CyberNotes: Create Free iPhone Ringtones Using iTunes in Windows
Tutorial Thursday
Windows; 
Mac 
One of the things that Apple hasn’t made easy for iPhone owners is providing a way to create custom ringtones in Windows. If you’re a Mac owner you can use GarageBand, but Apple doesn’t provide that application on Windows. Instead what they expect you to do is purchase a song for $0.99, and then convert it to a ringtone for another $0.99.
As it turns out in a few steps you can actually convert a DRM-free song into a ringtone using only iTunes in Windows. The trick also works for Mac users, but using GarageBand is a lot simpler so we’re focusing primarily on the Windows side.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Start iTunes and find the [DRM-free] song you want to convert to a ringtone. Right-click on it and select the Get Info option.
- On the Options tab locate the Start Time and End Time options. This is where you want to specify the portion of the song you wanted converted into a ringtone. Check both of the boxes, and make sure your ringtone is under 30-seconds. Press OK when finished.
- Right-click on the song you just modified, and choose the Convert to AAC option. If you don’t see this in the context menu navigate to Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Importing, and make sure the AAC Encoder is selected in the Import Using menu.
- Once the song has finished being converted to the new format it will appear in your music list, and the “Time” should reflect the correct duration of the ringtone (which should be less than 30-seconds). Now navigate to your iTunes music folder to find the converted song. Here’s an example of where my Green Day ringtone was located:
- Make sure you’re able to see the file’s extension (.M4A) like in the screenshot above. If you don’t see the extension go to Tools -> Folder Options -> View (Organize -> Folder and Search Options on Vista), and uncheck the Hide extensions for known file types box. Then click OK.
- Copy the music file (with the .M4A extension) to your desktop. Once you’ve done that rename the file’s extension to .M4R which will make iTunes recognize it as a ringtone. Make sure there are no symbols (underscores, hyphens, etc…) in the file name.
- In iTunes go to File -> Add File to Library, and then browse for the file from step 6. Once you’ve selected it press the Open button. iTunes will place the ringtone in the respective section in your library:
- Sync your iPhone with iTunes and your newly created ringtone should get transferred over. If it doesn’t be sure to check the Ringtones tab in the iPhone configuration section of iTunes to verify that it is setup to sync your ringtones.
–What is DRM?–
I’ve been getting all kinds of questions and emails from people asking what DRM is. An anonymous commenter below did a great job answering the question. Here is his response:
DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. In a nutshell, a song with DRM is meant to keep you from giving it to someone else. If you’re using Windows XP (and I’m sure there’s some equivalent for Vista), you can right-click on a song file, and choose Properties. Under the Summary tab, click the Advanced >> button if it’s there. Under the Origin heading, you will see an entry named ‘Protected’. If it says No, then the song does not have a DRM. If it says Yes, well, you may be able to pay Apple money to convert the song to an iTunes Plus track, which will be DRM-free. Hope this helps, best of luck!
That’s all there is to it. Now you can save yourself a bunch of money on ringtones. A big thanks to the Apple Blog who assembled the original instructions on how to do this for the Mac!
This is just one of the hundreds of CyberNotes we have done. You can find more of them by visiting our CyberNotes category, or by subscribing to our CyberNotes feed. We also have a full feed available if you want to receive all of our articles in your reader!
Tags: CyberNotes, Firefox, Freeware, General, Google, Newly Released, Software, Windows, iTunes, Music, Windows Vista, Windows XP
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Thanks for this.. superb.
One note, if your contect menu does not have “convert selection to AAC”, you need to change your itunes preferences > advanced > import > import using > AAC encoder
After this, it will be available.
You just HAD to pick Holiday didn’t you?
This works great! Thanks for the tip. I’ve been looking for something to do this.
The thing is I am not advocating ripping artist off. But these are songs that I have ALREADY purchased. Plus there are so few that have been made available as ring tones. It was dumb. But not you have solved it!
Thanks again!
This isn’t working for me. I can convert the songs based off the guide perfectly. It even shows up in Itunes under the Ringtones section but after doing the Sync, it’s not on the phone???
Weird
also covers mac and not just windows. Makes a lot of suggestions on how to fix things if ringtones don’t work right.
the longest ringtone you can have is actually 40 seconds. if it’s under 40 seconds, you are good.
Didn’t work for me. ?
GREAT TIP!! Current way of getting iPhone ringtones is ludicrous.
Silly question but I hate having all these random files everywhere. ARe any of the converted files, etc, ok to trash?
So I can convert it to a ring tone easuly but it doesnt move intot he rigtones library it just goes to the music library. Help?
For those people who haven’t been able to get this to work:
1) Have you made sure the ringtone is set to sync in the ringtone tab in the iPhone configuration?
2) Are you sure you’re using a DRM-free song as stated in the instructions?
It’s a great song!
That’s weird. Did you not change the file extension in Step 6?
This is AWESOME. Thank you!!
For those who can’t get it into the ringtone folder — try deleting the original file from your library first. That worked for me.
This doesn’t work for me in Vista. I drag the file over to Ringtones and it does not appear there. Sync is on. Any ideas?
