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Back in May, I made a post on how to create free custom ringtones for your iPhone. Some people have been having some problems creating them so I decided to make a video to show you how easy it is.

Here’s the video:

Steps in Detail:

1. Download any mp3

2. Add it to your iTunes music library. Select, file, add to library, select the file, then hit open. The mp3 file will appear in your iTunes music library.

3. Right click on the song, select get info, then go to options. Here you must select a portion of the song that you want to use as your ringtone. The max length is 30 seconds.

4. Right click the song again and select Convert Selection to AAC. You will see a new file appear in your iTunes music library.

5. Drag this new file onto the desktop, or find it on your hard drive using finder or windows explorer. If you are using Windows XP or a Mac, just rename the file extension (.m4a) to (.m4r). This will be your ringtone file. If you are using Windows Vista, it is a little more tricky. You have to have a program like WinRAR to be able to change the extensions. Just download the free trial version of WinRAR if you don’t already have it. Next, right click your new file then select add to WinRAR archive. This will open WinRAR and will list your file. Manually rename the extension to .m4r. Then extract the file back to your hard drive.

6. Go back to your iTunes music library and delete the file that was created in step 4. Hit delete to remove from playlist, then you can keep the file instead of putting it in the trash.

7. Click to go into your Ringtones library in iTunes. Hit file, add to library, find your newly created .m4r ringtone file, and select open. You will see the file appear in your Ringtones library.

8. Connect your iPhone to the computer, click on your iPhone, then click on the ringtones tab at the top. Select sync all ringtones. You newly created ringtone file should be in this list. Sync your iPhone.

9. Once your iPhone is done syncing, go into the settings on your iPhone. Select sounds, then select ringtones. At the top of the list you should see your new ringtone. Select it and enjoy.

Please watch the video. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment.

Update:

Here are some pics to help you with doing this on XP or using WinRAR with Vista:

In XP, go to folder option, uncheck hide extensions for known file types. Now you will be able to manually rename the extension to m4r.

For Vista:

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written by ruffdeezy

One Ping to “How to get free custom ringtones for your iPhone 3G”

1. Fun with Ringtones | ehPhone.ca - Canada's iPhone Home! Says:
   August 7th, 2008 at 3:27 am

   [...] How to get free custom ringtones for your iPhone 3G [...]

31 Responses to “How to get free custom ringtones for your iPhone 3G”

1. 1. bc Says:
   August 7th, 2008 at 1:22 am

   fyi:

   If you’re using a Mac, you can use GarageBand to edit and export any audio clip of 40sec or less directly into iTunes as a ringtone. see: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1358

2. 2. DVCPRO Says:
   August 7th, 2008 at 11:49 am

   I have a question. When I hit “sync ringtones” under the ring tone tab of iTunes I get a message that say’s the following:

   “Are you ure you want to sync ringtones? All existing songs, movies and tv shows on the iPhone “Matt’s iPhone” will be removed”

   Happens when I sync photo’s as well. I didn’t see it come up in the video.

   Will this delete all of the music off my phone? Or is this just a setting in iTunes?

   That would suck rocks!

3. 3. ruffdeezy Says:
   August 7th, 2008 at 12:37 pm

   Maybe you are using two computers?

   Also I would select manually manage music in the main iPhone screen

   If not, just hit ok as long you have everything on your iPhone saved on your computer

4. 4. AJ Says:
   August 8th, 2008 at 8:10 pm

   This is awesome i tried it and it worked on the first time. Great method.

5. 5. alejandro929 Says:
   August 8th, 2008 at 11:12 pm

   i’m able to create two ringtones but then when i upload the third ringtone on to my iphone it just repeats the first ringtone i uploaded

   help!!!

6. 6. ruffdeezy Says:
   August 8th, 2008 at 11:14 pm

   Sorry, I don’t really understand the problem. It’s always worked fine for me. I don’t think there is a limit to how many you can put on though. Make sure you delete the other file as listed in Step 6.

7. 7. Tokoki Says:
   August 10th, 2008 at 6:35 am

   Which version of iTunes are you using? Cuz I have my ringtone sync’ed to my iPhone (shows up in iTunes in the iPhone Ringtones section) - but the iPhone doesn’t see it at all…

8. 8. Deathstalker Says:
   August 10th, 2008 at 9:57 am

   i followed all he did but when it came to changing extension i cant do it like he does. i even tried winrar to change and still cant change it from the aac file. im using XP

9. 9. Tokoki Says:
   August 10th, 2008 at 1:25 pm

   nvm - no clue what I did differently - but works like a charm…

10. 10. ruffdeezy Says:
    August 10th, 2008 at 1:32 pm

    @ Deathstalker
    Once you have converted the selection into aac format in Step 4 and have moved onto step 5, just right click the file, click rename, change it from ringtone.m4a to ringtone.m4r. With XP you don’t need to use winrar.

