saelon

Q: I have carefully followed at least six different sets of instructions for making this transfer and none of them have worked.

At one time I made five new ringtones from birdsongs and successfully synced them to my iPhone. Now I have made one more and I cannot get it to tranfers, in spite of having it show up in my iTunes library on my iMac. It is less than 30 seconds and it is showing up as the correct genre (ringtone). I have carefully followed at least six different sets of instructions for making this transfer and none of them have worked. I am running the most current OS, the most current iOs, and the most current iTunes on both systems. Please help.

 

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iPhone 5s, iOS 9.3.2, null

Posted on Jun 13, 2016 9:24 AM

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Q: I have carefully followed at least six different sets of instructions for making this transfer and none of them have worked.

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  • by Corrie84,

    Corrie84 Corrie84 Jun 13, 2016 9:54 AM in response to saelon
    Community Specialists
    Jun 13, 2016 9:54 AM in response to saelon

    Hello saelon, 

     

    It looks like you’re having some difficulties syncing a ringtone from iTunes to your iPhone. I know how fun it can be to create and use custom-made ringtones, so I can understand why you would reach out for help when it’s not working for you. 

     

    For steps on how to properly sync your tones to your iPhone, check out this article: Sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iTunes on your computer using USB - Apple Support

     

    If you're still having problems syncing that tone, it could be that the tone isn't showing up under the Tones section of iTunes and/or is not selected to sync. This is addressed specifically in numbers 4 and 5 of the syncing article above. 

     

    If your custom ringtones do not show up under the “Tones” section in iTunes, it's possible that they are not in the correct format. If you’re not using it already, the program we recommend for creating ringtones for your iPhone is GarageBand- it’s available for iOS and Mac OS X. Check out the resources below for more information on that:

     

    GarageBand '11: Create an iPhone ringtone

    GarageBand for iOS

    GarageBand for Mac OS X

     

    Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

    Have a great day!

  • by saelon,

    saelon saelon Jun 13, 2016 12:39 PM in response to Corrie84
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Jun 13, 2016 12:39 PM in response to Corrie84

    Could you please just tell me what the format is supposed to be? I know how to change file formats two ways already (ITunes and Audacity) and would prefer not to use GarageBand since it doesn't even open without immediately starting a one-hour download of stuff it calls "an essential collection of sounds and loops". I don't want any of these sounds and loops hogging space on my hard drive when I am quite sure I will never use them.

     

    I have tried using the file as .aiff or .mp3. Some tutorials say to change the file suffix to .m4r and I tried that a couple of time but it didn't work either. The ones I have on my iPhone that do work fine are showing as .mp3 files when I look at them in my iTunes library (via both the Finder and the File Info in iTunes itself), so I'm guessing that the .m4r advice might be outdated. I do have the new ringtone showing up in my iTunes library on my iMac, and I did set the genre to ringtone. It just won't show up on the "Sync Tones" page, so I can't select it and sync it to the iPhone.

  • by joe_7399,Solvedanswer

    joe_7399 joe_7399 Jun 13, 2016 4:36 PM in response to saelon
    Community Specialists
    Jun 13, 2016 4:36 PM in response to saelon

    The ringtone should be in .m4r format. The best way to get this sorted out may be to start from the beginning to create the tone again. This way you can ensure that no steps are missed.  Is the tone being created from a song that you have in iTunes? If so, follow the steps listed below:

     

    1. Locate the song in your iTunes library. Right-click on the song title (Control+click for Mac)  and select "Get Info".
    2. Select the "Options" tab and set the song to start and stop on the part you would like the tone to be made from, making sure that the length of it is 30 seconds or less. For example, if you would like the tone to start at the beginning of the song, leave "Start" unchecked and set to "0:00", put a checkmark in the "Stop" box, and type in "0:30". 
    3. Select "OK" in the bottom-right corner of the Get Info window.
    4. Follow the steps in the following article to convert the song to ACC format: Convert a song to a different file format with iTunes - Apple Support The specific steps will be listed in the section titled "Convert songs that are already in your iTunes library".

     

    You should now see two versions of the song in iTunes: one will be the full length and the other will be only 30 seconds long. Continue with the following steps:

     

    1. Right-click on the title of the 30-second song and select "Show in Finder". (On Windows it will be Windows Explorer). 
    2. In the Finder, the 30-second song will be shown as .m4a. Change the extension from .m4a to .m4r
    3. You may get a pop-up window asking you to confirm the extension change, make sure you accept the changes to be made. 
    4. Go back to your library in iTunes, right-click on the 30-second song title, and select "Delete". When prompted, select "Delete Song" and choose the option to "Keep File". Make sure you do not select the option to move the file to Trash.
    5. Go back to the 30-second .m4r file in Finder, right-click on it, and choose the option to open it with iTunes.

     

    You will no longer see the 30-second version of the song listed in your iTunes library under Music like before. Click on the Music button near the upper-left corner of the iTunes window and choose "Tones" from the drop-down menu.  The ringtone will now be listed there and should sync perfectly to your iPhone. 

  • by saelon,

    saelon saelon Jun 13, 2016 4:37 PM in response to joe_7399
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Jun 13, 2016 4:37 PM in response to joe_7399

    THANK YOU! This worked. Your instructions were almost identical to another set I had already tried, except those omitted the part about making it an AAC file first and they had me search out the file manually in the finder rather than have iTunes take me to it. Those instructions ended up ineffective, but yours worked perfectly. I will definitely be saving these instructions for use again in the future.

  • by sarah_s1,

    sarah_s1 sarah_s1 Jun 14, 2016 9:33 AM in response to saelon
    Community Specialists
    Jun 14, 2016 9:33 AM in response to saelon

    You’re very welcome, saelon. Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. 

     

    Have an awesome rest of your week!