God damn it, I tried it on my Gz one boulder and figured I had a shot, I’ve been screwing around with this for about a half an hour and have been trying to figure this thing out for 3! I’m watching tv. :/
thanks braden…i set all durations to less than 40 seconds and they automatically appear in the ringtone section of the iphone for syncing. i tried this before and dint work because i set the duration too long
and thanks CNN hehe
Hmmm… This method doesn’t work with some of my audio files. Investigating…
This works great. Thank you for the article. One question though…For certain tunes, the volume was a little low, so I adjusted the volume and the equalizer on the piece I am interested in. But when I convert and change the extension to .m4r, the volume and equalizer adjustments dont seem to have been transferred…Is there a way to retain those in the ringtone or is it not possible ?
It doesn’t show up on the Iphone after conversion and syncing. And yes, I’ve made sure it’s selected for syncing. Any ideas???
And yes, I made sure the file extension was changed…..
As we pointed out in the article… the music has to be DRM-free in order for this to work. That means a lot of songs purchased from iTunes will not work.
I don’t believe it’s not possible to transfer over the equalizer adjustments.
Are you using a DRM-free song?
I have tried this several time with NO luck, but I would LOVE to get this to figured out.
One thing – I cant get the file extension to show up. iTunes does the whole convert thing but when I got to the iTunes Music folder it just show the song title NO EXTENSION.
You mentioned go to “Tools -> Folder Options -> View, and uncheck the Hide extensions for known file types box. Then click OK”. Where do I find the “TOOLS”?? I have looked everywhere and kind find the area to perform this function.
Also when you say: In iTunes go to File -> Add File to Library, and then browse for the file from step 6. Once you’ve selected it press the Open button. iTunes will place the ringtone in the respective section in your library:… does the “respective section” mean “ringtones” in iTunes?
Would love your help. I have already spent an hour on this…there is no turning back now
Song titles need to be short is another thing that should be noted. I was using the full file names and it wasn’t working, shortened them to 1 word names and they appeared on the phone when I resynced.
Works great, just like in the instructions. My ring tones a quiet though. Any way I can make them louder. I turned up the volume in my phone and moved the volume adjustment up to 100% in itunes but still quiet. I even played it in itunes and it even sounds softer than the origional. Any ideas?
For a last step, you should mention re-opening the original audio file and resetting the start and end times to play the full song properly again.
Got it to work! once I shorten the name as suggested by Zed.
LJ Neal, look at the picture in step 4 above, the tools he is referring to is on you pc/laptop.
Thanks again.
ps, what does DRM stand for?
It worked! make sure you change the name of the ringtone to one word! I used the song Still Alive from portal, originally when i named it Portal Ring Tone it would not show up on my phone. After changing the name to just “portal” it worked!
Hi there,
I got this to work with an mp3,
a little bit of playing around was involved,
but I got it to work with a 29 second edited mp3,
and also I eddited out all the mp3s info in itune,
eg album name, year or release and reclassified it as none,
all of this was found in itunes under get info, info
hope this helps
This only works in Win XP. Changing the file name extension does not work in Vista. Otherwise good job…
Sorry, if you’re on Vista go to Organize -> Folder and Search Options.
It works perfelly, thanks so mucho!!!!!!!!!!!
Very, very good TIP!!!! I am very happy with this one here! I do recommend…
i followed it, and it worked okay, my iphone synced, but now i cannot find the tone among the ringtones on my iphone… :S
oh cool, i found it!
just download iringer
I have made a bunch of ring tones thanks. I have discovered a few short cuts to your method
step 4, if you right click on the created ringtone and chose “show in windows explorer” it opens directly to the file. You can even change the file extension right there.
Step 7 If you then double click on the file it goes right into your ringtones. You do not need to chose add file.
I just got it to work in Vista. Original mp3 is DRM free, I can name it whatever I like (no need for one word filenames), and it’s about 33 seconds long. The only thing you need to do… AFTER you have copied the file to your desktop and renamed the extension… delete the 30 second clip that you converted from mp3 to aac from your itunes library. Then import the ringtone that you created. Voila!
This works perfectly!!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! I really appreciate it!!!!!!
I was having problems with this as well, until I read the comment about making the file name all one word. No spaces, no underscores. I removed the underscores from the files I was using, resynced, and they showed up as “custom ringtones” with the stock factory ringtones. works great now.
So let me get this right. I purchase a song fron itunes for use on my ipod and I want to turn that ALREADY purchased song into a ringtone I have to pay another .99 cents? That is a WRONG Apple, Wrong!
I tried this and it didn’t work for me. Operator error maybe?? Did you explain somewhere what a DRM-free file is? I wasn’t sure what it was when I was reading your article; however, I still tried your method. I got an error message the minute I tried to convert to AAC saying that protected files could not be converted to ther formats. Does this have something to do with DRM-free or the lack of? Your advice on this is appreciated. Thanks
thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
I have tried all the steps expect when i try to put the ringtone into my i tunes it does not work can somebody help me please
FANTASTIC!!
Thank you so much!!! You’re my savior!! And all those who mentioned changing the file name!! KUDOS!!
