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Tips & Tricks: Set Phone to Ring, Vibrate, Flash LED - Part 1
Before you got a BlackBerry, it was so simple to set ring or vibrate options, even a kid could do it. But now…it seems like you need, well, … a web site to explain how to control the bewildering array of “notification profile” settings. In a 3-part tutorial, we’ll learn (1) basic ring settings, (2) more elaborate settings found only on smartphones, and (3) advanced settings. You can choose how far to go depending on what makes you happy.
PART 1, THE BASICS
The majority of Pearl owners are concerned with just basic control of ringing:
- How to switch between ringing and vibrating
- How to change ringtones
- How to select different ringtones for special callers
- How to set different ringtones for calls versus text messages
Profiles
On a BlackBerry, the place where you set ringing, vibrating, LED flashing, etc. is called a Profile. Actually, it’s called a Notification Profile since ringing, vibrating, and LED flashing notify you of some event that needs your attention.
To access these settings, you use the Profiles icon normally found on your Home Screen, as shown in the screenshot to the left.
At the simplest level, you may want one profile for ringing and another profile for vibrating. Let’s say you start with a profile that will ring loudly so that you can hear the phone ringing at a distance when you’re not carrying the phone. Any profile you have selected is called the Active profile. Since it is so common to need to switch quickly between an active profile and a vibrating profile, a shortcut has been provided: the # key.
Practice this now: Pressing and holding the # key swaps your phone between the active (normally a ringing) profile and the vibrating profile.
NOTE: If your active profile is not a ringing profile, you’ll want to click the Profiles icon and click either the Normal or Loud profile. Then, pressing and holding the # key will perform as described above.
The Default Ringtone
Let’s say you have one ringtone that is your absolute favorite, and you want that ringtone used every time your phone rings. Or at least that’s where you want to start, with an option to change it for special purposes. Do Profiles > (scroll to bottom of screen) > Advanced… > (press Menu key) > Show Ring Tones.
At that point you can open a folder that contains ringtones. After clicking Show Ring Tones, give your phone time to scan its memory to find all files that could be used as ringtones. This could take a minute or so. When exploring for a ringtone, you’ll likely find files like these:
- Alarm_?????: Tone intended as an alarm, not necessarily a ring
- Notifier_?????: Tone intended as a notification for messages, events, etc., not a ring
- Ringer_?????: Tone intended as a ring (more traditional ringing sound)
- Tune_?????: Tone intended as a ring (musical ringing sound)
- ?????.mp3: Your own music/audio file that might work as a ringtone
You probably will want to play the ringtones before you choose one. In the folder of ringtones, do (press Menu key) > Play. The Media Player will open and play the ringtone.
Once you’ve found the ringtone you want as your default ringtone, do (press Menu key) > Set As Ring Tone.
Custom Ringtones
So, now you have your phone ringing with the tone/tune you want, but you can’t tell friend from foe (so to speak). Let’s see how you set a custom ringtone for a special person. In your Address Book, find the contact you want to set a special ringtone for. Edit that contact. Do (press Menu key) > Add Custom Ring Tone.
At the bottom of the contact settings, a Custom Ring Tone setting will appear with some ringtone already highlighted. Click the trackball to expand that highlight to a long list of available ringtones to choose from. Scroll till you find the one you want, select it, and save your contact settings.
Phone Calls vs. Text Messages
Finally, most of us want to distinguish between a phone call and a text message. Plus, we want to choose what kind of sound indicates a text message (also known as SMS–for Short Message Service). First, you need to choose–if you haven’t already–which Notification Profile you’re usually going to use. It’s probably either Normal or Loud; let’s assume Normal for the moment.
From the Home Screen, open Profiles. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click Advanced… Scroll to the Normal profile, press the Menu key, and select Edit. Scroll to SMS Text and click. On the resulting 
screen you will see a number of settings: half for “in holster,” and half for “out of holster.” Just in case you don’t know what that’s about, we better take a moment to explain.
