ShuffleTone FAQ

Quick answers to some of the more common questions I get :)


How do I set up my ringtones?

For 3.0:
1) Open the application, ShuffleTone
2) Click turn on ShuffleTone; A dialog will appear with 2 options
3) Select either or both options to apply ringtone shuffling to them
4) Click Pick out tones
5) Scroll through the list of ringtones, selecting the ones you like.
--a) Remember, if you have a lot of ringtones, there is a ton of useful features in the Sort Options tray.
----1) You can choose to sort the list however you would like for easy finding of specific ringtones
----2) You can add filters to remove options that you would not like showing up in the list. You can apply as many filters as you would like
--b) Click the ringtone to hear it play.
----1) The ringtone will show up in the top right corner. You can click there to stop it, or to replay it.
6) Click Back & Save in the top left corner
7) Verify that you want to save it to the list you original selected or uncheck both to discard any changes
For Texts:
8) Open up your text messaging app(Messenger, Handcent, Go SMS, etc) and press MENU
9) Click Prefrences
10) Go to the area where it says Notification Settings. Click Change Ringtone
11) Select Default and press OK
12) You should now be done
For calls:
8) You are done...No additional work needs to be done

For 2.0:
1) Open the application, ShuffleTone
2) Swipe left or right, depending on the feature you want to use(ShuffleTone or TextTone Shuffle)
3) Click the on button at the very top of the page
4) Click Choose ringtones
5) Scroll through the list of ringtones, selecting the ones you like.
--a) Remember, if you have a lot of ringtones, there is a ton of useful features in the Sort Options tray.
----1) You can choose to sort the list however you would like for easy finding of specific ringtones
----2) You can add filters to remove options that you would not like showing up in the list.
--b) Press the play button to listen to the ringtone. Press stop to stop it.
6) Slide 'Slide to Accept' drawer, and click OK.
For Texts:
7) Open up your text messaging app(Messenger, Handcent, Go SMS, etc) and press MENU
8) Click Prefrences
9) Go to the area where it says Notification Settings. Click Change Ringtone
10) Select Default and press OK
11) You should now be done
For calls:
7) You are done...No additional work needs to be done

ShuffleTone is working just fine for calls, but doesn't seem to work for texts. What's going on?

When your phone receives a text message(or MMS), it sends out a message to the entire system, saying "A text message has been received". 3rd party developers, as well as Google and other 1st party developers, are capable of listening for this message and reacting to it, such as notifying you that the message has been received. Since the market for 3rd party text messaging app's has become so competitive, the developers have started to employ shady tactics to make sure they are the first to receive this message and then tells the phone to stop broadcasting it to other applications. Since my app also listens for this message, these applications prevent my phone from receiving the message it needs to work properly. ShuffleTone 3.0 fixes this issue, but it will still be prominent if you use the older 2.0 version.

ShuffleTone doesn't seem to play my text tone...What's going on?

You may have forgotten to change your messaging notification sound. You need to go
to your messaging app(Messenger, Handcent SMS, Go SMS Pro, etc) and press MENU->Settings(or Preferences). From here, scroll down to 'Notification Settings' and click 'Change Ringtone.' This should take you to the ringtone picker...Change the ringtone to 'Default.'

For some reason, I am hearing my text ringtone even though I'm not receiving a text

This is simply because the new system uses the default notification, which means any app that uses the default notification will play that ringtone. Before you write this off as a problem, there is a lot of benefits from this system. First off, its fast...way fast. The old ShuffleTone produced a lot of lag, had a terrible time with syncing, and managed a watch for how long to play and when it needs to force stop...All of this is gone with this new system, which means it will automatically play exactly when expected, and will stop when expected(even when you roll down the notification bar).

What about emails? Do you have anything for that?

I have done research on emails, and regret to inform that 'catching' emails isn't possible in the API(due to security reasons). With this new system, you can set up some easy work arounds, however. Go into your email app, and change your ringtone to 'Default', just like your messaging app. Now your email app will always match the current Text Tone, which will shuffle based on your shuffle parameters.

I have personal contact ringtones for calls and/or texts. Will ShuffleTone override these?

No. ShuffleTone only sets the Default Call and Notification ringtone...all personal ringtones will be left intact :) Also, I want to point out that sometimes when you are receiving a phone call from a contact that does have a personal ringtone, you will hear the Default ringtone when your phone is having a hard time refreshing its providers. Its nasty little memory problems that Android runs into, but 99% of the time, this won't be a problem.

