Create free iPhone ringtones using iTunes 8
Two months ago, I posted a tutorial entitled Free Custom Ringtones for iPhone 3G using only iTunes. Since then, this tutorial has gained great popularity. However, I’ve noticed that there are some differences between the newest version of iTunes – iTunes 8 and its previous versions (get the detailed info from http://www.apple.com). Therefore, it is very necessary to update that tutorial below:
Note: If you are using the purchased iTunes music to create ringtones for your iPhone, you need to get M4P to MP3 converter to help you convert the iTunes protected music to DRM free mp3 first.
To create free iPhone ringtones using iTunes 8:
1. Right click on the song you are going to make into a ringtone and select “Get Info.”
2. Go to the “Options” tab and go down to the “Start Time” and “Stop Time” check boxes. Check both boxes and input the time you want your ringtone to start/stop. The ringtone has to be 30 seconds or less. Click “OK” when you’re done.
3. Right click on your newly “clipped” song and select “Create AAC Version”. Or directly click the “Advanced” tab on the main menu of iTunes 8 and select “Create AAC Version” from the drop-down list. The song will be re-encoded using the start and stop times specified.
Note: If your menu item does not read “Create AAC Version” and reads “Create MP3 Version” or some other format, please go to ”iTunes -> Edit -> Preferences -> General” and refer to the graphs below:
4. After the song is done encoding, navigate to your iTunes Music folder, locate your song, and drag it to your desktop. After the song is on your desktop go back to iTunes and delete the clipped version from you iTunes library (It won’t delete it from your desktop, it will only remove it from iTunes).
5. Go back the song on your desktop and right click on your song and choose “Properties”. Go to the name and extension section and change the extension from .m4a to .m4r (or you can just change the extension right from your desktop).
6. After the extension is changed simply double click on the file to add it to your iTunes library under the ringtones section. Sync your phone with iTunes and you’re done!
If the ringtone section isn’t available, please click “Edit -> Preferences” and refer to the graph below:
Note: Remember to go back into iTunes and uncheck your custom start and stop times for the original version of your song.
I have iTunes 8.0.1.11 (the latest as of today) for Windows XP, and I don’t have an option for “Create AAC Version” on neither the right-click menu nor the advanced menu. There’s only “Create MP3 Version”. How do I either get “Create AAC Version” as a menu option, or do it without that? Thanks!
Dan
October 7, 2008 at 3:44 am
to Dan,
Please click Edit -> Preferences -> General -> Import Settings…
In the pop up window of Import Settings, select AAC Encoder from the Import Using: drop-down list.
I will update it soon.
Thanks you very much!
daniel
October 7, 2008 at 3:59 am
Hi Daniel,
I have an .mp3 file, when i right click on the file, as you have said in step 2 and 3, i donot see any “Get Info.” option, i see the general stuff with the properties option. in the properties tab, i donot see the option of specifying the start and stop time to the song.
can you please explain that step
kumar
October 7, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Hi,
I get stuck at step 5 as i cannot find a way in my properties to change the file type. Is there another way to do it??
Thanks
Kym
October 7, 2008 at 9:40 pm
I’ve got the song converted, but cannot move it to “ringtones”
LINDA
October 8, 2008 at 1:31 am
to kumar,
Add the .mp3 file to iTunes music section.
Right-click the file and select “Get Info”(the first) from the drop-down list.
In the following dialog, click the “Options” menu item, where you can define “start time” and “stop time”.
It should be very easy.
Try it again.
daniel
October 8, 2008 at 1:42 am
to Kym,
You know, I am using Windows XP so I can change the file type in the way specified in “Step 5″.
So I guess you are running operation systems other than XP.
If so, I am sorry I am not very clear about that.
daniel
October 8, 2008 at 1:46 am
I am using windows xp and i still cant change it to .m4r
j
June 22, 2009 at 2:10 am
to LINDA,
please check out Step 6 carefully.
daniel
October 8, 2008 at 1:48 am
when I double clicked on it, it just goes back to my playlist.
I opened the ringtone section on itunes and tried to drag it there and it won’t budge move into the ringtones playlist.
Linda
October 8, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Linda,
I have the same problem and I have iTunes 8.2.0.23.
Did you find a solution to drag or import the .m4r to the actual Ringtones folder for syncing?
Nora
June 17, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Hey make sure you go to tools>>>folder options>>>view and uncheck “Hide extensions of known file type” you will see the song has .m4r.m4a. Just delete the .m4a and it will change the icon to a ring file and double click and it will show in itunes as a ring tone. I just did it and it works fine.
Percy
June 20, 2009 at 7:15 am
I have the same problem, everything was ok except that I can NOT drag the ring tone file to Ringtones folder in Libray, it will only be draged and stayed in Music folder in Library
any help would be appreciated
thanks
Hassan
July 1, 2009 at 1:18 am
sorry, I meant to say it wouldn’t budge off the desktop.
Linda
October 8, 2008 at 4:22 pm
hi, also getting stuck section 5, im using xp and when i click on file to rename it only says file track name and nothing else, i even add m4r at the end but this does not work? so frustrating….please help
paul
October 8, 2008 at 9:27 pm
I am stuck like Kym, my computer runs on windows xp… but i can’t change the file type.
Emalina
October 8, 2008 at 9:45 pm
never mind. i found out what to do…
Kym, you need to go to into the itunes music folder and click “tools”. click “folder options”. click the tab “view” and in advanced settings, look for where it says “hide extensions for known file types” and make sure it is unchecked. then you will be able to change the extension type.
Emalina
October 8, 2008 at 10:20 pm
I have the file at 30 seconds it is showing in the ringtone folder on my phone and in itunes. But the ringtone does not show as an option on my phone. any ideas
jared
October 9, 2008 at 1:35 am
Okay, I’ve completed all of the steps and I can see that the newly created ringtones are in my iTunes folder as well as on my phone when I browse to that location from within iTunes, however, the songs simply do not appear in my phone itself when I go into settings and try to select a new ringtone. Only the standard ones are in there. I manually loaded the songs over into my ringtones because it says that if I sync I will lose all of the default rings already in my phone. Is this true? Must I actually “sync” to get them to appear?
CTG
October 9, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Im the same as Jared ringtone shows in itunes and in ringtones folder of my phone on itunes but doesn’t show up on my phone.
Brendan
October 9, 2008 at 3:20 pm
i have the same problem as jared, it doesnt show up on my phone
Moon
October 9, 2008 at 3:45 pm
To show the extentions you need to open EXPLORER, in the menu TOOLS, choose FOLDER OPTIONS, EXIBITION MODE, and uncheck the box that says “hide extentions of known files”.
Marcelo BsB
October 9, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Well after i dragged it onto my destop and clicked on properties i don’t see the extenstion part and i couldn’t change it to .m4r so is there another way i can do this.
Pazao
October 9, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Well after I dragged the song to my desktop and clicked on properties i couldn’t find the extension part so then i couldn’t change the .m4a to .m4r so is there another way.
Pazao
October 9, 2008 at 9:04 pm
i got my songs from my cd but the computer tells me i can only create ringtones with songs purchased by itunes
phyli
October 9, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Hey, Pazao
Please refer to the comment from Marcelo BsB on #19.
daniel
October 10, 2008 at 1:12 am
THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!
AMY
October 10, 2008 at 4:44 am
TO LINDA, I had the same problem – go to the Ringtones library, press CTRL + O to add a file to library and import your ringtone that way. I now have my clip on my phone!
John
October 10, 2008 at 6:27 am
When I try to convert to acc version it tells me it cannot change protected files to other formats. Am i missing somthing
Ryan
October 10, 2008 at 11:38 am
Oh god thank you soo much! I cant thank you enough!
Laura
October 11, 2008 at 2:39 am
Works great! Thanks Heaps!!!!
Tristan
October 11, 2008 at 3:42 am
This is awesome, at first I had the same problem as Linda. It would not show up in the iTunes ringtones section. Turns out you can’t just edit the file name and affix .m4r at the end. For Windows XP users you should to put it in a folder go to TOOLS, choose FOLDER OPTIONS, EXIBITION MODE, then you can see the file extension and change it.
Steve
October 12, 2008 at 2:12 am
Okay, so i made the song 30 seconds then AAC, then dropped it into the desktop, and I’m on Vista so the only way i could find out how to convert it was to open it with notepad then save as m4r. but once i double clicked on the new file that even says ringtone right on it, it won’t open up into itunes…
Mike
October 12, 2008 at 3:35 am
Hello all. I am having the same problem as Kym and Pazao. I have tried both solutions 14 & 19. Am running Windows Vista and usually use Firefox (version 3.0.3) but have tried with Explorer (versions 7.0.6) as well.
Solution 14 ~ First problem. Can’t even find “tools” under itunes music folder.
Solutions 19 ~ Can’t find “Folder Options” or “exibition mode.”
Bottom line, it appears i need to uncheck the box that says “hide extentions of known files.” Just can’t seem to find that in Vista. I will keep checking updates on this page and will post my solution once i have one!
thank you to all in advance for your help!
gabe
gabe
October 12, 2008 at 7:37 pm
got it! OK, the problem was i couldn’t find my Folder Options. I ended up simply searching “hide extensions of known files” and it walked me step-by-step.
1). Folder Options.
2). Select the “View” tab.
3). Make sure the “Hide extensions for known file types” box is unchecked. “Apply.”
Simple as that. So that’s how one allows the ability to change file extensions for Vista. Hope this helps someone else.
happy ringtone making!
gabe
October 12, 2008 at 9:49 pm
And the “FOLDER OPTIONS” are under “Organize…” Together we are getting it! haha.
Charlsie
May 5, 2009 at 3:40 am
Folder OPtions can be found on the control panel
Christie
May 21, 2009 at 4:05 am
Yeah, I cant get it to convert, after AAC version, it wont convert, then I got one on the desktop and it didn’t have a name section, That I could find
Lily
October 13, 2008 at 4:42 am
Hey Guys & Gals,
I have converted my mp3 to an ACC file and renamed it. I have then imported this into Itunes 8.0.1 on my Macbook Pro and can see the ringtones section, but whenever I drag this to the ringtones tab to sync with my iphone, nothing appears! I get the plus symbol as I am dragging, but no file is moved! Can somebody help?
Thanks in advance,
amo
October 13, 2008 at 3:09 pm
I have the same problem, everything was ok except that I can NOT drag the ring tone file to Ringtones folder in Libray, it will only be draged and stayed in Music folder in Library
any help would be appreciated
thanks
Why the ring tone file m4r does not stay on the Ringtones folder in library…I am exhausted hehehe
Hassan
July 1, 2009 at 1:24 am
Figured it out! I was converting my selection to an Aiff file not Acc, Doh!
amo
October 13, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Works great thank you!!!!
