Moto G Phone Guide

How to Silence Moto G Notifications and Ringtones

how-to-silence-moto-g-notifications-and-ringtonesUpdate:  this guide was written for Moto G, Moto E and Moto X, with  KitKat 4.4. If your Moto G, Moto E or Moto X has been updated to Android Lollipop 5.0, and you want to silence Moto G, Moto E or Moto X, please check this new guide for Android Lollipop (which uses a a totally new notification and interruption system).

Have a problem to silence your Moto G?

There are 2 different methods to silence Moto G notifications and ringtones.

Sometimes, for example, in the library, you may want to quickly silence Moto G notifications and ringtones.  If you want to know how to silence Moto G ringtones and notifications, this guide is for you.

Method 1: put your Moto G into vibrate mode

You can put Moto G  in vibrate mode by holding down the volume button on the right side of Moto G  until your Moto G vibrates.

This is the quickest way to silence Moto G. But you know the limitation:  Moto G actually enters vibrate mode. It will not ring, but it will vibrate.

If you do not want Moto G to vibrate, use method 2 to completely silence your Moto G.

Of course, you should hold down the volume down button while Moto G is not playing music or videos. If the music player or video player is running when you press and hold the volume button, it will simply silence your music or video. It will NOT silence Moto G notifications and ringtones.

So, normally, you should exit music player or video player before holding the volume down button. After your Moto G enters vibrate mode, you can play music or video as usual. Vibrate mode is for ringtones and notifications only; it will not silence your music or video.

Method 2: Silence Moto G ringtones and notifications completely.

If you do not want Moto G to vibrate as well, in other words, silence your Moto G completely, you can put Moto G in silent mode.

Press and hold the power button until you feel a vibration.  The following box will show up in the center of the screen:

silence-moto-g-ringtons-silent-mode

Touch Silent mode to silence all sounds (including call and notification ringtones) except media and alarm (you must silence media and alarms in their own applications).

Of course, you can also put your Moto G in vibrate mode here by tapping the Vibrate button.

How to stop silencing Moto G?

You can stop silencing Moto G ringtones and notifications  by tapping the volume up button on your Moto G.

Again, you should do this when you are not playing music or videos. Otherwise, it will only change the volume of your music or videos.

Of course, you can also use the Ring button as shown in the image above.

Why I can not find the Silent mode or Vibrate mode?

If you updated your Moto G to Android Lollipop, you will NOT be able to find the Silent mode or Vibrate mode. In Android Lollipop, a new notification and interruption system was introduced with three modes: All, Priority and None modes. Please follow this guide to silence Moto G notifications and ringtones if your Moto G is running Lollipop.

Do you have any problems to silence Moto G notifications and ringtones? Please let us know in the comment box below.

More step-by-step guides , tips and tricks for your Moto G phone are available at  our most popular Moto G how-to guide page.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Izzy says

    I’m trying to turn off the vibrations by pressing the down volume button but the music volume is the only thing that comes up. I don’t have any videos or music playing.

    Reply

  3. John G says

    Well I never, ever got my phone to work as it was supposed to and decided to wait for the promised upgrade to Nougat. And wait, and wait, and wait.
    And that never came either.
    I like Moto phones but I hate Lenovo’s attitude to its customers and its secretiveness.
    My new phone isn’t going to be a Moto and I just shied away from buying a Lenovo touch screen desktop even though the specs made it the best option.

    Reply

  4. Avinash says

    Hi. In my moto c plus phone, whensoever any call comes. The screen remains off and locked too. Any suggestions hot to get rid of it?? Plzz

    Reply

  5. Seddon says

    Hi I want to silence notifications for Gmail, Whats App etc on my Moto G4, but have the phone ring I cannot find this setting, is this this possible or do I have to have all alerts on vibrate or silence?
    Thanks

    Reply

  6. didi says

    hi , actually i love this mobile but i have a problem with it sometimes it stop ringing without doing any adjust with volume or mode ,, it just go silent it self ,,, also sometimes i face a problem when i but true caller app. also it make complications with phone ring ???? any idea what should i do ?

