Custom tones dissapeared after iOS 17 update

All Tones ( Purchased & Self-Created ) are back as usual with the iOS update 17.1.2.

I haven’t had Dictating issues so I can’t confirm if this has been modified.

Good luck everyone 🤙🏼

Apparently this isn't a bug but done purposely, the only text tones (affects new voicemail, new mail, sent mail, calendar & reminders) you can now use are purchased ones which are their bought ones but not your own free ones however custom ones as noted by others are only visible to ringtones. Apple being Apple have also reduced the volume of text tones (something to do with EU something or other - there are articles on this on the web and many complaining) so there is no bug and not likely to be a fix as it seems a decision has been taken to do just this. Apple like to dictate how you use their products now seemingly how loud your text tones are, to me it's the final straw and another reason now to go to Android. Pointless raising issues and wasting your time sending feedback they pay no attention to it so you either put up & shut up or jump ship.

I just finished talking with someone from Apple. Apparently, it's a glitch in iOS 17 in which all tones are being recognized as ringtones, even if they are text tones. They are working on a fix and will push the update once it is available. Definitely report it to apple as the more people that do the quicker they will find the fix (which you would think it would be simple given it's written in the code of prior iterations of iOS...).

UPDATE: Just got off the phone with Apple Support...and their "official" was that iOS 17 no longer support custom tones for anything besides "Ringtone" and "Text Tone" apparently so other sound settings (from "New Voicemail" down to "Reminder Alerts" can only use their stock options. In my case tho, it still doesn't answer why my purchased tones show up under "Ringtone" but not under "Text Tone" if that's the logic. Regardless, this is a very sucky change in the new iOS.

Putting the current bug in iOS 17 aside, you can definitely have your own custom ringtones and text/notification tones in iOS. One way to do this is by using GarageBand. Another way is to use a 3rd party app on your computer, e.g. Audacity (an outstanding freeware app) to edit the tone to your liking and save the tone in m4a format. Then you change the file type name to m4r (the “r” presumably standing for “ringtone”) and upload it to the Tones directory of your iPhone using iTunes on your computer.

Both of these tecniques are described in great detail elsewhere, there’s YouTube video tutorials available, etc.

Now here’s something to ponder: in previous versions of iOS (e.g. iOS 16), the iTunes method of uploading tones to an iPhone never distinguished between ringtones and text tones because it didn’t matter. Since it appears that this distinction is now being made in iOS 17, how does one let iTunes know what type of tone is being uploaded? This information is needed to set the “Media Kind” attribute in the Ringtones plist to the correct value (ringtone / tone); otherwise, you won’t see the tone listed in the iOS text tone selection menus… which is the problem right now in iOS 17.

Maybe before posting to a multiple page thread, it would be helpful to you if you read past the first post. Had you, you'd see Apple fixed this with iOS 17.1, which if you'll update your iPhone, you'll get your custom tones back.

jg0001 wrote:

!!! WORKING SOLUTION !!!

!!! WORKING SOLUTION !!!

!!! WORKING SOLUTION !!!

The only solution I needed was to update to iOS 17.1.1. All my custom tones reappeared. Although I have iMazing (a sad replacement for PhoneView), I didn't need it to restore anything.

Callmebarb wrote:

My marimba ring tone disappeared to after last update !

Although an update restored the ability to use custom tones (purchased or created) for text notifications, what it did not do was restore the ability to use the ring tones for text notifications. You will need to see if the iTunes Store has a text tone similar to Marimba or create one yourself.

Update your iPhone software to 17.1.1 and you should see your custom made Rintones back. It worked for me when I updated to 17.1 Good luck.

Seems like a huge step back that users can no longer use purchased or custom tones for anything else but ringtones, and if custom contact ringtones and textones are used, they still work as they should, but the user cannot change them, except to the newer crappy tones, or the classic ones. Very disappointing indeed. Almost worthy of a downgrade.

razmee209 wrote:

If you already set a custom text tone to your contacts it still works it didn't go away with ios 17. Each personalized custom tone I have for my contacts still works. So yes I can still differentiate who is texting me.

If you so much as tap on the tone option to check, it will remove the custom one. That was my mistake.

The issue is as follows:

Custom ringtones AND text tones are currently added to the Ringtones folder.

Apple removed the Ringtones section (which accesses the Ringtones folder) from the Text Tones selection screen (Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Text Tone/New Email/etc.).

To resolve this, Apple needs to create a Text Tones folder where custom text tones can be exported to, say from apps like GarageBand.

I think folks need to read the contents of this thread closely.

Numerous Individuals here have stated that they have talked to some level of Apple Support about this bug. They have all been informed that Apple’s software engineers are aware of the problem and are working on fixing it, most likely in the next iOS 17 update.

in the meantime, there are (at least) two methodologies to mitigate this issue until an official patch is available. They are detailed elsewhere, and at this point have been disseminated and can easily be found by searching the web.

I successfully applied the plist modification technique to my iPhone 13 Pro, and now all of my text/notification tones are accessible again, just like they were in iOS 16.6.1.

Peace out.

I’m leaning towards this being a bug, through GarageBand I can still set a custom tone to the default text tone or assign to a contact. It doesn’t display the tone name in either scenario but testing it shows it has changed and does still work

I purchased one text tone after the iOS 17 upgrade, mainly to see where the sound would wind up in the file system, what Ringtone.plist file would be affected, and what the data record in the plist would look like That said, this newly purchased text tone works as expected.

Once again, the problem with older text tones is missing entries in their data record in a Ringtomes.plist file. This is why “regenerating“ a text tone using the GarageBand technique works: it creates a new data record in the plist for the “new” tone which has all the correct entries required to make the tone accessible as a text tone.

IMO, the biggest issue with this bug is that customers who have actually paid Apple for text tones in the past are now being denied the ability to use them for their intended purpose.

As for the system default notification tone, AFAIK iOS has never allowed the end user to set an alternate sound for it, unlike Android. I never understood this design decision, because it flies in the face of personalization, resulting in every iPhone on the planet sounding identical when a notification occurs. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been in meetings, the default iPhone notification tone chimes, and everyone looks at their phone to see whether it was a notification for them versus the person sitting next to them. LOL!