Stephen
October 13, 2008 at 4:57 pm
I have done this all the way through to have the ringtones in I tunes but I cannot move them to ringtones on my phone by syncing.Any ideas?
robert
October 13, 2008 at 5:32 pm
I battled with this (and cursed alot) It definately seems to have something to do with length of the ringtone – anything over 30 seconds does not show in my sync file even though it is in my ringtones in itunes…the shorter ones under 30 sec do show AND ARE NOW ON MY IPHONE – WOOHOO
Rach
May 19, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Great Info.. Werks like a charm..
Thanks
Dave
October 13, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Wow, clear, concise, and very helpful instructions. Simply wonderful. Thank you.
CD
October 13, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Say you don’t sync your music…can you still import the ringtone?
Nick
October 13, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Thanks alot for the instructions. You were right on.
I was able to transfer ringtones from my old razr to my shiny new iphone.
David
October 13, 2008 at 11:39 pm
awesoooome!!!! thanks so much
iphone2
October 15, 2008 at 3:15 am
That was easy, thank you very much, i did make some mistakes but then i read again all your instructions and it works on me. GREAT! THANKS A LOT! NOW I have downloaded and sychronized 17 total ringtones on my i-phone and im very happy!
Ghie
October 15, 2008 at 12:25 pm
i have converted it and is on my desktop but can dragg to itunes
hakeem
October 15, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Great instructions.
Note: For all you folks who can sync their ringtones but do not see them listed on your iphone. Make sure when you select AAC format that you choose the ‘High Quality (128kbps)’ option. If you choose the ‘Higher Quality (256kbps)’ option you will not see them in the iphone ringtone list.
Paul
October 15, 2008 at 7:06 pm
that fixed it
thanks
s
April 28, 2009 at 3:26 am
fucking legend!
Cameron
April 30, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Paul how do i change from 256 to 128?
Pete
June 23, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Thank you so much for this. Very well laid out and works perfectly. ^^
chrisquill
October 16, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Hello guys.
This is killing me. I have done evrything, but the rintones do not appear on my iphone. The ringtones are 128 bit rate, I can see them on the ringtones folder in my library, but do not get synced and they cannot be dragged into the ringtones folder on the iphone. I have iPhone 3g and I am using itunes 8 on XP. Please help.
Vassilis
Vassilis
October 16, 2008 at 6:56 pm
THANK YOU
I’ve been looking for a way not to pay Apple for the ringtones.
Great tutorial. It worked for me!!!
Thanks again
Jorge
October 17, 2008 at 12:16 am
hey im using windows vista and i get stuck at step 5 trying to convert the file from .m4a to .m4r can you help me get around that?????
eric
October 17, 2008 at 1:01 am
Thanks, worked like a charm.
amos
October 17, 2008 at 1:40 pm
to Eric,to change the extensions in vista go to any folder press alt and you will see the the menu then go to tools>folder options>view then uncheck the option “hide the extension of known files” ,now go to the .m4a,right click,properties and rename it as .m4r and step 5 is done,forany further help on anything related to iphone or vista mail me karanreloaded@aol.com,
karan jagga
October 17, 2008 at 11:54 pm
I got the files on the iphone and it works. I have a problem that all the files get randomly converted to one of the many files. For example, if i had songs a b c and d. It will show up as a a a and a. or b b b and b. and so on……
Well at least i can load one at a time i guess
Chuvi
October 18, 2008 at 8:59 am
i m
using windows xp and i m unable to change the extension name after the ringtone is on desktop plsss help i m using i phone 3g 8 gb
anusha
June 15, 2009 at 12:24 pm
got there in the end.THANKS!!!! FANTASTIC
Jerry
October 18, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Hi Vassilis
Make sure you cut the songs to less than or equal to 30 secs….
Though i moved to iphone 3g ringtone folder i can’t see them in the phone under settings -> sounds -> ringtone please help
susheel
October 19, 2008 at 6:22 am
that was easy,Great tutorial…. Thanks a lot…
Adel
October 19, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Thanks for this. It worked great!
Frankie Snips
October 19, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Running vista. See pt 32. that helped. When trying to drag and drop from desktop, despite seeing the +sign, does not appear in itunes ringtone folder, even though it appears as a ringtone on desktop. Tried the import command too. That didn’t work either.
Sen
October 19, 2008 at 9:41 pm
29 secs is the answer!!!!!!
Sen
October 19, 2008 at 10:49 pm
29 secs is the answer!!!!!!
Works great
Sen
October 19, 2008 at 10:50 pm
great tutorial guys but u might want to put the fixes found on comments on the main page so that you don’t have to look at all the comments. Thanks again great tutorial!
josh
October 20, 2008 at 4:22 am
Hi, i’m having same difficulty as Vassilis.
I’ve followed every instruction but the ringtome isn’t selectable on my iphone. I’ve checked through all these comments too to rule out any silly mistakes.
Anyone got any ideas.
Tony
October 20, 2008 at 7:32 pm
sussed it – you leave a space between the file name and the extension, for example: -
05 What – Street Judy .m4r
Tony
October 20, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Hi all,
Please tell me where the rigtones will be saved.. i can able to see the ringtones if i connect to the itunes but not in the phone
susheel
October 21, 2008 at 4:06 am
youre the shit! this worked great!
Leo
October 21, 2008 at 6:47 pm
hi all, i followed the steps and i created my 1st own ringtone. wow! it really works!!!
Rain
October 22, 2008 at 2:27 am
Same thing here.
Everything is done, except the last step, the ringtone won’t go to the iphone.
Encoded: AAC 128
Ringtong time: <30s
My iphone: 3G fw2.1
Tam
October 22, 2008 at 6:34 am
Works a treat! Best advise on The Web for doing this!!!!
Ta Ta
Paul
October 22, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Hi great help, I do have 1 problem i have managed to do everything but i have only managed to get 3 ringtones on my custom ringtones. how can i get more?
Michelle
October 22, 2008 at 7:28 pm
i succeeded to getting the ringtone to play under “sounds” on iphone but it does NOT play when a call comes in, despite being selected as ringtone. apple says it won’t work unless i pay them for a ringtone. decided to bring iphone back. having to pay these greedy *&^%#$@! for ringtones is an insult. screw apple.
jay
October 22, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Daniel, I owe you a drink!
It took a while but I maanged it – and your instructions were really easy to follow.
Thank you!!
Fizz
October 23, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Many thanks for this. It worked like a charm.
beerandburritos
October 23, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Hi, thanks for this – great tutorial.
Can someone help me with this… I can see the ringtone in my ‘Ringtones’ tab, but when I try to sync it to put it on the phone I keep getting “Are you sure you want to Sync Ringtones? All existing songs, movies etc on the iphone will be removed”.
Obviously don’t want to do this! Any ideas of how to get around this?
Thanks.
scrumpy
October 24, 2008 at 3:38 pm
I have done every step and i cant get my song to go under ringtones in itunes. I have even done ctrl + O and it still doesnt work. My song is less than 30 sec too. I dont know what else to do?
Alicia
October 25, 2008 at 1:31 am
I cant do step 5 it doesnt come up went i go to properties
Jason
October 25, 2008 at 7:34 am
I am stuck on step 5 and it does not show me the option to change it
Jason
October 25, 2008 at 8:03 am
i am working with itunes 8 and i go through all the steps to create ringtones and it works just fine then when I go to sync my phone the ringtones don’t appear. What am I doing wrong? Help….please!
Jennifer
October 25, 2008 at 5:59 pm
AWESOME I have Vista and had a few problems renaming the file, but once I read the reminder on how to show the file name option in Vista. I converted the file from .m4a or .m4r and it worked like a dream!
Thanks so much!
Kathryn
October 25, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Thanks, Much appreciated!
Nick
October 26, 2008 at 1:57 am
I am running into the problem where the ringtone seems to sync to my phone (according to iTunes), but when I go to Settings > Sounds > Ringtone on the iPhone, it is not listed. Anyone solve this issue?
Iffy
October 26, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Hmm, So I deleted the “clipped” version from my library and renamed the new ringtone version and synced again and that got my new ringtone to show up in the custom list. I don’t know which of those things did the trick, if any of them. It could have been cosmic rays.
Iffy
October 26, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Ok so I was having the same problem – it would show up in my Ringtones folder under my iPhone, but it would not show up *on* the actual iPhone. So I went back, changed the settings to 128kbps, deleted all previous versions, and started from scratch. MAKE SURE YOU DELETE THE CLIPPED .m4a file or your ringtone won’t show up. If you don’t want to sync everything, on your iPhone Summary Screen, check only the last box, “Manually manage music and videos.” This will allow you to drag and drop only the files you want. Just keep playing with it. Follow the directions exactly. Also, try searching for this subject on YouTube – I’ve found helpful videos that show you exactly what you need to do.
sublimeshack
June 10, 2009 at 1:35 am
I have made a ringtone before and everything worked fine, now all of a sudden it doesn’t work anymore. I have iTumes 8 and when I go to “convert file to ACC” it says “could not be converted because protected files cannot be converted to other formats” Someone PLEASE help me!!
Thanks
Vicky
October 27, 2008 at 2:28 pm
sorry I meants “convert to AAC”
Vicky
October 27, 2008 at 2:29 pm
For those of you who have a 3G and get the ringtone into the library ringtones folder but can’t get it to sync into the phone, the trick is to click on the phone name in iTunes, click on the “Ringtones” tab, then enable “sync all ringtones.”
Donnydidit
October 28, 2008 at 7:29 pm
how do i change to an m4r?
nick
October 29, 2008 at 2:37 am
OMG, c’mon people… the instructions are pretty self explanitory and very easy to follow…
Vicky, you cannot convert protected songs, unprotect the song first.
Danial
October 29, 2008 at 5:06 am
Hi, I did every step. I synced my phone, went to my settings and then sounds and then ringtone, but none of the songs are on there. What happened? The songs are listed under ringtones in my itunes and I synced all ringtones, but it’s still not on my phone.
Sherry
October 30, 2008 at 6:07 am
OK, perhaps this means I’m thick as sh*t, but I just can’t get the ringtone into my ringtone folder. Can anyone help please? It’s driving me nuts!
Linda
October 30, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Linda: I was having the same problem and was going nuts. I discovered one step I was missing, which was to DELETE the ringtone from my iTunes Library. In other words, originally I was doing 1) Convert 2) Drag to desktop 3) Change extension 4) Drag to iTunes….and nothing would happen. But I had been skipping 2A) Delete file from iTunes library. I did that, and now when I drag the file in from my desktop, it goes to ringtones. Hope this helps?
