How To Add MP3 Ringtones on Your Treo or Centro

Posted By: Ryan Kairer Tuesday, January 22, 2008 10:00:39 AM

The recent Treo 680 firmware updates include a new option to use mp3 ringtones without any additional software. However, Palm provided no support or instructions on how to transfer or use mp3 ringtones on the device. Thanks to the Palmdoc, we have a new simple set of instructions to import mp3 ringtones to your Palm OS smartphone that supports the new ringtone options.

Read on for the instructions as well as a number of other options for using enhanced ringtones on your Treo or Centro.

Via the Palmdoc, here is a simple option for importing mp3 ringtones from an SD card:

Place the MP3s file you want to import in the Audio folder of your SD card.
In the Blazer web browser, type: file:///audio/xxx.mp3 where xxx is the name of your mp3 file. (Note the 3 forward slashes after the first file declaration.)
Hit GO.
Then you will be prompted and select Copy To Ringtone.
Then Hit Save and Open.
The MP3 Ringtone will now be added to your Ringtones which you can Manage from your Prefs/Sounds.

In addition to mp3's the latest Palm smartphones support a number of ringtone formats including: AAC, AAC+, MIDI, WAV, and AMR.

MiniTones
An alternate option is the nice bit of freeware called MiniTones. With Minitones you can take a full mp3 file stored on your device and select the exact time clip from a song you want to use and MiniTones will take care of the rest.

Another prehaps even simpler option is to create your rintone on your PC and transfer it to your Palm device via a Bluetooth file transfer. This option should accept the ringtone file and place it in the ringtone list as well.

Ringtone Managers
If you're looking for something more robust, the PalmInfocenter software store has a number of enhanced ringtone managers such as Ringo Pro, RingCare, Phone Technician and Call Block MP3 Ringtone Edition.

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Good stuff!

roydfreeman @ 1/22/2008 9:36:52 PM #

Thanks for the info. I'd been wondering how to do this since my upgrade.

By the way, has anyone else experienced occasional problems with corrupt SMSs since upgrading? I upgraded my Cingular-branded Treo680 to 2.11 and every so often I receive a txt message that reboots the phone if I try to open or delete it! The only solution I've found is to delete the Messages database, but I lose ALL my messages that way. I haven't found a way to just delete the corrupt one :(

It also seems to have trouble re-finding the network if I go out of range. I sometimes have to switch the phone off and back on again to get signal. Never happened before the upgrade.

Thanks
Roy

RE: Good stuff!

justauser @ 1/23/2008 7:05:58 AM #

Yeah I thought it was just me. Since upgrading my Treo680 it has had heaps of troubles regaining a lost signal. Also, I get this big dead pause after answering a incoming call which lasts two 'hellos'. Another odd glitch I haven't seen prior to the upgrade is I attempted to place a call via a shortcut (holding down the 3) and was presented with a blank screen with only the little handsfree icon button visible (and no call placed). After a series of hang-up button presses I regained control of the device. hmmmmm

Simple option? You are kidding, right?

EdH @ 1/26/2008 9:16:11 AM #

Via the Palmdoc, here is a simple option for importing mp3 ringtones from an SD card:

Place the MP3s file you want to import in the Audio folder of your SD card.
In the Blazer web browser, type: file:///audio/xxx.mp3 where xxx is the name of your mp3 file, note 3 forward slashes after the file.
Hit GO.
Then you will be prompted and select Copy To Ringtone.
Then Hit Save and Open.

Simple would be to stop the steps after "Place the MP3s on your device in folder X"

I know, I know, Palm is simple. I just need to learn the new definition of "simple" I guess.

RE: Simple option? You are kidding, right?

Ryan @ 1/26/2008 11:48:44 AM #

Ed, please enlighten us as to what that simple directory path is in windows mobile for ringtones...

RE: Simple option? You are kidding, right?

EdH @ 1/27/2008 3:41:20 PM #

Drop the file in My Documents (device or storage card) and it will show up. Or drop it on your \Documents\PocketPCName My Documents folder on your PC and sync via ActiveSync/WMDC.

Or drop it in \Windows or \Windows\Rings.

Someone can email you an MP3/WMA/WAV file and you can save it out to the My Documents folders from within email, or you can download from a website in Pocket IE by tapping on it. Or, you could record a ringtone with Voice Recorder and use the WAV file as the ringtone. I have a friend that recorded his 3 year old daughter saying "Daddy... DADDY!!! Get the phone!!!".

THen once you have the file somewhere on your device, just open the ringtone settings or custom ringtones for a particular contact and select the sound of your choice.

No third party tools necessary, and you sure didn't have to do any wholly unintuitive 5 step process to get there.

You know, just like it works in Windows. Or Mac. Or Linux.

RE: Simple option? You are kidding, right?

freakout @ 1/27/2008 8:24:34 PM #

No third party tools necessary, and you sure didn't have to do any wholly unintuitive 5 step process to get there.

No third-party tools necessary here either. And is it really "intuitive" to be placing ringtones in the My Documents folder? Or the Windows folder? "Intuitive" would be ONE directory on the root that was clearly labelled "Ring Tones". What if you have 74 podcasts and a bunch of other sound files on your device and don't want to pick through each one every time you go to choose a ringtone?

Don't get me wrong, Palm's method is not the best. But neither is Microsoft's.

RE: Simple option? You are kidding, right?

Ryan @ 1/28/2008 12:10:03 AM #

It's good to hear they straightened that out. I recall WinMob used to have a quite cryptic, deep-nested location for its ringtones.

It's actually pretty easy if you use bluetooth to transfer your ringtones over on Palm OS, as that automatically triggers the import into exchange manager, which is what the steps above force.

RE: Simple option? You are kidding, right?

EdH @ 1/29/2008 12:43:25 PM #

It's good to hear they straightened that out. I recall WinMob used to have a quite cryptic, deep-nested location for its ringtones.

I think it was for the original Smartphones, and *may* have been for Pocket PC Phone 2002, but from 2003 onward, My Documents has always worked.

RE: Simple option? You are kidding, right?

EdH @ 1/29/2008 12:47:18 PM #

"What if you have 74 podcasts and a bunch of other sound files on your device and don't want to pick through each one every time you go to choose a ringtone?

Music/podcasts are generally put on a storage card in \Music. The Ringtone selector ignores that folder. If you want to use a song as a rington, you need to copy the MP3/WMA file to My Documents (storage or device memory)

Not sure about other sounds. I've never carried around WAV files that I didn't use as device sounds (new email notifications, ringtones, etc.) I guess if you store dozens of WAV files on your device for some reason, you'd have to play with it and see if there are other locations RingTones doesn't use.

I suspect the percentage of the population that does that is so small that I am not even interested in testing this just to know it in case someone asks in the public newsgroups.

Somewhat easier way to install ringtones

reeder.29 @ 10/14/2008 1:43:15 PM #

Once you have copied the ringtones to your SD card, you can install them as ringtones using VFS Exchange (http://selectcam.com/VFSExchange/VFSExchange). This avoids the need to type an arcane URL.

RE: Somewhat easier way to install ringtones

Gekko @ 10/14/2008 3:39:19 PM #

MiniTones v0.1b by Nicolas Pabion

http://software.palminfocenter.com/product.asp?id=11197

adding songs to minitones

hckymom58 @ 10/14/2008 4:42:16 PM #

I know I'm just a dumb blonde, but could someone tell me how to get songs into the minitones download. I have minitones installed on my Centro, but I can't figure out how to get songs into it so that I can cut them down. I don't have internet connection on my phone, I just sync everything from my computer. Do I need a SD card?