How to add custom ringtones to your iPhone?
Easily add custom ringtones to your iPhone using iTunes.
The default ringtones that comes with the iPhone are pretty basic and blank. You can, instead, use your own piece of music as a ringtone on your iPhone. All you need to get this done is an iPhone, Connector Cable and iTunes.
Follow these (simple) steps to add a custom ringtone to your iPhone,
Start by choosing the .mp3 file that you’d like to have a piece of it as your ringtone. Remember that you cannot keep the full mp3 file as your ringtone, instead you can trim a portion of it to be used as a ringtone. The maximum allowed length of the ringtone can be less than 30 seconds.
Open the .mp3 file in iTunes. Right-click the .mp3 file and choose “Get Info“.
Once the Get Info dialog comes-up navigate to the Options tab. If you are using a short .mp3 file as your source then you might not want to touch any of the settings on this tab. But if you trying to extract a portion of the .mp3 file then you wanted to key-in values for the “Start Time” and “End Time” items. Keep in mind that the total length of the ringtone can only be less than 30 seconds.
How do you know the start and end times? Well, if you have Audacity installed then you should be able to grab the start and end time of your clip using Audacity’s trim feature.
Now we are ready to convert the file to a more friendly format that .mp3. Right-click on the same file again and choose the “Convert AAC Version” option.
If you don’t see the option on your right-click menu then go to iTunes > Preferences > General Tab and click on the “Import Settings…” button. Change the “Import Using” dropdown menu to “AAC Encoder“.
Once the file is converted to AAC version it generates a .m4a file. Drag the file to your Desktop (or any other location that you prefer).
Rename the .m4a file to .m4r file. If you have any questions on how to do it the safest way to do is to right-click the .m4a file and choosing the “Get Info” option.
On the dialog that comes up change the extension of the file to .m4r and confirm the rename.
Before you proceed any further you should remove the AAC version of the file that’s on your iTunes.
Now, move the .m4r file that’s on the desktop to the Ringtones folder on iTunes.
Now it’s all pretty much set for you to make use of the custom ringtone. Connect your iPhone and do a Sync.
Once successfully synced, tap on your iPhone Settings app.
Tap on the “Sounds” option.
Then tap on the “Ringtone” option.
iPhone will now display the list of available ringtones and you should be able to see the newly added ringtone at the top of the page under the “Custom” section. Tap on the ringtone name to choose the ringtone as your default iPhone ringtone.
That’s all to it to get a custom ringtone on your iPhone. It may look like a lot of steps involved but basically it’s pretty simple and if you focus a little bit you can get it right on your first attempt and then you’ll love having the ability to make your own custom ringtone for your iPhone.
I hope you find it useful. If you have any questions/comments regarding this please let me know in comments.
Technorati Tags:
How To, iPhone, iPhone Tips, iPhone Tricks, iPhone Custom Ringtone
September 19th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
this didn't work – i was not able to drag the m4r file into the ringtone folder of itunes!!
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:17 am
@dkm – are you sure you've converted the m4a file to m4r. If for some reason you ran into issues converting the m4a to m4r and then you try to drag it to iTunes it wouldn't work. If you can give some more info that would help.
September 23rd, 2009 at 2:28 am
Everything works but when i syne no custom ringtone folder on phone visible
September 29th, 2009 at 3:38 am
+1.I think they broke this
everything works but the file cannot be added to the ringtone folder
October 18th, 2009 at 4:03 am
This doesn't work anymore. I have custom ringtones that I made before, but I updated to Snow Leopard and Itunes 8.2.1(I think that's an update). Anyway, doesn't work. Jerks.
October 26th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
I bought this iphone on 20 Oct. 2009 and have all the updates and the latest version of itunes(9.0.1.8) and your guide worked perfectly!
A+ Guide, Thanks man!
October 27th, 2009 at 3:21 am
Joe – I'm glad you find it useful! You can expect more for sure!
October 27th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Hey everything worked out great… it shows up on my ring tones folder in I-tunes… but when i go on my iphone there is no "custom" ring tone section. any advice??? thanks
November 4th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Thanks so much for the tip!!