Thanks It works great It was easy to follow the instructions and I’m so happy I don’t have to pay $2 to itunes
i couldn’t get it to work (would show up in iTunes as a ringtone and on the iPhone in iTunes, but not in the ringtone menu). But, when I changed the first letter in the title to a capital it showed up on my iPhone and worked.
Thanks — this rocks
I had the same problem of not getting the converted ringtone (a non-DRM, .m4r file that’s under 30 seconds) from the iTunes to the iPhone. I tried changing the name into a single word, and finally got it to work! Thank you!
That said, I noticed that other ringtones pre-installed in the iPhone did not obey the one-word rule, so I changed the name to a multiple words separated by spaces, and it worked just fine! I did, however, notice that previously, all the ringtones that would not work had one thing in common: they all had symbols somehwere in the name. Symbols, such as !@#$-_,’ will prevent the ringtones from getting on the iPhone.
Good luck everyone!
i had heaps of trouble with this but as soon as i made the ringtone less than 40 seconds. it then showed up in my ringtone sync list and i even have new newest itunes.
I am new to iPhone, just got it few days ago. I am using iTunes 8. I couldn’t get step 7 to work. When I added file to lib, it is not listed. Anyone?
Just like Double07 above, I’ve downloaded iTunes 8 and I’ve also converted an mp3 to a m4a but then it’s automatically listed as a track in my music folder… instead of being considered as a ringtone….
Any help? Thanks!
Just like Double07 and ecco, I’ve got itunes 8 and windows vista. When I open the file it doesn’t have M4a in the file name to be able to rename it to M4r. Any help?
This works perfectly! Thank you for taking the time to lay out all the screen shots and go step by step. It even works on the September ‘08 iTunes update v8.0.0.35! Thanks again, cheers!
does it work with itunes 8 and iphone 3g?
Super Fantastic
:P
You are awesome!
Sweeeeet.. Hey had issues.
I had problems until I took the spaces out of the name in the Get Info box. Once I cleared this .. bammm in the custom area.. so check your file info.
I’ve tried every tip on this site and I can’t get a 3rd song to appear in my custom folder on my iphone. I’m using Vista, iphone 2.1 and itunes 8.0.1. Please give me some hope.
Works great! Thanks!
Excellent tutorial! I just bought an iPhone and prior to that I had a SLVR. I used Audacity to make my own ringtones. I guess I could still kind of do it, using a combination of your tutorial and my own methods, but it’s a shame that Apple has to make simple stuff like this such a pain.
Ok all you Vista users. I figured it out. This is step by step!
Open iTunes
Goto Library and select Music
Select Song
Listen to song & note time where you want song to start(example 0:50)
Stop Song
Right click on song which should be highlighted
Select GET INFO
Select Options
Fill in Start and Stop times (ie~ Start 0:50 Stop 1:20 (add 30 sec)
Click on OK button
Right click again on highlighted song
Select CREATE AAC VERSION
Highlight 30sec version of song which will appear either above or
below the full version of the song
Right click highlighted 30sec version
Select SHOW IN WINDOWS EXPLORER (2 versions of the song will appear
in Windows Explorer. Check size of file if you aren’t sure but
ringtone 30sec version should already be lightly highlighted)
Right click 30sec version
Select RENAME
Change .m4a to .m4r & you can also change the name of the song (get
rid of any underscores, asteriks, exlamation points, etc…)
Hit ENTER
Hit YES
Go back to iTunes >Library >Music and highlight the 30sec version
Right click and select DELETE
Hit REMOVE
Select RINGTONES under >Library section
Go back to Windows Explorer where your .m4r file is located
DOUBLE CLICK ON THE 30SEC .m4r SONG & IT WILL AUTOMATICALLY GO TO
iTUNES RINGTONES FILE AND START PLAYING
Stop song
Goto FILE pull down menu
Select SYNC “_____iPhone”
While this is being done, you can select Devices ____iPhone which is
located on the left hand side to view how your sync process is
going
Select Ringtones under Devices ____iPhone category to make sure
ringtone file is there
Now go and apply your new ringtone on your iPhone.
Don’t forget to go back to the full version of the song and change the Get Info start and stop times. Tip: just highlight the start time and then hit delete, hightlight stop time and
hit delete then hit OK at the bottom.
Good Luck all you Vista users. This worked for me like a charm each and every time.
HELP!!! I was able to do everything that the instructions said for me to do and the new version of the song is in my “ringtone” section of iTunes. But there is only one problem…it isn’t showing up on my iPhone and yes, I have my iPhone set up to sync ringtones. I am stumped…and honestly I have been waiting to make this song into a ringtone for months now and finally today I got my first iPhone and am frusterated at the fact that I can’t get my ringtone to show up and work! Does anyone have any pointers or help that they can give??
Speaking of Audacity, check out DJ Nitrogen – not free but it’s easy, works every time and uses the Audacity editor.
I am using 8.0035 itunes and 2.1 version on my iphone (I do NOT have the 3G)
I am also a Windows Vista user.
I followed the Windows Vista instructions, and I have all of the songs I wanted converted to ringtones.
