After a bit of reading here and there and consulting a few friends and experimenting, I’ve figured out a way to create iphone ringtones out of any song saved on my computer.
Here is how to do it.
Step by Step Guide
- Add the song file to your iTunes library.
- Right click, select Get Info, then reach options tab.Â

- Select start time and stop time for the duration of the ringtone you’d like to use (no longer than 40 seconds though). For example, if you’d like to use the first 40 seconds of a song, make the start time 0:00 and the end time 0:40. If you want to use from 1:40-2:20 then do it like that, just make sure you use which ever part of the song you want to be your ringtone and just make sure it doesn’t exceed 40 seconds. After you’ve selected which part of the song will be your ringer, click OK.
- Right click the song, and click ‘Convert Selection to AAC’.
- Go to your desktop, and make a folder called Ringtones. Once you’ve done that, go back to iTunes, right click the newly created clip and click copy. Paste it in the folder you just made.
- Rename the file extention from .m4a to .m4r (you will have to enable “view file extention” from folder options)
- Go back to iTunes, and delete the 40 second AAC clip you’ve made, but make sure that you keep the file!
- Sync/Resync your iPhone, and it should automatically add the file to your ringtone folder.
You see its free , easy and without doing anything illegal.
Please leave a comment if it work for you!
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Didn’t work. Couldn’t copy and paste the file, and when I tried to change the m4a in my itunes folder to m4r and re-add it, it wouldn’t add to “ringtones”
This works like a charm though: http://audiko.net/
I love so much listen music and trance
This worked PERFECTLY for me on my new 16gb version that I got just yesterday. Thank you so much!
I do not believe this
these instructions seems to be pc-specific. on a mac, instead of copy and paste, select Show in Finder. then copy that file to the new Ringtones folder (or anywhere else, your desktop for example), rename to .m4r, double click to open in iTunes and it should magically end up in the ringtones section of iTunes. you can delete the .m4a version out of iTunes immediately after copying.
thank you so much. this work great besides one exception. before you sync the iphone click on the ringtone that you made in the file called “ringtones” that way it shows up in your ringtones file on your itunes library.
thats how i got mone on
Didn’t work for me, didn’t add to ringtones.
You’re awesome. It worked.
Worked for me, real stickler on the duration of the tone though, thanks.
I am much obliged and happy that these tips helped you fellows…
Please keep visiting and encouraging me..
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thank you for sharing ur knowledge.
I need ur advice.
I created some ringtones, transfered them to my Iphone,& it was all ok. But the next time I decided to synchronize my ringtones again, it stopped saving them at my Iphone.
It show them after synch.but afterwards when I open my ringtone list…there is nothing…maybe you can advise the reason for this ?!
I did this exactly and the file shows up in iTunes as a ringtone but doesn’t copy into my iPhone 3G. What else do I need to do?
Thanks – it works although I had to pick up the file from the desktop folder and put back into Itunes library. Very grateful.
works great using my pc & 16gb 3g iphone. thanks!
Works Great!
I manually sync my iPhone so I just dragged it over and it was automatically put into the Ringtones folder.
Works great, but don’t forget to go back and uncheck your start/stop times.
I freakin love you!!! The only tweak I did was to drag the .m4r file from Finder to the Ringtones library in iTunes, but other than that it worked as described.
By the way, you can edit your songs in Garage Band, then from the Share menu Send to iTunes, that way you can grab non-contiguous sections of the song for your ringtone
Awesome! Worked great. You just have to remember to click on the new .m4r file so it goes to iTunes. You should not have to pay for ringtones after purchasing the songs once already.
and if you change it to mp3 you can stick it on your blackberry
Its perfect you are the best.
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!
it’s doesn’t copy the ring
in ringtones,
but rather evrytime takes it
to the i pod section…
smdy pls help me for this..
Finally! Quick and easy! Thank you! Agree with Josh thou, play the short file BEFORE you sync, so it shows up in your Ringtone folder!
worked a charm! im using a mac and i dragged and dropped the m4r file into itunes ringtone file. no probs!
it works perfectly! thanks for a very easy tutorial! now i can have cool music as my ringtone
For some reason, when I right click on an mp3, I do not see “Create AAC Version”, but instead I see “Create MP3 version”. What gives?
I’m running iTunes 8 on a PC w/WinXP.
Thank you somuch bcz i try to put ringtons lots of time but this one is easy way to do it thanks again
Worked 100%! Yupii !
Worked great, thanks!
word up kid!
good lookin
aac convert wasnt a right click for me but in itunes advanced tab to create aac version
other than that is all good!
makes up for no widescreen keyboard for text messages
HOLLER!
Thank you so much, it works perfectly, as long as I delete the .m4a file in itunes before I open the new file.
This worked just fine for me. Thank You. And yes i’m a real person.
Worked perfectly. Thank you.