)
And kudos for the screen grabs too
November 14th, 2009 at 11:22 am
I don't get to drag it to the itunes as well
and I can't remoce the aac file on the itunes,everytime i right click,there's no delete command
Pls help I really want customized ringtones
November 27th, 2009 at 8:46 am
I tried with a ringtone over 30 seconds and it was there in the ringtones library of itunes but it didn't show up for sync(on the iphone sync tab).
I cut it down to 29-30 seconds and while I was able to see it in both itunes library and iphone(through itunes) I could see a custom tab on the iphone sounds.
I found on another forum that you have to go to your Music Library in itunes and delete the .m4a version you made. Once I deleted the .m4a version I sync again and it was there under custom tab in my iphone sounds settings! Hope it helps some of you guys that have trouble making it show under the custom tab.
December 6th, 2009 at 12:47 am
yea i have the same problem right now. did you ever figure this out?
December 7th, 2009 at 4:11 am
I can't get it to drag from the library ringtone's rile to the iphone's ringtone's file. I deleted the .m4a file and all that and it still won't transfer! Boo!
December 7th, 2009 at 5:28 am
evething perfect except when my friends call me, it not work with ringtone i have just set. Can anyone tell me the problem?
December 9th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Mickey – I think you might want to assign the ringtone to your friend's contact on your iPhone Address Book.
December 9th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Did you delete the correct AAC file before dragging and dropping the m4r file?
December 13th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Thank you! Beautiful and easy to follow instructions. A gold star for you.
December 16th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Thank you band. I'm glad you liked it.
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:04 am
I couldn't get this to work in latest version of iTunes (9.0.2.25). Got stuck with finding "Convert ACC Version" even after making sure Import Using ACC Encorder was selected (which it was already defaulted to). Are there different instructions now? Thanks!
December 28th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
I'm having an issue and wondering if it's a windows thing. When I transfer the ACC version onto my desktop, I can't change the file type. I right clicked on the file and it would allow me to rename it but not change the m4a to m4r. Any ideas? I have a PC not a mac so I don't know if that is the issue.
Cheers,
December 28th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Never mind. Found a solution.
December 29th, 2009 at 1:33 am
John – I'm glad that you've found the solution. If you can please share how you resolved the issue that would surely help others.
Thanks for updating us.
December 29th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
im having the same problem….. there is no custom ringtone section in my ringtones
January 1st, 2010 at 3:40 am
Hi there, thanks for the effort but unfortunately it's not working with me, I renamed the file and dragged it successfully but the file doesn't wanna show up on my iphone, I have 3Gs iphone btw
January 1st, 2010 at 4:40 am
Hocine – this may sound like a dumb question but have you synced after you've added the file back to iTunes?
January 1st, 2010 at 9:10 am
Hi, how many customised ringtone can there be synced to the iPhone? I used your method to add the first one and it worked perfectly (Thanks, by the way, for the tip.
) But when I try to get a second one to be synced, it did not appear on the list of the customised tune. Can there only be one tune for the customised ringtone section?
January 2nd, 2010 at 10:16 pm
i can only add one custom ringtone as well… is there any way to get multiple ones?
January 3rd, 2010 at 7:39 am
SAME
January 3rd, 2010 at 1:44 pm
If you can’t see the ringtone in your iPhone make sure the ringtone is under 40 seconds.
January 4th, 2010 at 2:58 am
Make sure the new ringtone is <30 sec. I couldn't sync my ringtone, until I made a new 29 sec one instead of 42 seconds.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:20 am
omg dude. ur awesome. it works perfectly. great help. i really appreciate it!!
January 6th, 2010 at 5:13 am
Thank you Jobin for the clarification.
January 6th, 2010 at 5:14 am
Thank you Reidar for the clarification.
January 12th, 2010 at 7:49 am
The directions were very simple and easy to follow, thanks!
Just one question: can you have more than one custom ringtone on your iphone at once? I tried to ad more than one and it showed it in the 'ringtones' section of itunes but it wouldnt show up in the 'custom' ringtones on my iphone…when i removed one from itunes the other ones showed up on the phone. Can you have more than one at a time on the iphone?
Thanks!
