The Japan iPhone version has been very popular over the past several years for one thing. Their camera shutter cannot be disabled by default. That’s because of local regulations on iPhones in Japan.
Japanese iPhones are not only sold in Japan. In fact, you can buy them from many other countries around the world. Including the UAE. But after buying this version, customers usually end up disappointed. When they discover that there’s no way to turn off that annoying shutter sound.
Apple decided to provide a solution to this problem. However, it’s only for people who own a Japanese iPhone but don’t live in Japan. This solution doesn’t involve installing any extra apps or doing any jailbreaking.
How to fix the Japan iPhone Shutter sound
Actually, you don’t really need to fix anything. All you have to do is update your iPhone to iOS 15 and above. While doing some research for an upcoming post on the iPhone 13, I happened to accidentally visit this thread on Apple’s support community group.
There, a user named Shamika1998 asked the following question. “Is it true that iOS 15 offers to mute camera shutter sound on Japan variant iPhones if they are used in other countries?”
To which a level 5 member named Khajotia replied “No that’s not true”. According to Shamika, she had heard rumors that iOS 15 uses geolocation to determine if a Japanese iPhone was being used outside of Japan. And if yes, then the option to disable the camera shutter sound would become available.
Well, I decided to scroll down and read more replies from other users. That’s when I discovered that there were multiple users on this same thread who confirmed that the rumors were true.
All of them were not living in Japan but were using a Japanese iPhone variant. And after updating their iPhones to iOS 15, the option to mute the shutter sound became available.
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How to disable the Camera Shutter sound on a Japan iPhone
On iPhones from Japan (with the J/A region code), the camera shutter sound cannot be turned off by default. As long as you use it inside of Japan, that is.
If you plan to use a Japanese iPhone 14 Pro outside of Japan, there is no need to worry. On Japanese iPhones with iOS 15 and later, you can disable the camera shutter sound as follows:
- You must take the phone out of Japan.
- You must insert a working sim card from another country.
- Do not enable airplane mode (the shutter sound returns if airplane mode is enabled).
If all three of the aforementioned requirements are met, you can silence the camera shutter sound by:
- Enabling the silent mode switch on the left side of the phone.
- Turning on live photos on the iPhone.
Conclusion
If you have a Japanese iPhone version but live out of Japan. A simple update to iOS 15 will make it possible to mute its camera shutter sound. But this option is not available for Japanese iPhone users who reside within Japan. Because iOS5 uses your geolocation to determine whether the camera shutter sound can be disabled or not.