I do have a simple but different step that I used with the above Vista instructions… after I clicked “Show in Windows Explorer”, and then renamed it to a m4r.. I went to my itunes / ringtones and simply drug it in.
How did you know which are the DRM free songs? I manage to convert some songs as ringtones but not others. What does DRM stands for? Please help:)
why cant we have full songs like any other phones?
as far as i know it dosn’t work with the itunes v.8’s so i dont know what to tell you post an answer if you have one
d.pell
HOW TO GET FREE RINGTONES WITH ITUNES 8 AND THE 2.1 IPHONE FINALLY WORKS
HOLY CRAP i got it to work with the new itunes 8 all you have to do is click on your phone name in the left tab…_____IPHONE and when
the page changes go to the ringtone tab. once there click the sync ringtones check box. select all ringtones or just the ones you like i dont know if it will erase the ones you have already. mine did. but after that it should just send the new ringtones in your “ringtone” folder into your iphone. you still have to do all the converting to the .mr4 and the other steps but it will finally add them to your phone
d.pell
Thanks alot! I think it’s completely unfair to have to pay AGAIN for the privilege of having a custom ringtone for a song you’ve already paid for. Thank you SIR!
I m using XP and has downloading the songs into my itunes (as what has been instructed). However i’m unable to sync into my iphone. HAve checked the boxes for syncing but still not in my iphone. What could have happended? Pls. help.
Thanks
Like jefchen, I am using XP and have converted 5 files to ringtones – btw, nice instruction set. Only one of the ringtones synced in iTunes. My iPhone folder, iTunes, shows them as on my phone and synced properly, but only one ringtone shows up in the menu on the iPhone. Ideas?
yay thanks alot this actually worked, i thought i had to have a jailbroken iphone for this even though it do.
anyway thanks alot
SWEET! Thank god this actually works since Apple Canada hasn’t decided to start ripping us off here yet… I’d recommend converting to MP3, and using any editor that way, and then convert the file to m4a using something like MediaCoder(free) and then changing the file extension.
BTW, to change the option for export file type its in
Edit> Preferances> General
under General tab it will have CD Import FILE SETTINGS button >
Choose your file type (either AAC or MP3)
This will affect how it exports music too
oh and yes that’s on a iPhone 3G (v2.1) using iTunes 8 and Windows XP and it works brilliantly!
I’m stuck. Can’t seem to work it out. Got the Iphone (not 3g) v2.1 and itunes 8 with a MAC. Can’t seem to be able to convert the file to AAC. I see most of the comments are for XP but does anyone know what do with a MAC OS X version 10.4.11. Please please help
This all works great!!!!
Thanks to all of you who figured out this hack…..
I was even able to do all of this while navigating through iTunes on an RDP connection from another computer.
You dont need to go through all that to get free iphone ringtones. i know of a site that i have been using that lets you make custom ringtones that are compatible with the iphone.
This is just what I need but for a while couldn’t get it to work.
First how to I check if a song (from a bought CD) is DRM free?
I tried going to the original song (Beware of Darkness Leon Russell). Step 2 works smoothly till I click OK. There is no change in the length of the song. I press on.
Step 3 There is no Convert to ACC when I right click so i go to Preferences -> Advanced. There is no Importing button in this version of iTunes (downloaded today) but this is available in the General tab. Now I have Convert to ACC and when I apply this the length changes. Yipee!
I follow steps 4, 5, 6 and 7 but when I want to syncronise iTunes says only if you wipe off all you music. (Stupid Apple) Which I do but then manually reload the music later. Gotcha Apple.
Thanks for this. I previously tried making the ringtone in Garage Band and tryed to import it but to no avail.
Cheers
Phil
Thank you~!
Awesome! Thanks so much! Worked like a charm. I did have to shorten the name, which didn’t work, but then I tried deleting the info about the songs in iTunes and voila. Free Beatles ring tone. Nice work!
I got everything to work, up until changing the ringtone on my iPhone. I saw a few other people had this problem too.
In iTunes, under Ringtones, my ringtone shows up there. Under the iPhone tab, it’s selected to sync the ringtone to iPhone.
When I go to change the ringtone on my iPhone, it only gives me the default ringtones that came with the iPhone, it doesn’t have the one I just put on it.
HELP PLEASE
never mind, I figured it out
This worked great. One of the things I noticed is missing from the iphone is a NONE ringtone. I found a song that had a few seconds of dead air and selected that segment, followed the instructions and presto, I have a NONE ringtone that I can assign to nuisance callers! Thanks!
Now if I can just figure out how to keep iphone text messages from popping up automatically no matter what application I am on or even on the main menu, that would be fanstastic. Any suggestions??
i live in jamaica, i want to buy from the itunes store.i have a internal visa. but no us mailing adress.any suggestion?
this did not work for me. i tried for 2 hours now. I am giving up.
by the way, I didn’t do a great job for the duration and the song was not completed as I expected.. how do I remove it? please let me know.. Thank you very much.
p.s I’ll let my friend know how excellent this website is. Cool!!!!