January 14th, 2010 at 6:51 am
I am having the same issue as John, i am not able to change the file from an m4a to m4r file. I am also a pc user not mac
January 15th, 2010 at 3:13 am
Maria – Are you facing issue just renaming the file. I believe you are aware that you need to enable show extensions on your Windows Explorer so you can change the extension. Otherwise, it would be like adding m4r to your file name but the extension would still be m4a. Please let me know if you want me to explain that in detail. I hope it helps.
January 15th, 2010 at 3:15 am
Jamila – I think you need to make sure the length of the ringtone is not more than 30 seconds. I'm going to explain how to add more than one custom ringtones in a future post. Watch for one. You can subscribe to have you notified.
January 16th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Hi there,
I have the same question as Jamila…I see multiple ringtones in the iPhone ringtones folder, but when I sync, there's only one custom ringtone. Can I have more than one custom ringtone at a time??
-CK
January 18th, 2010 at 12:35 am
A well written detailed procedure… But you gotta be kidding me by calling this "Easily"… Easily is: "Put MP3 file on phone." Which, by the way, is how you add custom ringtones to every other SmartPhone on the planet.
January 26th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
If you double click the file on your desktop it will ad to your ringtones folder in itunes.
You can see in Iphone settings.
January 27th, 2010 at 2:13 am
Raj – thanks for mentioning that.
January 29th, 2010 at 2:30 am
Ok…here is what I found…everything goes on as described above until some of you guys get stuck. To find the Import Settings…go to iTunes>Edit>Preferences>Import Settings>AAC Encorder (Most likely its already DEFAULTED)
So…those ofyou who need to know how to enable file extension conversion on windows.
go to My Computer>Tools>Folder Options>File Types>Advanced>check the Always show Extension option. THis will show the extension on your .m4a file. Now you can change it to m4r.
Add the .m4r file to your itunes and it will appear under Ringtones.
I suppose everything else is easy. Chose ringtone, sync and the rest is pretty easy (:
January 29th, 2010 at 2:35 am
Liyana – thanks for the explanation…I was already working on a post to explain this in detail…expect a post soon.
January 29th, 2010 at 2:36 am
Liyana – what do you mean?
January 29th, 2010 at 2:33 am
I was just wondering how my picture got here?
January 30th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Didn't work. Unable to change from m4a to m4r. Using a PC. iTunes 9.
January 31st, 2010 at 2:51 am
excellent tutorial… thanks
February 1st, 2010 at 11:59 am
Hi guys – try adding it direct to your Ringtones folder in your iPhone through iTunes once you've converted it etc – I was pulling my hair out trying to figure it out and when I tried this, it worked and I now have a custom folder in my iPhone sounds with my new ringtone!
February 3rd, 2010 at 12:35 am
I tried making the ring tones 29 sec and I can still only get one custome ring tone on the phone at a time. Any ideas?
February 5th, 2010 at 12:06 am
Hi,
This was a real good tutorial but i cant get more than one ringtone to show up on the iphone (32GB 3GS). I have synced them all (5) and they are all shorter than 30 sec.
When i delete the one i see on the iphone it shows the next one instead and so on. It seems like they are in the background somewhere but i cant make all of them visible at the same time so i cant choose which one i want to use.
Any idea what the problem could be?
Using windows and latest itunes and firmware.
February 7th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
there si no ringtone section in my itunes
February 8th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
go to iTunes file, preferences, general tab and make sure your 'ringtones' box is checked
then it should show up…i'm having same problem as others, creating AAC files, deleting originals, getting ONE custom tone in my phone, but no others! all under 30 secs…hmmm…
February 8th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
my phone does not show the heading “custom” in the ringtones, anybody know wats up? i did everything else properly, i know it. help help help*******
February 8th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
ooh, nevermind, i deleted it and readded it and it showed up
February 12th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
you have to make sure to delete the aac file first before you drag the new m4r folder to itunes
February 15th, 2010 at 9:29 am
how do you change it from m4a to m4r on pc? i have tried almost everything and i am just starting to get mad at myself!! please help!!
February 16th, 2010 at 5:17 am
dom – you might want to turn on revealing extensions on your Windows machine. If you don't know how to do it please follow the instructions on this post, Display hidden files and folders in Windows. Make sure to uncheck the option that says "Hide extensions for known file types". That should reveal the file extension and you should then be able to rename the file to change to the m4r extension.
