• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Help How do you remove custom ringtones from the list?

crosspatch

Member
Mar 17, 2012
50
17
The default music player on the Photon lets you set any music file as a ringtone. Some third-party music players do as well. Great. I did this for a couple files, and it works fine.

At first, I assumed that the music player was copying the files to a separate location reserved for ringtones, and that I could simply find and delete those files to remove the ringtones from the list of available ringtones. But no.

As it turns out, the files remain in their original locations, and what must be happening under the hood is that some type of internal pointer (i.e. a list of ringtones) is set to point to the files that had been set as ringtones by the music player.

The problem is, I don't want those music files showing in the list of available ringtones anymore. (Menu > Settings > Sound > Phone ringtone.) The music player seems to offer no way to "UNset as ringtone".

I found that if I renamed the files, then went into the ringtone setting and selected a different ringtone, the files would disappear from the list. But once I renamed them back, they reappeared in the list. And I don't want to have to change the names of my files.

Does anyone know how to remove them from the list of available ringtones?
 
The default music player on the Photon lets you set any music file as a ringtone. Some third-party music players do as well. Great. I did this for a couple files, and it works fine.

At first, I assumed that the music player was copying the files to a separate location reserved for ringtones, and that I could simply find and delete those files to remove the ringtones from the list of available ringtones. But no.

As it turns out, the files remain in their original locations, and what must be happening under the hood is that some type of internal pointer (i.e. a list of ringtones) is set to point to the files that had been set as ringtones by the music player.

The problem is, I don't want those music files showing in the list of available ringtones anymore. (Menu > Settings > Sound > Phone ringtone.) The music player seems to offer no way to "UNset as ringtone".

I found that if I renamed the files, then went into the ringtone setting and selected a different ringtone, the files would disappear from the list. But once I renamed them back, they reappeared in the list. And I don't want to have to change the names of my files.

Does anyone know how to remove them from the list of available ringtones?

I wish i could say I know how to remove ringtones from the list, after setting ringtones in that manner. I've never done it that way, so that's new to me.

Only way I could think that would be a "sure fire" way to remove the ringtones as "available ringtones" would be to do a hard reset and just start from scratch.

As a rule of thumb, I always set up my custom ringtones/alerts this way:
http://androidforums.com/3044622-post5.html

That ensures that once I've deleted the ringtone from the folder, it's no longer available.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KOLIO
Upvote 0
Yeah... Yuck, I'm not doing a hard reset just for this. I suspect that if I rooted my phone (not gonna happen), I could probably accomplish it somehow. But hopefully there's another way.

Thanks for the response. I actually have read your notes on setting ringtones, but when I saw the "Set as ringtone" option, I didn't realize it may mean "Set as ringtone and NEVER stop seeing this file in the ringtone list".
 
Upvote 0
Ah, yes! I love apps! I found an app that let me delete the ringtones from the list:

Ring Remover

I apologize for posting and then answering my own question, but it didn't even occur to me that there might be an app for this. (There were also a couple others.)

I also found advice to do a "Clear Data" on the native "DRM Protected Content Storage" app, but I didn't know what other effects that action might have, or if it would work.

Thank you drexappeal and Beekeeper (the app developer)!
 
Upvote 0
Ah, yes! I love apps! I found an app that let me delete the ringtones from the list:

Ring Remover

I apologize for posting and then answering my own question, but it didn't even occur to me that there might be an app for this. (There were also a couple others.)

I also found advice to do a "Clear Data" on the native "DRM Protected Content Storage" app, but I didn't know what other effects that action might have, or if it would work.

Thank you drexappeal and Beekeeper (the app developer)!

Nice!...LOL...I never thought there'd be a day where I'd be saying the line, "there's an app for that"...hahaha...but having been on Android for the past 1 3/4 years, I understand it more now. Good find. I'm sure that'll come in handy for others as well. I'm going to add your post to the FAQ's.
 
Upvote 0
I had some luck removing an unwanted ringtone that I had downloaded as an MP3 file. I pressed the music icon and went to "Songs." The ringtone was listed and I removed it. It was also removed from the ringtone list. I have a Samsung Note 3, but the steps above should work on any of the Samsung Galaxy class phones and other phones as well.
 
Upvote 0
I have a Samsung Galaxy Core Prime phone and added a custom ring tone which appeared in my ringtone list. I was unable to remove it from this area. After a long search for an answer on the internet and many forums I did not come up with an answer other than to reset or download another app to remove it. I did not want to do this. I kept looking around on my phone and FINALLY :) found the answer. I hope this helps anyone with the same trouble.

I went into my the folder "My Files" (which appears as a pre-loaded app), tap "Audio" tap the "three bullets" in the upper right corner, tap "Select." I was able to select them, them tap on the "Trash Can Icon" which will remove/delete them.

The ringtones are no long in the ringtone list. Sorry for the long explanation, but I sure hope this helps or at least helps with the same or similar problems.
 
Upvote 0
I know this thread is old but for those who will face this problem in the future or is facing it right now, there's a simple logic for this. All you have to do is copy the mp3 file and place it in another folder. Delete the file from the original folder and the mp3 will vanish from the ringtone list. Then you just have to cut/move the copied file to original folder and you can just sit down, relax, and enjoy! You don't have to thank me. Just let me know if you are happy that your problem is solved. :)
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones