Custom ringtones for WP7 - ChevronWP7

Before I updated to WP7.5 (mango), I tried using the ChevronWP7 custom ringtone manager to get my ringtones on the phone. This requires an unlocked phone, and when I got it to work, I was able to create a XAP package and "install" the ChevronWP7 ringtones on my phone. Clicking on the "app" would simply list the 5 ringtone files that I installed, but I could never figure out how to get those files to show up in my ringtone list.

Microsoft's WP deployment tool worked, the XAP creator worked, and the app installed, but no ringtones. I've seen no answer to why this may be. Since 7.5 mango came out we can simply roll our ringtones out to WP7.5 via the Zune software.

Custom Ringtones for WP7.5 (mango)

I upgraded to a WP7 device from a Palm Pre Plus and the device was inherently wide-open. Microsoft isn't quite that nice, unfortunately, and it gripes my ass. First thing I wanted to do was load up custom ringtones.

With WP7.5 (mango) it's simple. Ringtones must be:

1. 39 seconds or shorter
2. smaller than 1 megabyte (1MB)
3. saved in MP3 or WMA format
4. not copy-protected (i.e. DRM free)

Change the genre tag on those files to "Ringtone" and then synch them with your phone via the Zune software. The downside is that they only show up under the "Ringtone" list, which is the list of ringtones for your *phone ringer*. Nothing under the alerts for email, SMS, VM, etc. I'm still looking into making the alerts show up as well.