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!
Hi Brian, same happened to me – just restart the phone and have another look – worked for me then….
You absolute star followed the steps and it works 100% Many Thanks
Thanks I thought it ridiculous that after purchasing hundreds of dollars worth of music I would have to pay to create a ringtone…
Thanks for the tutorial. I followed the steps, and it is quite simple. Once you make a couple, this is very easy thing to do. Saved me a few bucks buddy. You da man!!!!
Using a 2.1 jailbroken phone, it’s not sync-ing into my phone, what’s wrong?
Thanks for this! I encountered some difficulty at first, but when I read the comment about tweaking some stuff when working with Vista, everything worked out perfectly! Cheers!
For those that get it to show in itunes but not actually on your iphone, switch the phone off and back on again, worked for me
Big thanks for posting this tutorial. Worked like a champ. WooHoo custom ringtones on the iPhone.
when i try to chage the file extention to m4r it just changes the name to song.m4r the file remains m4a my computer doesn’t name my song song.m4a it just names it the song what do i do?
Make sure you are editing the file extension. It sounds like you are only editing the filename.
You can change folder view options to show file extensions. Once displayed, you will be allowed to change the file extension from m4a to m4r. You can also do it through command line (DOS prompt), if you know how to use the “ren” command.
So I’ve made the .m4r file for a couple of ringtones. The first two worked just as stated. The synced to the iphone and I can assign them to contacts. Now I can’t make any more. They show up in itunes but not on the iphone. They are under 30secs and I even tried powering off the phone and restarting. In itunes the ring tones are checked to sync as well. Any suggestions?
I have been working on this since my husband got his iPhone three months ago – here’s my problem: I cannot delete the AAC copies from my iTunes (8.0.2) and therefore cannot import my .m4r copies back. HELP!!
Never mind – It worked!! I finally realized I had to be looking at the actual file in the library, not a playlist, in order to delete it. Going to sync now….cross your fingers for me!
Yea!! Thanks for the tutorial!
thank you
how do you make a text message sound on the iphone?
Ok, after following the initial directions, then reading all the other comments to help me adapt it for Windowns XP, i think I finally got it to work. Maybe there is an easier way, but this was definitly helpful.
Figured out my “it’s not syncing even though it shows in iTunes under Ringtones…” problem…when I was going into my iPhone Settings and clicking on Sounds, I kept looking for my custom ringtone within the original ringtone list (alphabetically–it made sense to me). When you open up the Ringtone folder on your iPhone, it defaults to the Standard list–and I was scrolling down. Finally I scrolled up…and there was my Ringtone.
I cannot believe I have spent so much time on this–but I was determined to have a fun ringtone!…I just wish the simple fix was mentioned on here (which is why I am posting)–as a new owner I was definitely clueless…it didn’t occur to me that the Custom folder (oh…yes, alphabetically that word comes before Standard) would be at the top!
On the other hand, my Ringtone is there, it works, and it was easy to make. Now that I figured it out, I am going to have fun making more! And I will always scroll in both directions from now on!
Thank you for the easy to follow directions for the process–I made my Ringtone in Garageband, which was easy, easy, easy…
And if you end up with the four extra seconds from Garageband added onto your tone, just shorten it per the instructions on this page–it works the same.
Thanks you very much for this help!! Works perfectly fine!
Very nice explained, I think everyone should be able to understand this.
To all the people of whom it doesn’t work: have you already tried to reduce the length of the ringtone? (at the beginning of the proces, by checking the start – and end time) I’ve noticed that, up to 30 seconds, you shouldn’t have any problems. However, you can always try to make it a bit longer, but it is not sure iTunes will accept it as a ringtone.
Thanks very much for this, and I am determined to crack it! I have followed all the steps, read all the comments, some of which helped (particular thanks to Steve for his tip on renaming in XP); I can see the ringtone on my phone in iTunes, it seems to have definitely copied across, but I cannot find it on the phone. I have tried switching off and on again, I have scrolled all the way up and down, but cannot find a “Custom” ringtone folder anywhere. So near, and yet so far… this is incredibly frustrating. Please help.
PS Just to make this even more frustrating, I performed the same exercise on my husband’s phone, and it all worked perfectly!!!
PPS Happy new year, one and all!
After hours of trying to follow these directions, I have m4r file on my desktop but when I double click nothing happens in itunes on my mac. I do not have a jailbroken iphone, but this precedes any attempt to sync with the phone. I have followed all directions, inculding setting the itunes to look for aac files. The length of the tune is 27 seconds. What to do?
I abouslutly love this. I’ve had my iphone since feb 2008 and I hate paying for the ringtones. Thank you sooooo much, your the best,
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
hey dose this work with windows vista!?..cuss iv been trying it and wen i put it back it comes back with the same name…not .m4r..please help…lol
What freaking 10 minutes are you talking about, making 1 ringtone took me about 2 min
thank you so so much:) I went to folder options and it fixed all the problem.
