How to Set a Custom Tesla Lock Sound and Boombox Sounds (and Stay Legal)

Many Tesla vehicles can play sounds through an external speaker at the front of the car. Through the Toybox menu, owners can use that speaker for Boombox (sounds played on demand or in place of the horn while parked) and, since a software update in late 2023, for a custom lock sound loaded from a USB drive. Setting it up is simple once you know the exact file names and folder rules, and frustrating if you do not. This guide covers both features step by step, then explains the part most guides skip: making sure the sound you use is one you are allowed to use.

A note on accuracy: Tesla changes Toybox features through software updates, and details can differ by model, market and software version. The steps below reflect Tesla's owner documentation and widely reported behaviour at the time of writing. If something does not match what you see in your car, the owner's manual on the touchscreen is the authority.

What you need

• A Tesla with the external pedestrian warning speaker. In many markets this speaker began appearing on new cars from around late 2019, but rollout varied by model and region. A quick check: if your car makes an audible hum or tone outside when moving slowly, it has one.
• Recent software. The custom lock sound arrived with the 2023 holiday software update (version 2023.44.30 is commonly cited as the minimum). Boombox has been available longer.
• A USB drive and access to a computer.
• The right USB port. On some vehicles built from around late 2021, the centre console ports only charge devices and data must go through the port in the glove box.

Formatting the USB drive

Tesla's documentation lists the supported file systems for USB storage as exFAT, MS-DOS FAT (FAT32, as macOS calls it), ext3 and ext4. NTFS is not supported. Most new drives come formatted as exFAT or FAT32, so you may not need to do anything.

If you do reformat, remember that formatting erases everything on the drive, including saved Dashcam and Sentry Mode clips. Copy anything you want to keep first.

Setting a custom lock sound

The lock sound is the chirp the car plays when it locks. The rules are strict and specific:

1. The file must be a WAV file. MP3 will not work for the lock sound.
2. It must be named exactly LockChime.wav. Watch out for computers that hide file extensions, which can leave you with a file actually called LockChime.wav.wav.
3. It must be smaller than 1 MB. In practice, a short clip of a second or two is ideal. A WAV at CD quality uses roughly 10 MB per minute in stereo, so even a few seconds can approach the limit; saving as mono or at a lower sample rate helps.
4. It must be in the root of the drive, not inside the TeslaCam folder or any other folder.

Step by step

1. In the car, turn off Dashcam before removing the drive. Removing a drive while it is recording can corrupt it.
2. Plug the drive into your computer and copy LockChime.wav to the top level of the drive.
3. Eject the drive properly, plug it back into the car and turn Dashcam back on if you use it.
4. On the touchscreen, open the app launcher, go to Toybox, then Boombox.
5. Turn on the lock sound option and choose USB as the sound.
6. Lock the car to test it.

If it does not work

• Switch the lock sound to a built-in option, then back to USB. This often forces the car to reread the file.
• Check the exact file name, including capitalisation and the extension.
• Check the file is under 1 MB and in the root folder.
• Make sure the file is a genuine WAV, not an MP3 that has been renamed.

Only one custom lock sound can be used at a time. To keep several, store them on your computer under different names and rename the one you want to LockChime.wav before copying it across.

Setting up Boombox sounds

Boombox lets you play a sound through the external speaker, either from the Toybox menu or in place of the horn when the car is in Park. Tesla includes built-in sounds, and you can add your own from USB.

According to Tesla's documentation:

• Create a folder named Boombox at the top level of the USB drive.
• Put your sound files in it. WAV and MP3 are supported.
• You can store more files than that, but the car only offers the first five in alphabetical order, so name your favourites accordingly (for example, starting with 1, 2, 3).
• When used as a horn sound, only the first few seconds of a clip are played, so put the important part at the start.

Tesla's manual has also stated that a drive used for Boombox should contain only that one folder, which means it may not be able to share a drive with Dashcam. Behaviour here has changed between software versions, so if your sounds do not appear, try a separate drive containing only the Boombox folder.

Where and when Boombox works

In the United States, Tesla issued software recalls in 2022 after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that playing Boombox sounds while moving could obscure the pedestrian warning sound that electric cars are required to make. The over-the-air fix limited Boombox so it only works when the car is in Park, and not in Drive, Neutral or Reverse or during Summon. Similar restrictions apply in many other markets, and availability of external sounds can vary by region.

In practice, treat Boombox as a parked-car feature. Do not attempt to work around these limits; the pedestrian warning sound exists to protect people who cannot see the car coming.

Being a good neighbour

Lock sounds play every single time you lock the car, often in residential streets, garages and car parks. A few considerate choices:

• Keep it short. One second or less is usually enough.
• Keep it moderate. Normalise the clip so it is not louder than the default chirp.
• Avoid sounds that could be mistaken for an alarm, siren or a person shouting.
• Think about time of day. A joke sound that is funny at noon may be less funny at midnight.

Copyright: use sounds you have the right to use

This is the part that is easy to forget. A sound clip is a creative work, and most clips taken from films, TV shows, video games, songs, operating systems and well-known brand jingles are protected by copyright and sometimes by trademark. Playing one through a speaker in a public car park is still a public use of someone else's work, and sharing or distributing those files, for example uploading them to a sound library for others to download, is clearly a use that needs permission.

Safer sources, in rough order of simplicity:

1. Make your own. Record a sound with your phone, or generate a tone in an audio editor. A simple synthesised chime takes minutes to make and belongs to you.
2. Public domain sounds. Some archives offer recordings explicitly released into the public domain or under a CC0 dedication. Check the licence on each individual file.
3. Properly licensed sounds. Royalty-free libraries and Creative Commons sounds can be fine, but read the terms: some require attribution, some forbid commercial use, and some forbid redistribution of the raw file.
4. Ask permission. If you really want a specific sound, ask the rights holder.

Things to avoid: ripping audio from films, games, adverts or music, using famous sound logos or start-up sounds from software, and assuming that because a clip is popular online it is free to use. "I found it on the internet" is not a licence.

Making a lock sound file

If you create your own sound, here is a practical workflow in any free audio editor:

1. Trim the clip to the part you want, ideally under two seconds.
2. Add a very short fade in and fade out to avoid clicks.
3. Normalise to a sensible level.
4. Export as WAV. If the file is over 1 MB, export as mono or at a lower sample rate.
5. Name it LockChime.wav.

Our Tesla Boombox Studio can also download a sound already converted to WAV and named LockChime.wav, including simple chimes that are generated in your browser from basic waveforms. Whichever sound you choose, the same rule applies: use something you made yourself or have clear rights to.

Quick checklist

• External pedestrian warning speaker and up-to-date software
• USB formatted as exFAT, FAT32, ext3 or ext4 (not NTFS)
• Lock sound: LockChime.wav, WAV only, under 1 MB, in the drive root
• Boombox: a Boombox folder, WAV or MP3, first five files alphabetically
• Boombox only works while parked in many regions
• Turn off Dashcam before removing the drive
• Only use sounds you created, that are public domain, or that you are licensed to use