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Silent ringtone consistently removed from iPhone 6

I rely on the Silent ringtone as a business professional in Silicon Valley to keep my sanity, and only answer calls with distinct rings from my Contacts. All other calls (telemarketers, wrong numbers, etc.) are silenced.


Starting with the iPhone 5, I created a silent ringtone to assign as the default ringtone. I select those in my Contacts to various other identifiable ringtones.


My iPhone model: iPhone 6 (Model MG4V2LL/A)

Operating system: iOS 8.1.2

Memory: 128GB


I need help in figuring out how to keep Apple from removing a ringtone that does not emit sound, so I can continue screening out unwelcome and unwanted telemarketer scumbags, and creditors who have the wrong number and ask for people like "Jesus Hernandez" with a note it's a law firm who is collecting a debt. That sort of riff-raff.


Background:


Starting with iOS 8.1 and up to the latest iOS 8.1.2 (I'm vigilant in updating for security purposes as a business professional), I noticed my Silent ringtone went from silent to a sound reminiscent of an antique clock (tick-tock-tick, tick-tock, repeat once). Not knowing how to remove it, I created a Silent2 ringtone. After a few weeks, that ringtone went from silent to the exact same clock sound as the first Silent ringtone. I created Silent3, Silent4, Silent5, and Silent6 ringtones. My theory was that if Silent2 is converted to a clock sound, I'll switch to Silent3, and so forth. However, when Silent3 switched to a clock sound (exactly the same as original clock sound), and I switched to Silent4, I noticed it too sounded like the same clock. When I clicked on the remaining Silent ringtones (Silent4 and Silent5), they too were the same clock sound!


Due to telemarketers flooding my phone, the Silent ringtone was invaluable in avoiding silencing the ringer. I was forced at this point to silence it, unless I knew an important call was coming.


So I bit the bullet, figuring Apple was sending a message, essentially, "Don't create your own ringtones, you cheapskate! They're only a little over a buck, and people like you are ruining this economy for the little guy!" Instead of argue that supposition based on economics, the free market, capitalism, all that good stuff that everyone seems to want to get rid of, I paid $1.29 for a Silent ringtone that got decent reviews.


Then iOS 8.1.2 came out. After I installed it, behold: My purchased Silent ringtone was gone! I went to my purchase history and it was not there. Instead of spending who knows how long on Apple's toll-free number arguing over $1.29 (as my time is more valuable), I took the hit. At least they were deleting it now, instead of converting it to a clock sound, I figured. This is good, because instead of going back to creating Silent ringtones myself and having them pile up like in iOS 8.1, with iOS 8.2 they just periodically sweep my iPhone 6 for any ringtone that is silent (probably because some well-funded telemarketing organization or creditor association realized people were abusing the Silent ringtone to prevent them from constantly calling people), and paid Apple to purge these ringtones. I'm sure some Apple fanboy will tell me that simply isn't true! For those who trust Apple implicitly and know they wouldn't allow money to influence a decision to selectively silence caller rings, I hope you're right, I really do.


I just replaced the Silent ringtone I created. I refuse to keep buying $1.29 Silent ringtones (used to be $0.99 but inflation has evidently hit Silent ringtone sellers) every time my purchase is purged from my phone and ringtone purchase history. You're probably only talking about maybe $15 per year (at the current purge rate of once every few weeks), but I have to put my foot down! So I simply keep adding it back, having hidden my own homegrown Silent ringtone on my computer.


NOTE: I renamed it thinking they were searching for the word "silent," but apparently there are heuristics that determine if a ringtone is emitting a sound or not.


If anyone can help, or at least tell me they experienced the same thing, I would greatly appreciate it!


To give you evil ideas, here is how you exploit the Silent ringtone to stop the rings of unwanted callers:


1. Install the Silent ringtone (either by buying it or making one yourself).

2. Save the ringtone file somewhere on your computer.

3. Set the Silent ringtone as your default ringtone in Settings > Sounds.

4. Assign each of your Contacts whom you want to answer calls from, to any ringtone (I use different ringtones to identify them).

5. Boom! Problem solved! 🙂


I'm curious to see over the coming months, if anyone who does this (or did it) is seeing their Silent ringtones disappear, and if so, can you reinstall it from your purchases at the Apple Store?


Thanks.

iPhone 6, iOS 8.1.2, Silent ringtone keeps disappearing.

Posted on Jan 10, 2015 12:35 PM

Reply
15 replies

Mar 25, 2017 5:02 AM in response to RareBookCollector

Très bizarre.

That was my reaction to your post because I have made my own ringtones for years including a silent named silentrunning and I never lose them. Never because I back up to iTunes on my hard drive and restore/edit my ringtones like I manage my music on iTunes. For the record, I have never had apple be invasive to my iPhone which has many non purchased ringtones, songs, movies etc.

I have lost photos because I did not backup before an update but that's my fault. My only complaint about the process, is that I get use to an iTunes and some nerd decides he knows what's best for me and the update changes iTunes user interface.

User uploaded fileSo without knowing how you made your ringtone, if it's backed up to your ringtones, if you restore your iPhone from backup or if it's because I named my ringtone silentrunning and you named yours silent... Très bizarre!

