193 comments to “Create FREE Custom iPhone Ringtones”

• Brian

  18.07.08

  

  Almost works… right up to the part where it get’s sync’d to iphone. shows up in itunes as a ringtone, but not in phone… any suggestions?

• Shaun

  18.07.08

  

  Hi Brian,

  Have you made sure that the track is less than 40 seconds long?

  They won’t show up on the phone as a ringtone if they are over 40 seconds even though they iTunes shows them as ringtones.

• Troy Coughlin

  19.07.08

  

  this is not working on my PC. I rename the track and make it a .m4r and when I copy it to itunes it puts back the original name of the track. does not show in ringtones.

• Shaun

  19.07.08

  

  Troy: Thanks for your comment, as I say in the post I don’t use a PC but I think I will make an effort to try this with a Windows machine today to make sure. If it doesn’t work I’ll make it Mac only.

• Shaun

  19.07.08

  

  Following my previous comment, I installed iTunes on Windows and followed the same procedure. It worked perfectly as it does on my Macs.

  Not sure what your problem is Troy, are you remembering to remove the track from iTunes before you copy it back? I hope you get it sorted soon anyway.

  Here’s a screen grab from Windows iTunes to show it does work.

• Jay

  19.07.08

  

  Here’s what I found for Windows – You need to first set Itunes to default to convert to AAC. I had mine set to use MP3 and it didn’t work. It’s under Preferences – Advanced

  j

• H

  19.07.08

  

  How do you change the ext in windows? Do you just rename the file or what?

• Shaun

  19.07.08

  

  Jay: Thanks for that! My version of iTunes was showing AAC already but hopefully your comment will help some others if it is showing MP3!

  H: You do just rename the file, but first you need to make sure that you have Windows set to show you the file extensions. When you rename a file you should see the file extension, for example .mp3, .doc and in this case .m4a. If you can’t see these, do the following:

  In an Explorer window go to the ‘Tools’ menu at the top and select ‘Folder Options’.

  Next select the ‘View’ tab.

  About halfway down you will see ‘Hide Extensions For Known Filetypes’ which probably has a check next to it. Simply remove this check, hit ‘Apply’ and ‘OK’.

  Then when you view files you should see the extension which means you can now change them too.

• H

  19.07.08

  

  Thanks, I had forgot about that. Works just like you said.

• victor

  20.07.08

  

  damn this is the best thanks ur badass i made some for my new iphone 3g thanks

• victor

  20.07.08

  

  thans and i did it on windows vista if need help ask me

• sly

  21.07.08

  

  Thanks to OP, works a treat.

• Shaun

  21.07.08

  

  victor: Thanks for confirming it works in Vista.

  sly: You’re welcome, glad it works for you too!

• Casey

  22.07.08

  

  hi, I have been searching for links on making ringtones for the new Iphone, and found your link very helpful. One problem I am having – I follow your steps, but then hit a roadblock when I get a box that says the songs are “protected” and can’t be made into ringtones… even songs that have the bell next to them.
  Any help on how to get past this? I am a novice when it comes to manipulating tyhings like this.

  Thanks in advance!

• yas

  24.07.08

  

  i have an iphone 3g.i have manged to do all the steps but cannot find it on my phone help pls!!

• Brennon

  27.07.08

  

  I, too, am having the problem where the ringtone shows up in all the right places (i.e. in the ring tone section of iTunes and in the ring tone folder on the Mac) … but it’s not syncing to the actual iPhone.

• Matt

  27.07.08

  

  Thanks – very clear and simple instructions which worked perfectly. Good to have a custom ringtone finally :)

• ir

  27.07.08

  

  Hey Thanks so much!! Ur the best!! i have been trying for such a long time to apply mp3 as ringtones !!! :):):) thanks again !!

• Shaun

  28.07.08

  

  Casey: I don’t have any songs that I have purchased myself from the iTunes store but I imagine that they will not allow you to use them as ringtones. You could try purchasing the DRM free tracks or using tracks you have ripped yourself or ‘acquired’ elsewhere ;) Good luck!

  Yas: If everything has worked you should find them at Settings / Sounds / Ringtones.

  Brennon: The only experience i’ve had when this happens is if the ringtones are over 40seconds in length. Hopefully this is the case for you so it’s easily fixed!

  Matt, ir: You’re both very welcome, thanks for the comments!

• Jo

  29.07.08

  

  hi, i tried creating a ringtone for my iphone 3g on my pc, but im having trouble converting the .m4a to .m4r. can you help me ? thanks

• nino

  29.07.08

  

  shaun i owe u so hard i was looking all night for a way to get free tones and u got it for me im using windows and if u dont no how to change the .m4a to .m4r all you do is rename the file and change .m4a to .m4r and click ok and then follow the rest of the instructions thanks again

• m

  30.07.08

  

  i have successfully completed all the steps to making a ringtone, but i cant find it on my phone! please help

• Adam

  31.07.08

  

  Having a similar problem to Brennon – it’s showing up everywhere, except in the custom ringtone menu on the iphone…And only 25 seconds long…

• james

  31.07.08

  

  dude works perfectly

• jmood88

  31.07.08

  

  I’m not having any problems converting songs but for whatever reason when I have multiple songs it will only show the last song that I sync’d as available for a ringtone and if I have one song set for a ringtone and then add another one the ringtone will change to the most recent song.

