Quick Tip: How to Locate Built-in Ringtones and Notification Sounds to Copy or Share Them with Others

Have you ever wondered if you can copy or share a built-in notification sound or ringtone from your phone? The good news is that on Android, copying and sharing default tones, notification sounds, and other UI sounds is usually an easy task. Here’s how to locate the default tones and other sounds on your phone.

Steps to Locate Built-in Audios to Copy or Share Them:

To access the built-in audio files on your Android device, you’ll need to use a file manager that has the option to show system storage. For this tip, I’ll be using Cx File Explorer.

1. Open the Cx File Explorer app and on the main page, tap the “more options” button, which you can find near the top right corner of the screen. Then, select “Settings”.
2. Check the “Show system storage” option.
3. Go back and make sure the “Local” tab is selected, then tap on “System” to open the system storage.
4. Search for “system” and tap on it.
5. Now, select “media”.
6. In the “media” folder, find “audio” and tap on it.
7. You should see folders containing the default ringtones, notification sounds, and UI audios. For example, on my Samsung phone, the folders are: “notifications”, “ringtones”, and “ui”.
8. Open any of the folders to view the audios it contains.
9. To mark folders or files in order to copy them, tap on “Toggle selection”, which you can reach by swiping to the next item when the name of the folder or file is in focus.
10. Once a file or folder is selected, options will appear near the bottom of the screen, including the copy option. Note that to find the share option, you need to tap on “More”, and the share option is only available when selecting files, not folders.
11. After copying, go back until you exit the system storage, and then paste the file in a folder on your main storage or external storage device if one is connected. Just tap “Paste” when you are in the desired folder.

Notes:

1. System files are read-only unless you have a rooted device. This means that although you can copy a ringtone, you cannot delete it.
2. The available files and folders can vary between devices, and the whole process might not work on certain phones. I have used this method on phones from Huawei, Samsung, and Nokia.