iPhone Ringtones: Create FREE iPhone ringtones using iTunes 8
By Will Park on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 5:50 PM PST In Announcements, Apple, iPhone, iPhone OS
Remember those good, old days when creating an iPhone ringtone was as easy as renaming a song in your iTunes library to a “.m4r” extension and then syncing it back with your iPhone? No? Well, trust us when we say that iPhone ringtones were never easier (or free-er) to create.
That is, until iTunes 8. With the release of iTunes 8 – which brought with it Genius Playlists – creating iPhone ringtones has once again become a painless process. iTunes 8 allows the user to customize a particular song’s start- and end-time, paving the way for an iPhone ringtone creation “hack” that requires nothing more than iTunes itself.
Keep in mind that iTunes will allow you to create a ringtone from a song downloaded through the iTunes Music Store, but those ringtones come with fees… and no one likes fees. Follow this guide to create free iPhone ringtones for free using nothing more than iTunes.
To create simple, free iPhone ringtones from your iTunes library, follow these steps:
- Note: This process works with MP3, ACC, and AIFF files.
- Note: Only DRM-free songs can be used with this ringtone creation process.
- Any song downloaded from iTunes Music Store will have DRM (Digital Rights Management), so don’t use those songs.
- Any song ripped from a CD or downloaded from DRM-free sources (P2P, Amazon, your friend) will work just fine.
- Fire up iTunes 8
- Find the song you’d like to turn in to a ringtone
Select the song you want to use as your iPhone ringtone
- Right click on the song
- Select “Get Info”
- Hit the “Options” tab
- Check both the “Start Time” and “End Time” boxes
Customize the start and end times for your ringtone clip
- Specify what time interval you’d like to use as your ringtone clip (Make sure your ringtone is 30 seconds or less!!)
- Click “OK”
- Make sure the song you want is still highlighted
- Click on “Advanced” in your menu bar
- Select “Create AAC Version” or “Create Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) Lossless Version” (Make sure your iTunes “Import Settings” are set to “AAC” or “Apple Lossless” and not “MP3″)
You want to create a duplicate song file with the customized playing time
- A duplicate copy of your song will appear in iTunes – this new song will have the same filename but shorter “Time”
- Go back to the original song and uncheck those “Start Time” and “End Time” boxes
See the duplicate song underneath the original song?
- Go back to the original song and uncheck those “Start Time” and “End Time” boxes
- Drag the duplicate song to your Desktop
Duplicate song file on Desktop
- Once the duplicate song is copied to your Desktop, delete the duplicate file in iTunes
Notice that the duplicate song file is gone - deleted
- On your Desktop, rename the file with the “.m4r” file extension – Use the new extension
- This turns your song file into an iPhone ringtone file
Use the new filename extension
The .m4r file is now a ringtone file
- This turns your song file into an iPhone ringtone file
- Your “songname.m4a” file should now be named “songname.m4r”
- Drag the newly renamed .m4r (songname.m4r) file back into iTunes
- Drag the file over the “Library” column and release when “Library” becomes highlighted
- You have to delete the duplicate song file (Step 12) otherwise iTunes won’t import your new .m4r file
- You should see your new ringtone under “Ringtones” in iTunes
- Sync your iPhone to get jiggy with your new iPhone ringtones!
Enjoy your free iPhone ringtone library!
I have gotten to the point where I can convert the file to the ringtone (mr4), however iTunes won’t allow it to actually go into the ringtones folder.
I’ve followed every step over and over again.
i can get so far as it going into the itunes ringtone section and then i sync my iphone and then nothing…nothing at all.
this is really starting to annoy me
help!!
i was having same problems as most people here but then i figured it out, the easiest way i found to do it was drag the aac version into a folder, go into folder settings and check the box that said something about viewing file extentions then renaming it to .m4r. using windows xp
Hi, all
I can’t select “Create AAC Version” or “Create Apple Lossless Version” as they cannot be selected in itune 8.0. However, I have checked that my iTunes “Import Settings” are set to “AAC” and not “MP3?. Also, I cannot drag the files (not know if it is mp3 or AAC) into desktop. Anyone can help?
Hey, that’s pretty slick and easy. Thank YOU sir!
Niiiiice. Thanks. One note, after you make the ring tone be sure to go back and remove the start and finish times from the original song, otherwise when you try to play that song it will only play the start and stop times you used for the ring tone.