1st) i cant create an AAC version and im the administrator of my computer.
2nd) i thought maybe it would work if i just put it on my desktop and yeahh it didnt work
like i tried naming it to m4r. but that doesnt help either. idk what to do. please
help!
Not sure what all the complaints are about. This was very informative and worked to perfection!! Thank you so much Will. I was pretty pissed at the limitations to what songs could be converted by Apple and was even more frustrated when a song I had purchased was not “allowed to be converted”………..fortunately, the song I wanted wasn’t scratched on the CD I owned.
Further info:
1. like someone else mentioned, following the steps after the first time literally takes 2 minutes.
2. I found the ringtone wouldn’t work at 51 seconds but would work at 38 seconds.
Thanks again, hopefully when Apple catches on again, you’ll be on top of it!
Will – Many thanks for your hard work to get this out to all of us iphone users. we’d spent two days looking for some way to create ringtones till found your site. It took a bit of working out – but we got there in the end. Once you get it right , it’s easy. great work !!!
Very nice solution!
Does this not work for jailbroken iphones?
Worked great!
Out of curiosity, what’s the standard length of a ringtone?
How do you know if you have only renamed the file or actually changed it to a file extension?
I have vista.
These are my steps: made a new folder, named it song.m4r, unchecked hide extensions and applied it. Went back to folder and dragged it to iTunes, but it is still just showing up in my music and not ringtones!
What am I doing wrong?
I have the original version of the iPhone and my itunes are up to date. Help please
i cant get the m4r files to show up in my library
Was having problems using a mac until I added an extra step- worth a try if still having issues. After the 29 second AAC is made (or however long you make it) from that version create another AAC version. You will now have 3 in your library- the original, the first AAC version and this second copy. Put that on your desktop and try it.
When you select Get Info while on the desktop it should now have a proper duration. Before, for some reason, all the ringtones reverted back to the previous length of the song
ok! i have the file converted correctly. now do i create a ringtone folder or should there already be one?
thanks fellas
Hey everyone,
THese steps are tremendusly helpful thank you alot WIll..ive followed all the steps and have got to the point where dragging my made ringtone into the ringtones folder in my iphone doesnt work. I have the most recent itunes, iphone 3G and is not jailbroke…can anyone help me with this problem..it wud be greatly appreciated..thank you in advance
oopps another question..how do u jailbreak an iphone and is it necessary for this process?
I did all of the steps and it shows up on my iphone, I set the song as my ringtone but when someone calls me the song doesnt play. Send me an email at lamonwilliams@ymail.com with answers please!!! Thanks
Brilliant, worked first go, thanks bro
thanks, it worked, just follow the steps STEP BY STEP!
Thank you, it has been so clear, I’m a vista user and with ur help I have like a bunch of ringtones, but I’m wondering if will it be possible to make a ringtone sound when I get my email, I have sonar from blackberry in my iTunes library and I would love to hear it when I get a mail instead of that vibration thing… Thanks!!
This is great!!! I have to give you credit for coming up with this process! I just want everybody to know that I have a jailbroken phone and I had no problem following these steps. The slight mistake I made was not making the clip 30 seconds or shorter (this explains why the ringtnes wont sinc on to your phone
but once i figured that out I could make all of the ringtones I wanted!!
Thank you again
GREAT, many thanks for this amazing tool, thanks thanks thanks you are great. JP
it is way easier than you guys think.. it seems hard when you read the directions but once you do it one time then you get the hang of it. Once you get the hang of it.. it takes about 10seconds tops to make one.
I cant seem to find the ringtone on my phone i have done all the steps it is in itunes under ringtones. the ringtones are set to sync. but i still cant find it on my phone… any one know why?
I am stupid. I have read through the steps 50 times. I create the AAC, copy that to my desktop, delete the one that is in iTunes, right click and rename to “getup.m4r” (But I think this is where the issue is, I don’t think it’s actually changing the properties of this song) and copy it to “Library” when highlighted and it copies to my library, not my ringtones. I would seriously pay for the ringtone, but iTunes screwed me over. I paid .99 cents for a ringtone that is not authorized to play on my phone. Fantastic!
I’m frustrated. :/
Nevermind, I finally got it! What it was is that you have to go to “My Computer” -> “Tools” -> “Folder Options” -> “View” -> Scroll down and UNCHECK THE BOX THAT SAYS “Hide Extention for Known File Types” then press “Ok” to save what you have changed. And voila!
Then do exactly what Will says and it works perfectly! Thanks Will!
This works like a dream! I’ve tried so many different options and they were missing something in the process; I’m not even sure what it was, but this one’s got it.
Thanks!