Problems with Custom Ringtones and Photo Contacts

[Guest MadSci]

I installed Photo Contacts, a tasty little app I must say. Just one problem, once it was installed, my custom assigned ringtones for each contact failed to play. I only got the default tune for everyone.

A nice service person at PocketX at first questioned that this could be occurring. When I assured her that is was, she replied that this was just another incarnation of the Caller ID 'bug' that is often spoken about. One reason that I evaluated Photo Contacts is that I have a lot of Contacts (around 2200) in my phone, which is subbing for my Palm Pilot. I have read in numerous places, including the PocketX website that Photo Contacts 'fixes' the Caller ID bug, allowing as many Contacts as you wish. According to the PocketX person, the max number of Contacts that are safe to use, even with their software installed, is "around 600." :?

Too bad as I was looking forward to using this otherwise tasty app. Or does anyone have a better solution?

BTW, the service lady at PocketX was very fast and polite. A nice example for others to follow.

MadSci

[Guest hawpunch]

i purchased and used photocontacts 2 and found the app to be okay. i did not have the problems with the ringtones that you are indicating though...all my custom ringtones played. there is a new caller id program called caller2picture 3.0SM. give that a try. it allows you to also assign and play custom ringtones off your storage card. the gui is not as refined as photocontacts 2, but i like the fact that i can have a huge database of ringtones available to assign to a multitude of contacts. you can find the program at www.handango.com.

jae park

[Guest MadSci]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give that program a try.

FYI, the nice folks at PocketX Support have been educating me about this problem, which they say is due to an inherent issue within the operating system and appears irregularly on only some devices. May be related to the number of Contacts as they suggest (see previous post), and or the runber of other processes running.

According to PocketX support staff, this is not due to a bug in the Photo Contacts software per se. Still, from the customer's perspective, my experience has been that when Photocontacts is running, custom ringtones don't work. When I turn it off, they do! So while it's true that Photo Contacts has done nothing to actively cause the problem, nevertheless, an incompatibility exists, due to the nature of the operating system.

While it must be frustrating for the good people at PocketX to work hard to create a nice piece of software, only to run into an OS limitation, potential customers should be made aware of the possibility the intended functionality may not be available as advertised.

After all, this machine is supposed to synchronize with Outlook, and a large number of contacts is not unusual for anyone who has been using Outlook professionally for over a decade! Just another example of MS Bugware being released upon an unsuspecting public! Did I say 'Public', sorry, I meant "Un-notified Beta Testers".

If anyone finds a solution to the problem, please post it here. In the meantime, before purchasing Photo Contacts (and again, I love this app, if only...) install the Trial version and test it with your complete Contacts list in the phone, and test that the Custom Ringtones are still working. In my case, I installed and tested Photo Contacts first, loved it, bought it, then began to try and use the Custom Ringtones and so was caught unawares by this issue.

Thanks to PocketX Support for helping to clarify the issue. Perhaps they'll make this issue known on their website too.

Cheers

MadSci