How to make music ringtones on iphone

If you can't stand listening to "Opening" or "Reflection" anymore, you need to learn how to make ringtones for iPhone yourself. Fortunately, it's pretty easy.

There are of course plenty of ones provided by Apple within the settings menu of your iPhone, but what if you want something more personal, like the chorus of your favorite song? We can help you make this a reality with the guide below.

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Of course, there are several free ringtone apps in the wild that give you the opportunity to quickly create new ringtones. But in many cases, the apps don't come with all the features you'd expect to make creating a ringtone quick and easy. And in some cases, you even need to spend a few bucks just to have the option of choosing the section of a song you want.

So, if you're serious about making a ringtone, there's a better way. It just requires some time, iTunes, and a few other steps to make it happen.

Read on to learn how to make ringtones for your iPhone.

How to make ringtones for iPhone

1. Open iTunes on the desktop to get started. Download it from Apple's site (opens in new tab) if you don't already have it, such as if you're working on a Windows device.

2. Choose the song you want to use to create a ringtone and click on it.

3. Right-click on the song and choose the Song Info option.

4. Click the Options tab.

5. Choose up to a 30-second period in the song that you'll want to make your ringtone. Apple limits your ringtone to 30 seconds, so you won't be able to have anything longer than that.

When making your time selection, be sure you put the time in minutes and seconds. So, if you want to start the ringtone at 1 minute and 34 seconds, input 1:34 into the start field. Then set it to end 30 seconds later at 2:04. After you select your times, be sure to play it back to make sure it's the chunk of the song you really want.

6. Click OK to confirm your song selection.

7. With the song highlighted, click on File, then Convert and choose the option that says "Create AAC Version." Apple iTunes will immediately convert the 30-second audio clip you just chose to create.

8. Right-click on the ringtone you just created and on a Mac, choose the option to "Show in Finder." On a Windows PC, search for the song in your Windows Explorer pane to find its location on your hard drive.

9. Change the song's file extension from .m4a to .m4r. That's because Apple uses a .m4r extension for ringtones instead of the familiar .m4a. 

When prompted to either keep .m4a or go with .m4r, choose the latter.

10. Keep your iTunes window open and plug your iPhone into your computer. You'll see the iPhone pop up in the left sidebar of the screen.

11. Drag and drop the .m4r ringtone you just created onto the option in the left sidebar, under your iPhone, that says "Tones." It should then be seen under the ringtones section in your iPhone.

You can add a custom ringtone to your iPhone using iTunes for Windows or Apple Music on a Mac. Ensure the ringtone is 40 seconds long, in AAC format, and has the .m4r file extension. You can then copy it over to your iPhone.

The iPhone has been around for a long time, and yet there’s still no easy way to add your own custom ringtones—but it is possible. If you don’t want to buy ringtones or use the ones that came with your iPhone, you can create your own with iTunes.

This process changed a bit with iTunes 12.7. The “Tones” library you could previously sync with your iPhone has been removed, but you can still manually place ringtone files on your phone. Any ringtones you had stored in iTunes are now located at C:UsersNAMEMusiciTunesiTunes MediaTones on a PC or ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Tones/ on a Mac.

Update: We had some issues with the version of iTunes downloaded from the Microsoft Store, but the version available for download on the Apple website worked perfectly. If you encounter problems, try installing the version downloaded from Apple.

Step One: Get iTunes

You almost never have to use iTunes with a modern iPhone, but adding your own custom ringtones still requires it.

On a Windows PC, you’ll need to install the latest version of iTunes from Apple. On a Mac, iTunes is already installed and ready to go. This process will work on either a Mac or Windows PC.

Update: Apple no longer offers iTunes on Macs starting with macOS Catalina. Here’s how to get custom ringtones onto your iPhone on the latest version of macOS. The instructions in this article still work if you’re using iTunes on Windows or if you have an older version of macOS that still has iTunes.

