AVFoundation, how to turn off the shutter sound when captureStillImageAsynchronouslyFromConnection?

Asked 9/12, 2010 at 17:27 Answered 19/3, 2019 at 7:55

Solved ios iphone cocoa-touch camera avfoundation

I am trying to capture an image during a live preview from the camera, by AVFoundation captureStillImageAsynchronouslyFromConnection. So far the program works as expected. However, how can I mute the shutter sound?

Trailer answered 9/12, 2010 at 17:27 Comment(7)

I don't think that is possible. Even if it is it shouldn't be. There could be some user privacy infringement problems for that. – Monocycle 9/12, 2010 at 18:9

What are the "user privacy infringement problems"? Now the user can turn off the shutter sound anytime by the hardware mute switch. What I want is a way to turn off the sound independent of the hardware mute switch setting. – Trailer 10/12, 2010 at 2:20

In Japan for example you can't do that. There the shutter sound always plays even if you muted the phone. (Some weird rules to prevent privacy infringement, aka upskirt photography are in place in Japan as far as i know) So I don't think there is a way to do that. – Beside 16/12, 2010 at 15:28

Yeah, it might be that your iPhone doesn't allow for muted camera shots. I'm in the US and my iPhone doesn't make a sound when I take a picture with the phone muted; my girlfriend's, on the other hand, does make a sound (hers is from Korea). – Unplumbed 18/12, 2010 at 2:5

To be clear, this is a solution for when the phone is not muted / vibrate mode. In that mode, no sound is made when taking a picture. – Marable 23/5, 2014 at 17:50

@NewAlexandria I heard in Japan shutter sounds in vibration mode too. This is law requirement. – Nugent 23/5, 2014 at 19:30

Btw AudioServicesPlaySystemSound will not play if device is muted. So Japanese devices will still make a sound when muted, but not when non-muted... – Liverish 23/5, 2014 at 23:27

1504

I used this code once to capture iOS default shutter sound (here is list of sound file names https://github.com/TUNER88/iOSSystemSoundsLibrary):

NSString *path = @"/System/Library/Audio/UISounds/photoShutter.caf";
NSString *docs = [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) lastObject];
NSData *data = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:path];
[data writeToFile:[docs stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"photoShutter.caf"] atomically:YES];

Then I used third-party app to extract photoShutter.caf from Documents directory (DiskAid for Mac). Next step I opened photoShutter.caf in Audacity audio editor and applied inversion effect, it looks like this on high zoom:

enter image description here

Then I saved this sound as photoShutter2.caf and tried to play this sound right before captureStillImageAsynchronouslyFromConnection:

static SystemSoundID soundID = 0;
if (soundID == 0) {
    NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"photoShutter2" ofType:@"caf"];
    NSURL *filePath = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:path isDirectory:NO];
    AudioServicesCreateSystemSoundID((__bridge CFURLRef)filePath, &soundID);
}
AudioServicesPlaySystemSound(soundID);

[self.stillImageOutput captureStillImageAsynchronouslyFromConnection:
...

And this really works! I runs test several times, every time I hear no shutter sound :)

You can get already inverted sound, captured on iPhone 5S iOS 7.1.1 from this link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1echsi6ivbb85bv/photoShutter2.caf

Nugent answered 20/5, 2014 at 11:42 Comment(33)

Awesome hack! I wonder if this trick could also be used to suppress the UIPickerView sound, which can't be disabled through a public API: https://mcmap.net/q/81829/-can-i-disable-uipickerview-scroll-sound/214070 – Brazier 23/5, 2014 at 18:16

Very cool. Only caveat is that when flash is turned on, this will result in a double shutter sound because the default system sound is not played when captureStillImageAsynchronouslyFromConnection: is called, but rather when image is actually captured (during flash sequence). Instead add a key-value observer on self.stillImageOutput for keyPath 'capturingStillImage' to detect when capture truly starts, then play inverse sound in callback method. – Waikiki 23/5, 2014 at 23:20

This is how modern military aircraft defeat radar. This is why you don't see the "stealth shape" silhouette on new fighter designs: There is an electronics package that handles what is basically a radar-defeating phase shift that broadcasts an "inverted" (phase-shifted) duplicate signal. – Milky 24/5, 2014 at 2:43

@L0j1k: It depends on what kind of stealth ship you are talking about. The F22 an ilk aren't interested in being undetected but in being unlockable. Problem with phase shift technology is you are incredibly obvious from every other position, since they won't see the same shift. – Bracing 24/5, 2014 at 3:5

This is how noise-cancelling headphones work, except they capture the sound in realtime – Krefeld 24/5, 2014 at 3:19

