Custom UI Sounds for iPhone using iTunes 8 & SSH
You know how to create custom ringtones for your iPhone but have you ever wondered if it were possible to change the text, voicemail, and alarm sounds? These are called UI sounds that are one to three seconds long, in .AIF or .CAF audio format. You can create and customize these sounds if you have an iPhone that is jailbroken and equipped with OpenSSH and wifi.
The following instructions are for Macs but I’m sure they are very similar for any PC.
Part 1: Creating Custom UI Sounds
To create custom UI sounds, open iTunes and go to Preferences → General → Import Settings to make sure that you’ve selected “Import Using: AIFF Encoder.”
Select the song that you want to make into a UI sound. To trim, write down the start and stop times of the song while making sure it doesn’t exceed 3 seconds long.
Right-click the song and select “Get Info.” Click the “Options” tab and type in the start and stop times in minutes:seconds (ie 2:01) format, click “OK” when done.
Right-click your song again and select “Create AIFF Version.” Wait for iTunes to convert your song. It will create a duplicate version and the UI sound file should be the one with the shorter time.
Delete the newly created AIF file, making sure that you click “keep files” so you’re only removing the sound from your playlist, not from your computer.
Find the file. It’s usually in your user folder under Music → iTunes → iTunes Music saved under the band’s name with an extension of AIF. Rename the AIF extension to CAF*
*For PCs: If you cannot view file extensions, go to your folder options in your windows explorer and change your view settings to uncheck the box for “Hide File Extensions for Known File Types.”
Part 2: Uploading Custom UI Sounds
Now that you have your custom tones, connect to your iPhone via SSH (remember to turn your wifi on!)
Navigate to this folder /System/Library/Audio/ and make a backup of the entire UISounds folder before making any changes! I am not responsible for anything that happens to your original tones so back them up in case anything goes wrong!!!
After you have the UISounds folder backed up on your computer, you can start replacing these files with your custom tones. Make sure you rename your custom tones exactly as the filenames in the UISounds folder. Here are some of the ones that you might be interested in customizing:
- beep-beep.caf – The sound played when docking the iPhone.
- dtmf-0.caf – The sound played when pressing 0 on the phone keypad.
- dtmf-1.caf – The sound played when pressing 1 on the phone keypad.
- dtmf-2.caf – The sound played when pressing 2 on the phone keypad.
- dtmf-3.caf – The sound played when pressing 3 on the phone keypad.
- dtmf-4.caf – The sound played when pressing 4 on the phone keypad.
- dtmf-5.caf – The sound played when pressing 5 on the phone keypad.
- dtmf-6.caf – The sound played when pressing 6 on the phone keypad.
- dtmf-7.caf – The sound played when pressing 7 on the phone keypad.
- dtmf-8.caf – The sound played when pressing 8 on the phone keypad.
- dtmf-9.caf – The sound played when pressing 9 on the phone keypad.
- dtmf-pound.caf – The sound played when pressing # on the phone keypad.
- dtmf-star.caf – The sound played when pressing * on the phone keypad.
- lock.caf – The sound played when pressing the Sleep/Wake button.
- mail-sent.caf – The sound played when sending an email.
- new-mail.caf – The sound played when an email is received.
- photoShutter.caf – The sound played when taking a picture.
- sms-received1.caf – The text message sound called Tri-tone.
- sms-received2.caf – The text message sound called Chime.
- sms-received3.caf – The text message sound called Glass.
- sms-received4.caf – The text message sound called Horn.
- sms-received5.caf – The text message sound called Bell.
- sms-received6.caf – The text message sound called Electronic.
- unlock.caf – The sound played when you “slide to unlock”.
- Voicemail.caf – The sound played when you receive a voicemail message.
Upload everything into the UISounds folder on your iPhone and restart it for changes to take effect. Besides having to go to Settings → Sounds to change your text message sound, the rest of the custom tones should be automatically updated.
For more information on custom UI sounds, check out HackThatPhone.com.
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