Zachary
June 17, 2009 at 10:40 pm
ok so i am also using vista… i finally got the file extention changed.. all you have to do is go to. tools.. if you dont see it …you simly have to go to organize.. you will see… Layout..click on menu Bar…now that your menu bar is there you will see tools..Proceed into selecting Folder options..then go to the Tab that says: View.. in that you scroll down and unclick “Hide extensions for known file types. and when you are finished.. press ok.. after you will see next to organize.. select view until it is listed.. or jus click on the arrow next to view and select list.. there you can find the file and change the extension..i hope it helps.. caz it helped me.. but i havent check yet if it goes to ringtones yet or not.. but i am thinking it should.. but will update you on any issues that may occur
Kissimey
October 31, 2008 at 3:39 am
hey ok so after changing the file ext. i double click and yes it fell right under ringtones.. but i havent tried synching as yet.. i will update you on that too..wink
Kissimey
October 31, 2008 at 3:41 am
ok so it didnt exactly synch.. said it couldnt find the song.. but seeing that its under ringtones… i went on to the iphone..and selected synch ringtones.. then i clicked on.. only selected ringtones.. and it works for now.. i guess its cause it wouldnt mix it up with the whole songs that are in the library.. yea thats nice.. anyways imma update yall on what happens when i go check it out on my iphone..sorry for being so partial.. its just that am doin it and taking you there sttep by step with me..
Kissimey
October 31, 2008 at 3:47 am
ok so i synched my iphone.. and i went to settings under sounds.. i see the song that i made as a ringtone.. it falls under “Custom”…yippeeee for me.. i must say thanks to “Karran Jagga” i’m out peoples.. if i have any problems..later on with incoming calls.. i will let you know.. for now i’m out.. thanks again.. hope my input helped some how.
Kissimey
October 31, 2008 at 3:52 am
I had to delete the ACC file from my music library before I could drag the m4r file from the desktop to the ringtones folder. I am running Vista and iTunes 8.
cowgirl1228
October 31, 2008 at 4:30 am
every step worked fine, i put 5 custom rings in, but when i went in my phone to make sure everything worked all 5 rings were the same as the last. does this mean i can only have 1 ringtone at a time? i need help
tasha
October 31, 2008 at 5:05 am
for ex. the last tone i put in was Beat it.
i had previously put in:
thriller
baby got back
addicted
madonna
this is what i saw after i put them all in
beat it
beat it
beat it
beat it
beat it
i delete beat it & this is what it shows:
thriller
thriller
thriller
thriller
tasha
October 31, 2008 at 5:09 am
did you figure out what to do with your problem? I have the same…
swazip
June 6, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Thanks for this tutorial. Worked like a charm. Brilliant.
Than You
November 1, 2008 at 1:17 am
Ok done everything but at the end when i double click the file it opens under music and i just cant get it in to the ringtones file in my library please help iv tried everything and now im ready to take my iphone back to the shop and through it at them. please help!!!!!!!!!
Carl
November 1, 2008 at 9:09 pm
For the ones who dont see the ringtones in the phone but see it in itunes, when you have your iphone connected to itunes and go under the iphones ringtones tab, you’ll see the custome ringtones you made, making you think it should be on the phone, but if you look closely, you’ll see the boxes next to each ringtone are not checked. So, select the manually manage ringtones option under ringtones, check all the boxes, and viola, they should be on your phone
hosh
November 2, 2008 at 6:14 pm
If iTunes says the ringtones you’re syncing cannot be found, make sure that when you delete the clipped version from the library (as in instruction #4)choose “Keep File” not “Put in recycle bin”. Hope this helps.
Kkrapps
November 3, 2008 at 8:35 am
Ahhhh this ring tone lark is doin my head in. I’ve got the itunes 8, all up to date and running on vista, could someone give me a full on dumbed down guide on what to do because it feels like i’ve tried everything and still I’m stuck with marimba as my ringtone, booo!
Matt
November 3, 2008 at 11:03 pm
If anyone is having problems getting the ringtone to appear in their iPhone ringtones folder then do this:
Goto the physical location of your mp3 [i.e. \music\ringtones]
Copy it and rename it leaving a space between the name and .m4r [i.e. MyRingtone .m4r]
Add this back into iTunes and remove the original.
Re-sync iPhone and it will appear
Avatars
November 4, 2008 at 10:15 am
Thank you. It took a bit of tweaking but I got it to work.
If you are having problems here is what I had to do:
I am using a Mac with OS X
I had an issue with getting the file into the ringtones file on iTunes. I had to delete the copy of the clipped version that was in iTunes. Then empty my trash. Then click on the one on my desktop so it would play in iTunes. At this point it showed up in ringtones on iTunes. When it works it will open the file in the Ringtone folder NOT the Music folder.
Next Problem
The ringtone is showing up in the ringtone folder for the iPhone (3G) in iTunes 8. I checked the “sync ringtones”, “selected ringtones” and then checked the one I made in the list. I sync and when I go to the ringtones on the iphone it is not there as an option. I did two things. First, for one of the ringtones I had to make it 15sec not 17sec like I had it at first. Some of the other ones I made are 29sec and worked fine. One of them I had to ad RT to the front of the file name. For example “RT tone.m4r”
Good luck!
Sarah
November 5, 2008 at 4:24 am
Okay i found the tools option on explorer but there is no folder options listed…i can change if format and im tired of my standard ring tones too!! i have vista and just updated the internet to explorer 8
Jay
November 5, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Awesome, thanks. ;D
Gavin
November 5, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Awesome thanks so much…worked a treat
MarkyMark
November 6, 2008 at 11:12 am
thanks again daniel, this is awesome! up to 102 ringtones.
gabe
November 6, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Chuvi Says:
October 18, 2008 at 8:59 am
I got the files on the iphone and it works. I have a problem that all the files get randomly converted to one of the many files. For example, if i had songs a b c and d. It will show up as a a a and a. or b b b and b. and so on……
Well at least i can load one at a time i guess
Im having the same exact problem! I created 10 different ringtones but they show as one ringtone over and over in my iphone!!!
Any help would be appreciated !
Jay
November 7, 2008 at 5:07 am
i cannot find the name and extesnion section of properties (step 5) i am using xp, what am i doing wronng?
ronnie
November 7, 2008 at 8:40 am
the only thing i can’t do is change the .m4a to .m4r. i’m on vista. if anyone can help me you’ll have a friend for life. i’ve had to resort to silent all the time since all the iphone ringtones are so embarassing!
Matt
November 7, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Daniel,
How do you unprotect downloaded songs, when I try to convert to AAC version get a message saying protected songs can’t be converted. Im running itunes 8 on vista business. Have been able to create and sync ringtones using your steps with existing songs on itunes, works a treat. cheers G
Garth
November 7, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Hi, Garth
Please refer to the following post to get the answer:
http://itunesm4ptomp3.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/remove-itunes-drm-windows-mac/
daniel
November 8, 2008 at 2:33 am
For all you who have converted the file correctly into Itunes but synched to Iphone and can’t find it there, make sure in the Iphone settings-ringtones that it can sync. The other trick try to cut the song to 28 or 29 seconds long.
Axel
November 9, 2008 at 11:30 am
OK Guys Sussed the not syncing with iphones problem!!!!
The trick is that once the song is in your ringtones list in itunes, right click and “Get Info”, the go to “Info” tab, then rename the Name to something unique in your library IE, not the name you clipped so if your song was “mysong” call it “mysong3 or whatever, so i believe the problem is unique naming in your itunes library.
Julian
November 9, 2008 at 3:47 pm
hey i just download the itune 8.0 but i don’t have a ringtone icon. so i can’t load the song into that folder…
will
November 9, 2008 at 6:16 pm
I get to the part where I have to convert to a AAC, and have to go to edit>perference>import>AAC encoder. I click on it and nothing. I go to check the iTunes Music folder nothing is in there.
I’m Running Vista.
Thank you!
Riki
November 11, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Excellent stuff Dan. Got it first time with no problems at all – keep up the good work!!
Bal
November 11, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Daniel,
I’m having the same problem as Matt on post #99 & #108. I run Itunes 8.0 (updated) on vista and the only thing i can’t do is change the .m4a to .m4r. After that it will not open with itunes and I can’t drag and drop into it either. I do not want to give up.
H E L P !!!!!!!!!!
Randy
November 13, 2008 at 4:30 am
Thats OK Daniel I finally got it
Thanks
Randy
November 13, 2008 at 4:55 am
Hi,
i’m doing all the steps correctly but i can’t seem to add the song to Ringtones…
help please
Huon
November 13, 2008 at 10:09 am
Ok I looked at the properties of the song in iTunes and it says the file path is C:\Documents and settings\user\desktop\songname.m4r.m4a
so its not actually changing file extension even though ive typed it there… how can i change it?
Huon
November 13, 2008 at 10:14 am
To Julian,
Many thanks. I had the non-appearance of ringtones on my iPhone problem too. Your renaming in the Get Info section was the only solution that worked!
Ta.
Jane
November 13, 2008 at 11:38 pm
thanks for this, it’s been the most useful tutorial that i’ve found.
lupine
November 14, 2008 at 10:02 am
~*very helpful website. every step was very accurate. thank you alot! i hope they dont update itunes8! BRILLIANT! GENIUS! i have no problems with my ringtones. iphone 3G, 32GB. you are the man baby!!!*~
~*Remmy*~
November 15, 2008 at 12:43 am
hey ive managed to change the file to an m4r but i dont have a ringtones folder on itunes, any ideas? thanks
Scott
November 15, 2008 at 11:17 am
my ringtones work upto 39 seconds
Scott
November 15, 2008 at 11:23 am
Wow thanks! I finally got it to work after having the same problems as some of it not showing under settings on the iphone. I put my track to 29 seconds (from 30) and did as Julian directed of renaming the file in itunes using Get Info. Those two things sorted it. So happy thanks very much (and maybe Apple will finally allow us in the UK to buy tracks as well which would be helpful).
cozmicstar
November 16, 2008 at 8:57 pm
I have followed all of the steps, converted the file correctly, but when I double click on the file, it will not load to itunes.. I have read all of the posts and tried all of the solutions, not working for me.. using itunes 8.0.0.35
Darrell
November 17, 2008 at 1:47 am
Hey,
Thanks heaps I had to stuff around a bit to get it to go. I found that keeping the file length to 29 sec and renaming the the file once its in your itunes ringtone folder works. I had the same problem with not being able to see the ringtone in my iphone.