    Reply

  8. Rohit kumar Shaw says

    How do i turn on my sounds of moto G 3 Marshmellow,.?My phone’s volume is full but no sound was there but its vibrating. And also while i am playing music i am not able to hear any sound. But while i pick up any calls i m clearly able to hear the sound properly??

    Reply

  9. Shaunta Fields says

    How do I turn the vibration completely off on the Moto E lollipop? My phone still vibrates loud when it rings?

    Reply

  10. John G says

    My G4 ‘lift to vibrate’ function won’t work. I’ve turned it on but the phone keeps ringing until I answer it or it goes to voicemail.

    Any suggestions?

    Reply

  12. Prashant Kumar Pandey says

    I have bought Moto G4 Plus (Andriod 6.0 – Marshmallow). I can keep my phone into vibration mode but I don’t find silent option. When I press and hold power button it displays only “power off” option, it doesn’t show other options. Please suggest how to keep my phone on silent mode.

    Reply

  13. Helene says

    Is there a way to turn down the volume of the ring to even quieter than the factory setting for the lowest volume of ring? I’d like a quieter ring that is just above vibrate but below the next level of my Moto G2 and I already use quiet ring tones that I downloaded.

    Reply

  14. Nelofar says

    hi. i am using Moto G 3rd Gen. i need to reduce the volume of notifications. please guide me for this. if i follow the above procedures, the fone is getting into silent or vibrating mode. i dont want that to happen. i jus need to reduce the notifications. will be glad if you could revert on this.

    Reply

  15. Prateek says

    Hello I’m using moto g earlier it was showing once I hold the volume button there was three options showing but after that I have given my mobile phone for service after that once get it back till now I’m not getting that three options to make silent mode I think now it lollipop OS kindly could u help me to make my phone in silent mode

    Reply

  16. Ragu says

    I am using Moto G 2nd Gen… Lollipop.. I have setup specific ringtone for a contact, but apart from calls, I am also getting the same ringtone for the messages from that contact. I want to customise this.. Kindly help….

    Reply

  19. srinivas says

    i am using moto g 2 gen, i tried so many times to put silence but no use. when i Press and hold the power button until vibration. The following box doesn’t show up in the center of the screen in my mobile as you mention.it shown only power logo(power off) unlike silence mode,vibrate,ring.
    plz rectify my problem…

    Reply

  21. Jack Dunn says

    When I go to power off, the phone vibrates. I want to turn this off. Sure I can set to silence, but that also shuts off ringtones when using the phone. I just want to get rid of the vibration at power off.

    Reply

  22. Magyar Kata says

    Hi, I upgraded the android to Lollipop and since then I can’t turn off vibration. If I press the power button there are no other option then power off. If I press the volume button as previously there is no option to switch off vibrating either. The only solution to switch it in aeroplane mode but then I don’t receive any messages and emails. Please help because vibrating does a quite loud buzzing which is very annoying meanwhile sitting a meeting. Thanks!

    Reply

  23. Francheska Farrugia says

    Hi – my phone doesn’t go to Voicemail, it just rings out. I have set up the voicemail feature and done it again but no calls go to Voicemail. My phone provider cannot help so hoping you can? Many thanks in advance

    Reply

  24. charan says

    I am using Moto g 2nd gen.KitKat version.
    The bottom speaker doesn’t work at all because of which i cant switch on the speaker phone during calls and also no notification sound is played whenever i receive any message/mail.
    Can you please help me in resolving this issue.

    Reply

  26. charan says

    I just bought a Moto G Second Generation and I cannot get any sounds for whatsup,email,and texts message .. How do I fix this??

    Reply

  27. Yhk says

    In My MOTOG first generation with Lolipop os, i had sat a ring tone on call but when any call arrived on my mobile at that time ring is not working instade of one voise message is like “Call from unkown person say yes to answare” like that. Now i dont want it, i want ring back then what to do?

