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!
Works great!! thx a lot!
is something like this also possible for text messages??
would be great!
Again,,,,,,,,,, Works great!
Under these instructions, Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Importing, and make sure the AAC Encoder is selected in the Import Using menu.
I could not find Importing much less any AAC Encoder selection. Could it be that Apple changed the settings and now it cannot be located? I get the rest of how to do it, just can’t find the IMPORTING after Advanced and I am stuck there.
Any suggestions?
Thanks for your help.
No Convert to AAC option and no way of adding to prefs
thanks for the awesome tutorial!
Grab some cool free ringtones at [iphoneringtones.ca]
Very nice Tip!!!
It didn’t work
Maybe i just did it wrong .
Oh well, start again .
this only works for tunes that have been purchased from itunes. So it doesnt work with any other mp3 formats which is not purchased. does anyone have any other ways???
No it doesn’t it works for any mp3 file whether its from itunes or not.
you just arent doing it correctly it worked just fine for me and my music was a torrent
All music files work provided they are converted to AAC first before renaming to m4r.
It took me a lot of trial and error at first, but now it works like a charm every time. Good luck!
I just did this 2 minutes ago with an mp3 and it worked great. You have to remember — the only way to get it to your phone is by syncing — you can’t just drag and drop it on.
Actually, I only transfer mine via Drag and Drop and they work great. Is drag/drop not working for you?
does this still work after the software updates? I just tried and it looked like it worked, but it didn’t sync. I then checked the m4r file under ringtones in itunes, and it didn’t show the “clipped” start and stop time — it showed the original start (0.00) and stop time. tried it again, same thing.
It isn’t working for me either on the iTunes 9. Creates the m4a fine, renamed ok, but won’t import into iTunes. Any additional step with the new software?
great instructions… thanks
I don’t have any option “Create AAC version”. I only have “Create mp3 version”, even if the file is already an mp3.
Also, even if I try renaming an .m4a AAC file to .m4r and import it to iTunes, it only appears in the Music list, not the ringtones.
I have iTunes 8.2.1.6.
Okay everyone, I figured out how to make this work.
You need Windows.
- go to your iTunes Edit menu
- choose Preferences
- On the General tab, click the ‘Import Settings’ button
- Select ‘AAC Encoder’ there
- click OK, and OK again
Now when you right click on your mp3 files in iTunes, you will have the option “Create AAC version”.
Choose a song you want to make into a ringtone, and convert it to AAC from the right-click menu. It will appear at the top of your music list.
- Right click on the new AAC song and click ‘get info’
- At the bottom of this dialog box, it will say “Where:” and the location of the file.
- Go to the file in Windows Explorer and rename it to .m4r
- Back in iTunes, choose File | Add File to Library
- Select the .m4r file you just renamed
- Click on the Ringtones in iTunes
- You will see the ringtone listed there
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE JUST MADE A RINGTONE!
The only problem is, I couldn’t actually sync it to my iPhone.
Maybe Apple have disabled this somehow, if the AAC is not bought from iTunes?
Great instructions, thanks!
99.9% of my tunes and ringtones are not bought from apple and are MP3 files I convert to AAC and then to ringtones.
Suggestion, as for SYNCING, I found it worked best if I dragged and dropped the ringone from my library (”Ringtones”) to the iPhone. That worked everytime. Not sure why the “Sync” command wouldn’t work, but the single file transfer seemed to work well.
Good luck!
i cant figure it out
Everything works fine until I get to step 7 and the newly created ringtone won’t show up in the Ringtone folder in iTunes. I’ve renamed it M4R, made sure no spaces, etc. in filename, but I can’t get it to import to the library. Any thoughts what I’m doing wrong? (And it’s not DRM protected.)
Not sure A.T. if you still have the issue, but try using lower case m4r and also if you are comfortable doing so, you can check out the actual file name in a DOS shell (using a directory command) to ensure it’s not doing something crazy like naming the file “NAME.M4R.m4a” Just a thought. Good luck!
OK, I think I had the same problem and to solve it I had to delete the original m4a file with the same name from the itunes music library and then it worked when i again tried to copy in the m4r file.
It worked all the way for me and it seemingly synced but i can’t find the ringtone on my phone to apply it. where is it supposed to show it?
It will show up under “Ringtones” on your iPhone if it worked propely.
I just followed the steps all the way through and instead if going file import i dragged it into the library area from explorer. It appeared in ringtones just fine, i then synced with my iPhone 3Gs, it appeared just fine and is not my ringtone.
