Iphone Ringtones: How To

*** Online Iphone Ringtone Converter coming soon ***

One of the things that Apple hasn’t made easy for iPhone owners is providing a way to create custom ringtones in Windows. Instead what they expect you to do is purchase a song for $0.99, and then convert it to a ringtone for another $0.99.

As it turns out in a few steps you can actually convert a DRM-free song into a ringtone using only iTunes in Windows. The trick also works for Mac users, but using GarageBand is a lot simpler so we’re focusing primarily on the Windows side.

Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Start iTunes and find the [DRM-free] song you want to convert to a ringtone. Right-click on it and select the Get Info option.
    itunes ringtone get info.png
  2. On the Options tab locate the Start Time and End Time options. This is where you want to specify the portion of the song you wanted converted into a ringtone. Check both of the boxes, and make sure your ringtone is under 30-seconds. Press OK when finished.
    itunes ringtone time.png
  3. Right-click on the song you just modified, and choose the Convert to AAC option. If you don’t see this in the context menu navigate to Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Importing, and make sure the AAC Encoder is selected in the Import Using menu.
    itunes ringtone aac.png
  4. Once the song has finished being converted to the new format it will appear in your music list, and the “Time” should reflect the correct duration of the ringtone (which should be less than 30-seconds). Now navigate to your iTunes music folder to find the converted song. Here’s an example of where my Green Day ringtone was located:
    itunes ringtone folder.png
  5. Make sure you’re able to see the file’s extension (.M4A) like in the screenshot above. If you don’t see the extension go to Tools -> Folder Options -> View (Organize -> Folder and Search Options on Vista), and uncheck the Hide extensions for known file types box. Then click OK.
  6. Copy the music file (with the .M4A extension) to your desktop. Once you’ve done that rename the file’s extension to .M4R which will make iTunes recognize it as a ringtone. Make sure there are no symbols (underscores, hyphens, etc…) in the file name.
    itunes ringtone m4r.png
  7. In iTunes go to File -> Add File to Library, and then browse for the file from step 6. Once you’ve selected it press the Open button. iTunes will place the ringtone in the respective section in your library:
    itunes ringtone library.png
  8. Sync your iPhone with iTunes and your newly created ringtone should get transferred over. If it doesn’t be sure to check the Ringtones tab in the iPhone configuration section of iTunes to verify that it is setup to sync your ringtones.

 

Ok all you Vista users. I figured it out. This is step by step!

  1. Open iTunes
  2. Goto Library and select Music
  3. Select Song
  4. Listen to song & note time where you want song to start(example 0:50)
  5. Stop Song
  6. Right click on song which should be highlighted
  7. Select GET INFO
  8. Select Options
  9. Fill in Start and Stop times (ie~ Start 0:50 Stop 1:20 (add 30 sec)
  10. Click on OK button
  11. Right click again on highlighted song
  12. Select CREATE AAC VERSION
  13. Highlight 30sec version of song which will appear either above or
    below the full version of the song
  14. Right click highlighted 30sec version
  15. Select SHOW IN WINDOWS EXPLORER (2 versions of the song will appear in Windows Explorer. Check size of file if you aren’t sure but ringtone 30sec version should already be lightly highlighted)
  16. Right click 30sec version
  17. Select RENAME
  18. Change .m4a to .m4r & you can also change the name of the song (get rid of any underscores, asteriks, exlamation points, etc…)
  19. Hit ENTER
  20. Hit YES
  21. Go back to iTunes >Library >Music and highlight the 30sec version
  22. Right click and select DELETE
  23. Hit REMOVE
  24. Select RINGTONES under >Library section
  25. Go back to Windows Explorer where your .m4r file is located
  26. DOUBLE CLICK ON THE 30SEC .m4r SONG & IT WILL AUTOMATICALLY GO TO
    iTUNES RINGTONES FILE AND START PLAYING
  27. Stop song
  28. Goto FILE pull down menu
  29. Select SYNC “_____iPhone”
  30. While this is being done, you can select Devices ____iPhone which is
    located on the left hand side to view how your sync process is going
  31. Select Ringtones under Devices ____iPhone category to make sure
    ringtone file is there
  32. Now go and apply your new ringtone on your iPhone.
  33. Don’t forget to go back to the full version of the song and change the Get Info start and stop times. Tip: just highlight the start time and then hit delete, hightlight stop time and hit delete then hit OK at the bottom.

Good Luck all you Vista users. This worked for me like a charm each and every time.