    Reply

  28. Pamala says

    i dont ge an option like silent while pressing the power button..it only displays ower off//what can i do?

    Reply

  29. Sher A says

    I just bought a Moto G Second Generation and I cannot get any sounds for fb app, fb messenger app or texts.. How do I fix this??

    Reply

  31. prudhvi says

    Hi

    In my moto g2 when earphone is plugged in I am not getting out the ringtones and alarmtones they are ringing in earphone itself .. Is there any setting to be changed to get out the ringtones and alarmtones even though earphone is plugged in

    Thank you 🙂

    Reply

  32. vikas apte says

    When speaking on the call and some new no being narrated how can I use key panel to enter the new no and retain ?

    Reply

  33. The wench says

    Can some help me. I’m having problems with messenger , fb etc the sounds are really low. I have set everything high but yet again I can’t hear them?! Is there anything I can do to make me hear them

    Reply

  34. Ramu says

    Settings>sound>ringtone> like this I have tried.
    But its showing unknown ringtone and caller tone not coming sound..what to do? Please guide.

    Reply

  35. U Ramu says

    I am trying to set my ring tone in my moto g2 but it’s not ringing..I am facing this problems from 10days please..give me some idea..all tones are ringing but like message ,notification ringtones.its coming only in caller tone setting.

    Reply

  36. Irene McCormick says

    Hi. I would like to stop my emails and other social media and text apps from pinging but still hear incoming calls. Is this possible? Irene

    Reply

  37. Divya says

    Moto g – ringing volume reduces automtically when battery is low / calls are missed twice..how can this be fixed

    Reply

  38. beatriz says

    I’m trying to silence my phone but when I press the power button, all I get of power off. That’s it! Is there any other way to silence the phone?

    Reply

  39. Max says

    Facebook messenger notifications cause a vibration that has no method of switching off on this phone. All normal vibration modes are switched off …

    Reply

  40. Eshwar says

    is there any chance to adjust the volume of notifications and ringing individually? or else any alternative solution for this?

    Reply

  41. Caco says

    I’ve turned my video and game volume all the way down and it won’t turn back up also can’t hear or be heard on phone calls unless I put it on speaker how do I fix this?

    Reply

  42. noa says

    Hi, option 1 doesnt work for me, i try pressing the down on the volume bottun and it doesnt turn into vibrate mode,it stays on a lower sound option.
    whats wrong?

    thanks

    Reply

  43. Apoorv says

    Hi simon…I have a moto e with me…I have installed the fb messenger in it…but its notification tone is inaudible when the phone is locked..(without any pattern or pin).. It just vibrates. Sometimes when m using my phone also…the chat head will appear but there is no tone… I tried everything…matched the settings of messenger with a samsung phone in which it is working.. But still it is not working… I tried changing the motorola internal sound settings but nothing happens. Couple of my friends have moto e and I asked them…they even got the same prob. I was thinking is it because of stock android?? Please help me

    Reply

  44. kaylee says

    Is there a way that the screen lights up when a text has been recieved? I’m sure I had it before but I must have clicked something to turn it off plz help!

    Reply

  45. Ragga says

    Ho do I disable the vibrate whenever I receive a new text message. I have tried disable in the original sms app, tried third party apps but it still vibrates when I get a new text message.

    Reply

  46. Anindya says

    Hi,
    I purchased a moto G (2nd Gen) on 17th oct ’14 through flipkart.com.
    currently I am facing this problem,
    during an incoming call, if my earphone is connected to my phone,it is not ringing through loud-speaker (Actually it is ringing through loudspeakers ,but in almost inaudible volume ). Could you please tell me the reason behind this ?
    And could you please tell me how to ‘activate’ the loud-speaker properly ?