Thanks again
Teresa
November 18, 2008 at 10:27 am
Great series of posts – thanks to all who contribute. Key elements which worked for me were 1) shorten ‘tune’ to 29 secs 2)convert to AAC 3)rename file extension 4) delete all previous copies of ‘tune’ from i tunes Libraries – double clicking on ‘tune’ from desktop puts it straight into Ringtones on the iTunes Library. Then a normal Ringtones synch puts it into custom ringtones on iPhone. Thanks again folks.
Doug
November 18, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Same problem that Darrel had. iTunes 8.0.1.11
Matt
November 18, 2008 at 2:28 pm
The instructions have been clear as a bell, but one step was missing that has been driving me crazy. Julian in post 112 finally solved my problem. That is, everything looked right, but the sync didn’t load a ringtone. The extra step – while you do the rename to change the extension (m4a to m4r), also rename the song (Beatles – Hello Goodbye to Hello Goodbye) or whatever. But keeping it the same name (for me) prevented a successful sync. I now have it. Hooray!
Bob
November 18, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Hi,
I cannot complete this section …
5. Go back the song on your desktop and right click on your song and choose “Properties”. Go to the name and extension section and change the extension from .m4a to .m4r (or you can just change the extension right from your desktop).
I have no option to change the extension. Any ideas?
Gary McBlain
November 18, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Stuck on the last step
the ringtone won’t appear in my iphone
Lydiaris
November 18, 2008 at 8:08 pm
if you are using Vista:
go to start
go to computer
hit the ALT key once
a menu will appear at the top by the addy bar
go to tools
then to folder option
go to view
uncheck the box that says:hide extensions for known file types
click ok
now click once on the music file thats on your desktop
click again
the ability to change the file name and extension appears.
PoKa
November 20, 2008 at 5:58 am
i have done all that and when i try to put it under the ringtone section on my itunes it just doesnt do anything it wont go in there i have done all the steps is there anyway you can help me
parker
November 20, 2008 at 8:37 am
i have done all that but when i try to put it under the ringtone section it wont work it wont go in the folder i have done all the steps correctly ive checked a few times is there anyone who can help me fix this
parker
November 20, 2008 at 8:39 am
As far as step 5……
in XP you have to perform the Rename. You cannot rename a file from the properties in XP.
Rename it as described from .m4a to .m4r
Have a good day
MW
November 20, 2008 at 2:35 pm
After renaming to .m4r in XP then double click on it and with the .m4r association XP will automatically put it into itunes.
Make sure you option for showing “Ringtones” is on as shown above and you will find it listed there.
Also after you Sync you will find a Ringtones folder created under your device view in itunes.
Regards.
MW
November 20, 2008 at 2:36 pm
re: ringones folder in iTunes.
After renaming to .m4r in XP then double click on it and with the .m4r association XP will automatically put it into itunes.
Make sure you option for showing “Ringtones” is on as shown above and you will find it listed there.
Also after you Sync you will find a Ringtones folder created under your device view in itunes.
Regards.
MW
November 20, 2008 at 2:37 pm
OMG, will someone please help me? I read all the posting and I did everything possible, but for some reason I cannot drag it from my desktop to the ringtones section on itunes. It won’t go in. If i just double click on the tune it opens up the original song in itunes and starts playing it. the one I made is less than 30 secs long. I even renamed it and that didn’t work.
I’m using itunes 8 and Mac OS X 10.5.5………Please help me
danmar_1
November 22, 2008 at 1:09 am
ok, have done absolutely everything. my ringtune is on my ipod part of my iphone, but when I go into settings on my iphone it is not there. I have done everything but itunes won’t let me drag this tune into the actual iphone ringtunes folder. My husband has given up in disgust but I have to get a new ringtone! Please help…
jo
November 23, 2008 at 5:53 am
tried something else i found called ring ring and i downloaded my new ringtone in about 1 minute!!!
jo
November 23, 2008 at 6:40 am
One problem that I had was once I had the ringtone in my library, it would not sync to my iphone. I just discovered out that under the properties for the iPhone, for ringtones, I had not checked the box to sync my iPhone ringtones with iTunes. Once I did, everything went fine.
mgd
November 23, 2008 at 6:42 pm
One Real important Step is to make sure you delete the converted AAC from itunes Right after you drag it on the desktop or else it won’t show up when you try syncing the phone.
AD
November 24, 2008 at 1:42 am
I tried this under 8.0.2.20 with an iPhone 3G using 2.2 upgrade and when I sync, it says that the file could not be found.
John, Orinda, CA
November 24, 2008 at 9:20 pm
i saw theres a new update for the iphone will that affect the ringtones ive already made? does anyone know?
Vincent Chase
November 24, 2008 at 11:29 pm
i saw theres a new update for the iphone will that affect the ringtones ive already made? does anyone know?
Vincent Chase
November 24, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Thanks alot man for this guide!
ahsi
November 26, 2008 at 6:20 pm
my ringtone shows on my phone under custom ringtone but does not work as a tone, its driving me mad! i have done everything right and if i play the m4r track on phone it plays the tune, just not when used as ringtone
paul
November 26, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Ronnie, You dont have to look for extesnion section, YOU CAN JUST DO RIGHT CLICK ON DESKTOP AND CLICK ON REMAN AND CHANGE IT TO “m4r” hope this will hello you good luck. Matt you can do same as Ronnie, Good Luck
smile
November 27, 2008 at 12:36 am
Guys, If you are having problem with the last step which the songs not showing in your ringtone folder in IPHONE.
Just change the songs lenght to 29sec. and you will be laughing….IT WORKS…
Cheers,
emre
November 27, 2008 at 1:40 am
You can not convert the songs you buy from iTunes but you can convert the ones you got in other ways i.e. dodgy
…. isnt Apple missing something there??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It seems to me that they encourage to get the songs in other ways rather than buy through iTunes …. The fact that I can not do whatever I like with the songs I buy means I will not buy them through iTunes anymore 
)))
Manix
November 27, 2008 at 5:57 pm
someone there mentioned that they only get 3 ringtones uploded onto the iPhone … I had the same problem and resolved it by going to iPhone properties> ringtones> and manualy select everyringtone insted of selecting synchronise all …
Hope that helps
Manix
November 27, 2008 at 6:59 pm
for all who are having issues getting the ringtone to show up on the phone…not only does the song length matter, but apparently the size of the file matters as well. you can have a file that is 29 seconds long and be too large for the phone to recognize it. try saving time off the ringtone, thus making the file smaller. it might just work for you as it did for me.
bigal
November 28, 2008 at 3:13 am
very nice tutorial
didnt work until i read the tutorial correctly
and changed the file types to .m4r
very nice and very easy
thank you
Lawl3ss
November 28, 2008 at 10:24 pm
i finally found the solution to the problem in which the ring tones appears in the itunes but not in the iphone…(iphone 3g)
In its new update apple removed custom ringtone options…those fuckers…
I cud’nt help but notice that the files which were appearing before no longer did…so there cant be any problem with the file …
actually what happens is, when you press the sync button it starts syncing…(if you r fast enough) u will notice all your files(ringtones) appear under the custom ringtones menu…
but suddenly a second sync starts automatically …thereby removing all the custom ringtones…
You just have to be fast enough to remove the usb from iphone before the second sync starts…
note: it wont alter other files(music/videos) as in 2nd sync only ringtones are removed….
P.s. Credit goes to me…heheh
cheers
vulcan
November 29, 2008 at 4:30 pm
I have no idea on how to change the extension file from m4a to m4r. I cant find out how to change it. Can anyone help me out?
JP
November 30, 2008 at 1:42 am
Never mind!, I read some of your comments and figured it out, from all your help. THANKS!
JP
November 30, 2008 at 2:13 am
Thank you all so much. At first I had some problems but then I read some posts with similar problems and I finally got it to work. Thanks again.
ALG
November 30, 2008 at 3:19 am
I have Iphone 2G and the most updated Itunes 8.02 and Firmware. This tutorial is just like about 6 or 7 of the ones I read and followed, exception this one is more detailed, which for a dummie like is great. I cant get the option to Create AAC file, by right clicking or using Advanced. Using Advance it is greyed out. It is very possible that I might actually screwing the first step. I have done Get Info, clicked both boxes and set it up at :25 secs. When I do Ok it is not changed in Itunes and neither is there a duplicate version with the right length. Either way I keep following the steps by step and not getting the results, dont know if it is because of the new updates or Usererror. Any help would be great.
Storm
December 1, 2008 at 5:58 am
hey guys, trying to figure out how to convert the file from mp4 to m4r format on Windows XP. Simply choosing the option to rename the file does not actually change the file type and therefore prevents me from importing it as a ringtone into itunes. Any advice on how to convert the file type in windows XP?
matt
December 2, 2008 at 12:45 am
oh and i forgot to mention i am using an iphone 2G, not sure if that makes a difference..
matt
December 2, 2008 at 12:50 am
I went to 6 different sources and this is the best one. Thanks!
ER
December 2, 2008 at 9:54 am
1/2 hour of frustration with other sites and videos, this page for a minute and free ringtones on my phone. thanks!
WordDawg
December 3, 2008 at 7:42 am
Great TUT
Works perfect
Many thanks
John
Jman
December 4, 2008 at 11:26 am
Mate – all class, many thanks. An easy fix for a problem itunes should be handling directly rather than chasing the dollars…your a champ!!!!
Ben
December 4, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Thank you very much!
Follow your instruction, I made it successed!
and I had tried the ringtone can last for 40 seconds!!!
Thank you
助けてくれて、どうもありがとうございました。これから、自分のiPhoneをもっと活用できるようになりましたね！＾ｗ＾
kaiton
December 4, 2008 at 10:31 pm
[...] A friend of mine (Thanks Adam), who is a windows user, has used it successfully. Please follow the link. Rgds [...]
Iphone ringtone maker???? - AVForums.com
December 5, 2008 at 4:39 am
Thanks so much guys!!! After I worked through all the problems it works like a charm!
ewallace
December 5, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Ringtones & Itunes 8 with OSX
1. Find song in itunes
2. Get info cmd + I
3. Select the time start and stop of the song you want under “options”, most seem to work with 25-30sec, 40 is possible, click OK
4. Go to itunes menu, click “advanced” and on the dropdown menu “Create AAC version”
5. An identical version should appear, of the length specified. Drag this to your desktop, erase the AAC version from itunes, empty your trash.
6. Go to your desktop and click on the song, then Cmd + I, Change the extension from m4a to m4r (maybe leave a space before the .m4r, haven’t checked wether this is neccesary, won’t hurt)
7. Double click on the desktop ringtone to import into Itunes, it should start playing in the ringtones folder.
8. Sync with your iphone, it should work fine.
Just my 2c…
David
December 6, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Please Help!!! Ive got the same problem as Matt.
