We can’t buy ringtones for the iPhone yet, Apple hasn’t added it to the iTunes music store. But then if you’re like me you’ll be balking at the idea of paying another 79p for a 20 second snippet of a track you already own. Especially as their service only works with tracks you download from iTunes and not with tracks you’ve imported from your legally owned CDs!
Never fear!
Making Ringtones for the iPhone is not a complicated and difficult proposition.
Ringtones are just sounds which are in the m4r format. What is that format? Well. it’s the same as the m4a format (which is more commonly known as the AAC format) but with the file renamed from m4a to m4r.
Last night I did the following:
- I have a sound file in my iTunes I’d like to use as a ringtone. It’s the 20 second intro to Roobarb which was a childrens cartoon dating from about 1974.
- The sound file is in .WAV format which is one of the default PC sound types commonly round on the Internet. The file name is therefore roobarb.wav
- Within iTunes, I select “Convert selection to AAC” from one of the menus. If it says something different, like “Convert to MP3″ then you need to redefine your import preferences in iTunes to the AAC encoder.
- Once converted, locate the file (using Show file in the iTunes contextual menu).
- Drag it to the desktop and rename it from roobarb.m4a to roobar.m4r
- Go back into iTunes and delete the listing for the AAC version.
- Drag the newly renamed m4r file into iTunes.
- Sync your iPhone
- Bud-da-bing, you have a new Ringtone
Too hard?
You have another choices.
iToner from Ambrosia Software will do exactly the same thing with a pretty interface for about £7.50 and doesn’t require hacking your iPhone. That’s because it’s just automating what I described above.
You’re also not limited to 20 second snippets (though some of the sound effects that come with iMovie and Garageband would be great for use as Ringtones) and you can make your own by chopping up an existing song using something like Cacophony, Quicktime Pro, Sound Studio or even Garageband and iMovie! If you like we’ll demo some of this at the NiMUG meeting next Friday!
(Finally a use for googling items like “Best Guitar Riff Ever”)
28 Responses to “Ringtoning your iPhone”
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November 16th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
Hey Matt.
Met you at the iphone launch in belfast. Apparently the first person in NI to officially have one lol.
Now this Ringtone lark.
Ive followed your instructions converted the file to AAC, dragged it out to desktop and renamed the file as an .m4r and it wont accept it back into itunes. What did you do differently.
November 16th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
ohh HOLD ON it MIGHT of worked. …….
November 16th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
EXCELLENT!!!!! it works! WOW im impressed!
November 16th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Jeepers, Keith, I’m surprised you doubt me!!!!
Using Sound Studio or Garageband/iMovie you can cut tracks to pieces and avoid paying the Record Labels their blood money.
November 17th, 2007 at 12:06 am
I intend to! Cheers mate.
November 17th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Love it! it really works. Do you think they will block this when they release the ability to buy ringtones in the future ?
November 17th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
dont tell ANYONE shushhhhhhhhhh
December 2nd, 2007 at 12:48 am
please help. ive done this multiple times. convert a 20 sec part of song to aac. drag the file to desktop. add .m4r to name (although it does not seem to change the file extension), delete song snip from itunes. drag song snip to ringtones. the song gets added to music, not ringtones. i sync but it still does not show up. PLEASE HELP!
December 2nd, 2007 at 3:07 am
You’re probably creating a file called:
filename.m4r.m4a
You need to edit the actual file extension. And it needs to be an M4A and not an MP3 at the start!
December 3rd, 2007 at 12:12 am
that is exactly correct. the file is filename.m4r.m4a. i have no clue how to change the actual file extension. the file is originally an mp3 and i use the convert to aac with itunes. this creates a song snip from the start/end time i choose in “get info”. so the file i start with is actually an aac file with the extension m4a. so i guess i am starting with an m4a extension. what yall think?????
January 23rd, 2008 at 3:08 am
i have the same problem. i had to add “.m4r” the “m4a” was never there. how do i actually take the “.m4a” out of the name? i am sooo close
February 8th, 2008 at 9:11 am
I have been able to change the file name to m4r and it pops up as a ringtone in iTunes. However, it won’t sync with my phone. 2 of them are over 3.2MB but the other is under 3MB. Does the size of the file affect it at all? Also, is there a way of reducing the length of the song? Thanks
February 8th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Ringtones need to be under 30 seconds! (That’ll mean they’ll be about 500-700K or so)
February 14th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
How do I edit the songs, so that they are under 30 seconds - I don’t have a Mac?
February 14th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Use Audacity. It’s for Mac and PC.
May 24th, 2008 at 8:39 am
HALP! i keep making a .m4r.m4a…how do i atcually get to changing the .m4a part? it wont let me do it from the desktop
July 15th, 2008 at 8:01 am
Hi. Please help!!
I was able to change the file into m4r and have it sync, it show up in itune however it did not show up in my iphone. Please help!!
July 15th, 2008 at 8:04 am
The easiest way is to mix it in GarageBand as it now has a ringtone option.
If it’s not showing up in the phone then it’s not made right.
It needs to be an AAC (.m4a) which you then change to .m4r by renaming it.
July 15th, 2008 at 8:12 am
um… it was in AAC format then i rename it to .m4r - was there anything i miss?
July 15th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Nope. It’s that easy. Does it appear in Ringtones in iTunes?
July 15th, 2008 at 8:18 am
yes, it appear in the ringtones folder in itune
July 15th, 2008 at 8:19 am
some how it work now… thank you so much!!!
July 21st, 2008 at 5:09 am
Silly question, but how do i rename the file from m4a to m4r? I’m so close but can’t figure out how to do this. Thanks
August 3rd, 2008 at 10:41 am
Hello! I’m at my wits end! Ha! I’ve followed these wonderful instructions and have resulted with my ringtone successfully appearing in the iTunes Ringtone section as a Ringtone. I made sure it was selected when I synched to my iPhone and it apparently went ok, but it is not in my list of ringtones on my phone. Why is it not appearing in the ringtones list on my phone (v 2 phone) after synching?
I’ve tried it with 20 second tones, 30 second tones, and 29 second tones but it just wont appear in the Ringtones on my iPhone after synching. Any ideas? I’ve spent hours on this….!
Thanks in advance
August 7th, 2008 at 6:52 am
hey can any elightn me…on hw to convert a m4a file to mfr… really stuck here maan… a rep wud be appreciated.!!
August 20th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I’ve followed the instructions, but once the file has been changed to .m4r, i can’t get it back into itunes, it won’t accept it. How do i put it into itunes?
Thanks
November 13th, 2009 at 6:54 am
okay… how, exactly, do you “rename” a file from .m4a to .m4r? i tried the right click and rename, but that only creates a file.m4r.m4a
pre-thanks for the halp
November 17th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Go to the Finder preferences. (Finder->Preferences) and Show all file extensions first. Then edit it.