    Reply

  47. Neethu says

    Yes am having a problem in Makin moto g silence,,,after keeping in silent mode if i get any calls, if i miss da call again it will coming in da normal mode,,, i tried a lot bt ntg helped me,,, plz anyone of U knw abou dis,,, say me

    Reply

  49. Roopa says

    I wanted to know the 2 option in Moto G 2nd Gen..1) Where is the spam box or folder. 2) Rejected list means i should not get one missed call from rejected no.

    Reply

  50. tompa says

    How to enable a sound-off button in the “speed-settings”. I mean, in the panel you get to by swiping down in the home screen and touch the symbol up right.

    Reply

  51. Prabir says

    When I listen to music with my phone put on silent mode, the music doesn’t stop or pauses if there is any incoming call or text message. Is there any change in settings I need to do for that?

    Reply

  52. zithendra says

    How to stop vibration in touch pad while typing a message in MOTO E,
    i tried with messages–>settings–>vibrate(disable)
    settings–>sound–>vibrate on touch(disable)
    No result 🙁
    still i am getting vibration while typing.

    Reply

  53. david says

    Hi ! While im trying to use Play music to listen songs..only the song which i’ve selected is getting played but not the next song after the completion of one song…I mean to say that what all the songs there in the list are not getting played, I had to select another song after completion of one each time. Could you please help me out of this.

    Reply

  55. Ngoc Thang says

    Please show me how to disable vibrate on type for message. I have gone to Sound Setting on Setting Menu of Motorola G, I have just only checked “Vibrate when ringing” and UnCheck other item all. But when i composed a message, the phone still vibrate on typing. It’s realy discomfort. Please help me

    Reply

  56. Anil says

    Hi Friends, My MOTO G is going to slient mode every day night at 11 PM. How to stop it going to silent MODE. Am not sure again when it comes out from that silent mode because if I see aroung 11 or 11:30 I am changing manually. else by morning it is fine.

    Reply

  58. Dave says

    How can i put a sound on to tell when a charger is connected it should be in system/media/audio/ui/ Charger_Connection.ogg but you cant add a file or rename a file

    Reply

  59. richiestix says

    Hi, i think my issue is an android issue but i hope you can help. Is there a way to make the volume control (or other control) silence EVERYTHING? playing a youtube video whilst on silent mode still plays out loud, this is counter-intuitive to me (not to mention embarrassing when my phone blasts out on a quiet train!)

    Reply

  60. Asha says

    Actually I have set EST file explorer as default.But I wanted to make the notifications silent.Now I couldn’t make it to silent as I am unable to access the media tones.So how to bring the media option or how to reset it back from EST file explorer to default media.

    Reply

  62. vijay says

    When i talking in the phone i am hearing apponent voice very loudly wtout putting in loud speaker if i reduce the voice for once it ‘ ll be k but next time i cald then only the same problem….plz help..

    Reply

  64. Mayank Gupta says

    I bought a new moto g mobile and till yesterday it was working good but yesterday the green button while answering the call was not working, still it is not working. Did lot things like switch off and sim removel but could get solve the problem. What should I do now..

    Reply

  65. suresh kumar says

    Two months before I bought moto e mobile. Past one week I’m facing minizing option problem. when ever I minimize the application or web page.I’m not able to redirect because it directly going exit. Please give me solution for this

    Reply

  66. alazscar says

    My moto g has suddenly stopped making sounds. The alarm sound works, but the ringtone, and alerts do not. I see on this forum that I can unsilence the phone by holding down the power button and the putting finger on the mute button. When I hold down the power button I see the mute has a slash through it and a blue line underneath. When I put my finger on this the screen goes black and I am back to home page. Tapping the volume up key does nothing.

    Reply

  67. Courtney says

    I purchase my Motorola g about a week ago….the only problem I’m having is I can’t hear any music or hear videos..but I can hear my ringtones and notifications. What can I do?

    Reply

  68. bob says

    The ringtone volume on my Moto g randomly goes to silent mode. This is causing me to miss calls and messages. Do you have any idea why this is happening? Is there any way to lock it on?