Simply renaming the file from mp4 to m4r does not change the
format for XP. I would love for this to work.
Please Help!!!
David
December 7, 2008 at 10:17 am
I have iTunes 8.0.2.20 and the iPhone software version 2.2. I did exactly what you said here and made the ringtone, but it doesn’t show up on my list of ringtones in my phone. It didn’t work. What do I do now?
Colleen
December 7, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Worked perfect first time using Leopard and Itunes 8 ..many thanks!!
Tanya
December 7, 2008 at 7:52 pm
I have the same problem Colleen.
I think it has to do with the iPhone software update 2.2 as Vulcan pointed out.
Have to wait for a crack!
Tokes
December 8, 2008 at 8:20 am
i need help cant wout figure it
tristan
December 9, 2008 at 3:03 am
Sweet
Thank You
Martin
December 9, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Colleen and Tokes,
Before you click on the .m4r file to open it in itunes, make sure to delete the AAC version. If you forgot to do that, it won’t show up in the ringtones playlist. That might be your only problem.
Josie
December 10, 2008 at 7:26 am
you guys rock hardcore friggen legends 29 seconds is the key
REECE
December 10, 2008 at 8:45 am
Thanks Daniel. I had been trying to figure out how to get ringtones on my iphone without having to pay a fee for music I aleady own. I have vista
32-bit, itunes 8.0.2.20 and iphone ver. 2.2 and your instructions worked perfectly. the Ringtones i creadted show up on my ringtone list on phone.
IT WORKS! ENJOY, EVERYONE!
omega9tnine
December 11, 2008 at 7:46 am
uhh.,
if you create a ringtone do you delete the original song?
david
December 11, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Kissimey Says:
October 31, 2008 at 3:39 am
ok so i am also using vista… i finally got the file extention changed.. all you have to do is go to. tools.. if you dont see it …you simly have to go to organize.. you will see… Layout..click on menu Bar…now that your menu bar is there you will see tools..Proceed into selecting Folder options..then go to the Tab that says: View.. in that you scroll down and unclick “Hide extensions for known file types. and when you are finished.. press ok.. after you will see next to organize.. select view until it is listed.. or jus click on the arrow next to view and select list.. there you can find the file and change the extension..i hope it helps.. caz it helped me.. but i havent check yet if it goes to ringtones yet or not.. but i am thinking it should.. but will update you on any issues that may occur
Follow this STEP FOR USING VISTA WILL HELP TO CREAT RINGTONES :ddddddd
smile
December 11, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Can anybody help – followed all the steps, got the ringtone into the phone and set it as the default ringtone, but when the phone is called it doesnt play the custom ringtone – it plays the first standard ringtone (Marimba) instead. Anybody else had this and solved it? Thanks!
Naomi
December 12, 2008 at 9:49 pm
For those who had a problem with [m4r] ringtones not appearing in their iPhone ringtones folder:
——–
Open up your ringtone mp3 file in Quicktime Pro and export it to Wav file. To concept here is to re-create the file so no conflicts will occur.
Give the Wav file a new name (i.e if my file was called myfile.wav rename it to myfile-new.wav).
Drag the new wav file to the Music section.
Right click and “Create AAC Version” from it and a new AAC file will appear below our Wav file.
Drag the listed AAC file to your desktop (or to your costume ringtons folder) and rename it’s extension to m4r.
Delete the listed/converted AAC file from the list and also move it to the recycle bin when asked for this option.
Drag your new m4r file to the ringtones section.
Sync your ringtones folder with your iPhone.
Feel free to delete any wav files you don’t need in the music folder.
** make sure the file is no longer than 29 seconds – it seems that otherwise it’s not recognized on the iPhone. **
————
avshash
December 13, 2008 at 5:09 pm
thank you SO much! This was very helpful!
megan
December 14, 2008 at 5:07 am
Thank U sooo much
Thanker
December 14, 2008 at 8:02 am
Tip and trick….
After all steps are completed, you can see ringtone file under your itune, but you can’t see under your iPhone ringtones tab. That’s because of the song file lenght. Your song file length must be less than 30 sec. That’s all…
Thanks so much for original instructor.
AlinZ
December 14, 2008 at 6:24 pm
I tried and tried and finally realized it was the lenght of the filename that was causing it to not show up on the iphone list. Shortened it on the desktop and also in itunes under Ringtones, get info Name shorten it to 6 letters or so and it worked fine.
Jim
December 16, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Works really well – thanks heaps!
Kev
December 18, 2008 at 9:14 am
wow, this is awesome! I’ve been trying to get ringtones since I bought this phone, I was so fustrated. Then I found this webpage, lifesaver!! the instructions need to be updated a bit, however, the comments & questions are what really helped me out. If your having trouble be sure to read them all one of them is bound to answer your question!! thanks
michelle
December 19, 2008 at 7:18 am
Thanks Jim for the Shorten name hint…FINALLY allowed me to sync to my 3G!
Daniel thanks for this great work-around!
Mark Spaulding
December 19, 2008 at 7:37 am
Look people to if you cannot find the place to change the extension just use the search function if you are using vista and write “folder options” then uncheck. Then simply go on the file that is on your desktop and chance from
“filename.m4a” to “filename.m4r” then double click it and sync.
Helper
December 20, 2008 at 5:17 am
Avatars #100: Your “put a space between the filename and .m4r” trick worked beautifully! I’d been having the same problems as many of the other people here with not getting the renamed file to go into the Ringtones folder, but this solved it. Thanks!
Another Kev
December 20, 2008 at 11:20 pm
For those who cant see the ringtone on the iphone simply change the name of the ringtone in itunes. Click on get info (of the ringtone) and on the info tab change the name. It worked for me =D
Alex
December 21, 2008 at 9:10 pm
how i can download it ??
Domi
December 22, 2008 at 9:22 am
I think you should point out the another side of the topic too… Hats Off to the discussion.
Accident Claims
December 23, 2008 at 4:05 pm
i’ve tried that but i can’t do it becouse i can’t change the a to r i don’t know how to pls help
mart
December 25, 2008 at 7:35 pm
I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!! AFTER 3 DAYS. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LUCERO
December 25, 2008 at 10:50 pm
At comment no. 112 Jullian wrote the key to solving the problem with ringtones no appearing in iphone sounds menu!!!!
Alex
December 25, 2008 at 11:11 pm
I’m running Vista with iphone 3g. THe directions took me 10 minutes to make a ringtone. This is a sweet Christmas gift. Thanks much.
revkent
December 26, 2008 at 4:41 am
hi
please help this is driving me nuts now!
when i create aac file the new version appears in itunes but lenth of it is always 0.00 & i havent a clue what im doing wrong. i am using vista & on itunes 8.
Gareth
December 26, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Oh yes i’ve finally figured it out haha. First i was stuck on converting it coz’ i didn’t know it wouldn’t allow you to do it for purchased songs. and then i got stuck on changing the file from m4a to m4r but know i’ve done it. Yes ;D
Thank you !! [=
AlexandraGrace
December 27, 2008 at 4:55 pm
thanks a lot !
iphone user 191
December 28, 2008 at 4:20 pm
i have completed all the steps and the song is showing up and it will play and select etc, HOWEVER when i have a call it doesnt work??????” please help!!!!!! Thank uuuu
Diamanda
December 28, 2008 at 9:44 pm
I have an unusual problem: I made 3 files and they all go into the iphone itunes window perfectly. I can double click on them and they play fine.
Then I eject the phone and there are 3 ringtones of ONE of the songs. The other two are not there. If I delete a ringtone, then I have 2 of the same ringtones on the phone.
In other words, the phone is reading all of the ringtones as if they were one ringtone. So if I had 20 different ringtones, the phone would say I have 20 of the same ringtone.
Kind of hard to explain and I’m tired to typing the word “ringtone”
Ted
December 29, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Hey.
i tried to make an AAC version, but it says that particular file is protected. any suggestions?
Aspen
December 31, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Hello. If anybody is having trouble getting there ringtone to appear on the phone but they can see it in the ringtone folder, this worked for me.
Goto ringtones folder under the library (not iphone) right click and get info, check all the tabs and remove any song data in there apart from the song name.
This worked for me so im guessing the detail ie album name, track no year etc etc is 2 much for a ringtone
Hope this helps
Davie
January 1, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Thankyou so muchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
I was in desperate need of this!!
January 3, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Okay….. I have created an m4r on my desktop and have tried dragging it into my ringtones folder under my iPhone. It won’t accept it and displays the following: “ringer.m4r was not copied to the iPhone “my iPhone” because it cannot be played on this iPhone”. I tried placing the file in the music section also with the same result. WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING WRONG?????
JustFun2Me2
January 4, 2009 at 6:52 pm
omg Davie u are an absolute hero thank you so much
joe
January 4, 2009 at 11:29 pm
i am having trouble changing the m4a to m4r, when i put it on my desktop i cant change it unless i make a shortcut and then when i try and change it, it doesnt let me it just says,
the name”…..’ specified in the target box is not vaild, make sure the path and the file name are correct?
please help!
Melanie
January 6, 2009 at 2:26 am
Read all 210 posts. Did everything… Still need help.
Have Windows Vista, iTunes 8.0.2.20, iPhone 3G 2.2
Made AAC version 128KBps with 30 secs, 29 secs (approx 520kb file size) AND even 10 secs (225KBps file size)
Renamed file to .m4r also tried putting a space between the filename and extension.
Imported file from my Desktop to iTunes even tried Double-Click to get the file to iTunes,
Deleted AAC version from iTunes before import and also tried after import.
Ringtones shows up in iTunes (Ringtone folder) but Sync does nothing to get the file into my iPhone.
No error messages are shown on Sync.
THE ONLY Way I get this ringtone is to Check the Manually manage music and files and drag the .m4r file into the Ringtone section of the Devices (my iPhone)
I want to use the Sync feature only.
PLEASE Help someone.
Thank you.
Austin
January 6, 2009 at 7:26 am
THANK YOU SO, SO MUCH! There was a ringtone I have been wanting forever, and now, because of this web site, I have it. Thanks!!
Anisa
January 6, 2009 at 7:22 pm
i have read all 212 posts and i am at my wits end
i have:
created the file at 29sec
done the acc conversion
dragged to desktop and change the name successfully .m4r (even
tried putting a space in it)
deleted both the acc version from itunes and the receycle bin
double click and it plays in my music folder not the ringtones i have nothing in my ringtones folder
tried the ctrl O trick still didn’t import in the ringtones folder
i am on the 8.0.2.20 version of itunes
have the 2.2 V of the iphone and have 3 G model.