February 17th, 2010 at 9:29 am
Thanks! Worked perfectly =)
February 19th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
I used the program PhoneForge to convert any mp3 files into the m4r format but the iPhone would not show more than one ringtone. Does anyone know the solution for this?
February 20th, 2010 at 12:46 am
i am able to shorten lenght of song i want, and make a copy of it. once i find the song portion in Computer>Music>My iTunes,
i am not able to change from >m4a to .m4r
as a matter of fact, when i drag copy from itunes to desktop, it isnt even lister as (song name).m4a
it is just titled with song name.
i see that it is indeed a .m4a file when i go into details of file, but i cannot for the life of me change the name/format
i am using windows vista…does this matter?
please email ny help to
csus_log@yahoo.com
thank you
February 20th, 2010 at 5:19 am
Hi Bennysdad – Please see my response on dom's comment.
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:06 pm
Hi.Ive just put 3 ringtones in using this method.Made surei deleted the song out of itunes after i dragged it to my desktop.Then changed the file ext and dragged it into my ringtone folder,Synced and they were in a custom folder in sounds on iphone.
March 19th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
I also did the "show file extension" and it is still not showing the file extension when i move the file to the desktop so i can change it from .m4a to .m4r
March 19th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
N/M I didn't choose the extensions .m4a and .m4r to "show the file extension" I only choose AAC.
THANKS! It worked!!!
March 20th, 2010 at 6:31 pm
hey keegan, i am having this problem now. did you ever figure out how to solve this? when i drag multiple ringtones to my ringtone folder on my iphone, all 3 will show as copied to my phone in itunes, but only one will actually appear in my iphone settings. and its not always the same one, depending on which one i select first.
March 21st, 2010 at 12:42 pm
I've managed to place 3 custom ringtones in but is that the maximum?
March 25th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Folks – for those of you having issues adding multiple ringtones to your iPhone, here is a post that walks you through on how to add multiple ringtones to your iPhone. I apologize for taking a while to post this.
April 5th, 2010 at 11:59 pm
Yup, same problem here. This is so frusterating!!!!!! Can you please help???????
April 11th, 2010 at 1:37 am
I've had the same problem but just figured out a solution!! Once you've made sure you have deleted all the ACC files from itunes, drag your m4r files into your ringtones folder on your iphone, then click on your iphone icon under Devices. From the iphone manager page, click on the ringtones tab, select "Sync ringtones" option, Select all ringtones and click on sync button at the bottom of the page. This should work.
April 20th, 2010 at 1:22 am
I have the exact same problem! I need a solution PLEASE!!!! Anyone!
April 25th, 2010 at 1:39 am
For those with the problem of not having a custom folder…I had the same problem. The solution is simple. Start over. I turned everything off, deleted the created ringtone and went back step by step and it finally worked. One note however. You can't manually manage your music. You must use the check box method, which will assist later if you want to add more than one custom ringtone. I lost all my music and had to re-add it, but I have a custom ringtone folder now. Hope this helps. Pass the word.
April 26th, 2010 at 1:49 am
I have done all the steps above but my iphone only has the standard ringtones (Alarm, Bell Tower, Crickets…) but there is no "Custom" tab. Please let me know how to get the "Custom" tab.
April 28th, 2010 at 10:18 am
I check that there is a ringtone folder under my device ini itunes but the custom folder cannot show in iphone….. why ? anyone can help ?
April 28th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
I have the exact same problem !!!!
May 5th, 2010 at 6:34 am
how to delete AAC file??and where??i have m4r at my desktop now.
May 11th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
I have the exact same problem… I havent find that option yet ):
May 27th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
my iphone only displays 1 ringtone but i put a bunch in any clue why?
June 2nd, 2010 at 9:32 am
i can only get one in my custom folder on my iphone at a time :0s
June 11th, 2010 at 5:51 am
Thanks a lot. One thing though…in iTunes, to create AAC version click on 'Advanced' tab on the menu bar and then click 'Create AAC version'.
June 14th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
i am having the same problem too. only 1 customised ringtone is added, is there any way to get multiple?
June 17th, 2010 at 2:08 am
This solution work fine. No problems.