• roberto

  31.07.08

  

  It works. Great. Thanks

• Ali

  01.08.08

  

  Your awesome.

• victor

  01.08.08

  

  M: hey go to settings and sounds and then ringtones it should be there.

• Barry

  01.08.08

  

  Same thing for me as most…I don’t have a Mac. Although on my PC everything works perfectly to get the ringtone as far as the ringtone section in itunes, but it doesn’t sync into the settings/sounds/ringtones menu on my 3G! Less than 4 seconds long, definitely under 40….Please help!

• Sherman

  01.08.08

  

  Thank very much. It worked well. It didnt work before but that was because i forgot to turn off hide extension.

• adam C

  03.08.08

  

  thanks man it worked i think i havent tried to put on my ipod yet buy ur awsome. thanks so much

• phil

  03.08.08

  

  hey is there a similar method for making sms text alerts?

• Shaun

  03.08.08

  

  Thanks for the comments guys, especially the people calling me awesome ;)

  Barry, Adam, Brennon Check out Part 9 of the steps in this post. Have you made sure to check the ‘Sync Ringtones’ box whilst your iPhone is syncing?

• Rich

  05.08.08

  

  Shaun,

  When I go to the last step, iTunes says if I sync ringtones, it will remove all existing songs, movies, and TV shows. I just downloaded the latest version of iTunes (7.7.1.11), and iPhone software (2.0.2). I’d rather not have to drag 10GB of music back. How can I get around this?

• Rich

  05.08.08

  

  I forgot to mention, I’ve got a PC running Windows XP Home, SP3. Thanks.

• Barry

  05.08.08

  

  Hi, Shaun
  Yes, The Ringtones box is definitely checked.
  It has been from the moment I read part 9.
  I know it should sync as all the steps have been followed.
  It syncs everything else, just not ringtones.
  I’d be happy to call you awesome if you could figure this one out!

• Tim

  05.08.08

  

  Thanks very much superb and easy to do!
  Was a bit worried when phone arrived today and no decent ringtones!
  Any way of getting decent sms tones?
  Thanks again

• Anna

  06.08.08

  

  I am the same as Barry, i have everything checked, everything working, AAC thingy on, appearing in my ringtone folder and on my iphone section of itunes, but it can’t be found on my iphone! i hope you can find a reason for this!

• Mike

  07.08.08

  

  Finally, a solution! I had the same issues as many who’ve posted here: followed all the steps above and the ringtone appears everywhere appropriate in iTunes but NEVER in my iphone. My last ditch effort: I downloaded iRinger (google it), imported the song, and exported to itunes. I opened itunes, and the newly created ringtone automatically appeared under the Library ringtone folder. After a sync, the much anticipated Settings->Sounds->Ringtones->”Custom” folder shows up in my iphone. I’ve got my custom ringtone…good lord, finally. [I'm using a 16GB iphone 3g and itunes 7.7.0.43]

• Anne

  07.08.08

  

  I keep getting “can’t convert protected file” when I try to convert to AAC.

• Paul

  07.08.08

  

  They don’t show up on my iphone 3g either :(

• Rich

  08.08.08

  

  I used iRinger, and it worked! Thanks Mike.

• walter

  09.08.08

  

  when you rename it on vista, it doesnt work. So vista users beware. Find a mac or xp to change it on. but it does work.

• James

  12.08.08

  

  Wow, I can’t thank you enough for this guide!
  I’ve tried several programs that didn’t even work.
  This method is simple, fast, and all you need is iTunes!

• Alex

  12.08.08

  

  I’m having a slight problem…
  Once I convert the file to AAC, I right click and select ‘show in windows explorer’. When I view the file, however, there is no extension… if i view the files properties it shows the file is a MPEG-4 Audio File… I have tried adding ‘.m4r’ to the file and opening it in itunes but it still does not recognize the file as a ringtone. can you help me?

• Barry

  13.08.08

  

  Shaun, Mike!
  You guys both rock!
  Mike, I downloaded the iRinger and it worked perfectly.
  I even watched the iRinger instructional video. It helped.
  Shaun, I’m still using the initial information you provided to cut down the timing on some of ringtones I’d created even though iRinger lets you edit them. Plus, the information helps me understand more of the file types being used.
  So far, so good.
  Anything changes, I’ll be posting right away.
  Thanks again!

• Shaun

  13.08.08

  

  Mike: You’re welcome. Thanks for recommending iRinger, glad it helped you and i’m sure it will help others. It’s a shame that you couldn’t get it working the proper way though!

  Anne: Unfortunately it seems that you can’t make ringtones from tracks you’ve downloaded from the iTunes store. Try using some that you have ripped from your own CDs or acquired ‘elsewhere’

  Walter: I have never used Vista so I can’t confirm or deny what you say, but a couple of other people have claimed that it does indeed work in Vista.