Anybody out there who can help? PLEASE!
AnneD
January 7, 2009 at 12:55 am
AnneD,
Please refer to the last image of the post.
daniel
January 7, 2009 at 1:51 am
I’ve completed all the steps and the ringtone appears on my phone as “custom”, I’ve selected it as my ringtone but when somebody calls me the marimba ringtone goes on. How do I fix this?
Lena
January 7, 2009 at 2:17 am
Hi Daniel,
Do you mean the preferences are you saying ringtones should be unchecked? my preferences look the same, but mine is checked.
thank you for continuing to help me!
AnneD
January 7, 2009 at 2:10 pm
AnneD,
To make the ringtone section appear in iTunes, the ringtone option should be checked.
daniel
January 8, 2009 at 1:52 am
thanks for site.
bill
January 8, 2009 at 8:01 am
When I set the start stop time it doesn’t show up as being changed and doesn’t create a new clipped version. It stays at full length have iTunes8.
Valerie
January 8, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Thank you Daniel,
I have finally suceeded at creating and importing the ringtones!
I THOUGHT I DID IT ALL RIGHT HENCE I WAS SO FRUSTRATED.
THE KEY IS:
to show the extensions of the files. i thought i renamed it by just right clicking and renaming, but it was never actually doing it, it was only when i went to uncheck the hide extensions check box stated somewhere above did i realize that i really wasn’t changing the ext to m4r.
So thank you all for your help and posts.
they have been very helpful!!
AnneD
January 8, 2009 at 6:28 pm
OK – so I was about to throw my lovely new phone, which I had been adoring for several days, onto the floor when Julian saved it from that disaster!
post#112 saved the day.
The file name and the name of the song in the ringtones window need to be unique from other tunes… ie the one you copied it from..make sure you change it to something else in the Get Info/Info/Name box…
Thanks
C
Clare
January 8, 2009 at 10:37 pm
I found renaming the file after converting to m4r & deleting band info etc that the ring tone works everytime I get a call. If it doesn’t work still disconect Internet & re-sync
Doug
January 9, 2009 at 1:15 am
I have created a ringtone and Itunes sees it as a ringtone with a size of 445.6 kb and a bit rate of 128 kbps. When I sync the phone, it does not move to my Iphone. I can manually move it to my Iphone in Itunes but it still will not show up on my phone. I’m using XP and Itunes 8.02.20. Does anyone have any ideas?
Noel
January 9, 2009 at 1:44 am
you need to jaibreak ur phone
ph
January 9, 2009 at 2:31 am
DANIEL – I have followed all your instructions and looked through all the comments:
I am up to the stage where I have done everything correctly but it just doesnt show up on my iphone under the ringtones folder – what do i do?
maryanne
January 10, 2009 at 11:07 am
how do i get the ringtones folder to show up?
please help.
cant get the folder to show up to sync to the phone
rep
January 12, 2009 at 3:57 am
What kind of file type is .m4r? I am unable to change to this extension.
Laila
January 13, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Hey I’ve read all the comments and tried most things and I’m stuck. I have itunes 8, Mac OS x 10.5.3, and the iPhone 2.2 3G. Ive changed the finish/start times and have a 23 sec clip and have converted it and put it on my desktop. However, I cant seem to get it back into itunes with out it just going straight into the main library instead of the ringtones folder, when u look at the file, it says it is a ringtone but doesnt load in that folder. Also, i tried the cmd O when ur in the ringtones folder and tried to open it from there but did nothing. Any advice or am i just stupid?? :S
Kelly
January 14, 2009 at 1:19 am
NM – I was able to change the file extension and it shows up under my “ringtones” folder but I’m still unable to transfer it to my phone. I have the 3g iPhone and I’m using Windows Vista.
Laila
January 14, 2009 at 3:34 am
#112 If you can’t see the ringtone in your IPhone…Julian I totally owe you!!!
jiggy
January 14, 2009 at 4:39 am
Nevermind…I figured it out. Works like a charm!!!! Thank you!
Laila
January 14, 2009 at 8:52 pm
I had trouble getting the file to transfer from my desktop to ringtones, i have already done loads a few weeks ago. I went back and did the following.
1) Deleted all of the copies of the track except the original track imported from my CD
2) Followed the steps and as soon as I had created the AAC version and transferred it to the desktop, I deleted the 29 second version from iTunes – STRAIGHTAWAY
3) Right clicked on the folder and went into Get Info and changed the title from Funky Cold Medina 1.m4a to FCM .m4a leaving a space between the name and the type eg M .4A
4) Double clicked on the icon and it went straight to iTunes Ringtones and opened the Ringtones section automatically
Solihull Red
January 15, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Hi I am using Windows Vista – with Itunes 8 for my ipod. I can’t change the file extension type. Anyone able to help??
kathryn
January 16, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Everyone who keeps saying “works like a charm” should shut up unless they know it works on receiving a call, because all the minor probs ppl r having getting it their itunes ringtones section etc is no big deal.
Daniel
January 17, 2009 at 10:33 pm
To Robert and anyone else who can make the ringtones but can’t see them on their iphones…
I had the same problem but then realized that in step 4 i was dragging the files to my desktop directly from itunes. You need to drag the files from your ITUNES MUSIC FOLDER. If you dont know its location on your computer, go into itunes, go to edit > preferences > advanced and it will tell you there
Braydon
January 21, 2009 at 8:37 pm
It works and it’s free! Thank you very much!
Lily
January 22, 2009 at 2:53 pm
YAY MINE WORKS EVEN WHEN YOU MAKE A CALL ITS THE BEST THING EVER THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I CANT FREAKING THANK YOU ENOUGH HOLLY CRAP IM SOOO HAPPY HEE HEE HEE
chika
January 23, 2009 at 10:36 am
I can’t get it to let me change the m4r thing. I do everything and at step five when i right click the file on my desktop and hit properties there is nothing to change the extension. Any other options???
kristin
January 23, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Click the .m4r file and then press “F2″, you can also change the extension.
daniel
February 20, 2009 at 7:22 am
thanks– got it done
it has to be less than 30 secs
and of 128kbps
does not take long
ta
kamal
January 24, 2009 at 9:04 pm
working with vista — followed all your steps. On the desktop as song .m4r (even had the itunes ring icon). But ringtones tab in itunes is still empty. Any suggestions?
Holder
January 25, 2009 at 12:34 am
Holder, please read the tutorial carefully. In the last part, I posted a graph showing how to make “Ringtones” section appear in iTunes.
daniel
February 20, 2009 at 7:19 am
i follow the instructions and convert it to a ringtone after finishing i opened my iphone but i didnt find it on the ringtone list so please can u explain how to assign it
milad
January 25, 2009 at 12:56 pm
i followed the instruction u said and i convert it to a rongtone successfuly but after i opened ny iphone settings (ringtone) i didnt find it in the ringtone list so please can u explain hoe to assign it
milad
January 25, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Thanks for the tutorial. Just did a remake of The Unit theme song, Fired Up by Rebert Duncan ! From seconds 0:05 till 0:35, works like a charm. Did a sync / drag and drop to iphone 3g, and it works!
Shweet!!
Riaan de Lange
January 27, 2009 at 11:23 pm
woooooohooooooooooooo!
thanks man
if u go thru everyones comments, u can figure out all the bugs
erica
January 31, 2009 at 5:58 pm
This works great. thanks, and for those that just read part of the instructions and then ask questions.
Please read the directions.
PEzo
February 5, 2009 at 4:15 am
This brings me infinite happiness! Thanks for posting!
Moman
February 8, 2009 at 4:55 am
Thanks Daniel it really works!!
u save me a lot of money!
Faro
February 9, 2009 at 5:56 am
Thanks to all.
Oguz
February 10, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Okay i do all the Create AAC and stuff. Move it to my desktop, delete the copy on itunes. But the file on the desktop doesnt say .m4a it always say’s name of song 1 thats it. What is the deal with that? Thanks
Bryant
February 12, 2009 at 1:08 am
Open “My Computer”. click “Tools”, click “Folder Options”, navigate to “View”. in the drop-download list of “Advanced settings”, untick “Hide extensions for known file types”.
daniel
February 20, 2009 at 7:16 am
Oh i check the ringtone button, still nothing. So I dont know what to do. It worked before now its not working at all.
Bryant
February 12, 2009 at 1:15 am
Hi Everyone,
I have purchased songs from Itunes, and I have followed intructions to just change it to .m4r file format but I have been having problems getting into the Ringtone area in Itunes as it always goes to my music library instead.
Any advice?
Ken
February 14, 2009 at 5:34 pm
To create ringtones using songs purchased from iTunes, you need to remove the protection first and then follow this tutorial.
daniel
February 20, 2009 at 7:10 am
Thank you – this worked perfectly. Thanks for taking the time to share these tips.
Christine
February 14, 2009 at 11:00 pm
I have Windows XP and followed the instructions given above – very easy, very quick and I’m so happy that now I get to listen to the tones I want instead of meaningless noise! Thank you very much for posting.
Claire
February 15, 2009 at 10:15 am
Hola, perdona que no sepa ingles, solo queria darte las gracias, ahora ya se hacerlo.. que muchas gracias, Thank You:) (L)
Joan
February 15, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Hi all
I need help please, after I click on convert to ACC it tells me that the file is protected and cannot be converted to another format!!! any solution for this?????
Elio
February 15, 2009 at 7:34 pm
You need to remove the protection first.
Please refer to this tutorial first: http://itunesm4ptomp3.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/convert-itunes8-music-to-mp3/
daniel
February 20, 2009 at 7:06 am
To anyone who can make the ringtones, see them in the iTunes ringtone folder, but can’t see them on their iPhone ‘custom’ ringtone menu:
Make sure u rename ur ringtone file in the root directory as well as in the iTune ringtone directory by right clicking and choosing the ‘get info’ option to change the name on the ‘info’ tab.( There definitely seems to be a file conflict issue if u have the same song on the iPhone)
SAP
February 15, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Thanks for sharing your experience!
daniel
February 20, 2009 at 7:04 am
Hello,
I’ve followed the tutorial. working under OS Leopard, I don’t manage to change the extension of the m4a files made from itunes.
Any ideas?
Thanks
amp
amp
February 16, 2009 at 12:20 pm
I am sorry but I am not very familiar with Mac OS. I am running Windows XP.
But I am sure it is very easy to change file extension whether on Windows or Mac.
daniel
February 20, 2009 at 7:02 am
Hello
Once i get the file on the ringtone in itunes it does not sync with my phone. I tried the usual thing of restart phone etc, but I am not sure what is the problem.
