Help Assigning Custom Ringtones

[rnj79]

I was trying to assign custom ringtones on my Captivate. When I go to Apps>My Files>where my tone is, I tap to assign it but all of my contacts are not there- only the built in AT&T ones. I manually added each contact so where are they? When I send a sms, everything is fine but as far as assigning ringtones to them- no.

 

[Baldilocks]

I put all of my ringtones in a folder called 'Ringtones' on the SD card. They all show up in the ringtones list when I edit my contacts.

 

[artvandalay22222]

For some reason, you cant use custom ringtones for google contacts. So got to contacts/menu/display options/ and check phone and uncheck all the rest. Any contact added to that list you can change the ringtone for. Now to add the custom ringtone for a certain person, goto contacts/choose freind/menu/edit/scroll down to "ringtone"

 

[artvandalay22222]

so, if you want to use custom ringtones, you must move your contacts from google, to phone.

 

[rnj79]

so, if you want to use custom ringtones, you must move your contacts from google, to phone.

Thank you! Can I move them without having to re-type all of them? I saved them all to my sim card...

 

[artvandalay22222]

Yes, just export to sd card, then import them from sd card but choose phone when it asks what tye of contacts you want to save them as

 

[rnj79]

Yes, just export to sd card, then import them from sd card but choose phone when it asks what tye of contacts you want to save them as

Thank you again1 Guess I better put the SD card in, I haven't done it yet. I am an iPhone cross over and this Captivate is kicking my butt!! I do love it though.

 

[blazeplacid]

there is an app in the market called

"copy to sim"

try it out, its free

 

[Baldilocks]

You can copy to SIM right from the built in contact application. Why would you need to download something extra?

 

[artvandalay22222]

Rnj79, just remember that "phone" contacts wont sync with google contacts.

 

[artvandalay22222]

Also, a neat trick to get pics for a lot of your contacts is to add facebook. You can link your phone contact to your facebook contact and then it will fill in the pic, plus let you seetheir recent postings on facebook right from contact list

 

[rnj79]

I got it done already. It was easy thanks to help from artvandalay22222! I do appreciate all of the quick replies from everyone. This forum is going to be my first stop for help. I think this is the 3rd topic I've needed help on...

 

[artvandalay22222]

Glad I could help.

 

[Dennis_Bham]

You don't have to move the google contacts to the phone to have custom ringtones.

You can create a duplicate contact on the phone and assign a ringtone to it. The Contact manager will recognize they are the same and link them, showing them as a single contact. When you open a contact from then on, and select edit, it gives a choice of editing the google contact or the phone contact.

 

[HeritageCycles]

When you export contacts and then import, will it make duplicate contacts?
Also I am having problems of losing ringtones associated with contacts.
Any others having his problem?

 

[noc]

Not to bump an old topic, but i found something that might be useful for some of you if you didn't already know. You can bypass the 300 kb ringtone limit quite easily.

How to Bypass Ringtone Limit on AT&T Samsung Impression | New At & t Cell Phones

I must also comment about this whole google contact issue. At first when I exported my contacts from google and then imported them, it indeed duplicated my contacts AND it duplicated it into the gmail server.

I did what Dennis did, creating the same name contact onto the phone. That way, it didn't duplicate the name onto the gmail server and it auto-links the google contact and lets you assign a custom ringtone/throw them in a group. However, when you use this method and throw people into groups (you can't throw google contacts into groups), custom ringtones that are assigned to a group will not work for those contacts. It's a shame, because essentially any contact you retrieved through google can't have a custom ringtone that rings according to what group they're in. You have to set a specific custom ringtone, which is extra work.

And about the facebook thing where you can see their status updates and stuff... i could never get mine to work =/. any tips on that? I just wish contacts worked more elegantly...

EDIT:
So I just did a series of tests to see how the algorithm works, and how the system decides on what to do with the custom ringtones.

As you guys already mentioned, you cannot assign a google contact a custom ringtone. What I did first on my phone was load up my google contacts onto my phone, then made a duplicate in order to throw them into a group since it links them to a real phone contact. HOWEVER, by doing it this way, the phone registers the google contact as THE FIRST registered contact (you can see the icons, it says Linked contacts: "G" and "Phone"). Even though my contacts are thrown into groups that have custom ringtones, the phone will not ring the custom ringtone because it's set to use the preferences of "G," which is for google contacts. It will simply ring your default ringtone.

In order to fix that, what I did was:
1. Back up contacts onto SD card
2. Log into gmail, delete contacts.
3. Sync gmail contacts on phone (they're now gone; phone contacts are the only ones in there now)
4. Upload the backup to gmail again

This puts the Phone contact in 1st place, fixing the problem of custom ringtones that are set in groups to not ring. Google contacts is now listed 2nd place. Also, your contact in your phone can have no number--meaning, it'll still read the number off your gmail contact, but still ring the custom ringtone assigned to the group. That said, this can all be safely done simply by duplicating contacts on your phone (simply by entering their name in), without the need to recopy the numbers.

 

[noc]

Oh yeah I'm an idiot, I forgot to mention the obvious. If you assigned a contact to two different groups that has different custom ringtones, it will ring the tune assigned to whichever group comes first in alphabetical order.

 

[dudeuconfuseme]

I put all of my ringtones in a folder called 'Ringtones' on the SD card. They all show up in the ringtones list when I edit my contacts.

Can someone tell me how to do this. I have tried but when I move a ringtone or copy it, they won't work anymore. Also every time a download anything that is not a ringtone, they stop working. Or if i get an update.

 

[sremick]

Can someone tell me how to do this. I have tried but when I move a ringtone or copy it, they won't work anymore. Also every time a download anything that is not a ringtone, they stop working. Or if i get an update.

The Captivate FAQ has some info on this:

Customization - CapFAQ

 

[dudeuconfuseme]

Thanks, but i have tried that, the phone puts them in download folder by default, as soon as I move it or copy it they stop working. I have put them in a ringtone folder, do not work. Can I change the default so they go directly to the ringtone folder??? Am I doing something wrong??? Very frustrating.

 

[Android26]

Can I change the default so they go directly to the ringtone folder???

As far as I know, every ringtone you download will automatically be put into your download folder and you'll have to manually move them into your ringtone folder. It's not too big of a hassle.

 

[dudeuconfuseme]

As far as I know, every ringtone you download will automatically be put into your download folder and you'll have to manually move them into your ringtone folder. It's not too big of a hassle.

Again, I have tried that. as soon as I move or copy them, they don't work.

Ok had to do it through the computer, remove sd card, load it and replace it. Could not do through phone.

 

[chicky]

If I do that will I be able to "sink" the contact information from Google automatically?

 

[sremick]

If I do that will I be able to "sink" the contact information from Google automatically?

Who/what are you responding/referring to? There are lots of things being discussed/suggested in this thread. You should use the

button when replying, so people know.

And it's "sync"... as in, short for "synchronize".

 

[bboop]

omg, help me...i did what you said above about unchecking everything except the 'phone' and now my contacts are gone! so, when i went back to the home screen, select contacts and select edit, it brings up the touch screen to 'find a contact'...i went from 100 contacts to about 10...i can't even get back to the screen to recheck google, facebook, etc....can you help me find the contacts or retrace my steps to reinstate them? i didn't 'delete' anything, just unchecked...thanks tons!!!