  Alex: You need to make sure that you have Windows set to show you the file extensions. When you rename a file you should see the file extension, for example .mp3, .doc and in this case .m4a. If you can’t see these, do the following:

  In an Explorer window go to the ‘Tools’ menu at the top and select ‘Folder Options’.

  Next select the ‘View’ tab.

  About halfway down you will see ‘Hide Extensions For Known Filetypes’ which probably has a check next to it. Simply remove this check, hit ‘Apply’ and ‘OK’.

  Then when you view files you should see the extension which means you can now change them too.

  Everybody: Thanks very much for your compliments, you’re all very welcome!

• Alex

  13.08.08

  

  You are so damn good,
  MANY thanks!

• Billy

  14.08.08

  

  i can’t find the ringtones as ringtones on my iphone! arrgh! and i watched them go across in the sync. they show up in my itunes but i can’t get them to work as ringtones. i don’t want another program unless i have to. help!

  i mean you are awesome, up until the last step.

• kim

  15.08.08

  

  I can’t get my IPhone to sync my ringtones. I get error message {“song” not copied to the IPhone because it cannot be played on this IPhone}. The actual song plays just fine on the IPhone. I’ve done all of the steps and it shows up in my ringtones folder but it just refuses to sync and I’ve even taken the song down to 10 seconds just to make sure the file isn’t too big. Any help?

• stevo

  17.08.08

  

  worked perferct on my laptop im using the new iphone 3g with the new itunes and a new vista and worked perfect well done mate anyone no about changing the text msg’s

• Steve

  17.08.08

  

  Same problem as Rich: when I clicked the “Sync ringtones” checkbox, it warned me that this would delete all the songs, ringtones, and TV shows currently on the iPhone. I didn’t believe it could do anything that stupid, so I went ahead anyway. It was telling the truth, and I was that stupid :-) Now I have that ringtone, but have lost a few hundred audio tracks and will have to re-copy them from the Mac. WTF?

  (Worse news: it’s not my iPhone, it’s my wife’s…)

• Steve

  17.08.08

  

  Followup: I added a bunch of music back onto the iPhone, then tried adding another ringtone, and this time it DIDN’T give me the scary message that it would delete all the existing music. I tried it, and it in fact didn’t delete all the existing music.

  I think it’s a first-time thing. Which means, as a preventive, the first time you plug a particular iPhone into a computer, you should click “sync ringtones” even if you don’t have any yet; it will dutifully delete all the nonexistent stuff you haven’t put on yet, so it doesn’t feel the need to do so later on when you DO have stuff on there. At least, that’s my theory :-)

• Steve

  17.08.08

  

  I figured it out: it has to do with switching from “Manage manually” to “sync”. Step 9 in your instructions is correct if you don’t have “Manually manage” checked, but if you do, Step 9 should become

  “While your iPhone is connected, and you’re in iTunes, drag the ringtone in question from the Ringtones folder on your computer and drop it on the iPhone.”

• T

  18.08.08

  

  SHAUN u r tha man! I have XP and followed yo instructions. Everything worked perfectly wit tha 3G. word of advice to those still havin troubles.. I accidently made a tone 40.009 secs long & couldn’t fig out y it wuznt showin on tha phone after sync. When he said 40 SECS HE MEANT 40 SECS!!!

  And also, Tim had a valid ? Any1 know how 2 custom-tone SMS or alerts on iPhone? (if possible)

• Shaun

  18.08.08

  

  Billy, Kim: Not sure what is causing your particular problems as i’ve never encountered anything like that. I will do some research and see if I can find any solutions. Maybe somebody else can help?

  Steve: Thanks very much for your input, i’m going to add some of your points to the article later as I’m sure they will help others!

  T: Thanks man! It’s not possible to customise the SMS tones at the moment without jailbreaking the phone :(

• Andrew

  19.08.08

  

  I figured out how to sync the ringtones in iTunes 7.7.1 to my iPhone. Steve gave me the idea. The “automatically sync” is what was preventing the songs from transferring. I switched to “manually manage”, navigated in iTunes to the ringtones folder under the iPhone, deleted all the ringtones from the folder, then re-added the ringtones back to the folder individually by dragging and dropping them from my iTunes ringtones folder to my iPhone. The ringtones were able to sync to the iPhone 1 at a time and I was FINALLY able to actually see them on my iPhone. Thanks for the inspiration Steve.

• tito

  21.08.08

  

  You are the man. thanks.

• Geordie Dave

  24.08.08

  

  it work spot on mate, still dunno how u found this out first, but well dun lol ur a legend :) i didnt have to sync my iphone i just dragged the file back to itunes and straight into the iphone and it popped up in custom ringtones on the iphone :)

  i was just wonderin should i still sync my iphone whilst i only risk losin a few songs now instead of later when something else comes out where i must sync my iphone a risk losing 100s of songs??? when i say ‘something else comes out’ i mean maybes custom message tones.

  cheers mate !!

• Nicki

  24.08.08

  

  Thanks a bunch this worked really well. I’ve been trying another video and this was definitely the best.

• Steve

  25.08.08

  

  i was just wonderin should i still sync my iphone whilst i only risk losin a few songs now instead of later when something else comes out where i must sync my iphone a risk losing 100s of songs??? when i say ’something else comes out’ i mean maybes custom message tones.