Latest version of iTunes and latest software on the iPhone as well.
In the iPhone menu go to settings, then sounds then ringtone then I have it showing up right at the top under a area called ‘custom’.
Hope this helps…
Hi Coldfire. I was able to use my converted AAC file as a ringtone on my iPhone 3GS OS version 3.1 and iTunes version 9 all the way through like you last said, but then I could not see any of my music files/library/playlist under the iPod on my iPhone. I had to unsync the converted ringtone on the iPhone before I saw all my music under iPod again. Did you have the same result? Anyone else and how did you fix it? Thanks
Doesn’t work in itunes 9…
Actually it works just fine on iTunes 9. (referring to using it in a PC environment) I just created about 10 rintones today without issue, all in iTunes 9.
Location of “AAC Encoder” changed slightly and is now under: EDIT –> PREFERENCES –> GENERAL (tab), and in the middle of the window is an IMPORT SETTINGS button. Once you click that you can select AAC ENCODER from the drop down list and OK to save your settings.
What I prefer to do is to first make a ‘working copy’ of my song before creating the ringtone. All my music is MP3 format so I convert the 1 full song to AAC and then set the Start & Stop time, and create another AAC file which will be ringtone (in m4a format, to be changed to m4r).
The reason is, I sometimes forget to go and uncheck the start & stop times from my original file and it’s a real pain in the @#$! when you are in your car, listening to your tunes and all of a sudden a song only plays for 10 seconds
I think it’s easier to just delete the AAC files that remain after the ringtones have been imported.
THANKS SO MUCH !! THIS WORKED …after hours of tryin to figure this sh*t out I read this and it finally worked for me. Im using Itunes 9.0 with a New 3GS
this works great. I had to play around with it for a little bit to get it to work properly but once you figure out what your doing its well worth the time. Thanks
i just did it all on itunes9 and.. i got through everything totally no problems, it is even in my ringtone section on itunes.. but it wont sync to my iphone3g .. anyone know why?
Having the exact same problem…everything worked great except the sync did not pull it from Ringtones in iTunes into my iphone 3GS (I am running iTunes 9)…
UPDATE – I just did it all on my husband’s computer, he is running iTunes 8.2.1.6 and it worked great. Same files I created as .m4r ringtones synced perfectly to my iPhone. My iTunes version 9.0.1.8 will not sync them into my phone.
Amy
i guess there might be a block on the updated itunes?
i had to connect my iphone 3gs to itunes…click on the phone in the device column on the left when it appeared.. then click on the “ringtones” tab at the top and the select the “all ringtones” bubble and then re-sync and it worked perfectly… this is with a PC/Vista and itunes 9.0.1
Try this. Keep “Sync Ringtones” box checked but uncheck all ringtones. Then sync phone. After it has finished the sync, check the ringtones you want and sync again. I don’t know why, but I had to do this to get the ringtones to transfer from itunes 9 to my iphone 3G.
I was having problems getting the ringtone to sync. In the “Summary” screen where you decide how to manage your iphone, I unchecked all of the boxes. Then, when I went to the “Ringtones” tab, it allowed me to download all of my ringtones without erasing all of my music and videos.
I am on a PC with Vista and not a MAC.
I think i found the reason why sometimes the created ringtones dont sync to the iPhone.
For me, I had to delete all of the ringtones on the iTUnes library, then re-add them by dragging and dropping them to the ringtones window in iTunes. Then, I had to make sure that none of the song fields (song name, artist, composer, etc) had any special characters (like quotes, for example Guns N’ Roses), the ‘ was causing the song not to sync.
Hope this helps.
very true. now it is syncing to iPhone as well.
to be sure just remove every thing from the ringtone in the ringtone folder.
select the ringtone and right click then get info
then remove all text from all the textboxes except name
click ok
then sync again.
it worked for me.
Carefully followed the instructions – worked perfectly for me. Thanks.
how can i rename the .m4a to .m4r
i use windows vista and it doen’t work if i just change the name of the file.
never worked with anything.
also can’t make .bmp to .jpeg that kind of things.
anyone who can help?
If you can’t get the ringtones to transfer from itunes to your iphone try this. Keep “Sync Ringtones” box checked but uncheck all ringtones. Then sync phone. After it has finished the sync, check the ringtones you want and sync again. I don’t know why, but I had to do this to get the ringtones to transfer from itunes 9 to my iphone 3G.