I'm wondering how this achieves sample accurate overlap of two waves. AFAIK, even if it's a single sample off, the cancelation won't be perfect. – Paronychia 2/6, 2014 at 8:18

This will probably be a good way to get rejected from the app store, once Apple catches on. – Hexavalent 9/6, 2014 at 18:20

This was great for iOS7, but it no longer works on iOS8, any idea how to solve this on iOS8 ? – Gooey 28/10, 2014 at 11:32

@kO6a:yeah, Its not working on iOS8 devices. Please give some solution. – Diphase 18/11, 2014 at 3:51

@Gooey did you used attached audio file from my dropbox or inverted your own? iOS8 may have changed sound or/and random sleep before shutter sound... – Nugent 19/11, 2014 at 10:39

This works fine while capturing single image not for multiple, I have implemented burst mode, and capturing 5 images within 1.5 sec, so using above logic camera shutter sound doesn't get suppress. – Significancy 20/5, 2015 at 10:59

Still works on iOS 8. This is the Swift code if anyone wants it:

if let soundURL = NSBundle.mainBundle().URLForResource("photoShutter2", withExtension: "caf") {                 var mySound: SystemSoundID = 0                 AudioServicesCreateSystemSoundID(soundURL, &mySound)                 AudioServicesPlaySystemSound(mySound);             }

– Dollar 28/10, 2015 at 13:17

What if Apple changes it's sound? – Bacchanalia 22/4, 2016 at 17:3

@Significancy If you need to mute the sound while taking BURST photos, you can do it at a slight quality loss using this method: https://mcmap.net/q/81830/-how-to-mute-the-capture-sound-in-avfoundation-duplicate ——— I've edited this into the question for future readers O:) – Bacchanalia 22/4, 2016 at 17:23

@AlbertRenshaw you added link to this answer with solution that you can find anywhere: just capturing frames from video. Sorry, I've removed this link from answer – I think this solution is enough wide-popular to be found in google or SO. – Nugent 23/4, 2016 at 18:12

@AlbertRenshaw You can record and invert several sounds and use concrete sound for concrete iOS version. iOS7, iOS8, iOS9 have same sound :) – Nugent 23/4, 2016 at 19:26

Yes but if Apple changes the sound in say iOS 10, this could be bad for apps capturing say 60 frames a second, with shutter sounds going off 60 times a second and also an invert of the old sound also going off 60 times a second. @Nugent – Bacchanalia 23/4, 2016 at 21:24

@AlbertRenshaw sure, but app developers will have 3-5 months to adopt their apps to new iOS version. Hope it will be named iOS X :) – Nugent 23/4, 2016 at 21:44

This answer simply not true. Tried it with iOS 9.3 and iPhone 6+ and it's not working. – Entranceway 10/5, 2016 at 13:13

@Entranceway Apple may change sound in any future version of iOS. Any 5ms latency in audio playback can break all magic. This method is not production-ready I think. This is about tricking and fun :) – Nugent 10/5, 2016 at 15:13

@Nugent I am using AVCapturePhotoCaptureDelegate methods in which method i should put this code to disable shutter sound? I have tried by adding this code in "didCapturePhotoForResolvedSettings" method but its not working. any help? – Apotropaic 17/5, 2017 at 10:21

@SatishMavani I wrote it right before captureStillImageAsynchronouslyFromConnection: method call. Not sure this method will work on all iOS versions because it needs very high precision of synchronization of sound playback and image capturing... – Nugent 17/5, 2017 at 10:27

@Nugent captureStillImageAsynchronouslyFromConnection: is deprecated now and there is no such method i can find with AVCapturePhotoCaptureDelegate, can you help with any other solution? – Apotropaic 17/5, 2017 at 10:30

As of XCode 9.3 using AVCapturePhotoCaptureDelegate this does not work. The photoOutput(:willCapturePhotoFor:) documentation says "The photo output calls this method as close as possible to the initial moment of capture. If the shutter sound is enabled, this call occurs immediately after the photo output begins playing the shutter sound." Both this method and the photoOutput(:willBeginCaptureFor:) method do not align with the shutter sound begin event. – Emeliaemelin 18/4, 2018 at 20:27

@Emeliaemelin awesome, after 4 years they finally made protection from this trick. – Nugent 19/4, 2018 at 8:36

Works like a charm! I'm playing it in the delegate callback photoOutput(:willCapturePhotoFor:). Also got this working on iOS 11.3.1 built with Xcode 9.3.1 – Disjunctive 26/5, 2018 at 17:56

