Why does BB Classic shorten all my email ringtones to 3-4 seconds?

Hi everyone - I've spent the last week searching these forums for a solution with no success. My email ringtones are 20-second long mp3s. (I work in a noisy environment where a short chirp and vibration can be easily missed.) But my Bberry Classic only plays the first 3 or 4 seconds. The ONLY time it plays the full length is when I toggle it (to test) in Settings/Notifications, or play as a music file.

Yes, the files are a full 20 seconds. Yes, the profile is active, have tried other profiles in the list, no difference. No, flip to mute is not selected. No, I am not touching it, not even breathing on it, not even in the same room. Changing number of vibrations, or vibration on/off, makes no difference. Changing lock screen/lock screen notifications, or /turn on screen for new notifications makes no difference. Have tried different locations for the file on device and SD and again, no change.

I've found few posts about this (ie "BB10 rings once" here on this forums)... so is the solution so glaringly obvious I've just missed it?

Could this shortening be by design? And if so, why on earth would Blackberry choose to remove the option for longer-lasting alerts if we decide that's what works for us?

Thanks!

Blackberry Classic SQC100-4, 10.3.1.747 on Bell Mobility. BB lover since 8703.

It's not the length or duration of the ring tone audio clip, the duration of the notification event is what needs to be adjustable, of which I do not know if it is possible.

In other words, say your incoming call is set for 5 rings then go to v-mail.
That means you will get about 10~14 seconds of ring tone play before the incoming call notification event stops, thus stopping the ring tone.
If the event for incoming mail is only a few seconds, then you will only get a few seconds of tone play.

Thanks so much for the explanation DaFoxGrey... The Crackberry community has been so helpful, especially now as I'm transitioning from BB7 to BB10. FYI, for anyone else having the same frustration - I did find a solution, via these forums - with Hub++ I now get my ringtones at full length. Unfortunate that Bberry reduced the customizability of notifications, but fantastic that Hub++ developers offers this!

Cheers to all!