-T
hi! tried this but i couldn’t seem to find how to choose the length of the track or which part i want to convert too aac. please help. Thanks!
Help! The instructions are clear. I created my 23 second ringtone, named .m4r, placed on my desktop, deleted from iTunes, double click and iTunes is launched, and it is added to ringtones. So, what is the problem? When I connect my iPhone (G1, not jailbroken) and sync ringtones, it doesn’t show up – Alarm through Xylophone are there, but my custom ringtone is a no-show. When I go to the iPhone ringtones tab, it is there, sync ringtones is checked, selected is checked, and the single ringtone I have is checked, but the sync fails to make it appear on my iPhone. Suggestions?
I just went to another help site like this and solved it. The instructions have been clear as a bell, but one step was missing that has been driving me crazy. That is, everything looked right, but the sync didn’t load a ringtone. The extra step – while you do the rename to change the extension (m4a to m4r), also rename the song (Beatles – Hello Goodbye to Hello Goodbye) or whatever. But keeping it the same name (for me) prevented a successful sync. I now have it. Hooray!
I’ve seen this method on many sites and it seems this works for many people. I’ve only just bought my iPhone (bit late but hey…) and as soon as I connected to iTunes all the updates came up. Is there a new one which blocks this above method? – I ask because the ringtone file is present in the folder (iTunes, and ghosted out in the iPhone ringtones folder visible via iTunes), but the iPhone refuses to show the file in the settings>sound>ringtones list. Any ideas why not other than update blocking this?
I’ve performed all the steps and the songs are listed under ringtones on iTunes 8. However, after syncing, I still don’t see it in iphone under ringtones. Where else could the ringtones have gone?
First, thank you for taking the time to explain these steps. A family member got this phone last year and it sat in a box and they decided to just let me have it (SCORE!).
I’ve been succesful with every step except the last one. I can see the file in the ringtone section but when i try to sync the phone to iTunes it doesn’t show up on my phone. The ringtone itself is only 0:22 seconds. I currently have version 2.2 on my iPhone and iTunes 8.
Thank you for your help.
Okay, so Apple assumes that you don’t automatically want to sync your ringtones. Therefore, by default it’s turned off in iTunes. Make sure that you click on your iPhone in the menu on the left. Once you do that, you should see the window that gives you your basic stats (name of the phone, capacity, etc.) If you look towards the top of that, you’ll see a tab that says “Ringtones”. Click on it, and make sure to check the box “Sync ringtones”. It was not checked by default in my iTunes.
hey thanks a lot, Nick, i was having trouble with the “one and only” custom ringtone till you came to my rescue!
Thank you – it works great and was so easy to follow with all steps covered. Ignore the ignorant
I also cannot select the convert options under advanced, they are grayed out. I have managed to change a song’s file to m4r using another program. When I try to drag and drop it into itunes, it shows the little blue “plus” sign but the song does not appear. I have windows vista itunes 8.1.
It worked but now its on my phone and when someone calls it just vibrates, it doesnt ring
After you manage to have the *.m4r file, just use the “iphone browser” to copy that file in the “ringtones folder”, and then you are done! no need to sync it anymore, It is easier!
Thanks, that was so easy to do, now I have some decent ringtones. I did have one tune that refused to go smaller than 50seconds. When I copied it, it was smaller, but then when I changed the name and dragged it back in, it was 50 seconds regardless of what size I had set it to. Confusing.
greaat i synced my iPhone with all my new ringtones and it deleted ALL my songs. grrrr
Just like to add a BIG thank you tried other options but without any joy then found yours… works like a dream,so quick and easy!
I’m trying to convert my m4a to an m4r, and I followed the instructions (I have Windows XP), and I created a new folder and went under “Folder Options” and “Exhibition Mode” and it still.doesn’t.work…I don’t know what I’m doing wrong and it’s really frustrating.
AWESOME!!! Thanks!!!
This is quite frustrating, have carried out all steps and it shows in itunes ring tones but not in the iphone ringtones sync box an any one help please I am using version 8.2.0.02
oops meant version 8.2.0.20
Just follow the directions exactly. The first song i tried it with didn’t work out, but the instructions were from a different website. I just got my iphone two days ago, and i have the most up to date version of itunes. if you do exactly what it says, it will work.
