LG Optimus F5 — Problem with custom contact ringtones

  • Replies:7
Matt Wills 3
Matt Wills
  • Forum posts: 11

Apr 16, 2014, 11:35:51 PM via Website

I love the concept of assigning a specific ringtone to a contact. Sorta like Caller ID, but you don't even have to look at the phone.

My phone has a problem with them, though. Sometimes I hear the assigned ringtone, sometimes I hear the default. All of my ringtones are MP3, my own edits of popular music. Well, it was popular in the Sixties, anyway.

Does anyone know of a fix, perhaps an app that helps the phone to remember what ringtone to play?

— modified on Apr 17, 2014, 11:24:41 AM by moderator

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Loie Favre 33
Loie Favre
  • Forum posts: 877

Apr 17, 2014, 11:24:19 AM via Website

Hey Matt!

Though I'm not too sure how you can fix the problem, I've done a little snooping around and found two possible solutions on some other forums:

Solution 1

  • Look in the folder of the original android ringtones. The ringtones there are about 8-10 seconds, they are ogg files and they are around 60-80 kbytes in size. Convert your custom ringtones to 64 kbits/sec and .ogg format. The key is the bit-rate and not the size. Some apps may run in the background and when they start they use the processor which makes it hard to use the high-bitrate ringtones.

Solution 2

  • If you are not a user of Google contacts, then do not do the merge described below because this will overwrite your phone contacts with your google contacts. Only do this step if all your Google contacts are up to date and include all contacts in your phone.

  • From within your computer, go to your Google contacts, the is a "My Contacts" label. At the bottom, there is an "Other" label. Somewhere in there are duplicates, so the phone doesn't know which to assign the cutom ringtone to. Go through and clean up all Google contacts, plus add the "My Contacts" to any contact that doesn't have it. Then delete any from the "other" list and any doubles in the contacts. Then, on your phone, open contacts and go to menu-more-settings-save new contacts to, and select Google. (Trust me on this one...PLEASE DO THIS.) Then go to contacts, menu, and select Merge with Google. (You may lose contacts that you've put in your phone from your phone, but this is the only time this will happen.) From this point on, anything done in the Google contacts will instantly update in your phone and vise-versa, but more importantly, your ringtones should work when assigned to individual contacts.

I found these solutions here. Hopefully one of these solutions will do the trick :)

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Matt Wills 3
Matt Wills
  • Forum posts: 11

Apr 18, 2014, 12:14:03 AM via Website

Not using Google Contacts, so no problem there.

ANy clues on where the ringtones live? I found one folder, but all that's in it are a couple of Hangout ringtones.

Can't find any of the built-in tones

— modified on Apr 18, 2014, 12:15:23 AM

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Matt Wills 3
Matt Wills
  • Forum posts: 11

Apr 18, 2014, 1:52:12 AM via Website

A little experimentation reveals that if I put my custom ogg files in the Ringtones folder that otherwise has just the two Hangouts ringtones, they will show up in the list for assigning to a contact.

This may have solved it. I will let you know.

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Matt Wills 3
Matt Wills
  • Forum posts: 11

Apr 18, 2014, 4:51:13 PM via Website

I think I can safely say that you solved the problem for me.

While MP3's are accepted and usable as ringtones, some phones, perhaps Android in general, do not handle them well.

I replaced my MP3's with OGG's, and I have not had a single problem with "ringtone amnesia" since.

In fact, a secondary issue was also (sorta) solved. When I used an MP3 as a ringtone, the phone would still list "Default Ringtone" for the contact. With OGG's, the correct name of the cut is displayed.

There's always an exception, though. I name the files with two preceding hyphens so they will stay together in the list (e.g., --A Hard Day's Night). With six or so in the Ringtones folder using that convention, all but one show up in the selection list that way. Never a dull moment.

Still, I can now trust the proper ringtone will play, so the problem, as Clousseau would say, is sol-ved.

Many thanks.

— modified on Apr 18, 2014, 5:00:07 PM

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Matt Wills 3
Matt Wills
  • Forum posts: 11

Apr 20, 2014, 4:20:34 AM via Website

I guess I spoke too soon.

The OGG files seemed to be working, no Default playing when a custom ringtone had been assigned.

Then, suddenly, back to the same old same old. Not every time, as before.

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2
Your Friend
  • Forum posts: 2

Apr 20, 2014, 11:27:31 PM via App

Yeah, I had the same problem. I had to move the ring tones from my external sd card to my phone storage and that took care of it. Hope that works for you.

— modified on Apr 20, 2014, 11:29:32 PM

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Matt Wills 3
Matt Wills
  • Forum posts: 11

Apr 20, 2014, 11:42:27 PM via Website

They're not on the external to begin with.

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