Jan 10, 2015 6:09 PM in response to RareBookCollector

I don't know the answer to your problem. A possible work around until you do figure out the answer would be to enable Do Not Disturb. Set it to accept calls only from Favorites. Put the people you want to get calls from in Favorites. Note: this will silence all alerts so it may not be a viable option for you.


RareBookCollector wrote:

I went to my purchase history and it was not there.

Unlike other content, you only get one download with tones.


If you are in the U.S., you may want to register your phone with donotcall.gov.

Jan 10, 2015 6:22 PM in response to RareBookCollector

I have never heard of Apple scanning a person's phone and removing a ringtone. That sounds absurd. I have read of a large number of people that have done something similar to what you do. I know there were some issues with early versions of iOS 8 and people reporting that purchased ringtones were disappearing, however one of the later versions, iOS 8.1.2 was to fix that. There was even an Apple support document created to instruct users how to get purchased ringtones back. Here is a link to that support document. Restore missing tones on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 8.1.1 - Apple Support

Jan 10, 2015 7:03 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

I didn't know about using Do Not Disturb in conjunction with Favorites, great suggestion. Thanks.


I registered with donotcall.gov years ago, but everyone ignores that database. For the first few years I diligently filed reports of violators on that site, since they fine violators $10,000 per day per occurrence (or some outrageously vindictive amount). Over time filing these reports got old, as my vindictive streak waned, and so I recorded a ringtone with no sound (in lieu of the $0.99 Silent ringtone at the Apple Store), starting with my iPhone 5. Then I assigned audible ringtones to Contacts.


My present workaround is to add my Silent ringtone from my laptop every few weeks, when a telemarketer calls and Apple's default ringtone rings — I immediatey know it's time to add the ringtone again, as it was deleted. This is a temporary fix because I'm afraid once Apple deternines too many people keep readding their silent ringtone back, and telemarketers cry foul (because you're more likely to answer if you hear it ring, and can't ignore them selectively), I'll have to use your solution (which also prevents other alerts).


I'm hoping it's not just me so they'll fix the issue. Otherwise I'll just use the Do Not Disturb (24/7) in conjunction with Favorites as you suggested, if they completely prevent a ringtone from being silent (perhaps by analyzing it immediately when added). That will work because fortunately I don't have a ton of people I must answer to. Most can leave a message if they're not in my Contacts (including telemarketers and creditors looking for Jose Hernandez, whomever the heck he is — they say "if this is not Jose Hernandez, please hang up. Otherwise, this is the law firm of ________, yada yada yada"; I immediatey delete these voice messages).

Jan 11, 2015 5:31 AM in response to RareBookCollector

Hmm. I get very few calls from telemarketers. However, I'm also fairly careful not to use my cell phone to call business. Once you do, they have a right to use your phone number. Also, charitable and political organizations are not bound by Do Not Call. You may want to consult with your carrier to see if they can offer any help if you're getting that many calls.


Honestly, except for the issue that some people had with custom tones that Apple seems to have successfully addressed with 8.1.2, I haven't heard of anything remotely like your problem. I would perform the basic troubleshooting steps (reset, restore from back up, restore as new) checking after each step. Also, so that Apple does know about your issue, submit something through the Feedback page:


http://www.apple.com/feedback


Best of luck.

Mar 4, 2015 8:15 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

I have this problem as well. I had a ringtone I downloaded for free that was silent, but I recently purchased a silent one that had good reviews. I have a "SPAM" contact with probably a hundred or more numbers I don't want to talk to and assign it to that. I do sync over mobileme but I even added the same ringtone to the other phone so it wouldn't get confused when it shows up there, but it still happens. I'm on iOS 8.1.3 but it's always been an issue.

Mar 5, 2015 6:43 PM in response to Michael C. Reilly

Michael C. Reilly wrote:


That contact is set to blocked but it still rings. This might only apply if callers come through RingCentral, but caller id still shows the caller's number so if it's blocking on number, it should still work.

I don't know what RingCentral is. What I'm saying is that you don't need to add numbers to a contact to block them. You just block them from the Recents list. It's only one step.

May 22, 2015 8:53 AM in response to RareBookCollector

Since OP lists "coming months" in the topic, I figure this isn't waking too dead of a thread.


I noticed yesterday, after a flood of spam calls, that any time I added a number to one of my spam contacts, the ring tone was changed from my silent ring tone, to my default ring tone.


The silent ring tone, at least for me, is still present on my phone, but any time I add a new number, I now have to remember to switch the ringtone for that contact to the silent ringtone, otherwise, I get my normal ring. Annoying, but at least I still have the silent ringtone.

Aug 28, 2015 1:56 PM in response to RareBookCollector

I also just discovered after a recent update to IOS that a custom ringtone I created in Garageband and exported to my phone (god knows how I did this, it was years and several iPhones ago) is gone. I named it "Silence is Golden" and assigned to every junk caller (I get dozens of these a week) and it was a lifesaver. Now it has disappeared off of all my IOS devices, with no idea how it happened. I'd love to not have to reconstruct the multi-step process I went through to create a silent 10 second loop in Garageband and hack it on a phone again.

Silent ringtone consistently removed from iPhone 6

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