Not working for me on iOS 11.1 ... Actually, I'm trying to achieve this in the AVCaptureMetadataOutputObjectsDelegate as my requirement is when scanning is done then I need to capture the photo of the scanned barcode. Can you please help me how I can achieve the above mentioned feature. – Audieaudience 3/7, 2018 at 5:21

@Audieaudience try to do it in photoOutput(:willCapturePhotoFor:) like @Disjunctive suggested in the previous comment, it seems it working for him even in 11.3.1. – Nugent 4/7, 2018 at 5:55

I applied the solution suggested by @Disjunctive and on clicking camera icon many times 1-2 out of 10 gave shutter sound. Also as per my requirements as I already mentioned in my previous comment that :- On getting barcode result inside - didOutputMetadataObjects I just need to click the photo of the scanned barcode at the same time and save that result along with the image in Core data. – Audieaudience 6/7, 2018 at 6:35

Currently , I'm reading the barcode with the help of AVCaptureMetadataOutputObjectsDelegate and used captureStillImageAsynchronously method to capture image inside this delegate. Hoping I could able to explain my requirement properly. – Audieaudience 6/7, 2018 at 7:16

This method actually works. However, it is necessary to pay attention to the following points. - Play a shutter sound even when the device is muted or connected to headphones - Ringing the shutter sound exactly at the same time as a real shutter sound – Nebulous 11/11, 2018 at 5:25

@Emeliaemelin I was able to make it work on iPhone 10's by adding a small delay (of 0.02 seconds) to when i play the sound, doing it like this seems to be working for me – Schuyler 6/3, 2019 at 19:31

Scratch my previous comment, it works like 99% of the time with the delay but sometimes the sound will happen :( – Schuyler 6/3, 2019 at 19:48

My Solution in Swift

When you call AVCapturePhotoOutput.capturePhoto method to capture an image like the below code.

photoOutput.capturePhoto(with: self.capturePhotoSettings, delegate: self)

AVCapturePhotoCaptureDelegate methods will be invoked. And the system tries to play shutter sound after willCapturePhotoFor invoked. So you can dispose of system sound in willCapturePhotoFor method.

extension PhotoCaptureService: AVCapturePhotoCaptureDelegate {

    func photoOutput(_ output: AVCapturePhotoOutput, willCapturePhotoFor resolvedSettings: AVCaptureResolvedPhotoSettings) {
        // dispose system shutter sound
        AudioServicesDisposeSystemSoundID(1108)
    }
}

UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(self.window.bounds.size);
[self.window.layer renderInContext:UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()];
UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
NSData * data = UIImagePNGRepresentation(image);
[data writeToFile:@"foo.png" atomically:YES];

If you're wanting this to fill the whole screen with a preview of the video stream so that your screenshot looks good:

AVCaptureSession *captureSession = yourcapturesession;
AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer *previewLayer = [AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer layerWithSession:captureSession];
UIView *aView = theViewYouWantTheLayerIn;
previewLayer.frame = aView.bounds; // Assume you want the preview layer to fill the view.
[aView.layer addSublayer:previewLayer];

Roughrider answered 13/12, 2010 at 18:43 Comment(2)

I don't think that would work, it would just play a "blank" sound while the shutter noise plays. Its quite possible to play 2 sounds at the same time. The other 2 methods seem workable! – Microspore 13/12, 2010 at 22:46

Give it a shot. I'm not confident it will work, but here's to hoping! – Roughrider 14/12, 2010 at 5:27

I was able to get this to work by using this code in the snapStillImage function and it works perfectly for me on iOS 8.3 iPhone 5. I have also confirmed that Apple won't reject your app if you use this (they didn't reject mine)

MPVolumeView* volumeView = [[MPVolumeView alloc] init];
//find the volumeSlider
UISlider* volumeViewSlider = nil;
for (UIView *view in [volumeView subviews]){
    if ([view.class.description isEqualToString:@"MPVolumeSlider"]){
        volumeViewSlider = (UISlider*)view;
        break;
    }
}
// mute it here:
[volumeViewSlider setValue:0.0f animated:YES];
[volumeViewSlider sendActionsForControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];

Just remember to be nice and unmute it when your app returns!

Fermat answered 26/7, 2015 at 18:44 Comment(0)

I live in in Japan, so I can not mute the audio when we take photos for security reason. In video, however audio turns off. I don't understand why.

