Silent wireless charging on Android 4.2.2?

August 22, 2013 10:41 AM

I just purchased a Motorola Droid Maxx, and I was excited about wireless charging, but there's a hitch- there is a loud beep from the phone when one starts wireless charging. It is annoying and prevents me from using the wireless charger at home, as the sound would likely wake my wife. I've done some looking, but so far, I haven't found a solution. I'm hoping someone will have some ideas.

After looking around the internet and playing with the phone, I've discovered:

1. the volume is controlled by the ringer volume,
2. the notification sound is in the /system/media/notifications folder,
3. there is no way to remove or rename the WirelessChargeStart.ogg without root, which is, of course, not yet available on this phone

Given that I would like my ringer to remain on at night (in case of emergency calls, etc.), is there any solution? I'm open to (a) some tricky way of changing the file to be silent, (b) an approach to TEMPORARILY silencing the phone that doesn't involve manually muting it, putting it on the charger, and then unmuting it, (c) some clever solution I'm not thinking of. I am not averse to buying an app that would work (i.e. is there a Tasker-based approach?). I do need the ringer to stay on at night, though if it's off for a short time, that's fine.

Thanks for any ideas you might have!

posted by JMOZ to Technology (12 answers total)

I believe* that with an nfc tag, and tasker, you could put an nfc tag near your charging station which tasker would mute your phone, sleep for $SLEEP seconds, and then unmute. So you'd touch your phone to the nfc tag, then connect it to your charger, and then sleep. $SLEEP=10 would probably be sane.

* I haven't gotten around to playing with neither tasker nor nfc tags.
posted by nobeagle at 11:18 AM on August 22, 2013

Might this app help?

(On preview, I realize you don't want to mute the whole time while charging, but perhaps the app is configurable. I haven't looked into it too much.)
posted by TonyRobots at 11:26 AM on August 22, 2013

Usually these system alerts are actually controlled by system volume, not ringer volume, at least depending on how the volume categories are set on your device Have you tried going into Settings > Sounds > Volumes (or whatever the specific menu structure is for you) and turned down just the system volume? If that doesn't work, see my next thought.

Another option is to use something like Tasker and create two separate tasks. One would be a task to mute the phone. You could make a home screen widget that activates this task, making it one-touch. The second task would be created to set the volume at your desired level, triggered when wireless charging begins. So your workflow would be to press the mute widget icon, then set your phone on your charger. That's it - and it shouldn't make the notification beep at all.
posted by trivia genius at 12:44 PM on August 22, 2013

Response by poster: Android 4.2.2 didn't seem to have a separate system volume. I tried alarms, media, notifications, and ringer volume separately, and sadly, it's ringer that does it. I'd prefer something that doesn't add extra steps (otherwise, I might as well just plug it in like a normal person), but I'll see what other ideas people have. Thanks for the ideas so far!
posted by JMOZ at 3:11 PM on August 22, 2013

Best answer: I think Llama might be configurable in such a way as to automatically mute the ringer at the appropriate time.
posted by ocherdraco at 11:09 PM on August 22, 2013

Best answer: ocherdraco is right: you can configure Llama to go into silent mode when it is placed on the charger, and leave silent mode once the phone is charged (or x minutes later, or whatever condition you want). I do this, and it works.
posted by devnull at 5:42 AM on August 23, 2013

Response by poster: Ooh, that looks very promising. I don't have my wireless charging pad at work, so the only question is whether it will silence the phone before the notification occurs. If so, this is awesome, and I'll mark as best answer. (Even if not, I'm sure Llama will come in handy.) Thanks!
posted by JMOZ at 6:04 AM on August 23, 2013

Response by poster: Soooo close, but unless Llama is in the foreground, the beep responds faster than Llama. Maybe I'm out of luck?
posted by JMOZ at 2:25 PM on August 23, 2013

For me Llama beats the charging sound. Nexus 4.
posted by devnull at 12:36 PM on August 25, 2013

Response by poster: It's very close, and sometimes Llama wins, but usually not. Thanks for the idea.... I'm hoping someone has another idea, but so far, no luck.
posted by JMOZ at 1:47 PM on August 25, 2013

Response by poster: I got NFC tags to try, but that leads to the interesting new problem of the NFC tag sound.... Ah well.
posted by JMOZ at 2:57 PM on August 27, 2013

Response by poster: So based on ocherdraco and devnull's advice, I have found a reasonably-viable temporary solution, though I would still prefer something better. Here's what I do:

1. Using Llama, I set up the following:

When Wi-Fi is connected to my home network AND time is between 9pm and 6am AND battery is in use AND screen is on, Do the following:
- Change profile to Ringer off (profile I created which just shuts the ringer)
- Queue event - Ringer back on when: (user is present OR screen is Off) AND above criteria are met
- Queue event - Ringer back on (delay 15 seconds) AND above criteria are met.

2. To use: push the power button, but don't unlock the phone. Put on wireless charger before the screen shuts off again.

Seems to work fine, though I'd prefer to just be able to silence the stupid notification. I hope this helps someone else, since this thread keeps popping up in my occasional google searches for solutions!
posted by JMOZ at 8:01 AM on September 2, 2013