My contacts with assigned ringtones have reverted back to the default ringtone

[curlewurl]

I have a samsung galaxy S3. Up until the weekend I had about a dozen of my contacts with different assigned ringtones. I used to be able to go into my music player, select the song, then assign it to a contact. They have all reverted back to my default ring tone for some reason. I also now cannot go into music player and assign the ringtone because it is only showing a small portion of my contacts and none of the ones I actually want to assign a ringtone to. On investigating my contacts list, the ones that are displaying to assign a ring tone to only have the google symbol next to them, but the rest of my contacts have both the SIM symbol and the google symble next to them. My phone went completely dead on the weekend and I had trouble booting it up when I put it on the charger, so maybe me holding the on/off button down too long has reset something?
Can anyone please give me some idea how to fix ?

 

[meyerweb#CB]

I don't know what made you lose the custom ring tones. It happened to me once or twice on my previous HTC phone, I think probably when some app crashed the phone.

But I'm not sure why you're using the music player to assign ringtones to contacts. The contacts app has the ability to assign ringtones and, presumably, will display all your contacts.

 

[curlewurl]

I don't know what made you lose the custom ring tones. It happened to me once or twice on my previous HTC phone, I think probably when some app crashed the phone.

But I'm not sure why you're using the music player to assign ringtones to contacts. The contacts app has the ability to assign ringtones and, presumably, will display all your contacts.

My contacts app isn't viewing properly since something happened to my phone, so now most of the contacts don't give me the field for the "ringtone". The ones I can assign through the contacts app I wouldn't have a clue where to even find my songs. It seems the contacts that are on my SIM are the ones giving the trouble. Who knows how to get them off my SIM? Anyone????

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Sorry, I can't help with that. I'm on Sprint = no SIM.

 

[amccombs]

My Galaxy SII also resets all the ring tones in my contacts to Default at least once a month.

I do not have a SIM.
Android 4 is very unreliable compared to my old Continuum with Android 2.2

 

[speaks4]

It happens on mine whenever I restart my phone. I don't know how to solve it so it doesn't revert back to the default ringtone, but I know it only happens after I restart the phone.

 

[bamedeo]

I have the same issue on my new Galaxy S4 - the S3 didn't do it however.

 

[TimmyTwo2]

I've noticed mine do that as well, my text message sound reverts back to default as well, but my default is a custom R2-D2 sound but my text is Borat. I'm wondering if it is something because the files are on the SD card rather than internal storage?

 

[freudenfahrer]

On my Atrix, it would randomly reassign ringtones whenever I removed/reinserted my SD card, if the assigned ringtones were located on the SD card. Could this be the problem?

 

[Robert White1]

I have a samsung galaxy S3. My phone went completely dead on the weekend and I had trouble booting it up when I put it on the charger, so maybe me holding the on/off button down too long has reset something?
Can anyone please give me some idea how to fix ?

First what you need to do is a factory reset. It is probably the most drastic thing you can do with a stock phone, but you will end up with a phone that is like you got it out of the box! Remember to copy out or backup all your music, and pictures, mms, sms etc. so that you do not lose them. All your apps that you PURCHASED from the google play store can be easily re-installed at no charge. They will show "Purchased" when you look them up. If you use Gmail, all your contacts should be restored to your phone automatically after your reboot and log into your account.

Secondly and just as important:
When you assign a ringtone that is a custom audio, the file needs to reside on the PHONE's MEMORY, and not on your external memory card. if not, each time you remove the card or have a cache cleared (manually or automatically by the phone) you will lose those assignments. (rebooting can cause the loss also)

That is all you really need to do. I too, used to lose those assignments till I made a folder on the phone called ringtones and placed all the custom assigned ringtones in there, and never lost those assignments since. The same goes for Notification tones and Alarm tones.

You will find after making the change, no more ringtone problems!
Good Luck and Aloha!

 

[meyerweb#CB]

First what you need to do is a factory reset. It is probably the most drastic thing you can do with a stock phone, but you will end up with a phone that is like you got it out of the box! Remember to copy out or backup all your music, and pictures, mms, sms etc. so that you do not lose them. All your apps that you PURCHASED from the google play store can be easily re-installed at no charge. They will show "Purchased" when you look them up. If you use Gmail, all your contacts should be restored to your phone automatically after your reboot and log into your account.

Secondly and just as important:
When you assign a ringtone that is a custom audio, the file needs to reside on the PHONE's MEMORY, and not on your external memory card. if not, each time you remove the card or have a cache cleared (manually or automatically by the phone) you will lose those assignments. (rebooting can cause the loss also)

That is all you really need to do. I too, used to lose those assignments till I made a folder on the phone called ringtones and placed all the custom assigned ringtones in there, and never lost those assignments since. The same goes for Notification tones and Alarm tones.

You will find after making the change, no more ringtone problems!
Good Luck and Aloha!

The bolded part worked for me. I don't think the factory reset is necessary, as long as you put your ringtones on the internal SD card instead of the external.

 

[taff782]

The bolded part worked for me. I don't think the factory reset is necessary, as long as you put your ringtones on the internal SD card instead of the external.

 

[taff782]

The s3 already has a folder on the built in storage called ringtones. Just copy and paste the song that you want to use as a ringtone into this folder and the default reset will stop. It was very annoying as I filter unwanted calls this way. Mine reset each time I switched off or cleared a cache. Thanks for the help on this thread.