[mstevens]

OK, I've had time to do extensive messing about. I've learned that, basically, HTC doesn't care where on your MicroSD card you put audio files. It'll find them no matter where you put them on your storage card and irrespective of what your registry says. For reference, I'm using a Feb 2009-manufactured Sprint Touch Pro running the stock ROM.

I did a hard reset. It turns out the default for the search paths is... nothing at all. They're not there at all until after the audio manager runs. Once it has run, the default music file path is \My Documents\ and the default ringtone exclusion path is \My Documents\My Ringtones\.

I made multiple copies of a small .mp3 file and placed them in a large range of folders. I renamed each to reflect the path at which it was located so I could easily tell where each one was located from within the audio manager. I ran through many edits of the registry music file search paths and ringtone exclusion path. I tried adding a ring_tone_path_0.

My firm conclusion is that none of these settings has any effect whatsoever on files located on a storage card.

Setting device_scan_path_path and device_scan_path_path_0 to a directory on the storage card will certainly locate any music files in that directory, but it'll find them just as easily if you DON'T do that. It just won't find any music files on the device memory unless a path containing them is supplied, except that anything in the \MUSIC directory will be added to the library even if you don't specify it in the search path.

Setting ring_tone_path to any directory on the device will exclude any sound files in that path. Setting it to any path (and I tried many) on the storage card has no effect - that is, files in that path will be added to the library anyway. Believe me, I tried creating directories on my storage card with every name mentioned in this thread as being capable of being excluded from ringtone searches but it made not the slightest difference.

How do I explain those who report they were able to exclude ringtones on a storage card? I can't. Maybe they're using cooked ROM's. Maybe I have a later stock ROM date. Maybe there's some other registry key they have that I lack (remember, I'm doing this from a fresh hard reset). Maybe they have some other software installed (all I have at the moment is the Sprint customizations and PHM Registry Editor). All I know is that I can't replicate their reported experience.

However, none of this matters much. Basically, ringtones don't really belong on a storage card. Any tones being used for any purpose by the device need to be somewhere where they won't be removed lest bad and unexpected things happen, which means on the device itself. It's a Touch Pro, so you should have enough space available for any reasonable number of ringtones with which to work. If you have hundreds (or thousands, or whatever), just ZIP 'em up and keep 'em on your storage card and un-ZIP the ones you need as you need them. Go ahead and put your music files wherever you want on your storage card - it doesn't matter where, since they can be found without needing to do any registry edits.