Most Pearl holsters have an embedded magnet that tells the phone whether it is inserted into the holster. The “in holster” signal from the magnet tells the Pearl to shut off its backlighting (to save battery charge) and to ring differently (according to settings in the active profile). For example, when your phone is in its holster (possibly in your pocket at the time), you may want it to not only ring, but vibrate at the same time to make sure it gets your attention. When the phone is out of the holster (possibly while you’re in a meeting), you may want the phone to vibrate twice before ringing to give you a change to either send the call to voicemail or beg forgiveness to answer it. [I have to believe all these complexities are necessary for hot-shot executives.]
Below are the screens where you edit the profile settings for text messages. For either Out of Holster or In Holster modes, you can choose between a tone, vibration or both; a particular tone/sound; the volume; the number of “beeps” (rings, alerts); whether you want LED flashing; and if vibrations are used, how many times to vibrate.
Conclusion
OK, after that last section, you may have forgotten that this is only part 1 of 3 in how to configure your Pearl for ringing–excuse me, “notifications.” You may be happy to know this much and not care to move on. That’s your choice. But for those who just can’t get enough, here’s what’s in store for parts 2 and 3:
- Besides calls and text messages, what else can I be notified of? (email, calendar events, tasks due,…)
- What kinds of profiles are built in? (Loud, Normal, Vibrate, Quiet, Phone Only Off)
- Can I create my own custom profiles? (yes)
- Can I get, or prevent, notifications while I’m actively on a call? (yes and yes)
- Can I set my phone to ”Do Not Disturb?” (yes)
- Can I set my phone to make exceptions for family, special friends, important business contacts? (yes)
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28 comments on this post
Hey, I’ve found that when I set a custom ringtone to an address book entry, I cannot remove it. Anyone else experience this, or have a solution? My work around is to then set the ringtone for that user to the same as my “Normal” profile ringtone.
Rob,
Edit that contact. Scroll to the custom ringtone for that contact. Press Menu key. Select Delete Field. The ringtone is gone!
Kelly
thank you soo much! this has been driving me crazy
dan,
I know–this aspect of the BlackBerry is way too complicated.
Kelly
Glad to see you’ve got the phone right side out in the holster… I’ve seen a lot of sites online advertising that holster that picture it with the screen facing away from the “notched” side! To be fair, it took me a day or so to realize that the notch lets you slide in your Blackberry without the trackball getting pressed down.
My first mod: I use my Pearl as a portable music player and I found it especially annoying that it wouldn’t fit in the holster with headphones plugged in. So I took a pair of scissors and carefully removed the stitching from the top inch of the left side of the holster. Then I used a needle and thread to reinforce the end of the seam to keep it from unraveling. Now the holster has a little “fly” at the top to make the headphone jack available, and the Pearl fits all the way in the holster even when the headphones are plugged in–something you think RIM would have figured out how to do from the beginning!
Next up: Finding a holster that fits my Pearl without having to remove the silicone skin….
Leigh,
I actually figured that out after I bought a different case and the trackball kept getting clicked by mistake. Then I figured out the slot/notch thing in the holster was a channel for the trackball. Later I read about the holster having a magnet.
Clever modification to your holster–very smart!
I actually slide my holster into a separate case that has a swiveling clip because I like to clip it to my belt. Works OK.
Always appreciate your comments. I figure you’re one of my brightest readers.
Kelly
Hey girl i have a question… I purchased the same phone pearl it’s soooo pretty pink!!! but any hoooo… I purchased the ball LED… light ball disco… so, when somebody calls me it can change colors… for some reason it’s not working on my phone…??? is there any way you can help me with this
Thank you so much,
janet
Janet,
The 8130 trackball has only a white LED behind it, so it cannot change colors like the 8100. Sorry.
Kelly
I know how to set a custom ring tone for a contact. But can that custom tone work for SMS from that contact?
Robb
Robb,
Yes, there is a way, but it’s not a method you’d want to do for a lot of contacts. You can create a new profile just for that contact. In that profile, you’d choose the customization for phone, SMS text, etc. Then you’d create an exception (see Part 3 of this series) for that contact, and set the exception to use that profile. Complicated, huh? Let me know how it works out for you.
