidly changing technology all around us. I'm an Android enthusiast and hope to contribute what little I can to the Android world.

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