Galaxy S3 Keeps Losing the Playlists and Ringtones

[Greg Wise]

Every 3 to 4 weeks I notice my playlists are deleted and my ringtones for contacts have reverted back to default. This has happened about 5 times since last year. Its the S3 and I'm with Verizon (who states it is not b/c of them---of course). Any ideas/suggestions? thx.

 

[sfilansno1fan]

i have had this issue too with my playlist someone suggested it may be because the battery level drops to lower then 30%
is this the case with yours?

 

[Guerazo]

I have had this exact problem on my Galaxy s2 since upgrading to 4.1.2. I have discovered that moving the custom ringtones and notifications to the phone's memory rather than the sd card takes care of the disappearing ringtones. So, moving all your music to the phone may or may not solve the playlist problem. However, as in my situation, this is probably not possible or desired due to the amount of memory it would require. So, my solution has been to download the free app called Playlist Backup. It backs up your playlists on the phone and makes it easy to get them back when the disappear. In fact, I just had to use it this morning. This time my playlists lasted about 5 days before suddenly disappearing. I don't know if the battery level is related. It only took about 30 seconds to import all of my backed up playlists to the music player. Obviously there's still a bug, but at least this allows me to spend the time making playlists knowing that I won't have to constantly start over a few days later. Hope this helps!

 

[sfilansno1fan]

Cheers I will give that a go

 

[djnottttt]

Mine loses them every day. I'm getting so pissed. It never use to do that. I use special ring tones for my family and friends so I don't have to answer telemarketers. Every day i have to reset the tones. Is it Battery Life???????????????????????????????

 

[Josh Jones4]

I too have lost my playlists about 3-4 times now. It seems to happen every time I update the app. I have a Samsung Note II and my service provider is Verizon. Very frustrating...

 

[rdpenny]

i downloaded the playlist backup app.
you said storing my custom ringtone settings to my phone rather than to my sd card would fix those disappearing. HOW do I change that setting?

 

[CassidyAthena]

I had just downloaded two different ringtones (can't remember from where) and all of a sudden they disappeared. This is about a year in, and this is the first time, so it's not like some of the other issues listed here that happen frequently.
Tx
CassidyAthena

 

[kh20000]

This may or may not be what's causing your problems. Android has a media deamon that checks all the media on the devise when it is unplugged from usb communications. If it finds anything wrong with a file it deletes it with no warning.

The app "just playlists" helps because it at least gives you a clue as to what is wrong. It may be worth a try!

I had a major issue trying to transfer playlists to my S3 and the playlists suddenly disappearing. "just playlists" helped me find an error in the paths to the mp3 files.

 

[Simon Bastin]

My playlists do not get deleted but the list within each playlist is lost. I thought at first it only occurred when a firmware or upgrade happened, then it seemed to happen more often. I thought then it might be when i add music or it does a library rebuild - have not been able to confirm this. It is a bit annoying. Re the ringtone, i make a copy of any music i want to use as the ringtone and save it in the ringtone folder, then select the ringtone from there. This seems to last ok.

 

[kh20000]

This may or may not be what's causing your problems. Android has a media deamon that checks all the media on the devise when it is unplugged from usb communications. If it finds anything wrong with a file it deletes it with no warning.

The app "just playlists" helps because it at least gives you a clue as to what is wrong. It may be worth a try!

To be clear, the android media scanner scans the files and deletes any items in those files that it finds a problem with. So you would for example, end up with an empty playlist file if the directory paths in the playlist file were incorrect. You can prevent this by putting an empty file called ".nomedia" in the directory. If there is a problem with the paths in the playlist file you will not be able to play them but they will not be emptied. "just playlists" will put an empty ".nomedia" file in the directory for you and can help with playlist path problems.

Now this may or may not be the problem with the ring tones but it is worth investigating.

I had a major issue trying to transfer playlists to my S3 and the playlists suddenly disappearing. "just playlists" helped me find an error in the paths to the mp3 files.