Step One to “Ringtone Freedom”
Get your phone equipped with a microSD card.
Hook phone to computer with USB cable (should be Windows-Linux is possible but not specific to this tutorial).
Create a folder in the microSD storage labeled something like “Ringtones” (can be accessed through “My Computer”).
Create a temporary folder on your desktop labeled something like “Ringtones”, which is where we will put the finished products of this process until we transfer it all to your phone.
Step Two to “Ringtone Freedom”
Download and install “Format Factory”
This will allow us to convert our “.mp3” ringtones to a uniform state.
Step Three to “Ringtone Freedom”
Visit the website Audiko – It is completely FREE – No hidden “catch” (so far, so good)
I recommend creating an account so that you can save a library of your ringtones. Unlike some, Audiko does not ask for your phone number at all (I somehow feel safer about this). HOWEVER, you can use all the site features without registering at all.
Audiko is stellar for two reasons:
First-You can upload any of your own music from your computer/phone/other storage devices and use their super easy (compared to other’s out there) ringtone creator. If you have an account, the ringtone will be saved. Otherwise its a one time shot. MAKE SURE that you download the non-Iphone version (which translates into the.mp3 version) and make sure you download it to your COMPUTER (remember that temporary folder we made in “Step One” on the desktop).
Second-You can search their entire library of popular music ringtones and download them (if you do not have an account) or save them to your account library to download now or later. Our ultimate goal, however, is to get some tester tones downloaded to our temporary folder on the desktop. Pick three and try making say, one or two of your own.
Step Four to “Ringtone Freedom”
At this point, I assume that we have a few tester tones in the temporary folder on the desktop (see “Step One”) and that we have downloaded and installed Format Factory.
Open Format Factory and our temporary desktop folder-Size the windows so it is comfortable to see both of them side by side.
“Drag and Drop” our tester mp3s into the empty list area of Format Factory.
A prompt will appear asking what you want to convert our tester files to. You will choose “all to mp3”. Yes, we are converting “mp3s” to “mp3s”. The point is to make them all uniform and, for reasons unknown to me at this point, it just makes them work with this process better and more accurately.
Now, press start.
When finished, click on the “output folder” icon in the top right corner to open the location of your new mp3s.
We are now done with Format Factory, and it may be closed.
Step Five to “Ringtone Freedom”
In our temporary desktop folder, create a new folder titled something like “Converted”. Relocated all the original testers in to that folder.
Take the converted files (remember the “Output Folder”), and place them in the temporary desktop folder. This keeps everything together and better organized.
Now, the next step is CRUCIAL. We will rename the file extensions from “.mp3” to “.3g2”
IMPORTANT: Your computer will throw a fit. It will ask you each time you rename the file extension whether you really want to do this because the file may become unusable (on the PC, yes, but on your LG Rumor Touch (Sprint or Virgin Mobile), NO).
ADVANCED NOTE: For those of you who are grumbling to yourself about having to rename files yourself one by one, I recommend downloading “File Renamer Basic”. I use it, and it works fast and easy. Of course, it is also free!
Step Six to “Ringtone Freedom”
We are on the home stretch-Hang in there!
At this point, we should have closed out Format Factory, renamed our converted mp3s to 3g2 file extension, and preserved our original testers in another folder.
We also still have our phone connected to the computer through USB.
On the computer, go to “My Computer” and navigate to the “Mass Storage” device (aka, our microSD card) to bring up the folder “Ringtones” (see “Step One”) we made earlier.
Drag and Drop the converted and renamed ringtone files from the desktop folder to the folder on the microSD card.
When the transfer is finished, you may close all the windows and disconnect your phone from the PC.
Step Seven to “Ringtone Freedom” (Last One)
At this point, I assume that you have knowledge of how to navigate the various features and settings of the LG Rumor Touch (Sprint or Virgin Mobile).
On your phone, access “Mass
Manager”——->”Your Ringtone Folder”
Once in your “Ringtone” folder, our first step is to TEST that the phone will play the ringtone, which by the way, the phone reads as a “Video Ringtone”.
Press one of your finished tones and try to play it. If it plays, we are in business. If not, something went wrong and you may want to repeat this process until you get a file that does play.
Assuming that the tone played, <—-arrow back to the regular file manager list of your finished tones. Select MORE in the bottom right corner, and from that list, select COPY MULTIPLE. Press (my phone highlights them in red) any that you want to test (one is enough for the first go).
Select COPY TO IN PHONE from the bottom left of the screen once you’ve decided which tone to try first. Unfortunately, the phone renames the file when it moves it from the microSD card to the phone memory. If it copies fine, then move on to the next steps. If not, try another one of your testers, and if they also do not copy, you may need to go back through the process again.
Now that we’ve copied our ringtone to our phone, it may be assigned from the category “My Videos” when choosing a unique tone for a contact or when setting ringer settings for the whole phone.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you decide that you want to delete a tone you’ve copied to your phone for space reasons, go to PHOTOS + VIDEOS——>MY PHOTOS + VIDEOS—–IN PHONE——>VIEW—–>MEDIA FILTER——->Videos. You can delete from here. You may also rename files here too (remember the phone changes the original file name when copied…)