"I am having the same issue as John, i am not able to change the file from an m4a to m4r file" This would be a windows issue probably because you have not changed folder view options to "show extensions for known file types" or you don't have permission to change the file
June 19th, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Thank you!!! This was the step I got stuck on, but it worked fantastically!
June 19th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Hey there! The "Display hidden files and folders in Windows" link above seems to be broken…
June 20th, 2010 at 3:11 am
Not sure what you meant. It seem to be working. Please be a bit more specific and I'll do my best to get that fixed. Thanks for your time.
June 22nd, 2010 at 8:48 am
hmmm.. i had the same problem before but it settled already…. Alhamdulillah… yearghh!!
what did i do?? HHmm.. I just followed the instruction above, but make sure the length of the song is less than 30sec… it a must!!! (before this I took the whole song.. that was the problem). as I sync, surprised! the custom feature was automatically there and i can play my favourite ringtones now..
Just have a trial.. all the best!!!
June 22nd, 2010 at 9:38 pm
remember that you might have to rename your ringtone for it to sync onto your phone from itunes
June 22nd, 2010 at 9:40 pm
you also might not have a custom ringtone option but not to worry, it will show once u actually sync your own custom ringtone
June 26th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
John, it is a PC problem.
Quick fix should take care of it.
Open My Computer
-Tools
-Folder Options
-View
Then scroll down until you find "Hide extensions for known file types"
Uncheck that box, Apply. This should allow you to rename to .m4r
June 30th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Works perfectly ! – PC user with iPhone 3GS – software 4.0
July 1st, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Nope, doesn't work. My ringtone is 25 seconds long. No "custom" bar appears on the ringtone section of my phone.
July 1st, 2010 at 3:07 pm
not working in iphone 3gs os 4
July 5th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
on my itunes library, there isn't a tab that says ringtones.. any ideas?
also, when i went to rename the file from m4a to m4r, all i did was right click, and rename it.
^ is that correct?
July 6th, 2010 at 1:04 am
Nikki – Don't know why you are not seeing Ringtones on your iTunes. Which version of iTunes are you running? Also which version of iPhone do you have? If you are using Windows you need to make sure under Tools > Options that you enable showing Windows file extensions so you can truly rename them.
July 23rd, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Do what Cheryl said – worked great for me.
July 26th, 2010 at 11:46 am
Make sure Sync Ringtones is checked in the Ringtones tab in itunes
Also under Edit/Preferences/General, make sure RingTones is checked (wasn’t for me)
-raj
July 31st, 2010 at 8:41 am
My computer wont let me change the extension from m4a to m4r. I can not click on it. What do I do?
July 31st, 2010 at 8:49 am
Hey there I changed the file name and it is saved on my itunes as a ringtone on my phone icon but when I open my phone the ringtone is not there? What do I do
August 1st, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Thank you so much! !!! you rock!
August 7th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Hey everyone, I just thought I'd let everyone know a few things that I figured out and I hope it helps. I had been having the same issue of only being able to add a very limited number of ringtones to my iphone. I was trying to manually add/manage my music/videos/ringtones. Music and videos worked fine; but I wasn't able to add more than three ringtones, and even that was sketchy (wouldn't all show on iphone).
However, I was able to add more than 1 or 3 (which was all I was previously able to add) by checking the sync ringtone button and adding the ringtones to my library folder rather than drag and drop directly into the iphone. Drawback is that it initially erased my movies and music when I did it, but it did allow me to add as many ringtones as I had created. I had a total of 5 so far. Also, now I have to manage music and videos through itunes library too. Haven't figured out a way around this yet, but ringtones now all appear which is good! Hope this helped
August 8th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Kris – much appreciated your explanation, hope it helps those who are having issues adding custom ringtones to their iPhone.
August 16th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
Great help. TY.
Wonderful instructions..
August 17th, 2010 at 9:13 am
Everything has worked great, however, I have a clip that is only 2 seconds long and it shows up in my itunes as a ringtone, but it won’t go on to my iphone. Is it too short? Is there a way to get it to repeat that will make it longer and thus able to be a ringtone? I had no problems with it being a ringtone on my Motorola Q. Thanks!!
August 21st, 2010 at 3:53 am
Perfect Guide. Thank you very much.