The only way I take a photo without shutter sound is using AVCaptureVideoDataOutput or AVCaptureMovieFileOutput. For analyze still image AVCaptureVideoDataOutput is only way. In AVFoundatation sample code,

AVCaptureVideoDataOutput *output = [[[AVCaptureVideoDataOutput alloc] init] autorelease];
// If you wish to cap the frame rate to a known value, such as 15 fps, set 
// minFrameDuration.
output.minFrameDuration = CMTimeMake(1, 15);

In my 3GS it is very heavy when I set CMTimeMake(1, 1); // One frame per second.

In WWDC 2010 Sample code, FindMyiCone, I found following code,

[output setAlwaysDiscardsLateVideoFrames:YES];

When this API is used, the timing is not granted, but API is called sequentially. I this it is best solutions.

Shipment answered 24/12, 2010 at 1:21 Comment(0)

See this post for a different kind of answer: Capture the image from the image buffer. Screen capture during video preview fails

Iceblink answered 8/6, 2015 at 11:57 Comment(0)

You can also take a frame from a video stream to capture a (not full resolution) image.

It is used here to capture images at short intervals:

- (IBAction)startStopPictureSequence:(id)sender
{
    if (!_capturingSequence)
    {
        if (!_captureVideoDataOutput)
        {
            _captureVideoDataOutput = [AVCaptureVideoDataOutput new];
            _captureVideoDataOutput.videoSettings = @{(NSString *)kCVPixelBufferPixelFormatTypeKey: @(kCVPixelFormatType_32BGRA)};
            [_captureVideoDataOutput setSampleBufferDelegate:self
                                                       queue:dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_LOW, 0)];
            if (_sequenceCaptureInterval == 0)
            {
                _sequenceCaptureInterval = 0.25;
            }
        }

        if ([_captureSession canAddOutput:_captureVideoDataOutput])
        {
            [_captureSession addOutput:_captureVideoDataOutput];
            _lastSequenceCaptureDate = [NSDate date]; // Skip the first image which looks to dark for some reason
            _sequenceCaptureOrientation = (_currentDevice.position == AVCaptureDevicePositionFront ? // Set the output orientation only once per sequence
                                           UIImageOrientationLeftMirrored :
                                           UIImageOrientationRight);
            _capturingSequence = YES;
        }
        else
        {
            NBULogError(@"Can't capture picture sequences here!");
            return;
        }
    }
    else
    {
        [_captureSession removeOutput:_captureVideoDataOutput];
        _capturingSequence = NO;
    }
}

- (void)captureOutput:(AVCaptureOutput *)captureOutput
didOutputSampleBuffer:(CMSampleBufferRef)sampleBuffer
       fromConnection:(AVCaptureConnection *)connection
{
    // Skip capture?
    if ([[NSDate date] timeIntervalSinceDate:_lastSequenceCaptureDate] < _sequenceCaptureInterval)
        return;

    _lastSequenceCaptureDate = [NSDate date];

    UIImage * image = [self imageFromSampleBuffer:sampleBuffer];
    NBULogInfo(@"Captured image: %@ of size: %@ orientation: %@",
               image, NSStringFromCGSize(image.size), @(image.imageOrientation));

    // Execute capture block
    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^
                   {
                       if (_captureResultBlock) _captureResultBlock(image, nil);
                   });
}

- (BOOL)isRecording
{
    return _captureMovieOutput.recording;
}

Rhoads answered 26/5, 2014 at 2:18 Comment(2)

Are you able to get AVCaptureVideoDataOutput to work while AVCaptureMovieFileOutput is being used? When I try to use both of them the AVCaptureVideoDataOutput's delegate methods are not called. – Hubsher 28/8, 2014 at 16:56

Sorry I haven't tried to have more than one output at the same time. – Rhoads 1/9, 2014 at 0:54

The only possible work-around I can think of would be to mute the iphone sound when they press the "take picture" button, and then un-mute it a second later.

Microspore answered 9/12, 2010 at 18:44 Comment(2)

How to mute the iPhone sound programmatically? Thanks! – Trailer 10/12, 2010 at 0:55

even if you could, Apple wouldn't approve that – Dumyat 19/12, 2010 at 11:59

A common trick in such cases is to find out if the framework invokes a certain method for this event, and then to overwrite that method temporarily, thereby voiding its effect.

I'm sorry but I am not a good enough hack to tell you right away if that works in this case. You could try the "nm" command on the framework executables to see if there's a named function that has a suitatable name, or use gdb with the Simulator to trace where it goes.

Once you know what to overwrite, there are those low level ObjC dispatching functions that you can use to redirect the lookup for functions, I believe. I think I've done that once a while ago, but can't remember the details.

Hopefully, you can use my hints to google a few solutions paths to this. Good luck.

Drill answered 19/12, 2010 at 22:40 Comment(0)

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