MP3 Ringtones on the Sidekick 3
UPDATE: While there’s still no support for mp3 ringtones on the Sidekick 3, you CAN add mp3 ringtones to the new Sidekick LX 2009! You can download Sidekick friendly ringtones for the Sidekick LX 2009 over at Skringers.com
So everyone is clamoring for the ability to set MP3 ringtones. Let us start by saying, “Not gonna happen” (well at least not this way). Here’s the original info that was floating around the net (Don’t bother trying, it doesn’t work):
Hello everyone! My name is Melissa Trepan, and as well as working for Random House Canada, I am a software technician for Research In Motion (RIM), makers of the Blackberry family. Being in the handheld device “industry”, I’m very interested in my field of work, and after visiting New York City last week, I’m very interested by the T-Mobile Sidekick 3. I understand that many of you have complaints about MP3 files for the player. sonicBOOM, not being ‘transferable’ into the ring tone application on your Sidekick 3. Working with Blackberry’s latest 8700 series, I’ve been trained to have a feel for the whole MP3 file transfer, as it was implemented on our newest devices.
Well, enough of the long intro! Let’s get started!
What you’ll need to begin:
Your T-Mobile Sidekick 3 (fully charged, ready to go)
A working USB cable designed for the Sidekick 3.
An hour or more to get this done.
Unlike the Blackberry 7290/8700/07), after inspecting the OS COD. files, it’s got what we call at RIM, a “ventilation” file, which is blocking the transfer of mp3 files from your sonicBOOM/MiniSD, to the actual hardware of the Sidekick 3 – keep in mind, that all of your MP3s aren’t actually “ON” your Sidekick, they’re just temporarily there, and housed by your SD card.
The “ventilation” file is known as VENDOR.XML , and is (almost) encrypted into the device – this is something that Danger obviously does not understand, because the VENDOR.XML is on the Sidekick 2/Hiptop 2 as well. Throughout the rest of this tutorial, I will refer to that file as Vendor.
The Vendor file is completely pointless (other than blocking out certain options). This file HAS to be deleted in order to transfer files to your Sidekick 3. If you have a blackberry, you may know what I’m talking about. Often on blackberries, the system will crash to a “JVM” error, most commonly errors 102, 103, 507 and 544. To fix this on a blackberry, the Vendor file must be removed as well.
Lets get deleting! Now, you’re going to need a device that is specifically designed for Blackberry devices, Blackberry JDE Component Package v4.1.0 by Research In Motion. This is also known as Javaloader. This is not designed for the Sidekick, but it will work. This can be downloaded at http://www.blackberry.com/developers/downloads/jde/index.shtml , click the first option, Blackberry Java Development Environment v4.1 .
Once downloaded, you will be prompted to install the software to your computer.
Now, the satisfying part – lets delete Vendor! If you chose to run JDE upon finishing the download, close it now. Click the following on a Windows operated PC:
Start>All Programs>Research In Motion>Blackberry JDE Component Package v4.1.0>JDE Components Commands Prompt.
You’ve just opened the Command Prompt, kind of like a DOS Prompt that some of you may be familiar with. For those of you that are a little intimidated by it’s look and feel, don’t worry, this is simple. What we’re going to do now is tell the prompter that we want to delete all ventilation files (there’s only one, Vendor). We’re going to do this by simply typing in the following:
Javaloader -usb wipe
This is going to wipe the ventilation file on your device clean, i.e., no more Vendor.
Press enter.
You’ll notice the Sidekick 3 and computer communicating. Don’t worry, you’ve done everything right so far.
Now, we’re going to need to download the Blackberry Desktop Manager, which is also compatible with most handheld devices. We can get this through the T-Mobile SE site, http://software.se.t-mobile.com/ . Scroll down until you see “8700g”, and download the Desktop Manager version 4.1.1.12. You will be redirected to www.T-Mobileapps.com where you will be prompted to download.
Once downloaded, close and restart. Now, click Options>Connection settings>select USB>Connect.
Once connected, minimize.
You’re almost done! Now you’re going to transfer your MP3 files to your Sidekick 3. We downloaded 3 files from a file share program called BearShare (this is not required, it’s used to download music etc). Save the selected MP3 files to My Documents. Make sure that they are MP3 files.
Now, back to Blackberry Desktop Manager. Click on Application loader. You should get a message saying that no additional software was found. This means that you need to scan manually for your files. Go to Add. From My Documents, select the MP3 files you wish to transfer. Click next, and voila! When we tested this, we tried to transfer 40 MP3 files to the Sidekick, and only 32 transferred due to space restrictions. You may want to delete some of your default Sidekick 3 ringers to make space, if you need it.