  Even if you do sync now, “something else” will come out later anyway, so if you’re in “manage manually” mode, you’ll need to install the “something else” manually. AFAIK, anything you can do via sync should also be possible manually. But Apple really really wants you to use “sync”, so they may not have taken any great pains to ensure that. :-)

  Ringtones can be installed either manually or via “sync”, and I don’t (yet) know of anything that requires one or the other approach.

• Devanjan

  25.08.08

  

  Hey

  Bingo. This is working great with my iphone 3G :)

• mark

  25.08.08

  

  will this work with the new 3g ipod?

• Les

  26.08.08

  

  tried it, it works fantastic, thanks! One question, how can i convert music or sounds in itunes into sounds that I can use for SMS or new message tone? The ones in the ringtones can’t seem to be used for new SMS received…etc

• Casarchie

  28.08.08

  

  Wow… It’s so easy !!
  It works really well !:)

  Thanks a lot

• James

  28.08.08

  

  Works like a charm! You have to make sure to change the start and stop time to less than 40 seconds before doing the Convert to AAC. I did this on a Windows Vista, with the new iPhone 3G and the 2.0.2 iPhone software. Thanks for the help!

• Gavin Lord

  28.08.08

  

  Work pperfectly on my iPhone 3G using windows! Thanks!!

• Michel from Bavaria

  29.08.08

  

  GREAT YOU ARE THE MAAAAAN!

  I deleted Garage band cause i don’t really need it, you saved me a lot of time!!!!

  Cheers mate, really, good work!!!

  peace michel

• Daniel

  29.08.08

  

  GREAT HELP!!!!!

  It works perfect!

  Thanks

• Michael

  01.09.08

  

  Really great heplp.

  I have got the same step from the youtube, but it didn’t work, cos’ it miss out one of the key point..i.e. limit the play time to 40 sec.

  Thanks!

• Mark

  02.09.08

  

  Thanks very much for this info… works perfectly with widows xp and 3g iphone…. no more crap ringtones hehe

• Guillaume

  03.09.08

  

  Hello, i actualy got a problem, i can see the RINGTONE section in my iTunes… why is that?

  gimme a solution plz! thanks!

• Shaun

  03.09.08

  

  Thanks for all the compliments people and thanks to Steve for your suggestions, I’m sure it’s helped a lot of people out!

  Guillaume: Go to iTunes Preferences from the menu bar (iTunes/Preferences for Mac or Edit/Preferences for PC) and in the General tab you will see a number of checkboxes for Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts etc… Just tick the Ringtones box and it will appear in your sidebar :)

• Guillaume

  03.09.08

  

  Ok thanks! but now it doesnt allowed me to add it to the ringtone section… lol

• Guillaume

  03.09.08

  

  Forget it!! I LOVE YOU!! im a really happy man!!

  thanls again! good work!

• Devanjan

  08.09.08

  

  any break through with how to customize ringtones for text messages?

• Matt

  08.09.08

  

  u are a god this works perfectly

• Dean

  11.09.08

  

  For me I had to rename the m4r file and make sure it was completely gone from iTunes before importing it into ringtones. Works great!

  Thank you for the post.

• akshay

  13.09.08

  

  i have an iphone 2g jailbroken and unlocked with 2.0.2 software i tried all the above steps but it an error saying iphone cannot plat this track comes when i copy it to the iphone.what should i do?

• akshay

  13.09.08

  

  i am using itunes 8.0 is that the main problem?

• rafa

  15.09.08

  

  wow thank you so much. this works great!

• Terry

  15.09.08

  

  I have 8.0 on Vista and the manual copy (select manual manage and drag from Windows Explorer to the ringtones folder. Worked great, but now my problem is that when I add another ringtone, the new ringtone appears twice on iPhone, while both appear in the Ringtones folder in iTunes. Anyone?

• Patrick

  15.09.08

  

  Man, you are the best!!!! And to think I was about to download a program to customize my ringtones. Easy steps and worked like a charm!

• Kimmi H

  16.09.08

  

  Question (I use a MacBook Pro)….when I GET INFO, I do not see the “options” section! Where is it at??? I know how to do all the rest, no problem. But have 5 prior ringtones I made for my Motorola & they are 40-52 secs. Merely need to trim them down & go on. HELP! Kimmi

• Amit

  18.09.08

  

  Even I can’t get my IPhone to sync my ringtones. I get error message {”song” not copied to the IPhone because it cannot be played on this IPhone}. The actual song plays just fine on the IPhone. I’ve done all of the steps and it shows up in my ringtones folder but it just refuses to sync.
  Any help?

• hahah

  19.09.08

  

  wow it works!!!!!

• hope

  20.09.08

  

  that was awesome..everything worked perfect..but i have one problem after i get the the whole process of ringtone..the original song doesnt play completely ..after it reaches the 40sec stop limit ( i mean the length of ringtonE) it automatically shifts to some other song..why is that and any way to fix it?

