Q: Restoring ringtones purchased from iTunes

What do you mean depends on my meaning of full? Who are you? Bill Clinton? I have to define the meaning of is? Full means full. Not partial, not some, and not a little bit of this and a little of that. It means full. There's no ambiguity in the word.

It is a full backup of your documents/files in your apps, unlike an iCloud backup where you can select which apps are backed up, no iTunes downloads are included in a backup. If you have failed to copy your downloads over to your computer's iTunes library, the store's terms advise you to take a copy of them, then you have lost them.

King, you're either biased or your'e trying to be annoying. 

I can't get too mad at ya because I used to be that way when I was a preteen.  Perhaps like you now, I thought that if Apple stated somewhere in their Terms and Conditions that when we buy ringtone media, as opposed to all the other media on iTunes (despite it being priced and packaged similar to said media in every other way), ringtones are special; that means you get to download it only once, then we forget your ever bought it and will make you buy it again if you don't do this, that, and the other thing, to preserve the file copy yourself.

I'd have thought that Apple fulfilled their duty to disclose (assuming they even did that much)...but in this instance, I'd be flat wrong.

Thank goodness we have a far more mature legal system in this country, one that pays significant attention not just to the letter of the law, but its spirit as well.  Our legal system recognizes that it's far more valuable to the evolution of society if we can trust co's like Apple when we're buying what we have every right to believe is a familiar product.

It's a tenet of the law called "public confusion" and, not being a lawyer myself, I understand it to mean that it really doesn't matter what a company might have snuck into the legalese of their T's and C's, if 2 out of 10 reasonable consumers thought it was one way, and it's another, the co's going to be the one with the problem.

And this ain't 2 out of 10 that'll be confused/surprised by this ridiculousness, I'll bet it's well over half...WELL over half!

This is setting up to be another class action, like the "water damage" policy on the iPhone...except this one is far more egregious. 

I've purchased no less than 35 ringtones from iTunes in the last decade; I have four saved in iTunes....that, plus I just wasted an hour figuring out that I was screwed.  Talk about insult to injury, I'll never get that time back and I'm ******!

Christian Hunter

You are only guaranteed one download of any item from the store, not just ringtones. The terms, which you agreed to, advise you take a copy of all of your downloads :

Some iTunes Eligible Content that you previously purchased may not be available for subsequent download at any given time, and Apple shall have no liability to you in such event. As you may not be able to subsequently download certain previously-purchased iTunes Eligible Content, once you download an item of iTunes Eligible Content, it is your responsibility not to lose, destroy, or damage it, and you may want to back it up.

When I connect a device to my computer's iTunes and take a backup I get a prompt if there are any purchases on the device (including ringtones) that aren't on my computer and if I would like to transfer them over - or without backing up you can copy them manually via File > Devices > Transfer Purchases. If you aren't doing that then you risking losing any item, not just ringtones, if you only have them on that device and if you then have problems with that device - any item (app, music album etc) can be removed from a country's store at any time.

Thank you. A perfect explanation.

Did you by chance backup and sync the ringtone purchases to your iTunes on your computer? I just had to have my phone worked on and did the iCloud backup and when I got the loaner I was able to download everything that was on my phone to the loaner (even my ringtones). A few pictures and songs did not transfer which I was ok with because I transferred them to my computer. When I received the email that my phone was ready for pick up there was not enough room on the iCloud to do another backup so I had to do it on my computer with iTunes. I got my phone back yesterday and went home, hooked it to the computer and did the restore from iTunes... When I got a phone call today I realized that my ring tone was the generic iPhone ringtone.. I plugged my phone back into my computer, opened iTunes and found the ringtone in the Music Library/Purchased and picked it up and dragged it to where it shows your phone. My ringtone is now back on my phone.. I guess if you did not sync to iTunes on your computer it may be lost... Hope this helps and if this was already answered sorry I answered again!

I did the "full" backup, and also clicked yes on the transfer purchases but itunes still didn't transfer any of my ringtones. So make extra certain that your ringtones have been transfered and well, don't buy tones from itunes.

i wish I would have read this first... Lesson learned I will never buy another tone from iTunes again cause I'm not paying for the same thing I bought more then once... I'll go the long route and get them for free... DISAPPOINTED IN THIS PROCESS

You can try, but since 8.1.1 ios update they don't sync back to device.  Rest of them are fine.

That's carp that you lose your ringtone and have to buy a new one.... I upgraded from a 3GS to iPhone 5. I brought a ******* ringtone on the new phone, then decided to restore the apps from my old phone to the ******* new one, and that's how I lost my ******* ring tone how ******** no wonder people buy android phones... bad ******* company policy......

Restore your tones from the iTunes Store

If you purchased your tones on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and never synced them to your computer, you can restore your tones directly to your device from the iTunes Store using the steps below.

If your device already contains previously purchased tones that you synced or restored to your device from iTunes on your Mac or PC, turn off Sync Tones in iTunes before completing the steps below. Otherwise, you might download duplicate tones to your device.

1. Open Safari on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
2. Go to itunes.com/restore-tones.
3. Sign in with your Apple ID.
4. Tap Restore. You'll see a message that reads: "This may take a while. You can continue to use this device while we prepare your tones. You will be sent a push notification when they are ready to download."
5. Tap Done.
6. When you receive the notification on your device, tap Download, or, if you receive the notification on your lock screen, swipe to download.* All of your tones will download, including any that are explicit.
7. Check to make sure that your tones are now on your device:
   Ringtones: Tap Settings > Sounds > Ringtone.
   Alert tones: Tap Settings > Sounds > Text Tone (or any other alert listed).
   If you assigned purchased tones to your contacts, these will also be restored.

If you purchased tones with more than one Apple ID, follow the steps above signing in with each Apple ID at step 3.

You can repeat these steps on your other iOS devices, if needed.

*If you tap cancel on the notification or don't receive it, you can start the download of your tones by force quitting the iTunes Store app and relaunching it.

Thank you for a genuinely helpful and useful response - a welcome antidote to the jeering snark above.  This worked perfectly.

It's worse than that. If you've got custom made ringtones (I've made my own) they won't get synced to your phone or iPad. I can see them all there in iTunes, and that's where they stay, on my Mac and not on my phone or iPad.

It is a clear ripoff.

Thats not exactly the case, your ringtones are gonna be attached to your able id via previous purchases, though you wont be able to see them your self.

if the apple care rep told you he couldn't help then he didn't know what he was doing give them a call back until you get some body who knows what their doing.

For future reference download ringtones to your computer's iTunes and transfer hem to your phones to keep them