Custom Ringtones in iTunes 7.5 with iPhone 1.1.2 or not?


ringtones.jpg

So this weekend TUAW reported that customized iPhone ringtones have returned to the iPhone via the 1.1.2 update.

I’ve spent the last 30 minutes or so trying to get this to work, and I can’t seem to make it happen. So – are you any of you having any luck with it? Is it true and I’m just missing a step?

Let me know…I really hope that it’s back and working. If so, I need to update iRing…


Kossi Adzo

Kossi Adzo is a technology enthusiast and digital strategist with a fervent passion for Apple products and the innovative technologies that orbit them. With a background in computer science and a decade of experience in app development and digital marketing, Kossi brings a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective to the Apple Gazette team.

38 Comments

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  1. Yes it is true….you have to use a program like Audaciy (open source from sourceforge.net be sure to get the LAME encoder too) to chop your mp3 to get a 30 second or less snippit. Then you export it as an mp3. Then open itunes and drag it to your music folder. Next find it by searching for the name (should be the ~30 sec. if you have more than one of that title) and go to ADVANCED and select CONVERT Selection to ACC. Now you have to go to your itunes folder (user/music/itunes….) and find the file with the .a4m and copy it (i copied mine to my desktop) then rename the extension to .m4r and then drag it to the ringtone folder and go to your phone prefs and make sure the sync all or sync selected ringtones is checked and sync….TADA!!!

  2. I did everything like dave, but if I sync my Iphone to connect iTunes. I get an error notification, which can not be copied to file ringtone is because the object can not be reproduced

  3. I did everything like dave, but if I sync my Iphone to connect iTunes. I get an error notification, which can not be copied to file ringtone is because the object can not be reproduced . any1 tell me how i can add ringtone to my Iphone ( version 1.1.1 and iTunes 7.5 ) ???
    thx

  4. Same thing as billy, except it says it “some of the items in the iTunes library were not copied because the could not be found. Odd, considering I put them there.

  5. i did what dave said, and they synced to my phone, but they wont play on my phone, its wierd. any1 else have a prob with that?

  6. “i did what dave said, and they synced to my phone, but they wont play on my phone, its wierd. any1 else have a prob with that?”

    I have the same problem! Driving me nuts. I’m thinking it’s a Vista issue. Damn you work bought PC!!! Never again!

  7. I tried the instructions Dave gave and had problems at first with iTunes not importing the file when I dragged and dropped to ringtones.

    I then copied the aac file directly to the ringtones folder (user/documents and settings/my music/itunes/itunes music/ringtones) and renamed it to .m4r there. Now, inside the actual folder, it still would not show up in the ringtones list.

    Finally, I double clicked the file directly from the ringtones folder and, TADA!!! The song played and appeared in the ringtone list and is now synced on my iphone. Hope this helps those who were having problems.

  8. i dont have a ringtones folder but do have the ringtones icon in itunes….did u create that folder or was it there when u updated itunes and got the ringtones icon???

  9. Have tried everything above. Tried David’s advice then Craze.
    Craze, everything you said worked up to the point where you played the ringtone in the actual ringtone folder. It did appear in the itunes folder for ringtones and even played. Thought it was going to work then.

    However when i tried to sync, it still gave me the original message:
    “…was not copied to the iphone” Can anyone help? I have 7.5 of itunes and
    1.0.2 on my iphone

  10. I succesfully could do it. Similar process as Dave:

    1. Edit song part down to 30ss in SoundForge (I believe any audio editor will do).
    2 Save as mp3 128.
    3. Open in iTunes
    4. Convert to AAC
    5. Open it in Windows Explorer and rename extension to .m4r
    6. Double click and it automatically opens in iTunes in the Ringtone area.
    7. Sync your iPhone
    8. Enjoy

  11. Just in case remember to check all files in the Ringtones area to be imported to the iphone. Also remember that when you opened the file for the first time in itunes and then converted to aac, the file original will remain there and it could be confusing, since you already renamed it and imported back (when you double click it) you can delete the first one that appears at the music area. The one that will be imported to the iPhone is in the Ringtone area not from the music area.

    AVL

  12. Hi,
    I have been able to get the ringtone to the ringtone tab of my Itunes7.5.
    But I am not able to do anything beyond that. The ringtone refuses to get added in the iphone’s tab / ringtones. I have ticked the auto add ringtones option as well..

    Any help please.

  13. alright i have made the ringtone and everything but when i got to rename the song it just has the name of the song no .m4p after it or anything when i go to properties i can see the .m4p but i dont know how to change it to the .m4r like the song is in the folder on my documents just doesnt have the .m4p i just gotta figure out how to change it

  14. Hi Guys all the post were great and very helpful. However, when I add the ringtone to iTunes it gets added to the Ringtone folder no problems but not to the Ringtone Tab on my iPhone. I tried smaller files, I tried creating a custom folder within the iTunes Ringtone folder. Nothing seems to work. Can anyone help?

  15. Ok So I finally got it to work. I needed to update to firmware 1.1.2. I assumed that by upgrading iTunes to version 7.5 it automatically updated my firmware.

  16. so i got the m4r into the ringtones section of itunes, and the song title even shows up under the custom ringtones of my iphone, but when someone calls me, no sound plays, and when i play the sound file off itunes, it works just fine. anyone know how i can fix this?

