How To Create a Free iPhone Ringtone Using iTunes
Want to make an iPhone ringtone with your own music? Just follow the step-by-step instructions below. Make sure to start out with songs that are mp3s or are otherwise DRM-free. *Updated for iTunes 11*
How to Make an iPhone Ringtone in iTunes:
1. Open iTunes.
2. Open Preferences in the iTunes menu at the top (it may be under Edit for Windows users):
3. Select the General tab:
4. Select Import Settings:
5. Click on the dropdown list after Importing Using:
6. Select AAC Encoder (it may already be the default):
7. Select OK to go back to the Preferences, then select OK again.
8. Select Music in the left iTunes sidebar and find a song you want to make into a ringtone:
9. You’ll need to find a 40 second or less section of the song to turn into a ringtone. Note (or write down) the starting and stopping point of the section of the song. You can see the time of the song in the play window at the top of iTunes:
10. Right click on the song, and select Get Info:
11. Select the Options tab at the top:
12. Enter the start and stop time of the clip in the corresponding boxes and make sure the checkboxes are checked when you are finished:
13. Click OK in the bottom right.
14. In the iTunes menu at the top, click Advanced, then Create AAC Version from the drop-down menu (in iTunes 11, it’s File –> Create New Version –> Create AAC Version):
15. You should see a second version of the song appear in iTunes, only with the shorter play time. Click to play to make sure it sounds how you’ll want the ringtone to sound.
16. We aren’t quite finished yet! Now we have to change the file format so that it will appear as a ringtone in iTunes.
17. Navigate to the folder where the new clip is stored on your computer (it will be in the same folder as the original version of the song). To find it in Windows, right-click the clip in iTunes, then choose Show in Explorer. For Mac, right-click and select Show In Finder.
18. Copy the song (press Control and C for Windows, Command and C for Mac), and paste the song in the same folder (Control and V or Command and V) so that a third version appears.
19. Now, change the file extension of the third version from .m4a to .m4r.
Troubleshooting: Don’t see the file extension? Windows 7: click the Start button, Control Panel–>Appearance and Personalization–>Folder Options–>View tab–>and uncheck Hide Extensions for known file types. For Windows XP: in the Explorer window, go to Tools –> Folder Options –> View and uncheck Hide extensions for known file types. For Vista: Organize –> Folder and Search Options and uncheck Hide extension for known file types.
20. Rename the file, if you want (for example, CoolRingtone.m4r). Note: If there are symbols such as underscores or hyphens in the name, you must remove them.
21. Important: In iTunes, delete the first AAC clip you made by right-clicking on the clip and selecting delete (if you don’t do this, iTunes might not accept the new ringtone):
22. Go back to the folder with the new ringtone file (.m4r file). Drag and drop the file into iTunes. Or import it by opening iTunes, select File, and select: Windows XP/Vista: Add File to Library, Mac: Add to Library.
23. Now we need to sync the ringtone to your iPhone. Connect the iPhone to the computer.
24. Click on your iPhone in the left sidebar in iTunes (Note: for iTunes 11, your iPhone can be found under Devices at the top right):
25. Click on the Tones tab, check the Sync tones checkbox, then check either All tones or Selected tones. If you choose Selected ringtones, make sure your new ringtone is also checked so it will sync:
26. Now click the Apply button in the bottom right (it may also say Sync. Click Sync if it does).
And that’s it. You’ve done it! The ringtone is now on the iPhone. Got to Settings on your iPhone, tap Sounds, and you can change to your new ringtone. If the ringtone doesn’t show up on the iPhone, follow the Troubleshooting steps below, else go to the Clean Up section for one important last step.
Troubleshooting
Did the ringtone not appear on your iPhone? Follow these steps.
1. Click on the Summary tab for your iPhone in iTunes:
2. See if the checkbox labeled Manually manage music and video is checked. If not, check it.
3. Click on Tones in the left sidebar (older versions of iTunes may say Ringtones instead) and find the ringtone:
4. Drag and drop the ringtone onto your iPhone in the left sidebar. The iPhone should begin synching immediately, and the ringtone will appear shortly on your iPhone:
More Troubleshooting
Problem: I don’t see Tones or Ringtones in the iTunes Sidebar.
