Custom Ringtones for the Samsung Trance (SCH-U490)

Submitted by nwellcome on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 13:28

Samsung TranceWhen your two year contract with Verizon is up they offer you a new phone at a steep discount (usually free) as incentive to renew. Rather than go through the hassle of switching carriers I re-accepted the Verizon shackles (vowing to do something about it this time) and selected a Samsung Trance. The Trance is a music phone meaning it has better audio quality than a normal phone but not quite the audio quality you'd expect from a dedicated DAP. The great thing about it that it has a 3.5mm jack and a MicroSD slot for a theoritcal 32Gb of through-regular-headphones music. The bad news is the mediocre sound quality, the flimsy battery cover and the flaky battery life. Regardless, getting music on with Windows 7 is a breeze, it shows up as an external storage device and you just drop music into the my_music folder, end of story. However, if you know Verizon you know that putting ringtones on is another story. So don your TOS violating, warranty voiding hats, it's time to do some customizing.

DISCLAIMER: Using QPST to mess with your phone is a great way to turn it into fancy little paperweight. Do not do this if you have any misgivings about bricking your phone.

Software you need:

  • Windows XP of Windows 7 Professional with XP Mode, I have not got it to work otherwise
  • Samsung USB Driver (MCCI 4.34) WHQL v3.0.zip
  • Qualcomm Product Support Tools (QPST) v.2.7.323
  • Audacity (Or any audio editor)
  • LAME (To encode the audio as mp3s using Audacity)


    • Steps

    1. Install the Samsung drivers, restart the computer and then install QPST.
    2. Set the phone to connect as a modem by going to Settings & Tools and inputting * # 000000 OK > 2. Port Map > 4. USB (MTP,MS) > 4. Modem > OK
    3. Connect the phone to computer with the USB connector.
    4. Open up "QPST Configuration" and click "Add New Port..." to add the "USB/QC Diagnostic" port you see, mine was COM 6.

      step 4a

      step 4b

      step 4c
    5. Go to "Start Clients" > "EFS Explorer" - this is the tool you use to transfer files, you will have to select you phone and click "OK".

      step 5a

      step 5b

      step 5c
    6. Navigate to /brew/mod/mr and use File>New>File... to add mp3s to this directory

      step 6a

      step 6b
    7. Disconnect and reboot the phone, also close QPST because it may not connect again until it is restarted.
    8. Go back to /brew/mod/mr and copy MrInfo.db to the computer.
    9. Edit MrInfo.db with a text editor and be careful not to mess up hidden characters (like spaces linebreaks), you'll see the files listed as file|0|X, change X to 8 for each of the files. It is helpful to use something like Notepad++ instead of just notepad, because notepad does not understand the linebreaks.
    10. Transfer MrInfo.db back to the phone, disconnect and reboot it again and you're done!

    Now you'll want to set the USB mode back to MTP so you can transfer files normally. You should be aware that there are limits on the size and duration of ringtones, but I don't know what they are. I've been able to use 30 second 320kbps mp3s without issue, in fact they sound great (for ringtones). Also keep in mind that this tutorial is for Windows XP, I haven't tried it in any other operating system yet.


    Sources:

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