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It seems to me that it is impossible to change the default alarm tone. Does anyone know if it's possible to do that?

I am using Sony Xperia Z2, if that matters.

Chahk
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vatzec
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7 Answers7

17

Oddly enough, Android doesn't provide (as of the time of writing) a way to change the default alarm tone: if you navigate to Settings > Sound & notification, you can pick "Alarm volume", "Phone ringtone" and even "Default notification ringtone", but there's nothing about an "Default alarm ringtone".

The solution that worked for me came from this post. It requires using the ES File Explorer (install it if you don't have it yet, you can remove it afterwards). The steps below are to pick one of the existing alarm sounds as the default one, but can be used for any sound in your SD card. Here's what you do:

  • Using the ES File Explorer, navigate to /system/media/audio/alarms
  • Click on the file you want, and in the "Open with" prompt, select "ES Media Player"
  • Open the menu in the top right, and pick "Set ringtone" (the entry with a bell icon)
  • In the dialog that appears, pick "Set alarm"

After doing this, all applications that use alarms will use the chosen sound if they're configured to use the system default. The stock clock app will also use this.

waldyrious
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  • I can't verify if this works at the moment because my phone is broken but it seems like a clever hack, thanks! – vatzec Mar 15 '15 at 20:36
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    Unfortunately, ES File Explorer is suffering from feature bloat. Does any other app do this with less overhead? – palswim Aug 17 '16 at 20:39
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    It works perfecly. In my case, the directory is /system/media/audio/ringtones rather than /system/media/audio/alarms. – ricab Nov 11 '16 at 10:49
  • Just to add my 2 cents, usually you can change the default alarm sound in the alarm APP, so for me its the clock app that handles alarms, and clicking the three dot menu, sounds and select the default. This is also true for most/some apps, you can set custom sounds within their own settings. – JCTechie Mar 08 '17 at 16:34
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    This works great, but wow ES File Explorer is one bloated app. I couldn't uninstall that app fast enough. – bmaupin Mar 16 '17 at 13:43
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    I always used ES File Explorer but noticed that newer versions don't have set ringtone option. I found that the last versions with this feature are 4.1.9.x. Hopefully this helps someone. – MichaelE Jun 20 '23 at 15:48
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I also used ES Explorer but recently, I am on Android 11 and it seems you can do this from the Settings:

  1. Open Settings
  2. Tap on Sounds
  3. Tap on Advanced
  4. Tap on Default alarm sound
  5. Choose an alarm tone and confirm
Andrew T.
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Ahmed
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You can do this with zedge. When you download a notification sound and choose the "set" option, it will give you a choice of setting it as the main ringtone, the default alarm, and two other options I can't remember right now.

rjmunro
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Ebonasura
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Once you move your song or ringtone into the file you have created and you click on it and file explorer if you push the three dots on the top right it'll say set ringtone push that and it'll give you the three options shown in the picture!

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iBug
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K Alnory
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  • All fine explorers sunny have this option please mention and link the file explorer you used (if it is ES , it is already covered in the accepted answer and your answer didn't add or help) – beeshyams Aug 06 '17 at 03:42
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It is hidden down the alarm options. You must slide up to see the rest of options configuration for each alarm.

Guest
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Open a file manager, choose the sound file you want, and move the file to the 'alarms' folder. Once there it will show up in both sections of the clock app under," Alarm sound:" "Alarm Tone," and "Music," but you must select it! It will not self-add. Tap either one and scroll to it; tap on its name, (not on the right which is play only), tap Save.
To have a more or less permanent Clock/Alarm of this sound: tap +(add), select the sound, and set the time/date for anything, >Save. Now simply use that alarm by resetting the time/date, instead of crafting a new one, and the alarm sound will follow at that setting. From BeOhBe

Community
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Avital
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  1. Open the Alarm & clock application, then select the alarm that you want to change.
  2. Select Alarm sound and select an option, or select the music note button to select from your music files.
  3. Tap Done twice.

http://userguide.sonymobile.com/referrer.php?region=global-en&product=xperia-z2#!Alarm-clock.html

Pramod Karandikar
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    Thanks, but my question was whether you can change the default alarm. I may've not been clear on that one; what I meant is the alarm sound that new alarms will have set, not how to change the sound of specific alarms after you create them. – vatzec Jul 30 '14 at 11:34