Go into Preferences–>General, and under Show make sure the Tones checkbox is checked.
Problem: You get a scary message “All existing songs, movies and TV shows on the iPhone will be removed.”
You likely received this message because you’ve never synced your iPhone with iTunes before and therefore don’t have a back-up of your iPhone data. Cancel the current sync. Unplug your iPhone and plug it back in again. Right click on your iPhone in the left sidebar and select Back Up:
Now that iTunes has an image of your current iPhone to work from, right click on it again in the left sidebar and select Sync.
Clean Up
You made the ringtone, but there’s one clean-up task to do. We need to fix the Start/Stop time of the original song. Otherwise, the next time you play the song, it won’t play the whole thing. In iTunes, right click the original song, select Get Info –> Options and reset the Start/Stop time by deleting the numbers and leaving the fields blank. All done!
Fantastic! thanks for sharing
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#12 by Tweezer on April 22nd, 2010
Quote
If you are working with a MP3 track, make sure it is a constant bit rate mp3 and not a variable bit rate.
How do i change vbr to constant bit rate?
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hi alan
i’m having a problem where i change the time of the song to a 15 second clip but it is automatically changing back to the full length song when i click ok, any idea’s what i’m doing wrong???
thank you
sandra
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Hmm, make sure both checkboxes are checked.
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I am forever greatful!! Thank you!
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ok. I’ve been at this for 2 hours. Its 3am. I’ve changed, modified and done everything I can. My ringtone is only 29 sec long. It’s shows up on my iphone in itunes, but not on my phone. I’m so pissed I want to throw both my laptop and my iphone to pieces.
any ideas?
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Try this: Click on your iPhone in iTunes. Click on the Summary tab. Check the checkbox for Manually manage music and videos. Now go to your ringtone in iTunes and drag it onto your iPhone.
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Are you sure you’re looking in the right place? It will be in “Settings” -> “Sounds” -> “Ringtone” on the phone. These sort of things can be tricky to find and sometimes we forget where to look (happened to me, only reason I mention it might be a possibility).
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I followed every step and everything worked. BUT for some reason after I’ve synced my iphone the ringtone will not show up in settings/sounds?
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Awesome bro. Thanks for making this simple and easy, all ringtones made. You rock!!!
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Not sure if this was mentioned already, but I ran into a small problem that I solved. When I made the ringtone, I kept the title of the song at full length. I’m not sure of the charactor limit for ringtones, but try renaming the ringtone to something shorter so it shows up on your iphone.
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Alan you are my hero! Thanks!
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I CANNOT get the .m4r file to show up under Ringtones! Under Info it says that it is a Ringtone but when I Synch there is nothing there to synch with. I very frustrated.
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That’s brilliant. I tried doing this the ghetto way and got a virus and spent half a day getting rid of it. This worked perfectly.
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it works, i tried to make a few ringtones and all work great. thank u so much for sharing.
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I came across three different websites before this one and i followed every step and i could not get anything to work i followed these steps and work like a charm.
Thank you
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The conversion works fine, thanks. However, in my iTunes, I had to manually drag the ringtone from the “Library” section down to the iPhone’s section and then it synced to the phone immediately. I probably have the manual management flag turned on. To see if this is your problem also, click on the “Ringtones” heading under your iPhone: if the new tone is under Library > Ringtones but NOT under iPhone > Ringtones, then you need to drag it like I did. Also, you might try changing the file name to something shorter, and do not include any special characters: I changed “01 – I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom.m4r” to just “DustMyBroom.m4r”. The song name as it shows up under “Custom Ringtones” on the iPhone will still be the full-length song name.
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losing it at step 17! Help!!! I can’t copy the song, I know I am doing something wrong, I was so excited about this so far… on a PC
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Works nice. Only hiccup I encountered was I had to drag it straight to my phone rather than import it to iTunes. If I tried to import it, iTunes would just delete the file but dragging it straight to the phone worked like a charm.