Kelly
All I’m trying to do right now is make my “Loud” profile ring and vibrate for all my calls. I thought I had it working for a minute, but it won’t seem to reset now. It still vibrates twice (or 3 times if I have that selected) and THEN it rings. I’m following your steps (atleast I believe I am) to the tee, but I can’t seem to get the phone to ring/vibrate at the same time. I’ve gone to advance/loud/edit and selected ring + vibrate. I’m just using stock ringtones.
Brett
*edit*
I ended that by saying I “selected ring + vibrate”. I now realize that I’m selecting “vibrate + tone” which is making it vibrate then ring.
Is there a way to make it ring/vibrate at the same time?
Brett
Brett,
I now know that a BlackBerry will NOT both vibrate and ring at the same time.
Kelly
Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation
Anyway … nice blog to visit.
cheers, Tablet
Kelly
I am using BlackberryAlerts. How do I completely shut off the led alert for each profile (phone only, quiet etc..) but allow it for other ones? I have tried to select “None” for in holster and out for notifications and LED, but nothing seems to work.
Thanks.
Also, why doesn’t the email alert LED on the Blackberry turn off once I check the email on my computer. It appears I have to check the Blackberry anyway, even after i opened the email on the computer.
Thanks again.
D,
I’ve never tried “None” for the “Repeat Notifications” but I thought it would work to keep the LED from flashing. If that really doesn’t work, I don’t know of any other way to shut off the LED in a ring profile.
BTW–I don’t know much about BlackBerry Alerts other than it’s been highly recommended.
About the LED still flashing on your phone after you’ve read email on the computer…do you have email reconciliation set up? If so, the LED should stop as soon as the phone and email account reconcile. If you’re not reconciling, you will have to read the email on the phone to shut off the LED (as you know).
Kelly
Thanks again Kelly
Why when I assign a tone to a contact is it so soft that I cannot hear it?
amy,
Even at the highest volume, the Pearl is not very loud. I think it’s because RIM discovered that their speaker(s) distort at a higher volume, and they didn’t want owners to ever hear distorted music. But that meant ringtones wouldn’t be very loud, either.
Make sure when you choose a ringtone in your profile(s), choose the highest volume setting. I’ll bet you have it set at medium or low.
Kelly
Can you please tell me how to follow a link from my sms text message to get a ringtone that was sent to my phone.
Thanks
Janique,
I’ve always just clicked on it and it took me to my browser to complete the download. When you click on it, is nothing happening at all?
Kelly
Is there a way to set the alert for a voicemail different from a text?, I was happy to find out it does alert for voicemails, but I never set a custom tone for it, the tone is the custom I use for txt messages and I dont’ see anywhere to set it just for a voicemail alert.
Ross,
For whatever reason, voicemail alerts are tied to SMS (text message) alerts, and they can’t be set separately. There are 3rd-party programs like BlackBerry Alerts that might do that.
Kelly
I want to set a custom tone for text messages from all of my contacts. How do you do this?
Robbie,
It’s explained in my tutorial series on setting rings. Pick your usual profile, like Normal or Loud. Edit the SMS Text settings to use the tone you want. Again, for details, please scan or read all three parts of my tutorial till you find that info.
Kelly
Hi Kelly,
Is there a way to increase the length of time that the phone rings? I have a custom ringtone and it’s 24 seconds long. But the phone stops ringing after about 15 seconds. Really frustrating.
thanks
Carel
Carel,
I don’t think there is any way to change that. I have one ringtone that is 19 seconds long. It will play the full 19 seconds, but shortly after it ends, the call is deemed “missed.”
To answer a different but related question: I was told that your wireless carrier is in control of how many rings (or the equivalent length of time) before an unanswered call is ended (or goes to voicemail). I know you can’t change that within the phone. I was instructed to call my carrier’s customer support and ask for “extended ringing.” Well, I did that, and my carrier, Verizon, said they don’t offer that option and that the number of rings cannot be changed.
You might be able to get a little more of your ringtone to play if you cut back on the number of vibrations before it starts ringing, if you have vibration set.
Kelly