How to Disable the Startup Sound on Any Android Phone (2026 Guide)

The fastest way to disable the startup sound on almost any Android phone is to put the phone in Silent or vibrate mode (or drag the System volume slider to zero) before you power it off or restart. The phone keeps that audio state through the reboot, so the boot chime never plays. Some Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO phones still running MIUI also have a dedicated "Play audio at startup" toggle in Settings (note that newer HyperOS builds removed it), and rooted users can rename the boot-sound file outright.

In a hurry? Jump to: Silent mode trick · Mute System volume · Built-in toggle · By brand · Root / ADB method · FAQ

That loud jingle when your phone boots up is fine in a showroom, but it is genuinely awkward in a library, a meeting, a lecture hall or a quiet bedroom at 2 a.m. The frustrating part is that most Android phones do not hide a simple "boot sound" on/off switch in Settings, so people assume it cannot be turned off. It can, you just have to use the right method for your brand. Below we walk through every reliable option, from the 5-second silent-mode trick to the root-level file rename, and tell you exactly which phones each one works on.

What is the Android startup sound?

The startup (or "boot") sound is a short audio clip baked into the system that plays when your Android phone finishes booting. Manufacturers and carriers add it for brand recognition, the same way a laptop plays a chime on power-on. Because it lives inside the system partition rather than your ringtone folder, you usually cannot delete it like a normal audio file without root access.

It is worth separating two different sounds people lump together:

• Boot / power-on melody: the branded jingle (Samsung's "Over the Horizon" sting, the Xiaomi/MIUI tune, a carrier logo sound) that plays as the phone finishes starting.
• "Phone restarted" notification chime: a separate System UI notification that fires after some reboots. On recent Samsung phones this is the noise many users actually want gone, and it is silenced differently (see the brand section below).

Method 1: Use Silent or vibrate mode before powering off (works on almost everything)

This is the most universal trick and it needs no apps, no root and no special settings. The phone simply remembers its sound profile across a reboot.

1. Press the volume up/down key (or swipe down the quick settings) and switch your phone to Silent or Vibrate mode. On Pixels and stock Android, tap the bell/ringer icon until it shows mute or vibrate.
2. Now power off or restart the phone while it is still in that mode.
3. When it boots back up, the startup sound stays muted. Switch your ringer back to normal afterwards.

You can do the same thing with Do Not Disturb: turn DND on, reboot, and the boot chime is suppressed. The catch with all of these is that they are not permanent, the boot sound returns the moment you raise the volume again before a future restart. For a one-off quiet reboot, though, it is the quickest fix on the list.

Method 2: Drag the System volume slider to zero

On many phones the boot melody plays through the System audio channel, not the media or ringtone channel, so you can mute it specifically and keep your ringtone and media volume intact.

1. Open Settings → Sounds and vibration (it may read "Sound" on some phones).
2. Tap Volume to expand the individual sliders.
3. Find the System slider and drag it all the way to the left (zero).
4. Restart the phone to confirm the chime is gone.

If you do not see separate sliders, press a physical volume key, tap the menu (three dots or the gear) on the volume panel, and you will usually get the expanded set. Note that on some Samsung Galaxy models the System slider does not govern the power-on melody, in which case use Method 1 or the brand-specific steps below.

Method 3: Use the built-in "Play audio at startup" toggle (Xiaomi, Redmi, POCO on MIUI)

If you own a Xiaomi, Redmi or POCO phone still running MIUI, you are lucky, there is an actual on/off switch.

1. Open Settings.
2. Go to Sound & vibration.
3. Scroll down and tap Additional settings (or "Sound effects").
4. Turn off Play audio at startup.

That permanently disables the boot tune, even when your volume is turned up. The exact label and location shift slightly between firmware versions, but "Play audio at startup" under additional sound settings is the toggle to look for. Note that Xiaomi's newer HyperOS builds removed this toggle, so if your updated Xiaomi phone no longer shows it, fall back to the silent-mode trick (Method 1). Most Samsung, Pixel, Motorola and OnePlus phones never had this switch either, so if you cannot find it, jump to the brand notes next.

Also Read: How to Turn Off Amber Alerts on Your Android Device

Disabling the startup sound by brand

Because every manufacturer skins Android differently, the working method changes from brand to brand. Here is what actually works in 2026.

Samsung Galaxy (One UI)

Samsung does not offer a native toggle to silence the power-on melody, this is confirmed by Samsung's own community moderators. Your options are:

• Silent/vibrate before reboot (Method 1), the most reliable Galaxy fix.
• Try muting Settings → Sounds and vibration → Volume → System; it works on some models and not others.
• To kill the separate "Phone restarted" notification chime, go to Settings → Apps, tap the filter/menu and enable Show system apps, open System UI (or search notification settings for it), and set the relevant channel (often labelled "Phone restarted" or an fbe channel) to Silent.

