Here are some common questions often asked. If you have any other questions this faq did not answer contact me.

Topics

• Uploading and Downloading
  • My ringtone plays on the phone but does not save. Why?
  • What types of files can I upload?
  • My animated GIF doesn't work on my phone.
  • Uploading isn't working! What can I do?
  • What do you do with my phone number and or email address?
  • What exactly are the codes numbers?
  • Can I skip the SMS process and just bookmark your site?
  • Why does the phones says I need to download a plug-in?
  
  
• Phone Error Codes
  • What is "Data Error 406 - Content Not Acceptable"?
  • What is "Data Error 904 - Size Mismatched"?
  • What is "Data Error 905 - Attribute Mismatch"?
  • What is "Data Error 906 - Invalid Descriptor"?
  • What is "Data Error 907 - Server Error"?
  • What is "Data Error 984 - Size Mismatched"?
  • What is "No Exact URL"?
  • My phone say it cannot guarantee the authenticity of the file I am downloading when using this site. Why?
  
  
• General Questions
  • What are MIME types? Which ones do I use?
  • What are GCD files?
  • Will the image be shrunk to fit my phone?
  • Can I upload mp3 to my phone?
  • I want to create my own voicetones. How do I do this?
  • Does Sprint cache files?
  • Does this uploader work with all providers including non-sprint phones?
  • Is there a charge to use this uploader?
  • Are there other issues?
  • I have both jar and jad files but your uploader does not require the jad file. Why?

Uploading and Downloading

My ringtone plays on the phone but does not save. Why?

What types of files can I upload?

My animated GIF doesn't work on my phone.

Many phones do not work with GIF files at all. Some phones that is capable of displaying GIF files do not work when it's an animated GIF. If the image is resized to fit your phone type, the resizer built into the script can only handle the first frame of the GIF file. In order for the animted GIF to work on compatible phones, you'll need to resize it before uploading it. Still this is not guaranteed it will work.

Uploading isn't working! What can I do?

There are so many things that cause problems. The most common problems that have been reported are listed below. If you have an issue that is not covered in this FAQ, please contact me and I will try to help as best I can. Please include the phone type and as much detail as possible about the problem. If this has to do with a file you are trying to upload, include that in the email as well.

Common problems:

• If you get a specific "Data Error XXX" code, check the FAQ Topic List and see if it is documented.
• Your phone doesn't understand the type of file you are sending. Make sure that you are sending either png, gif, jpg images or midi, qcp sounds. Some phones don't support png images. Check your phone documentation to see what it supports.
• Animated gif files are usually not accepted by the phone. You will need to change it into an animation (pmd file) or just use the first frame of the gif.
• Make sure your file name isn't long. If at all possible, keep the filename under 10-15 characters. If the filename has spaces and weird characters, this uploader will automatically convert it to "_".

What do you do with my phone number and or email address?

The phone number or email address is only used by the script to send the file to your phone. It doesn't get saved. Please read the privacy notice on the main page.

What exactly are the codes numbers?

By pointing your phone's web browser to http://pcs.cruz-network.net/code.php you are able to type in the number of the file to download. This is also a quicker way to upload content to your phone. In order to download content from the gallery, you must use the item code url from your phone's browser.

Can I skip the SMS process and just bookmark your site?

If you only have X amount of free SMS messages a month and you want to send files without getting the notifications, leave the "Recipient Field" blank and no message will be sent to your phone. You will instead need to upload the content using the code number and the item code url from within your phone's browser.

Why does the phone says I need to download a plug-in?

Your phone is trying to decode a file it does not support. For example: If you try and download a .qcp file and your phones doesn't support it, you will get this message.

Phone Error Codes

What is "Data Error 406 - Content Not Acceptable"?

You should never get this error when using this uploader. It can happen when files are linked directly without a .GCD file. You must link to a .GCD file instead of the image or MIDI file. You must also have the correct MIME type for the .GCD file.

What is "Data Error 904 - Size Mismatched"?

Again, this should not happen with this uploader. The error occurs when the number of bytes listed in the .GCD file doesn't exactly match the number of bytes of the Content-URL file downloaded. eg: File has the wrong size or the server didn't send out the file properly.

What is "Data Error 905 - Attribute Mismatch"?

This error can be caused by many things. Most likely there is a problem in the .GCD file. Double check all of the information (Content-Size, Content-Type, etc.) and verify that the .GCD file only has LF newlines (*nix style) and not CR/LF (DOS/Windows style).

If this error occurs only while uploading a midlet file, the manifest file should only have LF newlines as well. Additionally, the name, vendor, and version must match identically in the .jad file as it is in the manifest file. Also, case is important. The manifest file must be called META-INF/MANIFEST.MF. This was designed to generate its own .jad file from the manifest file, and it doesn't care about the case of the file, just so to make it a bit more flexible.

What is "Data Error 906 - Invalid Descriptor"?

The error means that your .GCD file is not 100% perfect. See "Data Error 905" section.