• hope

  22.09.08

  

  sorry..i got it.. u have to just change the start time and stop time back to original at get info ..thanx

• StuartGW

  23.09.08

  

  Thanks Mike in particular for the iRinger tip. I too had got the ringtone onto the phone (according to iTunes on the PC), but it didn’t show up in Custom. Iringer did the trick. It must do something smart on the formatting. I notice the ringtone it generates from the same source file looses the tags (album artist etc) so I wonder if this is what prevents the iPhone from recognising the file.
  Cheers, Stuart

• D

  24.09.08

  

  DUDE – You are obviously too awesome for words

• jeff

  28.09.08

  

  TERRRY
  i am having the same problem when it comes to adding more then 1 rington it shows up twice as the same song can anyone help?

• Charlie Clarke

  30.09.08

  

  Ringtone works like a dream, thank you so much!!!!!

• Tracy

  05.10.08

  

  I am stuck, got to the point of renaming the file, trying to find out where I can make the file extensions visible – on vista so can find the tools or folder options – please help!

• Rafa

  07.10.08

  

  a have done everything and every step, the ring tone is 10 seconds long, delete from the libery, converted, it show on itunes in the ringtone tab but won`t sync to the phone help please!!

• Blair

  10.10.08

  

  Thank you for making this! I got stuck on Step 7 at first…for some reason I can’t drag songs out of the itunes library, so I just left the folder open where I changed the extension, right-click deleted the song, and then drug it back in from the same folder. Seems simple but it really had me stuck lol. This method works extremely well for me, I have a PC with XP, and its simple and fast. Thanks again!

• Suresh

  12.10.08

  

  Thanks a lot!! This is perfect! This is much better as I can select the part of the song which I want!

• John

  13.10.08

  

  Works great I used IRINGER

• martyn halsall

  19.10.08

  

  just use iringer… import the song (less than 40 seconds) or whatever then export, gets added to itunes automatically the sync all ringtones and there you go :)

• George

  22.10.08

  

  Hey,

  I feel really retarded right about now. I need to change the settings so I can see the extensions to be able to change it to .m4a, but I really don’t know what you mean by opening an explorer window. I can’t find the tools sections. Thats pretty much what is keeping me back. I appreciate the help Shaun.

• George

  22.10.08

  

  okay, never mind.. I found it. And it totally worked. Thanks so much.

• Johnny

  22.11.08

  

  Got to step 6) The File will have a .m4a file extension (Change this to .m4r) But for some reason on Vista it will not let you change formats? Anyone know a way around this? Plz help

• Nanana

  23.11.08

  

  OMFG I FREAING LUVE YOU MAN.
  the extensions thing were complicating buti finally did it
  thanks a BUNCH!!
  <3333333333333333333333333

• Patrick

  30.11.08

  

  I am trying to convert to a .m4r. I have vista home edition, is this why I cannont convert file type? any suggestions on how to proceed, I can’t seem to find a way to convert file type.

• Nick

  04.12.08

  

  ur awsome and the guy that suggested iringer slightly more awsome lol because i myself before reading through the thread had the same sync problem as everybody else…works great u guys keep it up

• Vicky

  22.12.08

  

  When I go to convert to AAC it says protected files can’t be converted. Is there any way round this ?

• Mat

  25.12.08

  

  I tried this just now, and I’m up to the part to step 5/6, I found the file in the Explorer, but it doesn’t have a .mp4 extension. I tried it again, and it didn’t work. None of my songs have then.

• Mat

  25.12.08

  

  Also I use Windows XP.

• Mat

  25.12.08

  

  Nevermind about my question OP, I followed some of your other replies to comments, I figured it out, thanks a bunch dude, =D

• eloy

  28.12.08

  

  could someone tell me how in vista to get to the folder extension part on mine there is no folder options under the tools section

• ankit

  01.01.09

  

  thx alot man really helped

• Jessica

  02.01.09

  

  Hey this almost works for me…except for the part that says convert to aac. I have the new Itunes and the mac mybe that’s why? Please help

• Freddy

  04.01.09

  

  the ringtone appears in my ringtone folder but when it comes
  time to sync its nowhere to be found on my phone

• Mum

  06.01.09

  

  This worked great on Vista Business 32bit with iTunes 8.0.2.20
  Thanks for the heads-up

• matt

  11.01.09

  

  hey this is really detailed thank you. i have a PC but the problem i having is that my song names dont have .mp3 or .m4a after their names. its just the song name. so changing it to .m4r doesnt do anything to the file at all and it is not working. can someone please help?

• SickFlow

  25.01.09

  

  Great work OP
  hve a problem thogh wen it comes to adding extra ringtones,it keeps showing me the most recent ring tone.allowing the other extras not to show.pls help

• smit

  01.02.09

  

  YES thank you ive been trying for ages trying to do this and finally it worked! :D
  you have made my night lol :P
  xD

• M

  07.02.09

  

  I’m having the same issue as several other people before me. I followed the steps exactly, attempted several times to see if I was just missing something. Every step works just fine except for the finding the ringtone IN the phone itself. The ringtone shows in the itunes ringtone folder, it’s there in the ringtone folder for my phone within itunes, but it’s MIA in the phone after I’ve synced all ringtones. I have itunes 8.0.2.20 and my jailbroke iphone 3G is firmware 2.2 file is 22 seconds long. I’ve done this before with several other ringtones, using the same exact steps but now it will not work. What on earth am I missing other than the most recent update to Iphone firmware?