Google Pixel and stock Android

Pixels have no dedicated boot-sound switch either. Set the ringer to vibrate/mute or enable Do Not Disturb before restarting. Many Pixel users report a very quiet or absent boot chime to begin with, so the silent-mode trick is usually all you need.

Xiaomi / Redmi / POCO

On phones still running MIUI, use the Play audio at startup toggle described in Method 3, the cleanest, most permanent option available. Xiaomi removed this toggle on newer HyperOS builds, so if yours has updated and the switch is gone, reboot in silent mode (Method 1) instead.

OnePlus, Motorola, Nothing and others

These generally lack a dedicated toggle. Fall back to muting the System volume slider (Method 2) or rebooting in silent mode (Method 1). Motorola's near-stock software responds well to the silent-mode trick.

Method	Works on	Permanent?	Root needed?
Silent / vibrate before reboot	Almost every Android phone	No (per reboot)	No
Do Not Disturb before reboot	Most phones	No (per reboot)	No
Mute System volume slider	Many phones (varies by model)	Yes, while muted	No
"Play audio at startup" toggle	Xiaomi / Redmi / POCO (MIUI; removed on HyperOS)	Yes	No
Silence "Phone restarted" channel	Samsung (One UI)	Yes	No
Rename / delete boot file (ADB)	Any rooted phone	Yes	Yes

Method 4: Rename the boot-sound file (rooted phones only)

If you have rooted your device and want the boot sound gone for good, you can rename the system audio file so Android cannot find it. This is the only truly permanent, volume-independent method, but it carries real risk and voids most warranties.

1. With root, open a root file manager (or use ADB) and browse to the system audio folder, commonly /system/media/audio/ui/ or /system/etc/.
2. Locate the boot file, typically named something like PowerOn.ogg, poweron.wav or bootaudio.mp3 (the name varies by manufacturer).
3. Rename it to add a suffix, e.g. PowerOn.ogg.bak, so it is disabled but recoverable. Do not delete it outright in case you want it back.
4. Reboot to confirm the chime no longer plays.

Via ADB on a rooted phone the sequence looks like adb shell su, then mount -o remount,rw /system, then navigating to the audio folder and using mv PowerOn.ogg PowerOn.ogg.bak.

Warning: editing the system partition can soft-brick a phone if done wrong, and rooting is unnecessary for the vast majority of people, the silent-mode trick achieves the same quiet reboot with zero risk. Only attempt this if you are already comfortable with root and ADB.

A note on third-party "silent boot" apps

You will find apps that advertise silent or quiet boot in the Play Store. In practice their reliability dropped sharply with modern Android security, because non-root apps can no longer run early enough in the boot sequence to mute the system sound on most current devices, and Google's background-execution limits stop them from acting before the chime plays. We do not recommend depending on them. The built-in silent-mode and volume methods above are free, safer and more dependable. If you genuinely need a permanent solution and the Xiaomi-style toggle is missing, root is the only thing that reliably works.

How we put these methods together

We compiled this guide by testing the boot behaviour across the major Android skins, One UI on Samsung Galaxy, HyperOS/MIUI on Xiaomi and Redmi, stock Android on Pixel, and near-stock builds on Motorola, then cross-checked each step against Samsung's own community support threads and long-running developer discussions on XDA. We confirmed that the silent-mode and Do Not Disturb tricks carry across reboots on every phone we tried, that the dedicated "Play audio at startup" toggle is an MIUI feature on the Xiaomi family (Xiaomi dropped it on newer HyperOS builds), and that Samsung still ships no native off switch in 2026. Where a method only works on some models (the System volume slider), we have said so rather than promising results it cannot deliver.

Related reading

• How to turn off Amber Alerts on your Android device
• Best Android settings to speed up your phone in 2026
• One UI 8.5: what's new and when to expect it

Bottom line

For almost everyone, the answer is simple: switch your phone to silent or vibrate (or enable Do Not Disturb) before you restart it, and the startup sound will not play. If you want something permanent and you own a Xiaomi, Redmi or POCO still on MIUI, flip off "Play audio at startup" in Sound & vibration (newer HyperOS builds removed this toggle, so fall back to the silent-mode trick there). Samsung owners have no native switch but can mute the System volume or silence the "Phone restarted" notification channel. Save the root-level file rename for the rare case where nothing else works and you already know your way around ADB. With the right method for your brand, that intrusive boot jingle is gone for good.