Disconnect your Sidekick 3 from the USB cable.
The selected files should appear in your Ring tone library in a name format like the files we transferred, which appeared as “SKI_Jealousy_Paris_Hilton”, which is “Jealousy” by Paris Hilton. After setting this as your phone’s ringer, you’re DONE!
This process takes a while, but once completed once, it should take you only a few seconds to transfer additional files.
Now there’s something you don’t learn at Danger High! Good luck! Happy transferring!
And here’s the word from appletech as posted on the hiptop.com forums:
Just a little note to yall that the recently posted MP3/Ringtone “hack” thing is nothing more than an elaborate prank by a troller to get your hopes up and waste time.
There’s absolutely no way the trick will load an mp3 on the device. The procedure won’t even work on a blackberry. The vendor.XML file is a PC-side file not a device side. There’s nothing we can find at all with respect to the term “ventilation” and a blackberry, and that javaloader cmd will indeed wipe a blackberry device but the tool won’t talk to an Sidekick at all.
The good news you won’t brick your device trying to do so. We’ll keep banging away at the app to make sure though because if you do manage to screw up your device with this “hack”, Tmobile won’t replace your device and you’ll be out a few hundred dollars.
But its a good way to make someone kill 3 hours trying
Does this randomhouse person really work for RIM? I doubt it. Looks more like a recently banned user, kickside2, who attempted to start a bashappletech website. His/her blogger profile ID even was “RIM!”, the company randomhouse claims to work for. Coincidence? I think not.
And why would a RIM software tech work for a book publishing company (Random house Publishing) anyway?
So again folks, don’t waste your time. Nothing good, or bad, will come from this little prank…only a few hours of wasted time.
July 12th, 2006 at 5:45 pm [ Quote ]
first
July 12th, 2006 at 6:06 pm [ Quote ]
2nd
July 12th, 2006 at 6:13 pm [ Quote ]
damn so dat gurl was realllly bored i wouldnt do dat in my life waste alllll dat time dangg omg wellll now u no
July 12th, 2006 at 6:45 pm [ Quote ]
well that was a waste of braincells reading.. lol
July 13th, 2006 at 12:34 pm [ Quote ]
so did anyone try it?
July 13th, 2006 at 2:50 pm [ Quote ]
hmmm -_-” I feel like trying this but reallly risky we need some noob who’s willing to do this xDD
July 13th, 2006 at 6:37 pm [ Quote ]
hey it works
July 13th, 2006 at 7:53 pm [ Quote ]
it works? r u seirously?
July 13th, 2006 at 8:10 pm [ Quote ]
hey don’t lie!! I think he’s lieing -_-’” he wants “us” to kill our sk3s……
July 14th, 2006 at 11:32 am [ Quote ]
well nothing has been wrong with my sk since yesterday. so i’m sure everything is fine
July 14th, 2006 at 11:41 am [ Quote ]
So does your mp3’s work as ringtones now?
July 14th, 2006 at 2:02 pm [ Quote ]
it does void the warrenty and the right to customer care…. if anyone cares.. lol
August 22nd, 2006 at 9:10 pm [ Quote ]
sweet it does work!!!!!
October 12th, 2006 at 3:01 am [ Quote ]
ok can some1 tell me how this works in ENGLISH? n step by step instructions?
October 25th, 2006 at 9:25 pm [ Quote ]
I have a Sidekick 3. And i did all the steps right up until i’m suppose to type “Javaloader -usb wipe”. i keep doing that but im getting an “error during open” message (screenie link: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/Geminus/Untitled-1-1.jpg). If anybody have done this successfully and willing to help me. please e-mail me @ yinyang025@msn.com
January 19th, 2007 at 7:28 pm [ Quote ]
I guess Im kinda late to this site, but does that really work? Cross your heart and hope to die.
April 15th, 2007 at 3:50 pm [ Quote ]
doesnt sound too trustworthy…stop being cheap ******* and buy your ringtones.
April 18th, 2007 at 4:25 pm [ Quote ]
It’s not about being cheap. When you can make your own, you can get ringtones that aren’t in the catalog, and you can pick the length and the part of the song you want. But saving money is important too!!!
oh yeah, I know it’s been asked, but does it really work, and if so who has done it and hasn’t had a problem after at least a month of doing it?