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plzzzz help me ive done everything showed but when i sync it onto my phone nothing is showing up in settings> sounds> ringtone :(:(
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Followed these instructions to the letter and they work perfectly (thank you very much) however I have I small problem, I have blanked out the start and end times of the song and it has reverted back to the original time of 3 mins 06 secs but when I play this song on my ipod/iphone it only plays 1 min 20 secs before skipping to the next song. Does anyone know how to cure this. Thanks in advance.
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i gotta give you the props, i’ve been searching for answer, went to itune and iphone help, did’nt get any, then i found you, thanks!!!!!!
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I tried this before, but it is kinda strange….my iphone can only accept 1 (most recent added) ringtone, despite the fact that I have added actually a few files at 1 go. Any idea how to resolve this?? Thanks!
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Worked perfectly! I had a little difficulty changing the file extension because it wasn’t originally included in the name of the song. But with a little adjustments to the preferences, was able to do it! Thanks alot!
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Worked exactly as you describe!!
Just created 2 ringtones that were MP3 ringtones for my old Blackberry. Drag them into music list, and follow the instructions above.
Thanks – you saved me lots of pain and agony (and money for some app)!!!
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Everything worked great EXCEPT when I changed the ringtone on my iPhone, it says all is ok and the new ringtone shows it is changed; however, the old ringtone still plays.
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Thanks dude for a wonderful synopsis.
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Is there a work around for purchased songs? During step 14, Its says that “xyz” could not be converted because protected files can not be converted to other formats. This is one of the few songs that I bought via itunes, but I’ve tried others, and they worked ok.
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After I plug in my iPhone and go to the “Ringtones” tab, then I click the “Sync Ringtones” it doesn’t allow me to check the “selected ringtones” option and i don’t see my ringtone listed. When i go to settings and try to the “manually manage my music” option, it automatically unchecks the “Sync Ringtones” …it won’t let me do both…..ideas??? Help!
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You must drop the ringtone file DIRECTLY onto the iphone in the left, it does not seem to appear in the music library. Just FYI. After that, it worked fine. I’ve created numerous ringtones and can now redirect them to my new iPhone. Happy Phoning!
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An alternate way to do this (sorry if someone posted this already) is to use Quicktime. Just open the desired mp3 or wav; choose “save as”; for format, choose iPhone; rename the file in your Finder with .m4r and add to iTunes.
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Ok….at the risk of sounding totally incompetent….I am stuck on step 10 and cannot get the menu to open up when I right click on the song! I am using itune 9, could this be the reason?
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THANK YOU =D omg i tried other people’s direction & they were NOT clear! Your directions were the only one that worked! THANK YOU SO MUCH <3
very much appreciated <3
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Try holding down the control button and left clicking the song. That opens up the drop-down menu for Macs, at least.
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u r dude man… thanks a lot for the shared information….
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Thank you….that worked. However, now the songs I have converted to ringtones will not load to my phone as songs when I sync. It says my iphone can not play that selection. I went back through to make sure I changed the song start/stop back (cleared them). Any ideas?
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Great instructions, but what happens to the current song on itunes? Why is it cut off? How can i get it back?! Please Help!!
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Read the last paragraph in the article called Clean Up.
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okay, im probably just being a total idiot, but this isnt working for me, ive tried it a million different times, a million different ways and its not working! i get the clip but when i add it to my ipod i cant get it into the ringtones bit. i cant select ‘Selected Ringtones’ and i dunno why…urgh. help please! :)
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Help – I’ve gotten the ringtone into my phone in “Ringtones” on iTunes, and checked “Sync Ringtones” and synched, but cannot get the ringtone to show up under Settings>Sounds>Ringtone. Help!
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So COOL…thanks!
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I am still confused! When I go to the part where you click “manually manage music and videos” I check the box and press apply. Then it says that I am “already synced with another iTunes library, do I want to erase it and add this one.” Will that delete all my songs and stuff?
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I’ve imported the song I want, picked a 15 second bit that I want for a ringtone, and made sure that I’ve checked the little boxes. But iTunes won’t let me select “create aac version.” I don’t know what to do. x.x
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This worked perfectly- thanks so much!!