What is "Data Error 907"?

Hmm... Not sure. Seems to be a generic error message. If anyone can provide information on this, it would be most helpful. However, known solutions for this problem include:

• One person replaced the server name with the IP address in the .GCD file and the data error was fixed. (Probably had issues with Sprint's caching technique or maybe a DNS lookup failure)
• Make sure the full and complete URL is listed in your .GCD file. Relative URLs are not allowed.
• If uploading a midlet, make sure the full and complete URL is listed in your .jad file. Relative URLs do not work.
• If uploading a midlet, make sure your .jar has a "META-INF/MANIFEST.mf" file (case sensitive).
• If there is an HTTP error code, such as a 404 error, returned from the server, the phone will display the Data Error 907.

What is "Data Error 984 - Size Mismatched"?

This error only occurs when the size of the .jar file and the size listed in the .jad file do not match.

What is "No Exact URL"?

Sprint's server tried to access a file that has spaces in it. Remove the spaces from the file before sending it to the phone and this problem should be fixed. The uploader automatically replaces spaces and odd characters with "_" so no need to worry.

My phone say it cannot guarantee the authenticity of the file I am downloading when using this site. Why?

This is only a warning letting you know that the file is not being downloaded directly from Sprint. You can go ahead and press continue to download the file.

General Questions

What are MIME types and which ones do I use?

MIME types are descriptions of the contents of a file. For a .jpg image, the MIME type is "image/jpeg". With the proper MIME type, the receiver knows how to handle the incoming file.

Sprint's servers are a bit more picky. They require specific MIME types to be sent by a web server in order for a file to make it to your phone. Here is a list of file extensions and their MIME types.

For a description of the different file types, please check the File Formats page.

What are .GCD files?

A .GCD is a text file that contains information which allows the download of ringers, images, etc. to your phone. This file does not contain the actual file content.

Content-Type: image/jpeg
Content-Name: sample.jpg
Content-Version: 1.0
Content-Vendor: Some Name
Content-URL: http://some-server.com/jmaple.jpg
Content-Size: 12384

Important things to know about the .GCD file:

• It must have Unix-style linefeeds (LF, not CR/LF)
• It must have 2 linefeeds after the Content-Size line
• The server must respond with the MIME type "text/x-pcs-gcd"
• Content-URL must be the correct URL, and must be an absolute URL (it should start with http://)
• Content-Size must be the exact number of bytes of the file
• Content-Type must match the MIME type returned by the server and must match the MIME type in the Mime Type List
• Only some Content-Types are usable with some phones and not all phones understand .gif images.

Will the image be shrunk to fit my phone?

The uploader will resize your images to fit on your phone type. However, images that are smaller than your screen size are not enlarged. If you need image large enough to fill your screen, enlarge the image before you upload.

Can I upload mp3 to my phone?

I want to create my own voicetones. How do I do this?

There are many ways on how to create ringtones for your phone. To start, check out this tutorial site on how to create them.
CREATE VOICETONES FOR YOUR SPRINT PCS PHONE
Here is the link to download the PureVoice Converter: http://www.cdmatech.com/products/purevoice_download.jsp

Does Sprint cache files?

Yes, but nobody seems to know for how long. If you are writing your own uploader and you change the data in the .GCD file or change the data in the actual file you wish to transmit, the easiest thing to do is to change the file name. Sprint's proxy caches both the .GCD file and the target file. If you try to test a file and forget to upload it and Sprint's servers generates a 404 error, then you will not get good results by just uploading the file and trying again. Sprint's servers will remember that it generated a 404 error and won't try again.

According to the Sprint Developer Forums, you can also use the "Cache-Control" header (eg. "Cache-Control: no-cache") to prevent the proxy from caching the page. Some information about Cache-Control is available from AOL and mnot.net. Make sure that you do this before the problem hits. Otherwise you will need to wait a while, rename the files, or do another trick to get things to work. Also using "Cache-Control: no-store" might work better for really dynamic data.

Lastly, trying to do cache control in the web page itself won't work. Most proxies don't care about the actual content (i.e., the pragma meta tags) and only about the headers.

Does this uploader work with all providers including non-sprint phones?

Is there a charge to use this uploader?

Are there other issues?

Images bigger than the phone's screen can cause problems. Try to resize the image before sending it to the phone.

If you want to upload a midlet, the .jar and .jad files must be identically named, except for the extension. With this uploader, there is no need for the .jad file. The uploader generates one automatically.

Specify the full, complete URL to the files in the .gcd and .jad files. Also, the colon has only one space after it. "Content-Type: :image/jpeg" is good, "Content-Type:  image/jpeg" is bad.

Spaces in the filenames is bad. Sprint servers will not be able to handle them. Keep filenames short in size if possible. Long URLs also tend to cause problems. No exact figures available, but the numbers are welcome if they ever get figured out.

I have both jar and jad files but your uploader does not require the jad file. Why?

The uploader creates its own jad file. The jad file is not required.