I'm sure more questions will come, and I will keep this FAQ up-to-date. If you don't see your question on here, be sure to email me at tydiz936@gmail.com or visit me on Twitter

50 comments:

Anonymous @ January 9, 2010 at 11:30 PM

It was better when u could set how long it the rings would be. Now there to long.

DizWARE @ January 10, 2010 at 3:06 PM

Sorry...I'll see if I can find a way to bring the timing feature back :)

Unknown @ January 12, 2010 at 6:47 AM

I sent you a couple of emails but they get bounced back. My question is this; Is there a way to have certain people in your phone directory with "distinctive" ringtones and not included in the system? I add them and they still go in the loop for shuffle tones. Thanks.

DizWARE @ January 12, 2010 at 8:02 AM

Thanks Steve,
Is this for phone calls or texts?

Unknown @ January 12, 2010 at 8:14 AM

It's for phone calls. Thanks again.

DizWARE @ January 12, 2010 at 9:09 AM

As I mentioned above, your contact ringtones don't get messed with at all, nor is ShuffleTone responsible for playing any of the ringtones. The problem actually arises in Android's memory handling when receiving a phone call. What happens is, the phone says "I need everything related to this phone number" and sends a request for the data within the contact database(which has data, like numbers, emails, and their ringtone). If your phone's memory state is good, this will come out flawlessly. Onscreen data will be displayed and the ringtone will be played. Many times though, the phone is bogged down, probably apps running in background, which causes the phone to not get the data as fast as it needs it, which causes the phone to "fall back" on certain data that it couldn't get back fall enough. One of the data chuncks that this happens with is the ringtone, which is why you are hearing the default ringtone. I recommend trying to find out how many apps are launched when you get a phone call and maybe start shrinking the list to only the ones that are necessary(there are a bunch that react to it, but actually don't use the data that comes out...pretty dumb IMO)

Atreyough @ January 13, 2010 at 2:00 PM

Hey, 1st off thanks for the GR8 app. This may sound like a stupid question, because I think I already no the answer....lol To save a playlist what do you do? I think everytime I go in to select my Texts or calls if I IMMEDIATLEY go into save as playlist and name it and click save this will be the list that I had just checked off, correct? If not could you please post how to save playlists? I think that is one of the most genuis things and it is a huge time saver! Everything about this app (and the old shuffletones 1.6) is wonderful.........IMO
Also this App is FREE!!!!!!!!! WHOPPEEEEE!!!!!!
Thanks again! Missy

DizWARE @ January 13, 2010 at 2:40 PM

You've almost got the right idea...Actually, saving playlists makes a copy of your current list. That way you can go in and change the currently selected ringtones to something different, and not affect a list that you saved. There is no limit of how many you can have(as long as you don't fill up your sd card) and you can load them up at any time.

I will just point out real quick, the ringtones that you set up in your browser are saved in a default file when you press ok, so you don't need to go into the save interface at all unless you plan on changing your current list :)

POLO @ January 18, 2010 at 4:22 PM

Even if I set the lenght of how long I want my ringtone to play, it stills plays the whole song.
And it plays a song for when I plug my phone up, even if I change my settings....
Plz help

DizWARE @ January 18, 2010 at 11:36 PM

Email me POLO...much easier way to communicate :)

Unknown @ January 22, 2010 at 12:57 AM

Yea how do u shortn the song..I keep changing the duration and goin bk into ringers and setting it to default but still plays the whole song..

DizWARE @ January 24, 2010 at 8:38 PM

@Ben
I uploaded an update today that should hopefully fix that issue...let me know if you are still experiencing problems :)

crownedzero @ February 25, 2010 at 8:00 PM

I've tried using this with Handcent ( I love both these apps but the new one doesn't seem to work even tho I have "Default" selected, any ideas?

Anonymous @ March 4, 2010 at 3:30 PM

"Default" isn't an option in my ringtone list;(

Anonymous @ March 4, 2010 at 3:36 PM
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous @ March 4, 2010 at 3:48 PM

Ignore the previous "Default" post: it magically reappeared...strange. Love the app, by the way!

Unknown @ March 4, 2010 at 6:34 PM

Hi there, great app!. One question when I get a text message the selected ringtone plays like it should, however u can't shut it off, for example on phones default ringtone if it rings I can push any button and it will either mute ringtone. Can u help me with this. Thanx.

