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!
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?
Yeah i get the exact same problem as Josh. I do all the steps and i can see the ringtone in the ringtone section in itunes and then i sync my phone but it doesnt appear on my phone?
Yeah josh i just worked it out…. i shortened the song name from Dancing in the moonlight to DITM and i can now see it on my iphone! hope it works for you mate
i cant rename it to a m4r it wont let me what can i do?
As problem as everyone else. Im using Vista, the latest Itunes and a iPhone 3GS. Followed all the steps, its under 30 secs, changed the file name, deleted it from Itunes, the ringtone is created but it will NOT drag into itunes at all nor the iphone when it is in sync. I also downloaded Iringer which put the ringtones in a folder but they did not go into Itunes as was stated. Ive tried it on various tracks. How can you tell if your music has DRM ? Really annoyed, anyone got any ideas ????
Having the same problem as AC, can anyone help out? Cheers
SWEET.
Works like a treat
thanks amigo…
thanks!!! this is absolutely fabulous!
hi i have done every thing as it is mentioned in the site all step by step,but after i drag that m4a file on desktop i am unable to change the formate of the file to m4r.when i am trying to rename the file i am getting only the song name not the song format.what should i do can any1 help mee with this.
Still cant seem to get the file to change to M4R. I can rename it with V?sta but i cant change the file type, any suggestions.
You need to have Windows Explorer show the file extensions. To do this press the Alt key in Windows Explorer to bring up the Menu Bar, then click Tools -> Folder Options. Then under the View tab you should see an option you can uncheck that says “Hide file extensions for known file types”. Press OK and then you should be able to change the extension. I’m going off of memory here so hopefully all that is right, but you should still be able to figure it out based on that info.
When I try to put the m4r file back into iTunes, it just puts it back into the “music” tab, not into ringtones. Help please?
Thanks for the great tutorial!!!
For Windows VISTA users…u can have open any folder, eg. my documents, then go to Organise (beside View on the top left hand corner). Click on Organise -> Folder and Search Options -> View.
Under the View tab, look for files and folder -> UNCHECK ‘Hide extensions for known file types’.
You will then be able to convert m4a to m4r!! Good luck!!
Conor…delete the music file from itunes first but not from your hard drive. Close your itunes and open up the ringtone file with itunes again and it will sync beautifully! Took me 2 hours to be able to do it too!
For all the people whose songs don’t show up after they did all the steps is because you have to shorten the song length. Rename the song to say 5 char, then sync it again, get on your phone settings > sounds then your song should be under a “custom” category.
Easy, straight forward and well explained, worked 100%, thanks from Mexico
Thank you thank you. Very clear instructions but just a quick note that may help those who get to the (shortened).m4r files into library>ringtone file stage but find no ringtones on iphone after synching – please check there isnt an ‘APPLY’ option waiting to be clicked on the device>ringtone page (bottom left hand corner)before you synch. Sounds simple but a 10 min job took me nearly 3 hours because i missed it! Persevere, it DOES work