Thanks for these instructions. I tried them and it worked. Totally wiped my music and videos again so I had to re-add them. But the main thing is that i have the ringtone i want! Thanks
i have tried this a couple of times, i can see its sync in itunes. but the “custom” folder is not on the actual phone. Any advice.
I followed the instructions to the ‘T’. I have iTunes 9.0.1 (9) and a new 32GB iPhone 3GS. The ringtone appeared in my ringtone section of iTunes but when i tried to drag it/copy to iPhone it wouldn’t go. So I tried the sync option and it totally wiped all my music off and I had to put it all back on again. Got any ideas how to get the ringtone to my iPhone so i can use it???
(PS I’m on a Mac)
none of this worked followed all the advice
i just ried today it didnt work for me either. i have itunes 9.0.1.8
Vista is renaming it NAME.M4R.m4a
How can I fix this?
Can’t remember DOS.
I figured it out:
Show File Extensions
First you need to set Windows Vista to show file extensions.
Click Computer in the Start menu.
Press the Alt key on the right side of your keyboard.
A hidden menu will appear in the Computer window. Click Tools and then click Folder Options.
Click the View tab.
Uncheck Hide extensions for known file types.
Click OK to save your changes.
Learn how to show file extensions in Windows 7 too.
Change a File Extension
Now that we can see a file’s extension we can change it.
Click on the file that you want to change the extension.
Wait a second or two.
Click the file again.
The name of the file will become highlighted. Simply erase the extension and give it a new one.
They worked all the way to my iphone if they were ripped from a CD.
you’re a genius thank you it worked
Wow. I have been trying to figure this out!!! your definitely a genius!! lol thank you this helped a lot!
i does not work , i have created but i can not open in ringtone , i can see in library but not in ringtone
i have changed the name too
1. Drag file to itunes, right click on the file and select create “AAC version”
2. Look for new file under music- itunes – itunes or by clicking on the new ACC file and selecting “Show in windows explorer”
3. Change the file from m4a to .m4r
4. Drag to music library in itunes, it will show up in the ring tones library in the music library
5. From there drag file to iPhone, not the music or ring tone tab but the iphone. (where it says devices and it has a little black picture of the Iphone)
6. it will sync the iphone for couple of seconds, check in the ringtone library of the iphone to make sure its there.
7. enjoy
Keep in mind simple names no weird characters; this is using latest ver of itunes (as of now 9.0.1.8) using windows XP.
Also make sure file extensions are visible, if not open tools- folder options – view, and uncheck “hide extensions for known file types” and apply. If using other ver of windows check previous posts.
This no longer works with the newer version for me. I right click and the “Convert to AAC” doesnt even show any more and when even when I copy an AAC file and move it back into ITUNES it will not keep the adjusted time sequence.
You all have to remember one thing, ring tone timing should not exceed more then 30 seconds only then it will sync with your iphone..
It works in all the model of iphone’s, I did for my friends….. It works gr8…. lol !!
This helped me – my problem was that all ringtones that I created was > 40 seconds (e.g. they were 60 seconds). Once I changed this to < 40 seconds it they were recognized by Itunes as ringtones (e.g. they shows up under Itunes sync settings for Ringtones) and you can select which ringtones that should be synchronized to the iPhone.
“You all have to remember one thing, ring tone timing should not exceed more then 30 seconds only then it will sync with your iphone..
It works in all the model of iphone’s, I did for my friends….. It works gr8…. lol !!”
Thanks man, this did the trick for me. Windows XP SP3 and iTunes 9.0.18
I just created a ringtone using the latest version of Itunes and running vista. What I did is I created a full length ACC version of the song I want to convert to a ringtone, then I changed the start and stop time on the ACC version of the song, then created another ACC version of the song, but this time it was only 39 seconds, that should be your limit if not it would not sync. Then the 39 seconds of the song can be dragged to your desktop where you can change the file name from m4a to m4r. Delete the 2 ACC version songs from your Itunes, then double click on the m4r version of the song that you dragged to your desktop and it should start playing and at the same time added to your ringtones’ folder. Sync your phone and viola!!!
Thanks!!!!!
thanks man
))))))))))))
HI. I am still getting stuck. For some reason, the above method doesnt work with the new 3gs iphone. Also i would like to pay to download songs for ringtones, but itunes doesnt seem to be supported in South Africa. Please help!!! This is so frustrating!
I tried everything but couldn’t get iTunes 9.0 to sync with my 3GS. Then I followed DMan’s advice above and it worked perfectly. Weird but it worked.