Unknown @ April 30, 2010 at 7:17 AM

My text tones will not play. I dobt have a default option in my notifications. Plz help..... awseome app if i could figure this out!

Nicole @ June 7, 2010 at 5:07 AM

Maybe I'm an idiot, but I can't figure out how to "save" my ring tones in a playlist. I followed directions, wat am I doing wrong?

DizWARE @ June 8, 2010 at 1:49 PM

Wow...I totally let this comment section get backed up. If you still need help, email me: Tydiz936@gmail.com.

@Domingo
I'm not sure what you mean by turning it off? Are you using the old version of ShuffleTone(this is something that plagued the old version)...Email me :)

@cyreanne
I think you may have gone to the wrong place to set your Default. Open up your Text Messenger app and press MENU -> Settings. Scroll down to Notification Settings and press Change Ringtone. Scroll to the top of the list and click Default. This should set you up correctly.

@Nicole
When you press "OK to accept changes" it automatically saves the playlist for you. No extra work is needed to save the data on your phone. Is there anything that its doing to prove that its not working correctly?

norfeastbeast @ July 11, 2010 at 7:01 AM

This app is perfect but I have an HTC evo and i accidentally assigned ringtones to contacts and I can't seem to default them back to where they are included in my playlist what can I do?

Anonymous @ July 23, 2010 at 4:04 PM

I'm using handcent on a mytouch slider, I selected default in the app settings and it only plays the downloaded default ringer...what am I doing wrong?

Unknown @ August 18, 2010 at 4:03 PM

I Love This App,Friend Sent It To Me,And I Sent It To My Lil Sister : )

Nicole @ August 18, 2010 at 5:51 PM

mention anything about going into the general settings aka settings, sound, notification ringtone but if I am supposed to go in here then I am not sure what to do because there is no default ringtone choice there. There is the "Droid" sound which I am pretty sure is the default, which is why I did choose the "Droid" tone while trying to figure out why my texts were not making noise. Also, when I go into Shuffletone and try to select ringtones for my calls I can not hear them play when I select them and press play. When I selected my ringtones for texts I was able to press play and hear them as I selected them and now while I try to choose ringtones for calls I cannot. They just play a beeping type sound which is one of the sounds the Droid 2 comes with. Please let me know if I am doing anything wrong or if there is a way to fix this and make Shuffletone work.

Nicole @ August 18, 2010 at 5:52 PM

I have Shuffletone 2.0 on the new Droid 2 Android version 2.2 I selected songs for my text shuffle list and now my texts make no noise at all. I went into text messaging, message settings, select ringtone, and chose deafault ringtone. I even went into text messaging, message settings, and chose to restore default settings. Still my texts do not make any sound at all and my phone is not on silent and your text tone shuffeler is on. You did not mention anything about going into the general settings aka settings, sound, notification ringtone but if I am supposed to go in here then I am not sure what to do because there is no default ringtone choice there. There is the "Droid" sound which I am pretty sure is the default, which is why I did choose the "Droid" tone while trying to figure out why my texts were not making noise. Also, when I go into Shuffletone and try to select ringtones for my calls I can not hear them play when I select them and press play. When I selected my ringtones for texts I was able to press play and hear them as I selected them and now while I try to choose ringtones for calls I cannot. They just play a beeping type sound which is one of the sounds the Droid 2 comes with. Please let me know if I am doing anything wrong or if there is a way to fix this and make Shuffletone work.

Anonymous @ August 29, 2010 at 2:05 PM

Sam: Why can't I pick a song file and when some one calls it goes to just a regular ring instead of playing the songs on my play list. It says load playlist I do that and it does not work.

Unknown @ September 26, 2010 at 8:43 PM

I am having the same problem Polo had...now playing a song when I insert charger. Please help me solve this problem

punitenshu @ October 4, 2010 at 11:18 PM

On my Droid X, I have Google Voice and the native texting app set to use the default notification sound, but only the notification tone highlighted under the "Sound" menu in the global settings for the phone is playing.

Is there something specific I'm supposed to select at the global level?

Unknown @ October 8, 2010 at 8:39 PM

i have the exact same problem as nicole here. nothing i do can change the default unless i pick a random song but then it will just play that song and nothing else unless i change it. plz help p.s. love the app but a little peeved at this. I've had it for a while

DizWARE @ October 11, 2010 at 5:34 PM

As I always say, if you are having problems, email me(Tydiz936@gmail.com). Since I can't respond to you directly from here, its hard for me to give you any help that is useful and guaranteed to get to you directly. This goes for everyone who needs help here.