Payal
February 18, 2009 at 1:19 am
Hi Daniel,
I followed the procedure. But as far as renaming the file on Desktop is concerned, even i convert it to m4r by typing the extension, still the file is shown as .m4a in the properties. I followed this procedure few months back and got the ringtones created… now messed up
Can ya please help me out… all songs are less than 30 secs. duly converted to AAC version and the Import Settings is also set to “AAC Encoder”
Kamesh
February 21, 2009 at 10:08 am
This is great! Thanks for the tips.
Blackberry Storm
February 21, 2009 at 2:42 pm
[...] then found this guide to creating free iPhone ringtones with iTunes 8 which [...]
Techy: Create an iPhone Ringtone from your own MP3 « Richy’s Random Ramblings
February 22, 2009 at 10:32 pm
i cannot get the file to appear in the ringtones folder only in the music library??
Elle
February 23, 2009 at 2:48 am
Sussed how to do this and its easy, follow the steps below but change the name of the ringtone (eg)ringtone1m4r on the desk top and again in itunes and it will sync to iphone.
1.Right click on the song you are going to make into a ringtone and select “Get Info.”
2.Go to the “Options” tab and go down to the “Start Time” and “Stop Time” check boxes. Check both boxes and input the time you want your ringtone to start/stop. The ringtone has to be 30 seconds or less. Click “OK” when you’re done.
3.Right click on your newly “clipped” song and select “Create AAC Version”. Or directly click the “Advanced” tab on the main menu of iTunes 8 and select “Create AAC Version” from the drop-down list. The song will be re-encoded using the start and stop times specified.
Note: If your menu item does not read “Create AAC Version” and reads “Create MP3 Version” or some other format, please go to ”iTunes -> Edit -> Preferences -> General”, click “Import settings” and change “Import using” to “AAC Encoder”
4.After the song is done encoding, navigate to your iTunes Music folder, locate your song, and drag it to your desktop. After the song is on your desktop go back to iTunes and delete the clipped version from you iTunes library (It won’t delete it from your desktop, it will only remove it from iTunes).
5.Go back the song on your desktop and right click on your song and choose “Properties”. Go to the name and extension section and change the extension from .m4a to .m4r (or you can just change the extension right from your desktop).
6.After the extension is changed simply double click on the file to add it to your iTunes library under the ringtones section. Sync your phone with iTunes and you’re done!
Basically – iPhone ringtones need to be 30 seconds or less, less than 3Mb in size (which should be easy with a 30 second limit) and have an .m4r filetype.
markiboy
February 23, 2009 at 7:04 pm
THANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKKKKKSSSS!!
fred
February 23, 2009 at 8:14 pm
great tutorial thanks. I’m having a problem converting a song to AAC format though. There’s always some white noise when I do it. (The song is still audible but there’s a crackle when the volume peaks) do you have any idea how to avoid this?
alexjbutterfield
February 27, 2009 at 7:30 am
I have a problem that when I try to convert files to AAC version nearly all my music says protected files can not be converted to other formats is there any way round this? I have spent so long trying differnt thing and all i have managed to do is delete music from my itunes please help!
Jullie
March 1, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Jullie,
This method only works with songs that are DRM free. To create ringtones using DRM protected songs please follow this guide to strip the DRM off first: http://itunesm4ptomp3.wordpress.com/2008/07/04/how-to-convert-itunes-m4p-to-mp3-with-tuneclone/
daniel
March 2, 2009 at 1:12 am
Thanks guys – I tried just about everything and finally it worked – key points to note
- when deleting the file check the option that says ‘keep the file rather than the one that says ’send to recycle bin’
Put the files in a new folder on your desktop that way you get to see the file extension and you can change it then… and everything works just like you gurus said. Thanks again – now I got my reggae ringtones and I’m happy
Jamaican
March 6, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Hi,
I can’t get the file on my desktop to the Ringtones section either.
I have followed Steps 1 to 5 to the letter but it just won’t go there. I’ve tried double-clicking, right-clicking, dragging and Alt-O but it’s not having any of it.
PLEASE HELP!!
James
March 6, 2009 at 5:51 pm
finel step that song double click cannot add the ringtone . song add only music . how to solve this problem
saravanan
March 8, 2009 at 11:52 am
It worked great once- now if I try to do it on a protected song, it won’t let me convert it to AAC!! Does anyone else have this happen? It worked the first time without a problem and it was a protected song that I purchased on iTunes.
David
March 14, 2009 at 12:54 am
David,
For the protected songs purchased from iTunes, you need to remove the DRM first ( http://itunesm4ptomp3.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/remove-itunes-drm-windows-mac/ ). After the DRM is removed, you then import the music to iTunes and follow the steps to create ringtones for your phone.
daniel
March 14, 2009 at 1:30 am
PERFECT, worked like a charm. Remember people read every step, I kept jumping ahead and unless every step is taken as written it will not work! Thanks Again!!
Derek D
March 14, 2009 at 1:57 am
Hey for Iphone user’s your ringtone length has to be :25 if u use :29 like i did at first it wont sync hope this helps
skinny
March 14, 2009 at 2:42 am
Also you need to change the times of each ringtone one i got is :25 the second one wouldnt work so i changed it to :23 and it worked. Hope this helps
skinny
March 14, 2009 at 3:03 am
If you follow all of these steps but the ringtones don’t show up on your iPhone (i.e. they do show up in iTunes as ringtones and you have already told iTunes to sync ringtones), just drag the ringtones from your library to your iPhone. That’s what finally worked for me.
Thanks to everyone for the great tips!
PJ
March 15, 2009 at 5:07 am
Worked perfect! Thanks!
Jason
March 17, 2009 at 12:41 am
I have done evrything, but the rintones do not appear on my iphone. The ringtones are 128 bit rate, I can see them on the ringtones folder in my library, but do not get synced and they cannot be dragged into the ringtones folder on the iphone. I have iPhone 3g and I am using itunes 8 on XP. Please help.
Zitadul
March 21, 2009 at 4:35 am
I have done evrything, but the rintones do not appear on my iphone. The ringtones are 128 bit rate, I can see them on the ringtones folder in my library, but do not get synced and they cannot be dragged into the ringtones folder on the iphone. I have iPhone 3g and I am using itunes 8 on XP. Help me please.
Zitadul
March 21, 2009 at 4:36 am
after i follow step 6 i can’t move the file to ringtones a message pops up “You cannot create an iphone ringtones only from songs purchased from the itunes”… need help please…
Zitadul
March 21, 2009 at 4:50 am
Thanx guys…. U are the sheiiit!! It works like a bomb…. JD
Justin D
March 21, 2009 at 1:37 pm
for all those people who cannot get the ringtone to sync with your i-phone i feel your pain but i do have the answer!!!! Follow the instructions which are correct with one exception. your rington CANNOT be less than 28.5 seconds and no more than 30. Do this and i gaurantee it will work. hallelujah!!!!
Michael
March 21, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Kym,
I had the same problem in step 5. Go to “Control Panel” and select “folder options” then click “view” tab and clear the “Hide file extensions for known file types” check box. This will allow you to change the extension.
Mike
March 22, 2009 at 8:56 pm
YEAH!!!!!!!!! This is GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brenda
March 26, 2009 at 4:49 am
i dont undertsand this part:
5. Go back the song on your desktop and right click on your song and choose “Properties”. Go to the name and extension section and change the extension from .m4a to .m4r (or you can just change the extension right from your desktop).
please explain =D
kason
March 27, 2009 at 1:31 am
Hi,
I did everything exactly as mentioned and when I press the m4r file to add it to itunes, itunes crashes…
“i tunes has stopped working”….
please help….
thank you all
Eking
April 3, 2009 at 6:01 am
Wow — I struggled with this for a bit, but between the great original instructions and all the useful input, it’s working perfectly now. Thanks so much! FYI for me the breakthrough seemed to be a combination of two of the tips here: 1) it took deleting the orginal AAC file from my library before I could get the file to show up in my ringtones folder (and I double-clicked it instead of dragging it there); and 2) going into the file’s info and changing its name so that it had a different title than anything else in my music folder was what seemed to finally allow it to sync to my phone. Thanks all!
Laurie
April 4, 2009 at 5:03 am
hi there.
i followed all the steps till:moved the extension to the desktop and on the right click , go to properties, but after that i couldnt find the “name and extension section to change from m4a to m4r”, as followed the below step.
5. Go back the song on your desktop and right click on your song and choose “Properties”. Go to the name and extension section and change the extension from .m4a to .m4r (or you can just change the extension right from your desktop).
could u plz tell wat can i do n this case??
best regards,
LADYDOLLY
April 4, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Michael, (thread 287) thanks I was going crazy trying to get the tones into the ringtone folder. re-edited the file to fall between 28 and 30 secs and BINGO!!!!
Stephe A
April 8, 2009 at 3:59 am
It took me a long time, but when I ran into a problem I’d just keep going back to the comments until I found what I needed and worked them out one by one. If I can do it, ANYONE can! Thanks for the instructions, I am a very happy iphone user!
techiechallenged
April 14, 2009 at 1:42 pm
I have iTunes 8.1.1.10 and this tutorial worked flawlessly with my (99.9% mp3) itunes library. I just wanted to say thanks for the excellent tut!
scorned1
April 14, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Will this work if I wanted to send it to my blackberry storm? Or is it just for iphones? If so, how would I go about sending it to my blackberry?
Susy
April 15, 2009 at 3:20 am
It only works for iPhone. I don’t have a BlackBerry at hand, so I don’t how to make ringtones for BlackBerry.
Sorry!
daniel
April 15, 2009 at 3:24 am
Daniel I’m using windows XP, and this doesn’t work for me after step five. I can’t Change the file to .M4r, I can rename it, but I can’t change it to that format. And I’m using I-tunes 8. The latest version as of today. Is there a way around all of this?
Tony
April 15, 2009 at 5:37 am
Tony,
Open “My Computer”. click “Tools”, click “Folder Options”, navigate to “View”. in the drop-download list of “Advanced settings”, untick “Hide extensions for known file types”.
daniel
April 15, 2009 at 6:12 am
YAY!!!!!!! im a bit of a ringtone whore, so thank you for this post!!! it worked greeeaat!
jo
April 15, 2009 at 7:48 am
Daniel..
I’m having trouble with step 5, as i am using windows vista it won’t let me change the file extension to .m4r…can you please help me?
Sion
April 17, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Thanks! This worked like a charm.
Kathy
April 21, 2009 at 2:54 am
I have iTunes 8.0.1.11 (the latest as of today) for Windows XP, and I don’t have an option for “Create AAC Version” on neither the right-click menu nor the advanced menu. There’s only “Create MP3 Version”. How do I either get “Create AAC Version” as a menu option, or do it without that? Thanks!