Created the m4r file just fine with no spaces, starting with capital letter, etc. Shows up in ringtones folder in library, and in list of ringtone/sync all ringtones. After sync, though it is not showing up on my iphone ringtone library – no custom folder, nothing. Help please!
Whenever I add my ringtone it deletes all of my music which is just lame. it says sync ringtone but all music and tv shows will be deleted. but it did work
Worked like a charm for me, Big Thanks for posting pictures too!!!
using IPhone software 2.1
ummm… i have a really dumb question: how do you change a file extension on win xp? everything works great until the renaming. i can’t seem to figure out how to change the m4a to m4r. pleeeeese help, someone!
never mind… went back and reread the instructions and all is good!
DUHHHHH!!!
Can anyone help me with this? I can do all of the steps listed above for Vista and it worked! But, I couldn’t get the ringtone to sync with my phone. It took me a while to see where ethe problem lies, but I can see it clearly now. Although I change the file name and extension (with no problem) in Windows, when it loads the ring tone back onto iTunes, it converts it back to the original file name (yes, I delete the original from the library before I double click the new one). The original file name has a space in it, so I cannot get it to sync. Does this mean the song might be DRM? I have no clue how to check that out. Thanks!
THIS WORKS LIKE A CHARM ON USING WINDOWS!!!!! THANX, I WUZN’T ABOUT 2 PAY A DOLLAR 4 EVERY RINGTONE ON A SONG THAT I ALREADY OWNED!!!
KEEP UP THA GOOD WORK!!!!
I live in Costa Rica, so the access to iPhone is with ziphone. I followed the instructions to make the ringtone and it works good until the iTunes (the ringtone appears in the iTunes), but when making the sync to my iPhone it does not sync. Any idea how to sync?
Wow! This tip is awesome! Thanks alot! Now I’m starting to love my iPhone again, thanks to you!
God bless…
Oh, and I forgot to tell some people about this…if you can’t sync the ringtones from iTunes to your iPhone, just drag them into the iPhone, trust me! It’ll work! (But make sure it is .m4r file) Do not sync but DRAG! Good luck, people!
Sorry for bad writting…
And make sure the song is 30 seconds or less. If it’s 0:31 or 0:32, you cannot sync the song at all…
Thankssssssssssss, Ryan!
ThanksSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!! It’s a perfect log!
i tried adding the file (song) into my itunes, but it kept adding itself to my MUSIC folder instead, not the ringtones folder.
the song is also 26 secs. pls HELP!! thanks =]
uhmm wot exactly is DRM-free? really need help!! please rescue me. cant seems to create it. first of all i follow all the step that u told but i cant get the file to be in the ringtone folder. HELP please
Any ideas how to make them able to be used for sms texts or new mail alerts without hacking phone?
This has worked for me quite well… The issue I am having is when people call, the song doesn’t play out the duration of the clip. It cuts off… Anyone have this issue? Is there a solution?
Thanks in advance…
I followed all the guidelines, and the ringtones are visible in the Itunes library and also visible in Itunes under the Ihpone ringtones, after sych. But they do not appear on the Iphone/settings/sound/ringtone…
-Could there be other reasons than activiate ringtone tab/DRM/no strange typo’s….
Thanks
Excellent tip!!! Worked perfectly for me & now I can have Fish Heads as a ring tone….yay.
great tip, but it won’t work for Texts, any ideas??
Nice one everyone. I now have a remix of 007 and BlueMonday playing when my boss rings ha ha
Created a couple from CD’s that worked. Tried a 20 sec mp3 that appears to convert,(appears in ringtone tab in itunes)but does not appear on iphone after sync. Any ideas?
Thanks alot for this. Now I can wake up to “Superhero” by Jane’s Addiction each morning.
Now I just have to work on getting ladies…..and tons of money.
Thanks for this.. superb.
just tried it……..works great!!! thanks!!!!! gonnna go add more ringtones………LOL
dude too easy, i love it
i dont have the ringtone tab nor the tools tab (using xp not vista) and the extension doesnt show in the file !! i have itunes 8 and iphone 3g !!what should i do !!
Thanks this was awesome!!!!!
MISA YOU COMPLETLY ROCK! I HAVE BEEN TRYING THIS 4 DAYS AND NOTHING WORKED BUT WITH UR INSTRUCTIONS IT WORKED PERFECTLY!
THANKS A LOT!!!
Guys can i know how to make a video on i phone ? i got 3gp and mpeg-4 file but donno how to add in i phone .. someone can touch me ? or email to me thx , Jackson5633@yahoo.com.hk .
i tunes movie can show my 3gp and mpeg-4 file ..but i can saw video file on i phone video there so i cant sync or apply to inside … pls help , thx
Alright. So, I’ve tried to get ringtones on my iPhone for quite a while using this method, and I ran into a few barricades…. But they were all resolved.
Number 1:
I had managed to get the song I wanted how I wanted it, but it would not go into the Ringtones folder. This was resolved by making sure it was under 30 seconds.
Number 2:
I got the song in the Ringtone folder, and synced my iPhone and the ringtone was nowhere to be found on my phone. This was resolved by:
1. Deleting the file in the music folder before syncing.
2. Shortening up the file name, if its too long it will not sync.
Well, I hope this helps someone out who has trouble with this.
