Filed under: Hacks, How-tos, iTunes, iPhone
Cleverboy discovers ultimate ringtone hack
Hacker par excellence Cleverboy, aka Dudley, has pretty much figured out what makes ringtones ringtones as far as iTunes is concerned. He discovered an atom in the m4a metadata that identifies the file's role. He downloaded a copy of AtomicParsley, the command-line metadata editor, and after a bit of hacking discovered that setting the "stik" metadata to 14 turned any aac file into a ringtone. He writes, "The file immediately appeared in my ringtone list, and after syncing, it appeared on my phone without one iota of complaint. --NONE".
The command in question is as follows:
AtomicParsley mmbop.m4a --stik value=14
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Johnny Thrash said 12:44PM on 9-12-2007
I can only say, "WOOT!"
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Fraser Drew said 12:47PM on 9-12-2007
I just want to know how you can get the ringtones list up without an iPhone! so i can prepare!
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pete said 11:17PM on 9-12-2007
hopefully, someone will package this little snipit into a gui app for us less l33t.
also, can one make a longer than 30 sec ringtone and still sync to the iphone?
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Joe said 12:51PM on 9-12-2007
I can only say, "mmbop"?
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Praveen said 12:58PM on 9-12-2007
Never cease to be amazed by all you iphone hackers.
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Cleverboy said 1:16PM on 9-12-2007
Yes, it was custom recorded. I don't actually have "mmbop" in my personal music catalog. Shoot me. And Erica, you're being far too kind, but thanks.
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Pablo said 1:02PM on 9-12-2007
...and Apple figures out how to disable this hack in five, four, three...
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Macroy said 1:03PM on 9-12-2007
Now, how might I go about making this into an Automator/Applescript app/thingy?
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sterling said 1:09PM on 9-12-2007
Apple is either going to release an update that totally reworks ringtones, thus completely breaking all these workarounds, or this is just another example of them just not caring.
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ExUrbanKevin said 1:13PM on 9-12-2007
What I want to know is are these ringtones only for an iPhone, and if not, how do other phones access them?
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Yvo said 3:28PM on 9-12-2007
sterling... oh they care it took 'em what... 12 hours to come out with the initial fix. I think your first guess is right; they are probably reworking the entire system.
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Rich Gee said 2:29PM on 9-12-2007
Is the iTunes store down? Cannot receive my purchased tracks.
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Tom said 8:51PM on 9-12-2007
Security through obscurity is futile. First it was the filename extension, now it's a simple metadata attribute? The only way Apple can really secure the ringtone feature is via encryption, but really they should just let people use their own damn songs as ringtones.
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Christian said 4:07PM on 9-12-2007
Cue a GUI applet that accomplishes this in 3... 2... 1...
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unteins said 2:24PM on 9-12-2007
I imagine Apple will plug the ringtone holes as often as it can, since being able to create ringtones deprives them of revenue.
I don't think they'll work too hard to purposefully break the unlock and 3rd party apps because those generate revenue by getting sales they wouldn't otherwise be able to get.
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Bryan said 1:39PM on 9-12-2007
Rich Gee
I've been having the same problem for two days now. Apple can't seem to help me! Any luck on your end? Feel free to send an email to me at carl@peggin.com or here if you'd like.
Thanks
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Bryan said 1:54PM on 9-12-2007
I know this isn't the right blog to post, but thought Rich Gee (and others) would want to know. I just received an email from Apple, here it is:
"I'm sorry you ran into an error when you were trying to check for purchases on the iTunes Store. This error was caused by a temporary issue with the iTunes Store that should be resolved now. Please check the iTunes Store again. All features should be working well."
Don't know if it works yet, haven't checked. I really hope it works cause I've spent a lot of money and can't get any of my songs!
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Kyle Cameron said 2:12PM on 9-12-2007
Here's to free use of music
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Craig said 2:15PM on 9-12-2007
I too would like to know if these ringtones will work on non iPhones. I have an A900M Samsung from Sprint and would like more ringers..... Thx.
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mini said 2:23PM on 9-12-2007
have others tried this out? Running this command doesn't change my "stick" value...it still says 'Normal'. Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong?
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