    Reply

  69. Seb says

    Ive got an ringtone issue. Ive got one contact with a customised ringtone. When I set my phone in to silent mode, a call from said caller still rings loudly. Any other call is silent like it should be. Isnt there a possibility that when I put the phone in silent mode, all calls are silent?

    Reply

  70. abrar says

    can anyone will tell me how i can turn off my vibration of taping … from the setting i switched off but still during text typing its working please tell me the soln

    Reply

  72. Mangesh Sonawane says

    i got my mobile one week back. its got automatically switch off and not getting on.will u help me out for this.

    Reply

  73. simon hathaway says

    My moto g has no sound. the volume is on full and the speaker shows on. If i make a call i cannot hear it either through the phone or the speaker. It remains completely silent.

    Reply

  74. prashant says

    Hi,
    How can I stop sound notification from app like news app, whats app, hangout at the same time keeping the mobile in ringtone mode? Is it possible?

    Reply

  75. dinesh says

    how to stop moto g from vibrating on every letter i type..i checked in the settings menu and couldn’t find a solution

    Reply

  77. Amitha says

    Silent mode not working

    When I switch to silent mode and keep my phone aside, and later i hear notification ringtone when a msg is received, I was shocked to see it was no longer in silent mode, again i kept it in silent but the same thing repeated, and i had to switch of my phone!!!!!! 🙁 what is the problem?
    Thank you.

    Reply

  78. yani says

    Hi 1. For a single contact ring is not coming when that person called me. I don’t know how it was set. I checked particular contact ringtone, it is fine, but not getting ring. Anyone please help me how to remove silent.
    2.For another contact, when person called me it automatically got cut and send message to that person as ‘I am busy, will call later’. Please let me know how to solve this

    Reply

  79. Mayank Gupta says

    Hii I want to know that how to stop the vibration during ttypin. When I type anything the phone is vibrating. Please someone help…

    Reply

  80. Nikhil Sonkamble says

    I generally put my mobile on silent mode while sleeping and also set the alarm for morning. In the morning the alarm rings but for couple of days I’m experiencing a strange behaviour. The speaker doesn’t work , rather any sound output device doesn’t work. Then I have to restart my mobile to bring it to normal.
    Any solution is appreciated.

    Reply

  81. Pallavi says

    hi Simon!
    ya, if i choose vibrate for short or long, then when my phone is in general mode it vibrates then also. and if i choose default then it vibrates too. i want my phone to vibrate only when it is in silent mode, and otherwise i don’t want it.

    Reply

  82. Pallavi says

    how do i activate vibration for whatsapp on silent mode for moto G? and i want the vibration on only on silent mode, not otherwise

    Reply

  83. Nick says

    Hello, how do I stop my phone notifying me every time I get an email, or someone mentions me on Facebook? I would prefer to only be notified of texts and calls, and was able to set this up on my previous Android phone. Thanks, Nick

    Reply

  85. Don says

    How to set sim 2 to silent mode and sim 1 in normal mode.. My sim 2 is my professional ph no so i want it to be silent always and sim 1 to be general mode..

    Reply

  87. Keerthana says

    Where at the default notification sounds stored? When I connect my mob to PC I can’t find those tones?

    Reply

  88. Keerthana says

    How can I keep different ringtones for dual Sim?
    Only one tone can be set… Unable to differentiate between incoming calls for both Sim

    Reply

  89. U Rajkumar says

    I have turned off all notificaitons but i would like to see how many emails / watsup messages / facebook messages have come! Earlier phones used to display the count on top of the icon in red (small bubble) but i am not able to get that option in Moto G. How can we enable it? i dont want to check each account manually everytime but i also dont want notificaitons

    Reply

  91. Akash pimple says

    I am using moto g and I can’t make my fon ringtone normal, whenever call comes it’s only vibret doesn’t make any sound

    Reply

  92. Kathryn Griffin says

    My son downloaded a ringtone on my phone from Zedge; somehow it set itself as the notification sound as well and would not let me change it. I finally un-installed Zedge, now no matter what I do, I have NO notification sound at all. HELP!!