Thanks very much to the person who posted this way around Apple’s jewing ass to try and make us pay for everything we use on their iPhone.
So I followed all of the steps until I got to the part where I need to add the file to iTunes. I did that and it will not go into the ringtone folder. The file is 26 seconds long and the name is short with .m4r at the end. Any suggestions would help. Thanks
I think i have this all down but i do have one question.********What Exaxtly is a DRM-Free Song?*****I was having the same problem just getting it to show up on the iphone under ringtones although it shows it in itunes under ringtones. I just cant find it on the phone after i sync the phone. Iam assuming my problem must be within the DRM-Free song thing lol. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Great directions, simple and easy to follow. I created a few ringtones and it went smoothly. The one problem I encountered was, after syncing with the phone, I deleted the ringtones from my desktop. When I plugged the phone back in to Itunes, it removed the ringtones due to an error (I assume caase it couldn’t find them anymore) I really don’t want to clutter the desktop with m4r files. How can I keep the ringtones on the phone and keep my desktop clean? I’m using Itunes 8 and Vista.
I followed all the steps and have the custom ringtones on my unlocked iphone. But whenever I set the custom tunes, the ringer volume goes to zero. On incoming calls, the phone only vibrates (no sound).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
WHAT THE HECK is drm-free and how do i find out if a particular song is or not drm-free and how do i fix it or convert it?
DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. In a nutshell, a song with DRM is meant to keep you from giving it to someone else. If you’re using Windows XP (and I’m sure there’s some equivalent for Vista), you can right-click on a song file, and choose Properties. Under the Summary tab, click the Advanced >> button if it’s there. Under the Origin heading, you will see an entry named ‘Protected’. If it says No, then the song does not have a DRM. If it says Yes, well, you may be able to pay Apple money to convert the song to an iTunes Plus track, which will be DRM-free. Hope this helps, best of luck!
On a side note, great tutorial. Worked like a charm for me!
Wow this works wonders. I tryed it the first time n bam! Anyone having a problem you most likely missed a step. GO back n READ! Thanks.
Hi, after i right clicked my selection theres no option for me to convert to acc.
when i tried to edit my preferences under the advanced tab, there is no importing option for me to click on as shown on the tutorial above
can anyone help me please..
Thanks!
i tried over and over- song is not drm, tried all suggestions and it will not work! help
Is their any way to specify which part of the song (the 30 second part) will be the ringtone or do we have to settle always for the fist 30 seconds of each song? Thanks.
Why are you all giving people bogus information? In step 7 their is no such option as “open”!! You can’t open anything. I was only able to create 2 ringtones out 6, when I uploaded the m4r song into iTunes I have no idea where it’s putting it but it’s not in my library and it’s not in the Ringtone area either?? When I right clicked the 30 second song in my Music library and tried to create a ringtone I got the standard answer “can only create ringtones purchased from iTunes”…so obviously that is not the m4r song??
THANK YOU TONZ!
now with the economy, it’s funny to think, but the extra $2 you save doing this adds up!
ok so i got all the way to the song in my ringtones folder, but it wont sync. no one is giving a clear cut answer as to why it wont. any help would be great
hey hasnt worked ive followed the steps etc but still no joy, how do i find out if the tracks i am converting are DRM free..? please help
Thanks so much!!!!
All: I had the same problem as many of you. Running iTunes 8. Did all the m4a to m4r conversions, kept the file lengths under 20 seconds just to be safe. Files showed up as ringtones both in iTunes AND in the ringtones tab under my phone, but just would not appear on my phone when I sync’d, unplugged, and then checked in settings under custom sounds. D*mn it! Spent 3 days on this fuck*ng thing. What finally worked for me was deleting all the ringtones from iTunes, opening a new folder, moving all my ringtone files to the new folder then importing the new folder into iTunes 8 just like you would any song folder.
The key was that each ringtone file HAD to be named with exactly the following format: “01 SaturdayNightsAlright.m4r”. Note: two digit number first in the filename followed by a space, then a name starting with a capital letter and no spaces numbers or non-alpha characters, then of course the m4r suffix. See if this works for you. Good luck. (I also copied the files with this format manually into my iTunes ringtone folder, but I think it was the total erase and iTunes normal “add new folder” method that worked – not totally sure, I was trying a million things at once.)Oh, I also deleted all the original m4a songs in iTunes under my fake band name before the ringtone file load. That may have been important too. By the way, all my ringtones started as mp3 downloads. I edited them to length, burned them all to an audio CD, then loaded the CD into iTunes and edited the info tab so they all had the same fake band name. That’s how I got them into AAC/m4a format. Then I did the file name manipulations above by manually tracking down the folder where iTunes automatically put them. Again – good luck. Just fool around. It CAN be done in iTunes 8 !!
I tried this (thanks, it almost works) using iTunes 8. It will not sync to the iPhone and I also can’t drag a ringtone to the iPhone. When I try to sync, it tells me that my iPhone is synced to a different iTunes library (it’s not), and the only option is to erase everything I’ve already synced, which I will not choose. Has anyone else had this problem?
im not sure if this is an operator error or not. i followed all of the step but now the original song wont sync and i cant find the ringtone anywhere except on my ipod. where do you go to actually set it as a ringtone?