• erp

  16.02.09

  

  thanks so much. i really appreciate this. do you know if there’s any way to change the rings for text messages, etc. to custom rings? your process for getting ringtones onto my iphone worked without a hitch, and now i’m wondering if those can be assigned to text messages or vmails or whathaveyou. i liked my old phone better–at least i could do what i wanted; the iphone is configured to make me do only what apple wants…

• Shaun

  21.02.09

  

  Hi erp,

  Unfortunately the only way to use custom ringtones for sms messages is to jailbreak your iPhone.

  Sorry to hear your thoughts on the iPhone, while I agree there are certain annoyances such as this, the other functionality more than makes up for it in my opinion!

• Jake

  24.02.09

  

  Thanks mate, worked very well for me with iphone 3g and Mac osX 10.4.11.

  Cheers Jake.

• Richard

  25.02.09

  

  Please let me know if I am missing something.
  I followed all the instructions. Everything seemed to work fine. The ringtone is in the ringtones folder in iTunes. when I sync, it says it can’t be copied because it can’t be found. Yet, when I look on the iPhone (within iTunes) it is there in the iPhone’s ringtones folder. When I look on the actual iPhone, it is not there. I am running windows Vista.
  Thanks for any help!

• Rachel

  11.03.09

  

  Im having the samw problem as some people.My fone picks the recent ringtone , i cant add more ringtones!! help!

• Jim G

  13.03.09

  

  I was doing good up to the part where I was to change the file extension. I right clicked on the song again and picked show in windows explorer. It sent the song to my desk top but I cant find anyway to change it to .m4r. I have and music icon with mpeg4 under it. I am lost but I know I am close I just need further help. I am in windows and have looked everywhere for a place that will allow me the change the extension but no luck.

  Please help I am at roads end.

  Thanks

  Jim

• coty

  15.03.09

  

  worked great for me. running vista 32 bit, itunes 8.1.0.51 and iPhone 3G software version 2.2.1

  Anyone having trouble changing the file extension in vista make sure the check box for hide extensions for known file types is unchecked. this option is located in the folder options within vista. type, change file extensions in help and support to make it easier. Good Luck.

• Sean

  30.03.09

  

  Hi. ive followed the steps Im on a mac btw and it doesnt work. i then renamed it as a m4r and finder is recognising it as a ring but when i drop it in itunes it doesntgo into ringtones. help?!

• IVO

  31.03.09

  

  Tnx for the tip… it works great :D :D

• Mel

  06.04.09

  

  Your guide is very helpful, so are the comments.
  Buuutt… I’ve ran into some trouble.
  After I convert everything, delete the file from itunes..yada yada yada.. I selected show in Internet Explorer, and because I saved the files to my Desktop, my Desktop window pops up. So I drag it into Itunes, but it doesn’t show in my Ringtones tab it goes to my Library. Everything is converted the way it should be and I don’t know what the problem is.

  ……..help? please! :^(

• Ammi

  11.04.09

  

  Thanx so much! This was really helpful:)

• Milan

  13.04.09

  

  hi i tryed this one my windows but the part where u change the flie type from m4a to m4r doesnt work. on itunes it says songname.m4r.m4a instead of just songname.m4r can some one help me plzzzzzzzzz

• lipon

  22.04.09

  

  I was doing good up to the part where I was to change the file extension. I right clicked on the song again and picked show in windows explorer. It sent the song to my desk top but I cant find anyway to change it to .m4r. I have and music icon with mpeg4 under it. I am lost but I know I am close I just need further help. I am in windows and have looked everywhere for a place that will allow me the change the extension but no luck.

  Please help I am at roads end.

  Thanks

• srikanth

  02.05.09

  

  i am able to follow the steps until step 3.but i could not find convert selection to aac when i right clicked on the song again.pls help me

• yahir araujo

  09.05.09

  

  Need help,

  Just updated my iphone 3g with the 2.2.1 version thoug for some reason my custom rigntones are no longer on my phone.Meaning that I cand see them on Itunes though once I sync to get them to my phone nothing happens. I would appreciate any help possible.

  thanks

• Michael

  20.05.09

  

  Thanks for this info. I wish I had found it before spending $5.00 to buy ringtones for songs I already bought. I already converted 3 songs to ringtones and it works great. When you buy a ringtone you can choose loop time. Is there a way to do that with this method?

• karolina

  04.06.09

  

  hello i tried on vista and i got to the part that i have to drag the file back to i tunes, but coudnt….can anybody help me?

• Snaga

  08.06.09

  

  Got a 3g iphone with 2.2.1 software in the UK and this worked like a dream. It also worked using a track downloaded fron itunes.

• Steve C.

  21.06.09

  

  Works perfectly with iPhone 3G S 16G. Thanks!

• Steve C.

