Problem setting custom notification sound (alarm, sms, ringtone) in Android N (7.0)

[tatsujin1]

edit: darn it, this message was supposed to be in the "Xperia X Compact" forum, because that's my phone model.

I don't really know if anything significant changed in my phone, but since yesterday my previously set custom alarm sounds are gone. And I can't set new ones.

First off, I want to use my own custom mp3 for this, not anything that comes bundled with the phone or anything that any installed app provides; a simple mp3 file copied to my phone. This was working fine until yesterday. I remember it was tricky when I first got the phone, but can't quite remember what did the trick then. I did this, however, before the phone got upgraded to Android 7.

Now to the actual problem: Since yesterday, my default alarm sound and the ones I set specifically for some different alarm presets no longer work. If I check the alarm preset it says under "Alarm Sound: Default ringtone (212)". On another preset it says "Alarm Sound: 209". Naturally they don't work. If I tap that setting, the normal "Alarm sound" list of radio buttons appear where it's possible to select the sound to use, only that none of the buttons are actually selected, and my sound isn't in the list. Also, pressing the large "+" in the top right corner here (which I assume is the official method to add custom sounds) just shows a white screen "No content available".

The behaviour is essentially the same if I go to phone settings->Sound and try to change the "Default alarm ringtone". The current setting is displayed here as "Unknown ringtone", tapping it shows the same radio button list (nothing selected, none of my custom sounds, "+" does nothing useful).

Perhaps I should mention that changing the setting works, but it will of course not be the desired setting.

Ideas?

At the same time I also started to experience this problem: /t5/Xperia-Z3/Camera-failed-operation/td-p/1027974.

PS. I specifically mentioned only alarm sound here, but this problem is the exact same for all notification sounds.

[tatsujin1]

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Yeah, it will do that, sorry I should have mentioned it.  

No problem, it was expected.

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Do you have the same issue in safe mode?

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Yeah, it is the same. I tried this when I read it in the above-linked camera issue thread.

[CameronT]

@tatsujin1,

If it's the same in safemode it may be something with the firmware. Try running a software repair using Xperia Companion.

[tatsujin1]

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If it's the same in safemode it may be something with the firmware. Try running a software repair using Xperia Companion.

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Yes, it seems that all that remains is a "janitor reset". However, a bit tricky as I don't normally use windows (or mac)... must first find a eligible windows machine...

[CameronT]

@tatsujin1, If you're on a linux system you can do it in a virtual machine, but unfortunately it is only available for Windows and Mac.

[tatsujin1]

Yeah, that's what I was intending, however work got in the way...

On a positive note, the camera problem that I started having at the same time as this, has magically repaired itself!

[thboileau]

hello tatsujin1

your message is quite old now, I don't know if you were able to fix it.

Here is how I fixed it.

I've just put the files in the /Alarms, /Ringtones and /Notifications directories of the internal storage.

Once done, I was able to configure properly the sounds parameters.

My issue is that I was unable to copy files in these directories using the  official "Android file transfer" application (on Mac). But it's possible to copy them into the "Downloads" directory.

Once done, I installed a "file manager" app on my smartphone (I use the one developed By Asus) which gives me the ability to copy files  from any directory of the phone to another one.

[tatsujin1 · Accepted solution]

Actually, I haven't tried it for a long time.

But I tried it now (like a major Android version update, and then some, later), and now it works! Tapping the "+" now actually shows a file-browser-thingy that allows me to select stuff.

So I guess we can mark this as "solved", kind of