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:49 am [ Quote ]
i also keep getting that error that comes up while i try tryping “Javaloader -usb wipe” does anyone know why that keeps comming up. please send me a message. euroaddiktion@sbcglobal.net
July 8th, 2007 at 5:38 pm [ Quote ]
I need help. Everything worked fine until I got to the connection on the Desktop Manager. I connect my SD3 in the computer via usb and when I click detect, it says device not found.
Please Help…Thanks
August 30th, 2007 at 8:45 am [ Quote ]
man this is all so hard and i also get that error with the “Javaloader -usb wipe” plus i cant get the same verson for the blackberry desktop manager thingy i know im kinda late here but i hope yall can send me an install/setup.exe of the blackberry or help me with the “javaloader -usb wipe” my email adress is waranimal@hotmail.com, Thanks.
September 14th, 2007 at 7:04 pm [ Quote ]
wait can u download full ringtones on a sk3?
September 14th, 2007 at 7:04 pm [ Quote ]
weirdness im so confuzzzld but i get mah sk3 bak tomorrow!!!
November 27th, 2007 at 1:57 am [ Quote ]
This may come kind of late, but I just found this thread… I have to agree with this AppleTech guy… The trick won’t work. The RIM desktop interface won’t even recognize your SK. They have completely different OS’s and the Danger OS won’t use an MP3 as a ringtone unless it’s “Media Rights Managed” or something like that… It basically ensures that people pay for the music. This way T-Mobile gets a cut and so does the record company, and so on… I’m also not sure that a SK will use an MP3 file from the memory card as a ringer, but I’ll look into that. I’m thinking too that there would probably be a size issue with a standard MP3 file… I had a similar problem with a SonyEricsson w810, but sony has software that allows you to alter the file and make it work. As far as voiding your warantee goes… The only thing I can think of that will void that is liquid or physical damage, anything else just looks like a software problem…
August 10th, 2008 at 2:38 am [ Quote ]
Does not work sidekick does not work now #$#*
August 24th, 2008 at 5:00 pm [ Quote ]
Appletech is an ***. He works for Danger, therefore, his statements are ignorant and biased.
I believe this could work…why else would pancake boy have his panties in a bunch over it? I already have my lx doing things it shouldn’t be able to do, according to Snappletech…including running all kinds of home brew apps….and I don’t need a dev key either. Danger, eat your hearts out!
August 25th, 2008 at 9:00 pm [ Quote ]
i spent hours trying that **** and the command prompt shows up and disappears. it dont even work. what am i supposed to do to get the ringtones on my sidekick
September 25th, 2008 at 11:34 pm [ Quote ]
Okay… I can’t stand by and watch everyone here destroy their SK (if someone manages to wipe their card via usb) amd void their warranty over nothing.
This person who works at “RIM” and the “vendor” files are all just a hoax. Are you guys not reading the article? The posters that said it works are only playing along to fool the gullible.
If you still believe that it works after reading the article, I feel very sorry for you…
September 27th, 2008 at 8:32 pm [ Quote ]
Uh. Dumbasses this is a prank. Um and tmobile I would like to congradulate you on your ******* award. What is a phone without a custom tone? The sidekick stands for creativity and uniqueness… now its very contradicting when we all have to download the same lil wayne and ms spears ringtones. I like underground artists better anyway. I wouldn’t mind paying for ringtones that I actually want. Tmobile would be smart to make a site where you can upload ringtones and download them to your kick for a small fee. Dumbasses.
October 14th, 2008 at 3:10 am [ Quote ]
lmfno. this is sooo #*(%!>{ funny, omg laughing, stomache, hurting, tears lol
November 1st, 2008 at 9:49 am [ Quote ]
how put game in the sidekick lx
November 1st, 2008 at 9:49 am [ Quote ]
?
November 16th, 2008 at 6:29 pm [ Quote ]
you all suck at life ur just free loaders trying to get free ringtones for your phone why dont you just pay for them. haha jk i want free ringtones too cuz the cataloges suck
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:50 pm [ Quote ]
Ahh
I just got a sidekick today and my problem isn’t being cheap or anything about catalog songs, actually, I bought a song for like 3 dollars off the catalog [sidekick08] and the thing is, I can’t even set that as my incoming ringtone. Either there’s no option for that or im truly handicapped when it comes to things like this. Anyone care to help me?
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:52 pm [ Quote ]
Ahh
I just got a sidekick today and my problem isn’t being cheap or anything about catalog songs, actually, I bought a song for like 3 dollars off the catalog [sidekick08] and the thing is, I can’t even set that as my incoming ringtone. Either there’s no option for that or im truly handicapped when it comes to things like this. Anyone care to help me?