I am so close to getting this thing to work, I am using Windows Vista and Melissa mentioned going into Windows Explore and hitting tools but i never see an option that says folder options. can any body help me?
never mind figured it out and i LOVE IT, thank you every body for making this blog
ok so I have Windows Vista and I’m getting frustrated here. I got everything down up until the changing name from m4a to m4r. I am unable to see hidden file extension or whatever so i went to CONTROL PANEL then had to click CLASSIC VIEW to see the option FOLDER OPTIONS. From there I click the tab that says VIEW and in ADVANCED SETTINGS window i select dot that says SHOW HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS then deselect the box that says HIDE EXTENSIONS FOR KNOWN FILE TYPES. I then click apply then ok. When i hit ok box disappears….duh….but settings go back to default and i am still unable to rename the song file on my desktop. I’ve tried over and over again but no luck. You have any advice? I’m no computer guru and am at a loss here.
THIS is amazing!
I have created the ring tones. I have one problem . . . I am assigning ring tones to contacts, but they don’t always work. They work fine with some contacts, but not with others. Any advice?
thanks alot ^^ the info is good enough.. some people are just too lazy to figure out little stuff by themselves.
Using Mac OS X 10.5 I had two probs: 1st was the 39sec. limit which I didn’t know about (maybe should specifiy in step 6?), second was that I had to empty the trash to remove all traces of my first attempt. My first version was a minute long, so didn’t work, but just moving it to trash wasn’t enough. Strange.
Otherwise, great job! Thanks a lot!
Great tutorial man. I always wanted to do this, but never understood how. You made it very easy. I just finished my first iphone ringtone and many more will come thanks to you. Take care
Cheers!
I also have the same problem, my music came from my CD. I use Window Vista and iTune 8.0.
When I highlighted my song after the “trimming”, I can’t select “Create AAC Version” or “Create Apple Lossless Version” as they cannot be selected, they are grayed out. I have also checked my iTunes “Import Settings” are set to “AAC” and not “MP3″. Also, I cannot drag any the files to desktop.
did I miss something?
Got everything working except it just keeps sending to my phone the same ringtone over and over. it even appears multiple times on my phone. Am i doing something wrong.
Thanks for you all. I can do it and it takes just few seconds. Enjoy you guys!
BTW, do anyone know how to change the ringtones for message because I cannot use m4r file for message sound. Thanks!!
Followed instructions – it took a matter of seconds to create custom made ringtones!
Thanks for the help
I am computer illiterate, and I made it work following your instructions. Thank you!
hi i have tried this and it works great thanx the only problem i have is that there is no sound coming from the iphone only vibrate can anyone help me please???
using jailbroken 2.1 gen 2 iphone, following instructions, won’t sync to iphone. Says it does, but does not show up in list. Any ideas?
Doesn’t work with 8.0.2
JK!
OMG Thank you so much for this tutorial. I hate DL’ing songs from I tunes. I lost A lot of my old music that way when my old G4 powerbook hd crashed & I refuse to do that no matter what fixes they say are there now.
Oh My God. thank you so much. This guide is the best in aiding begginers like me. It tells you exactly what to do and how to do it. This is the best. Thank you *scrolls up to see name* Will ParK!! THANK you so much. Ive tried several programs and none of them worked. They suck! But you rock. Thanks u really freed me from the annoying and boring ringtone-marimba.
Penny packer. It does work with 8.0.2. Im using it right now and i made 5 ringtones from it. The thing is that the ringtones MUST , i repeat MUST BE 30seconds or less. It cannot go over 30 seconds or else i tunes wont consider it as a ringtone. Thats what i did. i made 1 with 47 seconds and 1 with 30seconds. guess what. the 30 seconds one worked
i followed all the step correctly on my mac. i have the file copied to my desktop in .m4r format and the icon even says ‘ring’on the file. i then double clicked it to add to itunes and the 29 second clip shows up in itunes, but it will not show up in the ringtones section. what am i doing wrong???? please help! thanks.
Steven,
if you still have’nt figured it out yet. I had the same problem you did with the folder options. If you leave the folder options window open (just hit apply) while you change extension of song it will work otherwise it will go back to original settings. All steps worked for me!!!!!
THANKS SO MUCH! REALLY HELPFUL!