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Step Two: Choose a Sound File

Of course, you’ll need a sound clip you want to convert and use as a ringtone for this. You probably already have some idea of what you want to use. if not, go ahead and find something you like. You can use absolutely any sound file you find.

Your ringtone file must be a maximum of 40 seconds long. iTunes will refuse to copy ringtones longer than 40 seconds to your phone.

If the file is long and you just want to use one part of it, you can cut it down to just the part you want using an audio editor. You can use any audio editor you like. We like the free and open-source Audacity audio editor for audio editing, but it’s more complex than necessary for simple things like this—so we actually recommend a simple online tool like mp3cut.net. To use this website, click the “Open file” button and browse to the MP3 or other type of sound file you want to edit. It can also extract the sound from video files if you upload those.

Select the part of the audio file you want to use and click the “Save” button.

Download the edited clip to your PC by clicking “Save” again. This is the file you’ll need to import into iTunes.

Step Three: Convert the MP3 to AAC

There’s a good chance your sound file is in MP3 format. You’ll need to convert it to AAC format to use it as a ringtone. (If your sound file is already in AAC format or has a .m4r extension, you can skip this part.)

First, add the sound file to iTunes and locate it in your library. You can do this by dragging and dropping the file directly into the iTunes library. Look under Library > Songs for the file afterward.

Select the sound file in iTunes and click File > Convert > Create AAC Version.

Step Four: Rename Your AAC File

You’ll end up with two copies of the same song file in your iTunes library: The original MP3 version and the new AAC version.

To keep track of which is which, right-click the headings in the library and enable the “Kind” column.

You’ll see a new “Kind” column telling you which file is which. The “MPEG audio file” is the original MP3, while the “AAC audio file” is your new AAC file. You can right-click the MPEG audio file version (that’s the MP3) and remove it from your library if you like.

You now have your ringtone file as an AAC file. However, you need to change its file extension so iTunes will recognize it as a ringtone file.

First, drag and drop the AAC file from the iTunes library to your Desktop or any other folder on your system.

You’ll get the ringtone file as an AAC file with the .m4a file extension. If you don’t see an extension after the file name, you’ll need to enable file extensions. Right-click the file, click “rename” or hit the rename button, and change the file extension to .m4r. For example, if the file is named Song.m4a, change it to Song.m4r.

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Step Five: Add the Ringtone File to Your Phone

Finally, connect your iPhone to your PC or Mac with its included USB-to-Lightning cable—that’s the same cable you use to charge your iPhone.

Unlock your iPhone and tap the “Trust” option on its screen to confirm you want to trust your computer if you haven’t previously connected your phone to iTunes on that PC or Mac. You’ll be prompted to enter your PIN.

In iTunes, click the device icon that appears to the left of “Library” on the navigation bar.

Click the “Tones” section under On My Device in the left sidebar.

Drag and drop the .m4r ringtone file from its folder to the Tones section in iTunes.

Update: If drag and drop doesn’t work, use copy and paste instead. Select the ringtone file in File Explorer and press Ctrl+C, or right-click it and select copy. Next, click inside the Tones list inside iTunes and press Ctrl+V to paste it.

Update: This part seems to break with the Microsoft Store version of iTunes. If you can’t drag and drop or copy and paste the file into iTunes, try downloading and installing iTunes from Apple’s website instead. Scroll about halfway down Apple’s page until you see “Looking for other versions?” and then click “Windows.” Click “Download” once the option appears.

iTunes will sync the ringtone to your phone and it will immediately appear under Tones here.

Step Six: Choose the Ringtone

You can now grab your iPhone and head to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Ringtone, and choose your custom ringtone. Any custom ringtones you’ve added will appear at the top of the list here.

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You can also assign that ringtone to a specific contact, so you know who’s calling just by the sound.

To remove ringtones, reconnect your phone to iTunes and head back to the On My Device > Tones section. Right-click a tone and select “Delete from Library” to remove it from your device.

If you’re not short on space, there isn’t any real need to delete the ringtones you add. You can have as many as you’d like!

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