Create iPhone ringtones with iTunes: Complete Guide

Changing the ringtone is one of the easiest ways to customize your iPhone. Just a few steps and everyone can put songs like iPhone ringtone, if these are on iTunes (both PC and Mac). Leaving aside the pleasant part, the ringtones have a very useful purpose: if you do not have an Apple Watch, setting a personalized ringtone for each contact, allows you to recognize who is calling you without removing the iPhone from your pocket.

The process of setting a song as an iPhone ringtone is not complicated. Compared to the past, however, with the versions of iTunes 12.7 and higher, this transition has become slightly more difficult. This is due to Apple’s removal of the ringtone section. In this guide you will see the method to create iPhone ringtones and set it on your smartphone using iTunes 12.7 or later. If you have a previous version of iTunes, you can use one of our guides on the site.

How to create iPhone ringtones with iTunes

Select and edit a song

If you do not have iTunes, download the latest version from this link. In order to use this procedure, you must first import the song to be used as an iPhone ringtone into iTunes.

NOTE: it is not possible to use songs from Apple Music to create ringtones. Therefore, if you use Apple’s streaming music service, you need to import the song in mp3 format into iTunes.

  • The first thing you need to do to put songs as an iPhone ringtone is to choose a song in iTunes to set as a ringtone.
  • If you want to select only part of the song, right click on it and then select Track Information -> Options. Put the check mark at the beginning and end entries and enter the time interval to be extrapolated to create your own ringtone. If you do not know which values to insert, start playing the song and mark on a sheet of paper the exact minute and seconds in which you would like to start the ringtone and then the time in which you would like to interrupt it. Enter these two values in the start and end fields of the song settings respectively. Confirm by pressing the Ok button.
  • Select the song again and then in the menu bar click on File -> Convert -> Create AAC version. iTunes will create and duplicate the song. However, the new file will have a length equal to that defined in the previous point. If you had previously set the beginning and end of the original song, remember to deselect these fields, otherwise when you listen to the song through iTunes it will be played in a reduced version.

Change the file type

In the previous step you created a duplicate of the song to use as a ringtone. Now you need to change the extension of the new file to make it compatible with your iPhone.

  • Click the button on the previously generated song and select Show in the finder/folder (this item may change depending on whether it uses a Mac or a Windows PC).
  • The folder containing the two versions of the song will open. The new file will have the same name as the original file with a “1” at the end of the name. Furthermore, its size will be smaller than that of the whole song. Right click on the file to use as a ringtone and rename it, changing its extension from .m4a to .m4r.

This passage is crucial, as we are going to define the new file as a ringtone compatible with the iPhone. Now move the ringtone to your computer’s desktop and delete the file from iTunes.

Import the iPhone ringtone into iTunes 12.7 or higher

iTunes still needs to be used to transfer the newly created ringtone to the iPhone.

  • Connect your iPhone to PC/Mac and select its icon in iTunes (it will appear at the top left).
  • From the drop-down menu on the left, select the Ringtone entry. You can recognize it thanks to its bell-shaped icon.
  • Now you just have to copy your ringtone (which you have previously moved to the desktop) and paste it, by clicking the right mouse button, within iTunes on the option Ring that you find on the sidebar as in the next picture.
  • To complete the process, click on the Sync button at the bottom right to transfer the ringtone to iPhone.

How to find the ringtones created with iTunes 12.6 or lower

If you had made ringtones before updating to iTunes 12.7, you’re probably wondering why they are no longer visible. Do not worry, they have not been eliminated. They are not visible in iTunes but are still present on your computer.

You can easily find them by accessing the iTunes folder (you should find it in the Music folder ) and then iTunes Music -> Tones. This folder contains all the ringtones generated with previous versions of iTunes. Now you just need to follow the steps highlighted in the previous paragraph to transfer them to your iPhone.

Set up new iPhone ringtone

If you have followed all the previous steps correctly, now you have the new ringtone on your iPhone. But it’s still not the new default ringtone, but you can change it quickly and easily.

  • On your iPhone go to Settings -> Sounds.
  • Under the heading Vibration and sound models you will see a list of events with the name of the ringtone set next to it. By selecting one of these items you can choose a new iPhone ringtone. Among them is the one you created and transferred a few minutes ago.

The new iPhone ringtone can be set not only for incoming calls but also for incoming mail, for messages or for calendar alerts.

Set different ringtones for each contact

You can also decide to put songs as iPhone ringtone for each contact in your address book. Doing this is very simple.

  • Open the Contacts app and look for the person for whom you want to change the ringtone.
  • Select Edit at the top right and then click on the Ringtone entry.
  • From the menu that appears select the ringtone to be set for your contact.

Conclusions

As you could see in this guide, creating iPhone ringtones with iTunes is very simple. You only need a few steps to get what you want

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