  21.06.09

  

  One more thing…it appears that the new version of iTunes allows you to convert songs that are purchased in iTunes to ringtones. Just right-click on the song and choose ‘Create ringtone’. I haven’t tried it yet, so you may have to first select the start and stop times for the ringtone (i.e., steps 1-3 above).

• Shaun

  23.06.09

  

  That’s good news that you can now convert your purchases as well!

  I’m also jealous that you have a 3Gs! It would cost me £500 to get one before January :(

• Adrian

  23.06.09

  

  I recently converted a few short ringtones (1-2 seconds each). Got them installed and setup on the iPhone just fine. Unfortunately, when a call comes in, the custom ringtones only play twice no matter how long the phone ‘rings’. Anyone have an idea why this is? Or how to make them keep playing until the phone is answered or the call canceled?

• Nhi

  28.06.09

  

  The ring tones are working fine! Thank you so much(: But the problem that I’m having is that the songs are starting at where I wanted them to as a ring tone and ending in the middle of the song. Is there anyway that I can change that ?

• sol

  13.07.09

  

  shaun,

  in a couple of weeks i will have my new iphone from my sister. since im a good ringtone creator(music) im looking forward to have my creation be seen on my upcoming iphone..how will i do it bro?

• Shaun

  16.07.09

  

  sol: You can follow the steps above exactly the same with your own creations. Though it will probably be easier for you as you can make them under 40 seconds and probably in the right format in the first place.

• sol

  17.07.09

  

  @ nhi

  you have to set it at 40 seconds per ring tone, on my part i used the audacity software(it is an audio editor) then i will set it up where part i wanted and then export it as wave then grab it at itunes then follow the instructions that SHAUN stated here, then thats it…hope it helps…

  by the way on that software you can also enhance audio quality..mine i got personalize MEGATRON RINGTONE

• Tom

  18.07.09

  

  THANKYOU SHAUN.
  your the first person to explain my problem in 3 different websites.
  and now, problem solved :)

• Santana

  20.07.09

  

  Im having a problem changing the track from m4a to m4r
  I really need help with this.. I have a Windows PC
  HELPPPP!

• Santana

  20.07.09

  

  Ive tryed everything to change it to m4r but nothing =[
  I have a Iphone 3gs n im desperately im need of help with this
  Help me asap pleaseeee

• Andy_Fella

  22.07.09

  

  Put simply……… You are a god- works perfectly. Better than having the preset ringtones. Cheers.

• rapqueen

  24.07.09

  

  i have made it to step 7 where it says remove file from itunes but dont delete.step 8 drage file back into ituned and it will then appear in the ringtones section. Could you please help me get this task completed. i am stuck. Thanx..

• jose

  28.07.09

  

  hi i was wondering if the songs that i try to make ringtones out of have to be purchased from itunes or can i just use songs that i downloaded?

• jose

  28.07.09

  

  ok ive gotten to the step were it says to change from m4a to m4r and i got lost i cant find were to change it im using a pc someone please help!! in desperate need of ringtones

• iPhone 3G Ringtones – Create the Custom Ringtones in 3 Easy Steps | Free iPod Touch Games | Free iPod Touch Apps | AppleRepo.com

  09.08.09

  [...] are added to your iTunes library. This is full free of cost. (You could try This step by step to Create Free Custom iPhone 3G Ringtones) 2) For some unfortunate people the above way of creating iPhone 3G ringtone may not work until you [...]

• Carly

  14.08.09

  

  This works so well. Had a few stumbles but I just read all of the comments you wrote to other people to come around it. Thanks so much for this.

• ConnorP

  17.08.09

  

  Any idea if Apple will give users the option to add text tones?

• luke

  19.08.09

  

  ok i have done every steap right but when i sync my iphone and go to ring tones there isnt even a custom ringtone tab just the standard list can i get some help please

• mitul patel

  28.08.09

  

  hi i tried it but i have some difficulties how i change file extention

• Alex

  29.08.09

  

  Hello! I just wanted to be one of the one million people to comment on this page, and to say thank you for this information! I already created some great ringtones, and I’m sure to do some more later too. Thanks again! Truly grateful

• TinhLe

  30.08.09

  

  Thanks for sharing.It works.

• Dustin

  07.09.09

  

  Im using a pc with windows vista(same problem on XP) i can create the ringtones just fine. However, when i put them on my iphone, i can only have 1 at a time. Even if i put say 5 on my iphone they all show up with the same name and play the same song. Im unsure whats causing this but it kinda sucks only being able to have 1 custom ringtone on my phone at a time.

• Chamone

  07.09.09

  

  Hi, finally figured out how to get the ringtones on my i phone 3gs. I select which one I want to use and when you ring the bloody phone it always plays the Trill tone from the standard list!!!
  Any ideas anyone??

• Madi Margo

  13.09.09

  

  It almost work. To the part where it get’s sync’d to iphone. shows up in itunes as a ringtone, but not in phone… Otherwise, I hav made sure that the track is less than 40 seconds long. any suggestions?

• John

  18.09.09

  

  Hi, tried following your instructions, but when I right click the 2nd time I don’t have an option to convert to AAC. I’ve also looked at the advanced sub tab as has been mentioned for windows users, but again there’s nothing there either for a default setting – HELP !!