Brianna, iTunes stores all its files on your main drive (usually c:) under C:\users\”insert your username here”\music\iTunes\Itunes Music. This is for Vista. For older versions of windows you have to start your search under c:\documents and settings\ if I remember correctly. In the “iTunes Music” folder you will see a sub-folder for each of the bands in your library. Inside you will find a sub-folder for each of their albums. You will also see a file called “Ringtones”. Guess what? That is where your ringtones are! They should all be in the format I describe above, unique two digit number to start each one, a space then the ringtone filename with a .m4r suffix. If you can’t find it, do a windows search for a folder called “ringtones” . That should work. This all by the way assumes you checked off the “let iTunes manage your music” box back on the main options screen – which I would recommend. iTunes does a pretty good job at this.
Laurnensvt: That is really odd. Are all of the songs on your iPod also on your PC in the iTunes library you have already sync’d from? If so you can probably go ahead and do a total reset, but I don’t blame you for being nervous. Don’t think I would risk it either. Do you have an older iPod you could try the full resync on? Just to see if your songs all transfer properly?
I have tried all the tips (eg, get rid of spaces in both Get Info and when renaming the track) but when I select the track to add it to the library, it does not import into my iTunes ringtone folder. It flashs briefly like it recognizes the file and on the desktop the icon says ringtone. I don’t think I am missing a step but does anyone have any suggestions? I am running XP Pro and iTunes 8.0.2.20.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.
this is not working for me. it won’t go into the ringtones folder.
This is on POINT Ryan or whoever the computer “G” is, that figured this out!!! Really appreciate you sharing this info. It’s always great to save money. I’m not great with computers, but if you follow his directions to a “T” you should have no problems, I didn’t. This is awsome, thanks again.
Tried Bobs idea of using a two digit numeric value folled by a space and Capitol letter when renaming the file and it resolved my problem on Vista with Itunes 8, before it would load into Itunes but not Sync on my phone
Hi Guys,
Really Nice one and Thanks to the author.
original song 
and the 
converted ACC song:!: before importing the new .M4R file into the library.
But just want to share some info with many who are getting the same problem as I got !!!!!!
The song is getting converted to ringtone but not present in setting.
Solution : – Delete the
Then I was able to find it
Settings –> Sounds –> Ringtone –> Custom (This gets created)
Enjoy…….
This is the best explained i have found on the net bin tryin for absolutluty ages to convert but all i needed to do was change the settings in the folder all i would say that if your not a vista user and a normal windows user you have to uncheck the box that says show hidden files and folders. thank you so much.
All:
I’m glad the ringtones solution seems to be working for most of you. I think we have all figured this one out at last – at least for now, until Apple upgrades the software and comes up with a new way to block us. On that point – I just crossed my fingers and went ahead with the new iPhone 2.2.1 upgrade that came out a few days ago, praying that it would not trash my hard won new ringtones. It didn’t. You can go ahead and upgrade. Supposedly the new version lets you download iTunes songs over 3G or even Edge wireless connections instead of just WiFi as before. Very handy if you are as impatient as I sometimes(OK, usually)am. Haven’t tried it yet. Remember I am running iTunes 8 on a windows Vista PC. Have no idea how this upgrade would affect other configurations of MAC/PC, OS, and iPod type.
Havn’t tried it yet, but it looks legit. I’d say some of the most important things are making sure you get rid of the original file and make sure you force the ring file INTO the ring section. Sometimes itunes is tricky and will identify when you are trying to cheat the system. Especially the newest version.
Thanks
Very helpful
One thing to note: The above does work. Once you get it as a ringtone on your iPhone, you should remember to go back to your original song, and uncheck those start and stop times in Options. Otherwise, the iPod portion will only play that portion of the song.
Syncing worked, but I had to change the name of the song to be shorter. Otherwise it would not show up in the ringtones list on my phone.
I have a problem…the file converts to AAC, however I am unable to see the extension to change it…what do i do now??
Kick a$$!!!!!!!! Worked perfectly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m also having problems transferring it over to the ringtones library. When I transferred it it didn’t show up but when I sync the phone it shows up in the little box that it’s being transferred but when it’s done it says it couldn’t find the file. what does this mean?
super easy
(K)
thnx .. love u all
Not sure if this has been discussed already, but under Vista 64 with iTunes 8.1.0.52 I had to remove the short AAC file from the library before adding the m4r. If I don’t then nothing will happen.
I had problems at first getting it to show up but then realized it was not 30 seconds or under. Once I did that, it worked great. Thanks!
im kinda encountering little problems.ive managed to add songs to my phone succesfully, but when i add another song, it just doubles the last song that i just added. i dont get it. HELP!!!!
FABULOUS!! This works perfectly fine…Thanks mate.