Unknown @ November 17, 2010 at 8:45 AM

I set it for my ringtone to stop after 30 seconds but it still plays the whole song wen I get a txt. is there a fix for this?

Toyer @ November 18, 2010 at 4:16 PM

Fantastic App! -Two comments regarding settings/filters. 1)when the screen turns off based on my settings, ShuffleTone resumes at the menu with all unsaved activity gone, despite my having not ever actually closed it or backing out. Not a big deal unless you're 3/4 done checking off a few hundred out of a few thousand songs 2)saving settings backs you all the way out to the menu also. This is fine if the saving of settings would also save current filter selections. It's not easy to do a quick 'safety save' and resume activity in a filtered and sorted list if the filter and sort gets reset. Anyway, small items, just for thought. Thanks for investing all of these hours into this project!

Anonymous @ December 9, 2010 at 11:40 AM

I loved this app when I had it on my Hero but now that I've upgraded to the EVO I can't get it to work!!! Is anyone else who has the EVO experiencing this? I've e-mailed the apps developer on this and we havn't gotten this resolved. I was wondering if anyone else had any ideas b/c I'd really loveeeeeeeeee for this app to be operable on my EVO

Anonymous @ December 9, 2010 at 11:45 AM

@cyreanne Did changing your notification to default in your text messaging app fix your issue? I tried it that way and it didn't correct mine.

Unknown @ December 10, 2010 at 9:48 PM

Thank u so much this app is awsome I have droox x and I can't seem to find default in my ringtones do u know what im doing wrong??

Anonymous @ December 20, 2010 at 12:39 PM

Even with my volume setting on high, my texttones are really low. How do adjust the volume?

Anonymous @ January 21, 2011 at 5:00 PM

Is it possible to shuffle notifications individually from ringtones?

Anonymous @ February 17, 2011 at 11:02 AM

Hey i did everything your app said to do and i get nothing, no ringtone what so ever????

anna @ March 20, 2011 at 6:11 PM

I have an HTC evo 4g and the limit time play function for the text shuffler doesn't work !!! Please help !!!

Anonymous @ March 22, 2011 at 8:57 PM

How do I delete once I don't want anymore

Unknown @ May 9, 2011 at 5:09 PM

Hi.this app was working fine now it want shuffle my text and email please help I love this app.

Anonymous @ July 3, 2011 at 11:33 AM

It seems only the Ringtones part works, not the text. Although I did get it to work once, but I can't remember what I did.

Anonymous @ July 7, 2011 at 9:51 AM

@Anonymous, I have the same problem. I switched providers so I now have the Samsung Boost Mobile Andriod 2.2, for calls it's random and it works great, however for text it keeps playing the same song. I used this program for sometime even on my touch but now I can't figure out how to make my text tones shuffle

Nick @ August 9, 2011 at 7:29 PM

I want to know if your application works on go SMS cause when I had handcent it worked but dont well now do u know y

Unknown @ February 3, 2013 at 4:23 AM

Rrrr

Mister_Tesseract @ February 22, 2013 at 2:41 AM

ShuffleTone works fine for texts for me but not for calls. I just have the default call sound. Sometimes it works though. Is there something I did wrong ?

Unknown @ May 29, 2013 at 8:29 AM

My text is only playing 1 ringtone. How can I fix it?

Anonymous @ June 12, 2014 at 1:01 PM

my text tones are randomizing perfectly. i just cant get my call tones to do the same. help please

Unknown @ June 18, 2014 at 11:40 AM

My Shuffletones seems to work under the debugger (shows that the notification tone changes every time I click on "Run Shuffle Test"), but it doesn't even use the list of ringtones that I provide.

I use Chomp SMS and have the notifcations set to default. It does not use ShuffleTones v3.0 properly. Is there a compatibility issue with Chomp and Shuffletones?

Kaz Vorpal @ April 8, 2015 at 7:11 AM

How do I change the directory (folder) where Shuffletone looks for ringtones?

Before my phone upgraded itself to Jellybean, Shuffletone seemed to find all of my music, including on my SD card, but now it only looks in the Ringtones folder, and I don't want to have to duplicate tons of music in that place.