• Sarah

  23.09.09

  

  Absolutely brilliant, worked exactly as you said it would. Thank you so much for sharing this. Wonderful

• Maria

  17.10.09

  

  It took a while but after reading through all of the comments I got it to work. Thanks so much, this makes my Iphone that much better!!!

• Cristina

  04.11.09

  

  You should try to make a way to get ringtones for the text messages…that would be awesome. But good job on every thing els dude :D

• Ali

  04.11.09

  

  downloaded iringer – fantastic!!!! thank u so much :) woop got decent ringtones and can finally take iphone off silent! thanks :)

• Ali

  04.11.09

  

  USE IRINGER!!! ITS SO EASY!! CLICK TO IPORT CLICK TO EXPORT AND THEN SYNC – TA DA!! PERSONALISED RINGTONES :)

• Jonah Thurgood

  05.11.09

  

  Thanks for this, didn’t get it until I tried setting it to under 40 seconds and it all came together :-)

• jay w

  25.11.09

  

  thanks very much, im not great with computers an i could even do it lol

• TicTacz

  29.12.09

  

  Im having trouble with giving my contacts different ringtones. I set their ringtones, but when they call me, the default ringtone plays & it says ” unknown caller”. How do I make sure that my contacts ringtone rings and not the default ringtone? And why is is saying “unknown caller” ?

• ain

  01.01.10

  

  thanks alot!!
  it helps me!
  i am so eager with my iphone now that i was almost frustrated when i knew that i couldnt assign my own ringtone..:)
  thanks alot againnnn

• HeavenLeigh

  14.01.10

  

  ok so like troy it worked perfectly up until i looked on my iphone and it wasn’t there…my track is only 30 seconds long and it still isn’t there…help please…this is so frustrating!!!

• Chendeshan

  19.01.10

  

  Thank you so much~!

• Yvette

  24.01.10

  

  start time 0:59
  end time 1:27

  but why when i create AAC version, the length of file is 1:27 thus it cant be a ringtone as its more than 40s?
  please advice!!

• Ryanne

  11.02.10

  

  I can’t get my file to convert from a m4a to an m4r..It won’t let me change it at all..Help!!

• rob

  14.02.10

  

  works great man!
  thanks so much

• Jordan

  23.02.10

  

  Hey this is a great forum for ringtones and it works fine on my brothers computer but for mine there is a problem. After i have made and ACC version and clicked show through windows explorer i get the song but doesnt have the format type next to the songs name.
  Ex.
  I Dont care
  when it should be
  Ex.
  I dont car.m4a…. then thats when u change it to m4r and blah blah.
  so idk what te problem is but if you can help me that would be great thanks.

• Hafiz

  08.03.10

  

  thank you veryy much, this really helped, yehoooo :))))

• MaSsa

  24.03.10

  

  Hi
  i just wanna say thankx,it worked and im soooo happy about it
  i luv my ringtones
  just a question
  it will work just one time,hmmm????

• Ashley

  11.04.10

  

  hi i just got a iphone and i am following the steps and when i get to the step that says right click and then choose get info and then choose options. everything is grey out and i cant choose anything.. please help

• Jo

  28.04.10

  

  Thank you x 100!!! I did it all by my little self! Am so chuffed…

  Mwah!

  Jo

• Danielle

  03.05.10

  

  Was a bit confused but then realized you have to make sure that you click on the iphone itself in itunes, go to the Ringtones tab and make sure its set to sync ringtones. When you do this it will erase all the songs on ur phone (wtf…I dunno), just to warn you.

• Mike

  24.03.11

  

  how do you change it to a .m4r file on a pc?

• HollyAnn

  31.03.11

  

  good up until i have to change it to .m4r? not sure what this means

• Meeesh

  19.04.11

  

  Yess!!! This is great! I got lost there amidst all the instructions but it works like a charm! thanks a bunch dude!!

• Marzipan

  29.05.11

  

  Worked beautilfully the first time, and the second time, and the third, you get the picture. Love it. Thank you

• AmazedUser

  06.06.11

  

  I thanks you guys SO much! I have been asking my friends how to and tonight I looked on google and this came up! Eternally grateful!

• Katy

  21.06.11

  

  Big thank’s
  works great, even renaming file to m4r,
  melody appears at ringtone folder, just as described
  -simple free and quick way

• Rob

  21.06.11

  

  ok so im having issues with changeing it i cant get it to let me edit the m4a to m4r i know u said open in explorer window and look for tools but i dont have a clue how or where to do that please help :(

• homieOne

  02.07.11

  

  this was jawesome.

• hola

  05.07.11

  

  hey yea im having problems with getting it to the ringtone part of the itunes library i read the comment earlyer about going into advance setting and changing the .mp3 setting to ACC but i cant find it any suggestions??

• Djay

  23.07.11

  

  @Shaun thanks for the explorer->tools option i was struck and was able to resolve after getting ur instructions cheers…

• Skyye

  24.08.11

  

  I don’t have a ringtone section on my itunes

• J.B.

  08.09.11

  

  oh my!! I worked JUST like you said it would!! What fun!! Thanks!!





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