    Reply

  93. Mayank Gupta says

    Hello Simon,
    I am have moto g since one month India version and now I am having of connectivity of is not even showing it is showing sim disabled. Please help me I have searched lot of time but could not fix it. Please help me out.

    Reply

  95. Monika says

    I would like to know how to shorten the length of time the ringtone for a call or message rather than it having play the whole song? Also, I know that there are notification displays at the tope of the mobile but I would like a message to display on the home page itself – is this possible?

    Reply

  96. Andrea says

    Is there any way to turn off the vibration when using the keyboard for texting? I turned off the vibration for everything else but it still vibrates when I text and it’s driving me insane…. thanks!

    Reply

  97. DeviKiran S says

    Hi..how can we on mobile speaker while running FM radio for avoiding hearing via earphone…please help.

    Reply

  98. Chantel says

    I can’t find any tips on my problem but this is the closest forum. I have zedge downloaded on my Moto G. I was in my alarm clock app and I accidentally selected to only select ringtones from my android device “always” instead of “just once”. I have absolutely no clue how to reset the default setting and I’m frustrated to the point of tears with this silly problem! Any help is greatly appreciated.

    Reply

  99. lol says

    I download “google voice” app and before the notifications would work; however, now I don’t receive any of these notifications. How do I fix it?

    Reply

  100. Shay says

    Hello my phone doesn’t ring at all. It only vibrates. I can’t hear any music or anything….. Only if I have on headphones. Please help!!

    Reply

  101. Twinkle says

    I want to off the touch pad vibration inside the whatsapp. So from i will change touch pad vibration?

    Reply

  103. Mayank Gupta says

    I want to change my watsapp notification tone… Its very irritating but I can’t find it… Please some one help me out… From where I can change it…

    Reply

  104. ch n phanendra says

    Hi,
    When i am typing any password to unlock the phone / entering any message it is taking 2-3 seconds to complete the action..is there any problem in my phone.Generally after typing how much time it will take.

    Reply

  105. Sunil Chauhan says

    Hi Moto mates I want to share an application that will help the moto g to enhance its sound profile functionality.
    ‘Smart Sound Profiles’ is an app in play store that provides you many more functions for ring tones, vibration, notification etc. Most of them are not inbuilt. And the best part is that you can control the notifications at the app level ie can customize the notification behavior for each app separately.
    Although this app has a trial version for 10 days but if you found it useful you can go for the full version as well. Hope it will help.

    Reply

  106. Sumant says

    How can I set my motog to vibrate+notification sound? All I can find is either sound or vibrate, but not both.

    Reply

  107. Teresa says

    I used to be able to raise or lower the volume of my ringtones using the volume button, but now it only raises/lowers the volume of the sounds (i.e. For music, movies, etc). I am not able to find where to fix it back. Can you help? Thanks!

    Reply

  108. Pulkit says

    When i plug in my moto g i used to get a notification sound which meant it was on charging.
    That sound has stopped
    My phone is two days old.
    Any way to fix it?

    Reply

  109. Tanya says

    How to stop notification sound vibrate facebook on MOTO G? I can’t found where I can turn off vibrate on Facebook notification. Thank you.

    Reply

  110. Jazz says

    I need to know how can I reduce the vibration intensity of Moto G, it is way too much when on vibration mode.

    Reply

  111. vipin kumar says

    How to disable volume notification while I am cut the call …. It always show volume notification while cut the phone call in moto g

    Reply

  112. Azar says

    How to set my own ringtine in MOTOG instead of mobile tone.. Plz anyone of u guide me.. Its very difficult…

    Reply

  113. Sunil Chauhan says

    I am interested to know the way to disable the vibration of all apps in the normal (ringer only) mode without disabling them permanently in the settings of each app.
    I want the phone to vibrate only when its on vibration mode or ringer + vibration mode. I am asking it because my previous Samsung duos behaves in this way.

    Reply

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