“Try this. Keep “Sync Ringtones” box checked but uncheck all ringtones. Then sync phone. After it has finished the sync, check the ringtones you want and sync again. I don’t know why, but I had to do this to get the ringtones to transfer from itunes 9 to my iphone 3G.”
I have managed to upload only 1 ringtone. When I try and upload multiple ringtones into itunes and then sync with my phone only one is showing in the settings>sounds>ringtones folder.
Any advice as I am a newbie to iphone
These instructions worked perfectly for creating ringtones, and mine are showing up in the iTunes Ringtone section. However, when go to the iTunes (version 9) Ringtones tab on my iPhone and click “Sync Ringtones” I get message asking me whether I am sure I want to do this, because all existing music etc. will be erased. Do I really have to erase everything just to load a couple of ringtones?
Answering my own question in case it helps others: If you drag the ringtones from the iTunes music folder on your computer to your mobile phone in iTunes, they are synced.
Muy buen tutorial
muy bien explicado
Saludos desde latinoamerica
te invito a visitarnos:
[elinformaticoenlared.blogspot.com]
I got mine to work
I had the same trouble and tried all of the above – and I mean all of the above plus others from other sites, without success. It was in the ringtones folder ready to be synced but it just didnt transfer
Im Running XP and itunes 9…whatever the latest was and with version 3.1.2(7D11) 8gb Telstra iphone
Ive uninstalled itunes 9 and deleted the itunes folders in “My Music”
Ive now installed itunes version 8.2.1 and it works as described above by converting to aac and renaming to m4r file
I downloaded an older version of itunes at [oldapps.com]
When you sync the ringtone it will warn that all ringtones on the iphone will be deleted. This doesnt mean the default tones that came with the phone and I presume if you have ones previously added that they will be deleted
Good luck
I did all the steps, I sync it but, the ringtones doesn’t appear in my celphone and actually I saw the configurations to check it was selected to have ringtones, but they doesn’t appear, SOME HELP PLEASE?
dude…i swear to god u explained it better than all the other ones out there…i couldnt do it cuz of dat one step they left out where u uncheck the hidden m4a thingy…but yea 100% propz! thnx again!
Hey all!
Using a mac, I was having the problem of trying to get the new m4r file to show up in iTunes9 after I’d converted and renamed the extension. You have to DELETE the old shortened m4a file which is still in “music” FIRST and then I just right clicked on the new m4r (which I’d moved to the desktop) and selected “open in itunes” and that was what finally got it to work for me. Synced to the phone with no problems.
dude you should totally show us how to make a message alert tone without jail breaking our iphones…
BY THE WAY… YOUR INSTRUCTIONS WITH THE RING TUNES…. ROCKS….. I DONT KNOW WHY SOME OF THE PEOPLE HERE COULDNT FOLLOW IT… RETARDS MAYBE.. KEEPS UP POSTED MAN…
hi im following all of the steps and i think i no what the problem is. when i try to create the new start and end times and i click okay, the end time jumps back to its original time. also i cant seem to delete the old shortened file, i’ve tried right click and there is no delete optiuon and i have tried highlighting and pressing delete on the keyboard. can you help me with this please
yo bro! thanks a lot great instruction works 100%
When I sync my phone the ringtone dosent appear in the sounds option can any one help
This is my problem too. It shows up in ringtones in itunes, but not on my phone.
you MUST MUST MUST Show file extensions!!!
If you try to rename it by right click+ “rename” it WONT work.
You MUST Show the file extension and change it THAT way.
I tried for over an hour and I ALMOST gave up until I camt to THIS website and saw that bit of info..
Now it works
I am using ITUNES 8 and I have only purchased my IPHONE 3GS YESTERDAY (november 4th 2009) so it DOES work with all the latest software / hardware…
*IF and ONLY IF you SHOW FILE EXTENSIONS*
grab some hot free ringtones at [iphoneringtones.ca]
They have a nice selection and they’re ALL free, nice.
17 months in to iPhone ownership, and at last I have a decent ringtone! Ta.
Philip
UK
Thank you thank you!!! The sync in the ringtones configuration was my problem all along but no one else broke it down to that point for me!! Much appreciated!
hey does anyone know how to transfer message tone to IPHONE? Please do email me and let me know. Thanks
Does anyone know if this works for the iphones from Telus in Canada?
For some reason it aint on my iphone. I did everything that you have said.
Are you only allowed make one ringtone?