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mikestock's avatar
mikestock
Explorer
Jun 05, 2023

Samsung S22 cell phone is regularly making the camera clicks

This began about 3 days ago. There are no picture files being created. I read that it could be a virus but a virus scan (AVG) doesn't detect a problem. I went to the camera settings and turned off the "Shutter Sound" which had no effect. I thought it was related to my adding a camera to my RING doorbell but I deactivated the camera and it still makes the sound. The phone can be outside my WiFi range but it still makes the sound. The sound may not even be related to my RING, I don't know.

Does anyone have a clue what's going on?
  • Is the sound connected with any action? Or does it just happen at random?
  • Go into your settings and look for "applications and notifications". There is a section there that most recent notifications. I try to keep all notifications turned off, so that where I start looking when an update turns one back on.
  • fj12ryder wrote:
    Is the sound connected with any action? Or does it just happen at random?


    Random. Can't find anything to trigger it.
  • ncscz wrote:
    Go into your settings and look for "applications and notifications". There is a section there that most recent notifications. I try to keep all notifications turned off, so that where I start looking when an update turns one back on.


    I turn off notifications and they stay off.
  • I'm sitting by my phone on a table. It has clicked 7 times in 12 minutes. No files have been created. I have turned the camera facing upward and downward but it creates no files.
  • You said you deactivated the Ring camera. Did it make the same click sound before you deactivated the Ring camera? Could there be a hidden "feature" with the Ring camera that is still working?
  • The shutter sound is a selectable sound just like any other, meaning it's not mechanical, it's just the default sound for that app. With that in mind, do any other apps have this sound as an alert - like text or email? It's possible your texts emails or some other alert has this or a similar sound and you receive them that's the noise it's making. Also, is the camera app closed? Sometimes the aperture will actually make a noise as it tries to focus.

    You should be able to swipe down from the top and see recent notifications.

    I appreciate the functions that new phones have but they make them waaaay too complicated. I am probably only aware of about 1/10th of the functions my phone has. And when issues arise like this, you have to be an engineer to figure out how to fix it.
  • Have you tried uninstalling the ring app and see if no longer getting the sound. You can always reinstall if after a short test period.

    It's possible for hackers to activate a phone's camera without any indication on user end. If the issue persist, you may want to try a couple of other free security scanning apps. My thoughts are it's most likely notification sound for some particular app. Despite having disabled notifications.
  • 7 times in 12 minutes, it seems like every 30 seconds, like a timer function, might try checking the clock app, see if a timer has been set and is repeating, the clock app allows for timers, and for alarms and for choosing the sound to be used