  17. I have the .m4r file on my desktop like dave did, but I can not get that into iTunes. I tried dragging directly from my desktop into the official ringtones folder, then I made a playlist called ringtones and it still didn’t work. I can’t find the official Ringtones folder on my Hard Driver. Its not in the same place as my music folder. Any suggestions?

    FYI, I’m on a Mac with iTunes 7.5 and iPhone 1.1.2

    Thanks in advance!

  18. well i thought everything was fine, i get the ringtones in itunes ringtone folder, its on my iphone in ringtones too, its set as default ringtone but when someone calls i get the old default tone ringing not my new ringtones, help!!……………….

  19. I got everything you said to do, the ringtone got into the ringtone folder in both itunes and in the iphone ringtone playlist on itunes, but there isnt a file inside the iphone i can use to select as a ringtone. can anyone help?

  20. I am using iTunes 7.5 and iphone 1.1.2…I followed the instructions from Dave and all went well with one caveat. My version of iTunes no longer will convert my selection into AAC format, I was fortunate in that my other macbook has an older version of iTunes and I was able to convert it to AAC from there. I then sent it back to my computer. The other thing is this…once you drop the new .m4r it will not show up in the ringtones menu of itunes untill I double click the file from the actual Ringtones folder from finder. Then everything worked well.

    The only issue I see now is what to do if iTunes will no longer convert a song to AAC format..neither the advanced menu nor right clicking will covert to AAC any longer…

    thoughts….

  21. I have the file showing up in the Ringtones on Itunes. But it never shows up on the phone. It converts fine, plays fine in Itunes, but I can never find it on the phone.

  22. The major problem that i ran into was that the songs have to be less than 30 sec. If it is longer than the iphone won’t pick it up.

  23. i have got the ringtone onto my iphone, its in ringtone list under custome. i can play them on my iphone BUT as soon as i pick them as a ringtone nothing happens, when i get a call the old ringtone i picked from the iphone list plays not my custom one. Any help on this please.

  24. Tenacity, all of these posted helped unlock several clues…

    Here is my addition:

    Original Instructions Appear to be GOOD, with exception of a typo of file type, but if you look in the folders of music you can see that.

    Other Notes that may help:
    * Yes, use audio editor to clip to 30 seconds or less !!!
    * export into mp3 filetype
    * use audio editor to embedded properties on meta info, i.e. songname-ringtone.mp3, this helped me get the RIGHT FILE into itunes.
    * import into as music
    * iTunes 7.5(19) DID allow the conversion to ac3 !! High Lite file, click advanced… it worked for me.
    * make sure to copy file .m4a (songname-ringtone.m4a to .m4r ) copy to your desktop to see it !!! Confirm the Open-With is going to use itunes.
    * if you use editor on file (Audacity,etc) change your Open-With properly on the mp3 file type

    Maybe this helps a little… iTunes crashed the first time I opened the ringtone on my MAC… yeah… go figure… It’s just like Windows.

  25. ok i did exactly what has been said, ive got ringtones on my iphone and playing as ringtone, at first it didnt work as ringtone but played on iphone, all i have did is add songs from itune store and like magic my custom ring tones work. never done anything diff from what all have said apart from got new music from store and synced again. hope this helps

  26. Ok guys… I have iTunes 7.5. I tried the above without complete success, but I did have partial success…at least it lead me in the right direction. The trick is to make sure your ring tone is 30 secs. or smaller. The newer patches thru apple must use file size to keep the aac files/m4a files from working. You can use garage band or a free ware (https://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/) to slice the song. It works great and took me like a few minutes to work.

    So, to recap:

    1st, slice the song to 30 sec. or lower.

    Open it in iTunes after saving it.

    Convert to AAC

    right click or command-click on song in iTunes, show file in folder.

    drag file to ringtones folder in iTunes

    Duplicate the m4a file

    right click/command click duplicated file and go to show info (or command i)

    change extension to .m4r

    this worked for me…hopefully will for others until apple creates a patch.

    I hope it helps… i paid for these songs and i wanna use it 😛

  27. I’m like Kirk.. I drag the converted to AAC to desktop and can see the file there but it just shows the name ie. alicia rather than alicia.m4a so I can’t change it to .m4r Any ideas? I’m a windows xp user. Thank you

  28. Hm having overcome that problem, and nicely synced my iphone to my itunes.. I can see if I click on my iphone on the left on the itunes page that my ringtone has been uploaded to my iphone. However it doesn’t appear under settings and ringtone… so where is it??

  29. correction it has to be under 40 seconds long. I had about 4 ringtones that was on the ringtone tab on itunes but not getting on my iphone. I made them all under or right at 40 seconds and now they are all there. Also you might know this already but you can just swap any ATT sim card into an iphone like any other cell phone out there. Tired it with about 4 sim cards and they all worked. I have the new 8 gig 3G Iphone. Thanks,

  30. I have uploaded the ringtone as Dave’s step. When someone calls, I can hear the custom ring tone but the caller still listens the standard ring. How can I make callers listen to my custom ring tone?

    When I call my friends, I hear their custom ringtones. not sure how to do in iphone >