December 18th, 2008 at 4:24 pm [ Quote ]
I think T-Mobile is *%#@%$ up for not letting people set custom ringtones on the SK3…..and not because i’m cheap i’ve bought plenty from the catalog, but the thing is I like unedited music for one. And secondly every body else on the plant with a cheap phone can have a custom ringtone that you might not hear anywhere else……oh but not us with the SK3 we pay good money for a nice phone and the selling point for the phone is “customization” well guess what if you hear something on someone elses SK3 just go the the damn catalog and get it…….*%@# T-Mobile. They could at least tell you up front when you go to order the damn thing “Hey you do know that you can’t use custom ringtones right?” so we could have told them to stick there expensive phone in there @$$.
December 21st, 2008 at 2:39 pm [ Quote ]
Wow, too many ignorant 13 year olds on the internet nowadays
January 4th, 2009 at 8:27 pm [ Quote ]
Well there is this site called funformobile.com u can go to that site and type in any song and it send the ringtone,wall paper,background,game ect…all for total free.and it sends it immediatly.the only problem is is if ur on the minute plan it won’t work.but every other plan DOES work.Hope i helped.duece duece my nigs.
January 16th, 2009 at 2:23 am [ Quote ]
Don’t try that it looks really fake and stuff.. I’ve had a sidekick for as long as I can remember and its not possible to do it.. I made so ringtones for my friends blackberry and they really worked.. I think I’m going to upgrade my phone next month to a blackberry.. You all should too..
January 22nd, 2009 at 12:26 am [ Quote ]
my goodness how *** is the sk3! i just brought a new unlocked one on ebay the other day! and i cant even get a freakin stable connection or reception! making matters worse all the FREE defult ringtones are ***! like whats the point in having a mp3 player on a phone if you cant even use the mp3s as ringtones? like WTF were sharp thinkn! all the other cheeper more mainstream phones can! DONT by a sk3. it suck! i’m gona extange mine! thats how pissed i am with it =]
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:13 am [ Quote ]
arhhh s h i t !… I’m from Australia and I just brought to Phone on ebay from the states, and I’m still awaiting for it to be delivered to me. I was soo excited because my sidekick 3 is coming too me very soonn.. But now I realised you can’t use your own very custom ringtones (mp3’s) as your default ringtone on the sidekick 3, Wow.. That really SUCKS!!! What a piece of S H I T! Well I hope the phone looks good, I hope it blows me away when I receive it.. Well if not, good bye sidekick 3, you were worth the waitt.. x]
January 26th, 2009 at 1:24 pm [ Quote ]
People who are saying “pay for your ringtones!” and **** like that, really need to get their heads out of their asses. First off, who the **** are you to make your petty *** statements to the rest of the sidekick owning world? I seriously would LOVE to line all you ******* up in a str8 line and CHAMPION PUNCH all you smug phuks. You have some phuking nerve. I cannot speak for the rest of the world wide DISSAPOINTED SIDEKICK OWNERS, but I can tell you that I bought my Sidekick 2008, “Gecko” phone with a “jail term”, two year contract from tmobile, not on ebay. Not stolen, and not unlocked from some random corner of the globe. I EXPECT, NOT HOPE, EXPECTED for the ridiculous price I payed for this phone (that doesn’t even nearly equate to manufacturing costs, which =Danger inc. And T-mobile to money grubbing THIEVES) to at the very LEAST be able to download a ******* mp3 which I OWN after having purchased it legally, to my OWN phone that I also OWN, and use it as a ringtone. How scandalous are you corporations?? SHAME ON YOU!! You have sold millions of units and haven’t included something so simple that is nealry one of the ONLY basic wants EVERY phone owner deserves and wants!! You even had the blatant theivery to require owners to DOWNLOAD basic applications that come standard on EVERY PHONE, like the alarm clock, what kind of shameful corporation created this phone?!?!
I paid 300+ dollars at T-mobile and they didn’t even include a phone holder for the phone for such an outrageous cost, I had to buy that SEPERATELY! What nerve you have Danger Inc., **** you, from Audioinklined@sbcglobal.net, and you need to IMMEDIATELY create a free application that fixes this problem, among the others that stream through this *****-*** phone. THE CUSTOMERS/CONSUMERS DEMAND IT!!!!!!!!! I should have never wasted a dime on this absolute
PIECE-OF-****-PHONE. YOU are the cheating cheapskates, cheap, fat and greedy. If ANYONE has a problem with a single-word I have written or agrees, hit me up and say what’s up, speak your piece, I did, **** what the haters think. This is my phone, I should able to do whatever I want to do with it. SHAME ON YOU DANGER INC. AND T-MOBILE FOR SELLING THEIR HALF-ASSED “PHONE”. Release the application to fix this HUGE problem plauging all your phone owners.
