Creating custom ringtones & folders

[SallyC]

Some people have wondered about how/where to place custom mp3s on their phone for notifications. From what I've read, it's best to use internal memory as the external card gets read later and the files might revert. So you create folders in your internal memory and put mp3s in them to use for the custom ringtones. The file structure I had read was best based on the Android Developer's Dev Guide was

• Music/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as user music.
• Podcasts/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a podcast.
• Ringtones/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a ringtone.
• Alarms/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as an alarm sound.
• Notifications/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a notification sound.
• Pictures/ - All photos (excluding those taken with the camera).
• Movies/ - All movies (excluding those taken with the camcorder).
• Download/ - Miscellaneous downloads

I had also read it didn't really matter - android would find them anywhere - but to nest the above structure under 'media' for neatness. And, finally, a developer who was pretty adamant that 'SD Card / media / audio / ringtones ' was the default location and should be used. Although from what I can tell that's off the system directory which most users connecting via USB or using My Files wouldn't be able to emulate. This made me all the more curious as to what to tell people wanting to store custom mp3's for notifications.

So I tested (within the sdcard, or internal memory, folder) using a few variations just to see what happened. All filenames were lowercase. My results:

• (sdcard) /sdcard / media / audio / ringtones :works for phone ringtones
• (sdcard) /media / :works for phone ringtones
• (sdcard) /media / ringtones :works for phone ringtones
• (sdcard) /sdcard / media / audio / notifications :works for notification ringtones

I'm just curious if anyone else has played around with this and what they found? Did it matter where you put your mp3s or have you found any tips to share?

From looking around it appears some folks are able to do this without problems, but others seem to have real difficulty getting it to work. I'm just trying to learn from the group what your thoughts and experiences are.

 

[chrisl121070]

I haven't tried all of the options you've listed, but of the ones I have tried, they don't work. It's really annoying me that I can't assign ringtones easily!! I will have to try the other suggestions you listed.

 

[SallyC]

I haven't tried all of the options you've listed, but of the ones I have tried, they don't work. It's really annoying me that I can't assign ringtones easily!! I will have to try the other suggestions you listed.

It's funny that some people have trouble, and others don't. I'm trying to figure out the common denominator, which is why I started the thread. Some things to watch out for:

1. Be sure you create the folders on your internal memory. Ones on the external SD card are not as stable it seem.
2. Use lowercase letters. Some folks have reported this made a difference for them.
3. Be sure you put them in the correct directory. For example, mp3s in the 'ringtones' directory will not be available for email notifications. Those must be in the 'notifications' folder. This can be confusing because Menu>Settings>Sound>Notifications says "Notification Ringtone" and Menu>Settings>Sound>Incoming Calls> says "Phone Ringtone" so you might think that the 'ringtone' folder is used by both but Incoming Calls uses the 'ringtones' directory and Notification Ringtone uses the 'notification' directory.
4. When looking for the sound file be sure to scroll through all your sounds, not just the file name. For example, I have a mp3 with a filename of 'somebody.mp3' but the ringtone is listed as 'Gotye Feat. Kimbra - Somebody' because that's what the meta tag info says. So if you don't see it, be sure you scroll through them all.
5. You may need to turn your phone off and on to get it to read the directory correctly. I have had it work both ways - where additions/deletions are immediately updated and where I've had to turn the phone off and on. Dunno why.

 

[waynester]

Not ringtones but FYI in case it might tie in somehow.

I have my music on sd card, path /mnt/sdcard-ext
no probs with oem player or google play music app
I have no music on internal /mnt/sdcard

* i did change windows media sync to sd card

 

[chrisl121070]

This worked for me

(sdcard) /sdcard / media / audio / ringtones

I still think it's ridiculous that it's this difficult to use custom ringtones. LOL

 

[SallyC]

Not ringtones but FYI in case it might tie in somehow.

I have my music on sd card, path /mnt/sdcard-ext
no probs with oem player or google play music app
I have no music on internal /mnt/sdcard

* i did change windows media sync to sd card

Yes, that's fine for music. It's ringtones and notifications that work best on internal memory.

 

[milspank3]

This one worked for me. (sdcard) /sdcard / media / audio / ringtones

 

[joyceface]

Does anyone know about setting an audio file for a message greeting?

 

[joyceface]

The ringtone/ folder worked for custom ringtone setting. Dumb way to have to do it (in my opinion) but still weaning off a blackberry....:icon_eek:

 

[azle]

I got the ringdroid app made assigning ringtones stupid simple, sorry if this does not apply. Still learning the phone.
Azle

 

[charlesr]

Ringdroidplus app

Just got the RAZR and had trouble assigning ringtones until I downloaded Ringdroidplus app. Really easy, except that I'm having trouble
assigning a particular ringtone to more than one contact number.

Any ideas?