Use a song as a ringtone for the iPhone

NOTE: This is the my more detailed explanation of the process. If you’re looking for the quicker tutorial, from which this post was inspired. go here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/156234/turn_any_mp3_into_an_iphone_ringtone.html.

I wanted a way to use a song as a ringtone on my iPhone, and I didn’t want to pay for the priviledge. There is the option to download, for a fee, a song from the iTunes store, and pay another small fee to use it as a ringtone.

I don’t like spending money if I don’t have to, especially when it’s so easy to use one of your existing songs as a ringtone in about 30 seconds, once you get the hang of it and do it enough times. Here’s how.

1. First, find the song you want to set as a ringtone, and watching the playback timer, find the 30 seconds of the song you wish to use for the ringtone. i.e.: If a song is 3:38 in duration, maybe you only want from 0:23 – 0:53.

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2. Left-click the song you want as a ringtone to select it. Right-click it, and choose ‘Get Info’.

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3. On the ‘Options’ tab, put a checkmark in each box beside ’start time’ and ’stop time’, and enter those 30 seconds mentioned earlier, and click ‘ok’.

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4. Right click the song again, and choose ‘create AAC version’. The new AAC version of the song will appear directly below the original song, and will be 0:30 long.

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5. Right click the AAC version of the song, and left click ‘copy’. Right click and choose ‘paste’ in whichever folder on your computer you want to keep a copy of your ringtones.

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6. Right click on the AAC song you just pasted into your ringtones folder, and left click ‘rename’. Change the extension to “.m4r”, and press enter to make the changes.

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7. You will get a prompt confirming you want to change the file, click ‘yes.

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8. Back in iTunes, Right click the original AAC version of the song you copy&pasted, and choose ‘delete’.

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9. Right click the original song, and choose ‘Get Info’.

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10. Go to the ‘options’ tab, and uncheck those two boxes beside ’start time’ and ’stop time’, or every time you play that song from now on, it’ll only play those 30 seconds. Obviously, you don’t want that. Then click ‘ok’.

11. Go back to your ringtones folder outside of iTunes, and double left-click that “.m4r” file. It will automatically open in iTunes and be shown as a new ringtone.

12. Now, all you have to do in sync your iPhone with your computer. To use the new song as a ringtone on your iPhone, under ’settings’, and ’sounds’, and ‘ringtone’, choose your new ringtone, so your iPhone will begin using it. (as shown below)

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25 Responses to “Use a song as a ringtone for the iPhone”

  1. julian Says:

    does this work for the 3g iphone?

  2. chellyB Says:

    I noticed that you were using Vista, but my problem is I am using xp :( When I rename the m4a file I just created, it won’t let me change the extension, just the file’s name. I don’t feel like buying the risky ringtone maker that is out on the internet nor do I want to put Vista on my computer again. Is there any program you suggest that will let you make your own extensions, or supports m4r? Or even better, a way to change the extension without a program? Any help is much appreciated!

    • techno-warrior Says:

      you have to go into “folder options” -> “view” and uncheck “hide extensions for known file types”

    • SwissMr Says:

      Sounds like you just have the ‘Hide extensions for known file types’ option selected in XP. Go into windows explorer and click ‘Tools’ then ‘Folder Options’. Choose the ‘View’ tab and scroll in the advanced settings and make sure the ‘Hide extensions for known file types’ is not selected. Then you should see your file extensions and be able to change them.

  3. Matt Says:

    I have vista, and I cannot change the extension as well…:(

  4. Mei Says:

    i’ve done all the steps given… but i can’t seems to get it into the ringtone folder in the itunes under the device folder.. and its not appearing in my iphone… pls help
    thanks heaps

  5. amir Says:

    Brilliant…

  6. Krit Says:

    Awesome guide. Worked perefectly for me.

  7. Rp Says:

    This actually works! I’m so excited!

  8. tramy Says:

    Hi, thanks for the good tip, one question, i can’t copy more than 1 ring tone to the custom part in my iphone, i tried to delete the one i already got and copy a new one it works but if i try to copy more than one it doesn’t show, it was syncing and all but doesn’t show the 2nd ringtone anywhere, did i miss something? thanks

  9. Mike Says:

    I noticed that the current version of iTunes doesn;t have a “create AAC version” button. How else can I do this?

  10. Kim Says:

    To change the extention using vista you need to go to ‘my computer’ select organize then select folder and search options go to view and uncheck ‘hide extentions for known file types’ you can then select the file and select rename and from there you can then change the extention.

  11. Kirsty Says:

    I did as i was asked but it didnt work! x

  12. daze Says:

    can you do this using only i tunes i have a mac and its alittle diffrent

  13. khalid Says:

    hi

    when i press right click on the song again i can’t find “create AAC version” y is that?

    thanks

  14. rd Says:

    HI,

    I used the above steps and was able to dowload one ring tone from a song which is not in english.However, when I tried to make more ring tones from other songs it won’t trasfer to the phone. I tried to delet and recreate a few of them . It shows those ringtones under “ringtone” folder in Itune Library but will not show up on the device.

    How do i trouble shoot this one and why is it that it allowed me first time and than not.

    thanks,
    RD

  15. jesse Says:

    all you need to do is this: Go to Tools,then Folders Options, then View…
    then just unclick ‘hide extensions for known file types’
    it will then show the file extensions for each file…so you can change it

  16. birna Says:

    I have the same problem as chellyB – it just changes the actual name of the song, doesn’t change the file to a m4r file, its a MPEG 4 file…. what am I doing wrong? This is so annoying.

  17. Shane Says:

    chellyB – Use command (MSDOS) to change the file extension. I got all the way to the end as described, although does not come up as a ringtone

  18. Pegah Says:

    ChellyB, you just have to go to folder options and then go to view tab and just uncheck the “hide extensions for known files” and then rename your file to whatever extension you want and it’ll work even with XP ;)

  19. Ivan Says:

    it dosnt let me change the stop time. I type in the stop time i want and it just reverts back to default as soon as i click away from the box.

  20. Ivan Says:

    ok i figured that part out but now when i try to rename there is no existing file extension on the name, and when i try to put the .m4r extension on it dosnt come up with a prompt.

  21. gaffa Says:

    thanks alot this was a very helpful step by step guide i just wanted to know if you cud this for a message tone thanks

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