Your iPhone is a tool of wonder, the envy of many, and a bridge to the future of computing. It also has a default ringtone that could drive a sane person batty after a few incoming phone calls. This article will show you how to add ringtones from other sources to our iPhone. If you have the ringtones you need and just want to set them up, please visit our article How to Set Ringtones on an iPhone.
STEPS
METHOD 1 OF 3: INSTALLING APP STORE RINGTONES
_ 1TAP THE SETTINGS ICON, THEN TAP "SOUNDS." In the Sounds control panel, near the bottom of the window, you'll find the Ringtone button. Tap that to access the Ringtone control panel.
2
ENTER THE STORE. At the top right of the Ringtone control panel is the Store button. Tap that to enter the App Store. Use the buttons at the top of the window to to find a sound you like.
3
TAP YOUR CHOICE. When you have located a sound that you think you might enjoy, tap the icon.You will be able to see details about the sound, as well as preview it, read reviews, or check out related sounds.
4
TAP THE PRICE BUTTON. If you like the tone and want to purchase it, tap the price button, then when it changes to a green "Buy Tone" button, tap that_.
5
CHOOSE A DESTINATION. You will be presented with three or four options.
"Set as Default Ringtone" will set the purchased tone as the default ringtone—the one that will sound for unknown callers and anybody you haven't set a default ringtone for.
"Assign to a Contact" will first ask you if it's ok if Apple accesses your contacts, then it will present you with a list of all your contacts. Tap a contact, and the sound will download and automatically be assigned that contact.
Clicking "Done" will download the ringtone and add it to the list of available tones on your phone.
For short tones, you may be presented with an additional button that lets you assign the sound as the default text tone.
The list of purchased ringtones will appear above the default ringtones, and can be assigned as the default, or to individuals in your contact list.[1]
METHOD 2 OF 3: INSTALLING THIRD-PARTY RINGTONES
1
LOCATE A RINGTONE. There are thousands available with a simple Google search for "ringtones." Fine one that suits you, and download it to your desktop or other location where you'll remember it.
2
LAUNCH ITUNES, AND CONNECT YOUR PHONE TO YOUR COMPUTER. In iTunes, from the File menu, select "Add to Library…"
3
LOCATE YOUR RINGTONE FILE. Find your ringtone file where you saved it. Select it, and click the Open button. The file will be added to your iTunes folder.
4
SELECT YOUR IPHONE. In the iTunes toolbar, click on the icon for your iPhone. This will enable you to sync your iPhone, adding your ringtone to the list of available choices.
5
SET UP TONES. Click on the Tones button on the toolbar. This will let you set up your sync options for ringtones. Enable "Sync Tones" at the top of page by clicking the checkbox. At the same time, select "All tones" if you have multiple tones to add to the phone, or "Selected tones" if you just want to add specific tones. If you choose "Selected tones," you will see a list of your custom ringtones in the Tones field. Click to enable the tones you want to transfer to your phone.
When all is enabled, click the Sync button. Your tones will be transferred.
6
SET UP YOUR IPHONE\'S RINGTONES. Using the steps outlined above, choose your default ringtone and/or custom ringtones as desired.
METHOD 3 OF 3: MAKING YOUR OWN RINGTONE ON ITUNES
1
OPEN ITUNES. The example will focus on how to use part of a song to make a ringtone, but you can use any audio file to do it. Import it into iTunes by right-clicking (or option-clicking, for Mac users) the file and selecting "Open with ... iTunes."
2
SELECT THE FILE YOU WANT TO USE FOR YOUR RINGTONE.
3
RIGHT-CLICK AND SELECT GET INFO.
4
CHOOSE THE OPTIONS TAB.
5
CHANGE THE START TIME AND STOP TIME. This is how you'll choose which snippet of the file you want as your ringtone. Note that iTunes will only recognize files that are 30 seconds long or shorter as ringtones. Select the portion you want (keeping a colon between minutes and seconds), and click OK.
6
SEPARATE THIS NEW SNIPPET FROM THE ORIGINAL FILE. To do so, right-click the song again and select Create ACC version. You should now have two copies of the song, but with different lengths. The shorter one will be your ringtone.
After you've created the ACC version, click on the original song, select Get Info, and go back to the options screen. Reset the file to play the whole song by setting Start Time at 0 and unchecking End Time.
7
RIGHT-CLICK THE RINGTONE FILE AND SELECT VIEW IN FINDER (OR SHOW IN WINDOWS EXPLORER). A new window containing both your ringtone file and the original should pop up.
8
CHANGE THE RINGTONE FILE FROM A .m4a file to .m4r. Right click and select Rename (Windows) or hold down Shift and click it (Mac). Simply change the "a" (for audio) at the end to an "r" (for ringtone).
When the dialog box pops up asking if you're sure, click "Use .m4r."
On a PC, when the dialog box pops up asking if you're sure, click "Yes" to rename the file.
9
DELETE THE ACC VERSION OF THE FILE FROM ITUNES. Go back to iTunes, and delete the shorter file of the song. Don't delete the original. When the dialog box pops up, click "Keep File."
On a PC, deleting the original is acceptable. It will not remove the .m4r file from your computer.
10
GO BACK TO THE FINDER WINDOW, AND DOUBLE-CLICK ON THE .m4r file. This will import it to iTunes.
11
GO BACK TO ITUNES AND CLICK ON TONES IN THE LEFT-HAND BAR. You should find your new .m4r file in here. Drag it to your phone's folder when it's plugged in to your computer, or just sync Tones.
You can also email the file to yourself (if you can access email on your phone), or email it as a text. Your phone’s email address is your 10-digit number at your carrier’s email URL. Example: 5555555555@company.net
AT & T: @mms.att.net
Sprint: @messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile: @tmomail.net
Verizon: @vzwpix.com or @vtext.com
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VIDEO
TIPS
You can create ringtones directly on the iPhone with latest GarageBand app.
Many free sound applications, such as Audacity, let you create ringtones.
GarageBand lets you send a snippet of a song, as a ringtone, directly to iTunes. Create a looping section of no more than 40 seconds, and then from the GarageBand "Share" menu, select "Send Ringtone to iTunes." Next time you sync, that sound will be there! That's all there is to it!
If your ringtones don't appear on your iPhone after syncing, remove all custom ringtones from your iTune library ([your hd]/Audio/iTunes/Tones) then re-add them from the iTunes File menu as described above. Then, resync with your iPhone and all should be well. [2]
WARNINGS
Apple made the creation of ringtones difficult in iTunes 10, and removed functionality completely in iTunes 11.