I just finally got it to work after an hour of messing with it! I use vista and i got the iphone with 2.1 and itunes 8. what i did is i went to first to get a free ringtone so that way it would create a folder in my iphone under ringtones. then i went back and did the whole step process and from then on i got every ring tone to work pefectly. Great job thanks alot for the tips…
Thanks for this great tutorial. My first ever non-standard ringtone!
I am able to generate the file, and convert it, but the problem is, I can’t drag it from desktop into the library, also with open a new file is not possible … the RINGTONES section is empty….
What to do?
This is great, received a lot of good advice on how to add new ringtones to iPhone, and thank you all.
One issue that am having is I support a user who is hearing impaired, I was able to get him a ringtone that is loud enough for him to here when the phone rings, however, have not been able to do anything to add a tone, or louder tone for him to hear when he receives Text messages.
Any suggestions???
This isn’t working for me. I can convert the songs based off the guide perfectly. It even shows up in Itunes under the Ringtones section but after doing the Sync, it’s not on the phone???
Weird
when the first two times i used it it work just fine but after that it stop working then i try using the one letter and now it work just fine.
LIFESAVER!!!! Thankyou!!
Hi!! i have problems with the last step. The problem is that in my itunes i don’t have the option “ringtones”!! i’ve done everything alrigt but i don’t know what can i do now. It may be because i’m from Argentina and we don’t have that option here?? my iphone is 3G and i have windows Xp. I can’t even find the ringtone option in my iphone! Please Help!!
Worked beautifully for me (and I’m OLD and techno-challenged) – so you know you did an excellent job of making the instructions easy to follow.
Thank You!
Done everything except for the conversion from m4a to m4r. From my desktop i left click on the ringtone in order to rename it but it doesn’t do it so I can’t drag it into the ringtones. Thanks
great find. for those of you who can see the ringtone file Ringtone under LIBRARY. try to short the name of ringtone file( like from holidayalbum.m4r to holy.m4r) when you copy to desktop and chnage to .m4r format as said.
Hi, it all works well until the conversion from m4a to m4r… i renamed the song, but it is still in the m4a format… What can i do?
Hi thanks for the great advice. I would have never done it without it. but there is just one problem for me i get right down to the end and when i try to sync it comes up with “unable to sync to itunes because it could not find the file”. and also when looking to see if it is a DRM file i right click on the song and go onto the summary tab but there is no properties tab for me to go on to.
Please help it’s driving me insane!!!!
AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve read everyone’s threads and am delighted its working for people but it’s not for me. I’m got the files in the ringtone folder and it shows up on itunes but not on my iphone. Bob’s advice was great but slightly too tekkie for me. Could anyone give me a step by step guide like the mail tutorial on this thread?
I have never imported music to my itunes library (someone else did it for me) so not sure what I need to do to make this work. I just bought my iphone the other day (so whatever the newest version is what I have) and I’m using vista.
Please could someone help? Also I’ve got a fab mp3 tune i’d love to be my ringtone but not sure if it’s possible to do that. If so could someone let me know?
Been at this for 4 hours now
Thanks
i have the same problem like most at first i was able to create one ringtone and it showed up on my phone and now it wont work and that ringtone i created was deleted. it shows up on my ringtone tab on my computer but not on my phone after syncing…please help!
i can’t see it in the ringtones section =(
i finish till step 7. after click open i can see the new files overthere. but how to get it into ringtones? i cant drag it. and it also doesnt go to the place that it suppose to go..
can help me.. been trying soo many ways.. soo many times..
thanks..
Okay so I have Vista and I did all of the steps for getting a ringtone and I can get the ringtone in the Ringtones folder in the Library, but not in the Ringtones folder on my iPhone. I checked “Sync ringtones” and “All ringtones” but nothing is coming up in the box. I can’t drag it into there either…Any suggestions?
hi all the info is great I have managed to get my ringtones thanks to all the blog. Most important was the 40 second message for them to show in the sync folder and using the windows explorer to change the file types.
this was a grrreat way to turn memos from my iphone to a ringtone- after I emailed the voice memo to myself I followed to step 2 then changed the file extention once I sent it to the desktop, then dragged it back to the ringtone folder and synched it back to iphone and making it a ringtone! Yes!
I couldn’t get the ringtone file into the ringtones tab either, but I tried deleting the song (you can keep the file I think) from the iTunes library and it seemed to work.
Thanks everyone, this is great!
Wow it works finally, it could not work actually. I already sync to my iphone but no ringtone came out, but when u rename the ringtone to 1 word, it works. Example, After life, this cannot works, but if u change it to Afterlife, just join the words together or cancel the word to become 1, it will works. Thanks for this method
This is still working as of 25th June 09 with the iphone 3GS and iTunes v8.2.0.23
i still dont have the m4r:(:(:( im using windows vista
I JUST got a 3G today, have iTunes v8.2.0.23, and can’t find the menu to activate AAC Encoder. I don’t HAVE an “Import Using Menu”, and can’t find the equivalent. Any help?
This fricken Rocks!! I didnt have any problem with it once I figured it all out. I have the latest I tunes and an iphone 3GS. Very Cool!
hi ive done all the steps! come up in ringtones but once the sync is complete i check it on my iphone but there is no custom ringtones section does anyone know what this means?