11. 11. ruffdeezy Says:
    August 10th, 2008 at 1:45 pm

    I’m updating the guide right now with pics for xp and winrar

12. 12. Crewser Says:
    August 16th, 2008 at 9:19 pm

    The video helped fill in the gaps. Thanks for the excellent tutorial.

13. 13. SAM Says:
    August 17th, 2008 at 3:07 pm

    MY PROBLEM IS, I HAVE WINDOW XP, and i do the followings steps on this page …but STEP 4 after converting to AAC then DRAGING IT OUT TO THE DESKTOP,,, then changing it to .m4a to .m4r… and it doest not work!!!? wat am I DOING WORNG!!!!? HOW DO I DO IT?

14. 14. ruffdeezy Says:
    August 17th, 2008 at 5:54 pm

    If it is 30 secs or less, and you follow the steps exactly, once it is m4r, remove the orginal m4a file that is already in iTunes, then import the m4r into iTunes and it will work.

15. 15. chris Says:
    August 19th, 2008 at 8:44 pm

    i did what he showed in the video…worked just as it did on his. first time is a little tedious but i’m sure it gets easier the more you do.

16. 16. wendell Says:
    August 26th, 2008 at 3:39 pm

    what if your itune don’t have a ringtone in the library… what do i do?

17. 17. brucewee Says:
    August 30th, 2008 at 12:47 am

    something i learned..the file name needs to be short so you can see it in the settings>ringtones page.

18. 18. Camil Says:
    August 30th, 2008 at 10:10 am

    How come I don’t see the ringtone in my library?

19. 19. ruffdeezy Says:
    August 30th, 2008 at 11:10 am

    @ Camil
    Not sure, if you follow all the steps it will show up. Give it another try.

20. 20. hunger4life Says:
    September 15th, 2008 at 2:18 pm

    do you know if this works with itunes 8.0?

21. 21. Atenza Says:
    September 17th, 2008 at 7:56 pm

    @ Camil

    I’ve got the same problem, but I solved it.
    In iTunes, go to Edit->Preferences. Under the General tab, make sure the “Ringtones” box is checked.

22. 22. maxpower Says:
    September 29th, 2008 at 6:53 pm

    changing a file extension (eg from .m4a to .m4r) in vista is no different from doing it in XP. You certainly don’t need WinRAR.

23. 23. oakleyx Says:
    September 30th, 2008 at 6:42 pm

    This works great.

    Instead of using winrar you can use the command prompt.

    XP
    Start -> Run -> cmd

    Vista
    Start (Windows Button) -> In the Start Searching Text Box type cmd

    C:\Users\Daniel\Desktop>cd Desktop

    C:\Users\Daniel\Desktop>rename “14 Disturbia.m4a” “14 Disturbia.m4r”

    Hope this helps.

24. 24. natalia Says:
    October 1st, 2008 at 9:07 pm

    Worked great, and so simple with your instructions!
    Thanks so much!

25. 25. mike Says:
    October 4th, 2008 at 11:17 pm

    I have the file on my desktop and it says its a ringtone but it wont let me add it to my ringtones do you think they have fixed it?

26. 26. ruffdeezy Says:
    October 4th, 2008 at 11:20 pm

    @ mike
    Did you delete the file from iTunes that was converted? I guess I should also test this with iTunes 8

27. 27. chollz c Says:
    October 9th, 2008 at 12:26 am

    does this work for the new itunes??? itunes 8.01?

28. 28. Ninaa Says:
    October 29th, 2008 at 10:10 pm

    Omg Thank you soooooooooooo much.
    You never find something that’s like exactly what you were looking for.
    This worked right away.
    So easy.

29. 29. Nikki Says:
    November 19th, 2008 at 10:00 am

    Thank you SO much for the video tutorial - so much easier than the posts I was trying to decipher. Great work!

30. 30. Rimi Says:
    January 8th, 2009 at 5:50 pm

    THis is great with ur steps and everything..but does this work on the new itunes..when i was tryin to drag/upload the ring into the ringtones library it doesnt work..plzz help..asap!!
    thannxxzz

31. 31. Logan Says:
    January 12th, 2009 at 11:06 pm

    Does this work with the new itunes? becuase im having alor of troubles with this. I have converted the song , and it is on my desktop, and it says its a ringtone. The itunes im usiing doesnt have the ringtunes library section, so i tried to just add it and nothing came up?

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