February 2nd, 2009 at 5:47 pm [ Quote ]
worked for me…
February 4th, 2009 at 8:32 pm [ Quote ]
I like Pie
February 26th, 2009 at 4:17 pm [ Quote ]
Hey all, just letting you know to go to myxer.com to download free ringtones. Been using it a year now. No problems…oh and why in the f*** don’t the USB work? My computer doesn’t recognize it I guess…just a beep. Email me, foundagain2006@yahoo.com
March 19th, 2009 at 10:52 am [ Quote ]
DEE YOU’RE OBVIOUSLY NOT A SK OWNER! IT DOESN’T WORK! WE’VE BEEN THROUGH THIS PLENTY OF TIMES.
March 20th, 2009 at 10:39 am [ Quote ]
I HATE HATE HATE my sidekick III. I would NEVER recommend anyone buy it. Seriously.
March 21st, 2009 at 10:55 am [ Quote ]
I really hate Lil Wayne!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 21st, 2009 at 12:50 pm [ Quote ]
lol.Wayne a hog
March 21st, 2009 at 1:43 pm [ Quote ]
lil wayne is sooooo hott
March 21st, 2009 at 2:11 pm [ Quote ]
god i ******* hate lil wayne.
March 21st, 2009 at 10:43 pm [ Quote ]
NO MORE SIDEKiCK PlEASe! ThIs SUCKS…
Im GoING TO BrAKe MiNes N trOw iT aGaIn..
ReAllY SiIdEKiCk SUcKs..
MiNe IS A Slide..
N it TuRn OFf by itself
March 27th, 2009 at 10:15 am [ Quote ]
Hey SK owners the only way to fix this problem is if all of us start sending emails to t-mobile or danger zone. Other possible way is to email CNET.com for example so they show this freaking issue in their review and people stop buying this piece of S.H.I.T. See is this way to motivate themselves to send an application that can fix it
April 24th, 2009 at 3:45 pm [ Quote ]
Well I was doing everything rite untill the javaloader part so I think its really stupid how u have 2go thru all of this jus 2put ringtones on ur phone
May 3rd, 2009 at 6:05 pm [ Quote ]
hiptop slide, or sk3 or whatever the hell you want to call it, is the biggest freaking waste of money.
i looked at reviews of the phone before i bought it and it never said anything about not being able to set your own ringtone, so naturally, i was quite peeved when i found out that you couldnt.
when i bought the stupid thing, it was like $500, actually, i think it was more than that, and for that price, you would think that you would be able to set your own ringtone.
i dont want to do it because im ‘cheap’ i would have no problem paying the $5 for the ringtone, if they had the ringtone that i ACTUALLY WANTED in the catalogue!!
its a pain in the ***. dont buy one. theyre a waste of money and a waste of time.
and mine tends to wipe itself of everything. and i have no idea why. like, it deletes names, numbers, texts EVERYTHING! and dont go saying its ‘the user, not the phone’ it is the freaking phone because i havent done anything to it that would ruin it.
and youre supposed to turn it off for a few hours a day too, because otherwise it reboots itself, according to the douche at the telstra shop. i so regret the decision i made to buy the dumb thing, and im stuck with it for another YEAR! ugh!
May 19th, 2009 at 1:17 pm [ Quote ]
How about for games, sometimes I get bored an I dont want to paly the same games all over everyday
June 16th, 2009 at 10:55 am [ Quote ]
w0w well that was useless
August 24th, 2009 at 10:21 pm [ Quote ]
i’m not cheap. i’ve got music i payed for with my own money that i then put on my computer. then i get a kick @$$ phone. all i want to do is put my awesome paid for songs on my awesome paid for phone.
is there anything wrong with that?
September 25th, 2009 at 3:04 pm [ Quote ]
i got my phone today and the phone is the cooles phone i very had and preson are best and do love me so much
October 8th, 2009 at 3:08 am [ Quote ]
I have a Side kick slide been up all night trying to figure out a way to put F*****g personalized ringtones since I have 8 from da catalog and they have bored me as hell.. But Tmobile made sure their is no way around it u have to buy them can’t personalize them at all!!!!! F**K TMOBILE