Works ok, but I need to manually add the ringtone file to Itunes.
I actually don’t understand step 7. Why would you want to keep the original file if you made a new ringtone file?
Please, Please make it sound a bit easier!! These ringtones on this stupid phone are driving me crazy!! I must have some decent music to save face when my phone rings! The file keeps saying I cant chenge it, as it is protected? I just cant get it! Please help!!
this is great… everybody should have known this by now
Didn’t work !!!
This method works for me. If you have difficulty getting iTunes to automatically add the ringtone once you’ve created it, you can simply drag and drop the file to the ringtones folder on your iPone.
Thank you, yes it worked.
We need to follow your instructions carefully, and when I did (for the 2nd time!) It worked. Much appreciated.
Worked great as long as you play the song first in the ringtones folder so that it places it into the itunes program many thanks cheers
Perfect!! You have made my day. I use a MacBook, followed your instructions exact and had no problems. Many thanks x
I have 2.2 version and seems not to work. Good news is that seems that any program that converts mp3 to mpeg4 aac can be used (i used total video coverter, -works fine also for audio conversion) and then rename to .m4r extension.
hey thats easy just have to remember to add the new ringtones folder to Itunes before syncing.
Great one thanks
I have a Iphone 8GB. I followed the directions exactly as written. It worked great for me. No trouble at all.
Worked so well! Thanks for this…I’ll save tons of money using the music I’ve already paid for!
Brilliant! worked great. Thanks!
It worked! I saw some comments about mac users not getting this right–simply go to preferences and change “import settings” to include AAC, and then you can follow the directs exactly as written.
Thanks so much! This is amazing!
works like a charm. thanks josh tucker
Works! but i did a extra step.. after changing the format, I dragged the files to the “ringtones folder” in my library and then sync my iphone, before sync.. you should be able to see the files under ur iphone – ringtone tab
This worked great! Thanks for sharing
was able to install the first ringtone no problem however the 2nd ring tone is in my itunes ring tone folder with a check in the box but it’s not being added to my phone when I sync. what can I do?
When I looked @ these instructions I didn’t think it would work cuz I couldn’t see how it would find the directory on the desktop, and it didn’t (don’t know if I jinxed it with – though, as it worked for others) I re-read the instructions to see if I had missed a step and I don’t think I had. Anyhoo, I copied the m4r file to the ringtone folder on iToons and did a re-sink and it did work. Apple are DRM mad, but I suppose they have to be, it seems such an obvious work around that the thought occurs that they may have made it easy for any with Computer Savvy 101(advanced) to be able to make tuneage based ringtone, I mean they can’t strangle their product too much to safeguard another companies profits, Apple make hardware/software not content, and if someone looked @ the iPhone and found they could easily make custom ringtones it might just be the lack of that feature that would make someone buy competitors phone and then Apple would lose a sale because they are safeguarding someone else’s IP. It’s like ISP, basically a large slice of their business is based around enabling ppl to nick other ppls copyright, but they if go too far it helping record companies ETC to track the culprits down then they are going too loose money, so if the record companies say to the ISP stop these ppl we are losing money the ISP’s could turn around and say, well if we did that we’d lose money, it’s like whose more important the ISP’s or the record labels? Anyway it’s about time they got it stuck to them, they have been ripping us off for years with over inflated CD prices, and they had a healthy slice in the 90’s when everyone replaced their old vinyl with CD’s and we are now supposed to feel sorry for them, Virgin have the right idea, they own both an ISP and a record label, smooth move beard boy.
Works a treat, thumbs up. You saved me the proprietory blues and heart ache lol. I just drag n dropped the m4r file into ringtones.
It worked for me. Thanks for the steps.
excellent work buddy thanks a lot
didnt work. When i got to the part about renaming the file it wouldnt let me change it but just the name. how do you go to folder options. also, it only sometimes works when i do the 30 sec. thing. what gives?
Hey. This works on 8.2! love it. The step that was confusing was “create Ringtones folder”. Why? just drag the new 40 second AAC clip to Desktop, right click to change extension, then delete the AAC from iTunes (move to trash), then drag the MODIFIED file from desktop to iTunes-Ringtones folder. Worked for me.
ALTERNATIVE: use Garageband to create ringtones. drag a song from iTunes into Garageband, click Share, Save Ringtone to iTunes. If song is very long, it asks to trim it and provides a ruler that is 7 second long (could be adjusted I think). Trim it, choose the section you want, and repeat Share steps. Suggestion: As soon as a ringtone is created in iTunes, within iTunes RENAME it caz a second ringtone that you create will have same name as the previous ringtone that you created in Garageband. This is based on Garageband’s file saving system.
pz
I can’t change to m4r because there isn’t any m4a after the file
am I dong the wrong way? i think i doing right
Thanks, worked great on my IPhone 3G with 3.0