Ringtone/Notification options besides default disappeared

[gafzini]

Rooted Moto Droid

I have a lot of different ringtones/notifications/sound effects on my sdcard. The other morning I was checking out an app called "Sound Effects" by Life Mobile (avoid this one). After listening to some of the sounds I saved a few as notification sounds (mp3 format) Now, when I go into settings/sound to select a ringtone or notification it only shows me the default sounds and the couple that I saved from that app. This happens in both the default settings/sound and another app called Announcifiy.

I uninstalled the Sound Effects app and deleted all of the mp3s that it saved. Now the names of the mp3s still show up in the ringtone choose menu (along with default sounds), but they do not play obviously. It seems like this app altered the phone's search path for ringtones and notification sounds.

My sounds on the SDcard are still good, I can play them when browsing thru it with es file explorer with the es media player or google play music.

Oddly, if I go into the goole Play Music app and try to play my sound effects from the SDcard it gives me an error "couldn't play the track you requested"

Any ideas?

Yes I have my sound effects in the correct folders in my SD card... its been working flawlessly until installing the Sound Effects app.

 

[jerofld]

I would recommend you copy everything off your SD card and then format it. Then move stuff back over, piece by piece. It's probably something in the /android/ directory, though.

 

[gafzini]

I would recommend you copy everything off your SD card and then format it. Then move stuff back over, piece by piece. It's probably something in the /android/ directory, though.

I was thinking of doing that. Curiously, I checked it randomly later in the day and all of my sdcard sound effects magically showed up again. However, the deleted mp3 files i created from the Sound Effects app were still showing up as well. It must be some cache SOMEWHERE. So I rebooted the phone to see if those would go away, and BAM back to the original problem.

So why did my sdcard sounds show up mysteriously hours later and then disappear again after a reboot? I feel like a drunk playing whack-a-mole

Any ideas?

 

[gafzini]

Here's a screenshot of the Ringtones drop-down menu when its broken (image 1) and working (image 2)...

 

[jerofld]

I would try backing up the SD card and then formatting it, then just copy over your audio files. This will establish if it's something on the SD card or on the phone. If everything works the way it should with just the sound files on the SD card, then be careful in moving stuff back over. If it's still screwed up, you may have to factory reset.

 

[gafzini]

I would try backing up the SD card and then formatting it, then just copy over your audio files. This will establish if it's something on the SD card or on the phone. If everything works the way it should with just the sound files on the SD card, then be careful in moving stuff back over. If it's still screwed up, you may have to factory reset.

I will prolly do that. What bugs me is that after removing the Sound Effects app and deleting all of the mp3 files i saved from it on the sdcard, those files still show up in the ringtone drop-down menu "Sound Effetcs Notification ##" etc.

For kicks, i powered the phone off and removed the sdcard and rebooted. When i go into the ringtone menu... "Sound Effetcs Notification ##" still shows up in the list. They don't play because the actual mp3 files were deleted from my sdcard but they show up in the list. Where is this menu reading the available files from? The sdcard isn't in the phone so it's cached in the phone somewhere else. Pissing me off.

 

[jerofld]

If you're rooted, you can get a root explorer app (like ES File Explorer) and look in the /data/lost+found directory.

If it's not there (or you're not rooted) a factory reset will likely fix your issue. But that will wipe out all your data, settings, etc.