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Thanks, worked like a charm, can you use songs for message alerts, any one know?
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Awesome!!! No Problems at all! On new Iphone4 when you put new ring tone back into Itunes- it creates a ring tone icon on the right sidebar.
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It worked, thanks
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Thank you for showing us how to get something great for nothing, this means we can change our ringtone whenever we get sick of those that come with the phone without having to pay. Thanks
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I am stuck on step 17, pressing Ctrl and C does nothing?!
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It’s simply making a copy of the file. Use the menu at the top if the keyboard shorcuts don’t work.
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I have done everything I see here but I still can’t sync properly. I see the ringtones in my iTunes ringtones but that’s as far asi can get. When I go to settings-sounds-ringtone, all I see are purchased (I have 2), and standard. Please help.
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Plug your iPhone into your computer, launch iTunes, and click Summary. Look for the checkbox to manually sync music. If it’s checked, you’ll have to drag and drop the ringtone onto your iPhone.
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Just tried that and it didn’t show in my ringtones. I believe the problem may lie either in the settings or the VBR.
Thanks
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I’m stucked at the creating AAC version.
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Michelle, I’ve added a Troubleshooting section near the end to walk you through the fix.
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It worked on my iPhone!!
Now I have the “One Missed Call” ringtone… sweet!!
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amazing.
thank you.
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oommggg Thank you so much i was tired of listening to the same old trumpet sound and horns and all…
thnakkkyyoouuuu
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But I can’t drag the file (.m4r) into iTunes. Any advise?
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Try Add to Library from the iTunes menu at the top. If that doesn’t work, than it’s likely the file format is not right for some reason. Maybe start over?
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im using a windows7, how can i save the format into m4r. when i click rename it just gives me the option to change the actualy name. not the format of the song
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Enable Show File Extension. Control Panel–>Folder Options–>View tab–>Uncheck Hide extensions for known file types
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You are AMAZING!!!! Thank you so much!!!
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Thanks so much! This was much more helpful than any other web site I found.
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Thank you, but i’ve got a slight problem…whenever do the last few steps (when i click apply after selecting the ringtone) i get a message say “……this will delete all your applications from your iphone…” help please. I dont want any of my apps or data to be deleted.. thank you :)
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Try dragging and dropping the ringtone onto your iPhone. Or, you’ll have to uncheck “Manually manage music and videos” in your iPhone’s summary tab in iTunes, then sync your iPhone.
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I did everything right but when I get to step18to21 i get compleely lost . I am using windows 7 and when I ty to copy and paste it doesnt work . I cannot change the format ! please Alan help me .
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Turn on view file extension. Control Panel–>Folder Options–>Select View tab–>Uncheck Hide extensions for known file types.
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I have the 1st generation i-phone and the latest version of i-tunes, and windows 7.
I have tried all of the above steps and trouble shooting.
I set my computer so that windows explorer shows file extensions but I still am unable to download ringtones to my iphone.
When I plug my i-phone into i-tunes and look under ‘my i-phone’ then ‘ringtones’ the ringtones are there but they are not on my i-phone even after sync is complete.
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i’m using win 7 and itunes 9. Have changed the import settings to AAC encoder. But the “create AAC version” is “greyed out”. I can’t select it…did i missed out something?
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You should confirm that the original file does not have DRM and that it’s already not an AAC file.
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I read through everything and success in creating the tones. But now when my iphone4 is plugged in it says the ringtones are in the folder. But when I go to select them on
My phone they don’t show up. Only one does. suggestions?
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hi, i followed all these procedures, PLUS the troubleshooting stuff, and the ringtone still doesnt show up under Settings -> Sound -> Ringtones on my phone. if i look at the phone in iTunes, I can find the tone i just created under Sync Ringtones -> Selected (the box is checked), but the tone is nowhere on the phone!
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Make sure you delete the second file you created (the m4a file). See Step 21.
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did everything on new iphone 4
including troubleshooting drag and drop
error message said “cannot be played on this iphone”
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OMG this worked (: thanksss
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Worked like a charm – put in my fav Pacific Chorus frog sound!
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