Bianca
April 25, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Sion – go read at the beginning where it says to go to start, documents, HIT the ALT key once (will toggle up an XP tool bar at the top), then select Tools, and unclick the hide extension files (something like this… it’s in the top 30-40 posts)… I had to click in 2 places on this menu.
I just have to say THANKS a million… not only does this work with iTunes, but with any song you have in your Music list!
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this! Thank You all who have helped!
Beth
April 26, 2009 at 7:50 am
Hi
Sorry if I seem really stupid, cause I’ve made ringtones before for my iphone, but this time its just not working. I get all the way thru till it appears in my ringtones folder. Then when I go to sync the phone, the new ringtone is not in the list to be synced. I know someone said (about 100 posts ago) that you haveta “make sure in the Iphone settings-ringtones that it can sync”
Well, I’m damned if I can find iphones settings – ringtones. All I have is the usual settings and the ringtones sinc box, but the new ringtone doesn’t appear in there, yet its in the ringtones folder …. liek someone else said, this is doing my bloody head in here lol ….. I’m goin to bed and have another go at it tomorrow .. meantime if anyone knows why it appears in your ringtones list but not in the sync list, let me know please ?
Thanx
Julie
April 26, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Linda, you’re not thick as %&*#. actually, i too am having the same problem. after i converted the file and changed them name, when i try to drag it, i get a little red no/slashy whatever u call it sign. when i try to ctrl + o it, it will open, but won’t show up in the list. so im right with you, looking for a way around this. is there a way you can just get the file into the iphone folder without having to use itunes?
btw for those who can’t get their file to convert, you can also use SUPER converter. it’s freeware, and it rocks.
Niirmal
April 28, 2009 at 6:38 am
hi, i have done everything BUT it wont let me change the “m4a” to “m4r” and it doing my head innn!! please someone helf me!!
thankss
Sammie
April 28, 2009 at 2:15 pm
I have the song on my desktop and i’m using a mac. how do i find the properties of this?
i am confused
Simone
May 5, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Thank you all for the info I have vista and the latest Itunes and it works great.
Jax
May 6, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Hi,
I’ve read all the posts and my problem is still getting the songs to show up in iPhone.
I selected the song I wanted from itunes(which was only 8 seconds long to begin with, but I shortened it down to 5 seconds anyways).
Then I converted it to AAC, found the file in my itunes music folder, dragged it to desktop, deleted the AAC file from itunes, Changed the file name on desktop to “xxa .m4r”, clicked twice on the file which then showed up under ringtones in itunes, changed the name of the file again, synced it with iPhone after already selecting sync ringtones in the iPhone configuration, but nothing comes up.
After that I tried dragging the file directly from desktop into the ringtone section under my iPhone rather than double clicking and syncing. Now it shows up and I can play it from itunes under the iPhone section, but on my iPhone I’ve just created a replica of the 1 custom ringtone I had from before(with the same name). This happens over and over again no matter how many different mp3 files I try with.
Need backup..
John
May 6, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
sabbanco
May 11, 2009 at 12:05 am
Is there anyway to unedit the song that has already been set as a ringtone? I clipped the same song at a different start and stop time but it played as the original clip. any suggestions?
nicco
May 11, 2009 at 9:51 pm
I was wondering if there is a way to start the clipped song anywhere other than at the beginning. My understanding is that i can play up to 30 seconds as a ring tone but does it have to be the first 30 seconds?
Michael
May 16, 2009 at 12:14 am
For those running into problems where they’re seeing the ringtone listed in the iTunes folder, but it won’t appear to sync over, make sure the length is around 30 second or so.
You can edit the length following the instructions above, but anything that’s beyond a certain length will not sync.
Good luck!
Yimmy
May 16, 2009 at 3:06 pm
The problem for me was I was trying to use a song I downloaded off of iTunes for a ring tone, it was not syncing to my iPhone. For whatever reason, you cannot do that. As soon as I started using my own personal library, making ringtones using Vista was a snap, I’ve made probly 20 in the last 10 minutes. Try using one of your own songs, not one that you’ve purchased following the directions to see if it works. Stupid Apple, making us think we can use the songs for ringtones. FALSE ADVERTISEMENT!
hrhjenne
May 17, 2009 at 12:27 am
You can use purchased iTunes songs, as they are now made available DRM free.
You may have previously purchased albums that contain ‘protected’ AAC files. You would need to pay to update these at iTunes.
If you right click on any purchased songs, they will either be Protected AAC Audio Files or they will be Purchased AAC Audio Files. If ‘purchased’ format, theses can be made into ringtones.
Any new albums are all in the DRM free format so can be converted to ringtones, just like songs you may have imported from CD’s.
BigD
May 19, 2009 at 9:30 pm
SUPER SUPER EASY!! I had to manually drag the ringtone to my iphone ringtone library (it didn’t automatically sync from my main itunes ringtone library) but it WORKS!!
VERY COOL! Thanks!
Jenn
May 22, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Great job! thank you
Rudy
May 23, 2009 at 3:48 pm
This worked GRETA the very first time I tried it. Good instructions… Thanks!
Sugarbomb
May 24, 2009 at 2:45 pm
I mean GREAT, Greta. Thanks!
Sugarbomb
May 24, 2009 at 2:45 pm
I’ll click “Create AAC Version” and it will say “converting”. But no copy of the song appears underneath the original song and I cannot find the copy anywhere
Trey
May 24, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Wow, this worked! Thanks a bunch!!
mhon
May 24, 2009 at 4:52 pm
This worked great, not with Itunes 7 but after I installed itunes 8 the FIRST TIME. I guess I just lucked out.
To some of the other posters, note that you may need updated version of iTunes Im using 8.1.1.
YeeHaw
May 25, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Did anyone come up with a reason for why if you add multiple ringtones, on your phone they are all the same one?????
Dea
June 3, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Sion(or fall all VISTA Sruggling Individuals getting Stuck on Step 5)
Simple Path to Your Solution!
Ran XP for years, no problem! Vista makes you work a lil harder…
Goto: ‘My Computer’
Click on Tab at top right: ‘Open Control Panel’
D’Click: ‘Folder Options’
You should see 3 tabs: GENERAL VIEW SEARCH
Click on: ‘View’
You will see the infamous ‘Hide extensions for known file types’
Unclick it and there’s your Ticket!!!
Enjoy your Tones!
Yes Siiiiiiiiiiiiir
Kaizan
June 4, 2009 at 4:17 am
Thanks for this – BUT – am having the same problem as some above, of when I add new ringtones, they all change to the same one (the last added) – I don’t sync with itunes – manually add music. Has anyone found a solution – to the ‘how to avoid changing all ringtones to the last added??’
swazip
June 6, 2009 at 9:44 pm
it will not let me change it to m4r can u plz help
shannon
June 12, 2009 at 8:20 am
Where do the ringtones show up on the iphone
zach
June 12, 2009 at 8:14 pm
hi, i’ve seen this same post about 4 times, and i read every single post on this page but didn’t see a response for it for whatever reason. everything worked great, synced to the iphone, etc but when i select the ringtone and someone calls me the ringtone that plays is the last original ringtone that came with the iphone. what gives? why won’t these things play? they’re all the right length etc, they’ve managed to sync to my phone, i’m super pissed. help a brotha out!!!
steve
June 17, 2009 at 7:28 am
Thanks, Daniel, for such a great tutorial. I did have the trouble of renaming the extention, but searching through the comments solved that problem. Other than that, it worked for me just fine. Thanks again!
Sylvia
June 22, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Hey guys. jst got an iphone. well i am using vista and the prob is tht i have lost folder options sumwhere. its not there in the control panel. not in the tolls. nowhere. help me get it back guys
lol\
Ankit
June 23, 2009 at 4:42 am
Fantastic tutorial! Thank you!!!! Couldn’t get itunes 8.2 to convert to ACC until I read this.
Brian
June 23, 2009 at 4:59 am
The tutorial was very helpful but I tried with my Windows Vista and new 3Gs and kept having problems. Finally, two posts that helped were to ensure that I kept a space before .m4r AND rename the song in the info tab after in the ringtones area. I think it might help to update your tutorial for those two items…but otherwise, brilliant! Thank you so much for figuring all that out!
Melissa
June 24, 2009 at 4:05 am
Hii….!! i just bought the 3gs and i tried it works perfect!!!…Thank you so muchh!!
Julie
June 24, 2009 at 8:21 pm
[...] I walked through the Internet to search for ways to custom ringtones for my iPhone 3GS, I found the post written by daniel truly helpful. It works fine for iPhone 3GS, which I did not expect, as it was [...]
Free custom ringtones for iPhone 3GS using iTunes « Top DVD Video YouTube Converters and Freewares Download
June 25, 2009 at 6:47 am
THANK YOU SO MUCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! ur the best!!
minnie
June 26, 2009 at 6:15 pm
I have created and synced five ringtones. They play in my custom ringtones folder just fine. When I set one as my default it does not play when someone calls. Why not? Help me and the others who have posted with no reply. For those who say it works, have they tried it as a ringtone and had it play when someone calls? I have the 3gs, xp, itunes 8.newest
mikey
June 27, 2009 at 1:08 am
Worked for the 3gs like a charm ! cheers !
Shaq
June 28, 2009 at 11:06 pm
I DID IT!!!
OK for all of you that uses mac Os X and iTunes 8 here it is:
(sorry on my bad english)
I had problem with syncing ringtones from iTunes with iPhone.
Do this:
Cut song yourself (I did it with MP3 Trimmer) to less then 30 sec. – I cut it to 29 sec.
Put that small mp3 in iTunes.
Convert it in AAC like usual: drag it to desktop change extension to m4r. Drag it to iTunes again. Delete converted file.
And now when you go to sync you can FINALLY see ringtone file that you can sync. Check the box and sync.
It works for me and it rings just right on my iPhone
Mladen
July 1, 2009 at 5:31 pm
I have a problem…I have an iTunes account but only because I had to get one when I got my iPhone. I don’t usually use iTunes to get ringtones on my previous phones but in this case I have to. The problem I have is that it says that I cannot make a song into a ringtone if I did not purchase the song from the itunes store. I have downloaded most of my songs using LimeWire and then just transfering them to my iPod. How can I get one of the songs I have on my iTunes onto my iPhone without having to buy the song from the iTunes store??
KC
July 4, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Also…I cannot find the “extension” under my desktop to change it from a m4a to a m4r. How do I find that?
KC
July 4, 2009 at 10:29 pm