Ringtones purchased on iPhone via iTunes app do not show up in settings

You went to the itunes apps? Clicked "More", then clicked "Ringtones" and bought from there?

If so, they should show up.

If not, then they are not ringtones but an album of sounds that can be made into ringtones. There are many free ways to do this. Google will find them. I use Garageband.

You cannot delete standard ringtones.

When you said you purchased ringtones in iTunes, they are not automatically ringtones, they are processed so you can make ringtones. You have to do a little more work to them. I'm not sure of the exact process, because I've always made my own. I just know that you don't just click on the ringtone button and have them appear. Also, you need to ensure the setting for syncing ringtones is checked in iTunes when the iPhone is connected. I'll check to see if I can find the ringtone help document and post a link.

As far as deleting stock ringtones, that cannot be accomplished as they are part of the iOS.

"When you said you purchased ringtones in iTunes, they are not automatically ringtones"

Not necessarily true. If you purchase from the ringtone section, they are indeed complete ringtones, ready to use:

"If you have iOS 3.1 or later installed on your iPhone, or iOS 4.1 or later installed on your iPod touch (4th generation), you can purchase ringtones directly from your device. Purchasing a ringtone is exactly the same as purchasing a song on your iOS device. Once you purchase your ringtone a dialog is displayed, giving you an option to set your new ringtone as your default ringtone or assign it to a Contact."

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1491

Thanks for the update. Guess I never really understood enough about how the ringtone purchase works on the iTunes store. I should not comment on things I don't necessarily know for sure. I just went to iTunes and wanted to check on that and need to review things a bit more carefully. Thanks for keeping me honest.

It seems that these things change from time to time. It is difficult to keep up with all of the changes, especially if you do not use the features regularly.

We all learn from each other.

I just got through looking over iTunes for purchasing ringtones. I cannot seem to find anything, nor a help topic in iTunes or a support document on Apple. I can find a great deal of information about purchasing ringtones direct from the iPhone. Has purchasing ringtones from iTunes on the computer been disabled?

I have an iPhone 4 with the latest software version and the latest version of iTunes 10.

OK, here is what I did ...

1. Download/purchase the ringtone you want from iTunes. This will download an m4a file and will automatically go into the music section of the library.
2. Right click on the ringtone and select “get info”.
3. Go to “options” tab.
4. You don’t need to change start time and end time as they are already set correctly. Just hit “OK”.
5. Right click on the ringtone again and select “Convert to AAC”. This will create a second m4a file and will again be in the music section of the library.
6. Delete both copies from the music section of your library.
7. Then go and rename the second file from m4a to m4r in Windows Explorer.
8. Finally, double click or hit enter on the second file m4r. The ringtone then magically appears in the ringtone section of the library.
9. Sync to iPhone. You'll probably need to check the ringtone box when syncing.

The ringtones will then appear in setting/sounds/ringtones and there will be a custom folder with the ringtones in.

It does work ... However, information or instructions on ringtones are terrible ... I’ve been fiddling for days!

I've also tried downloading ringtones directly from my iPhone, but I could not get it to work. The ringtones again simply ended up in the music section of my library and not in ringtones. However, if you follow the above instructions it definitely does work.

I hope this helps.

Further to my earlier post ...

I have just downloaded a ringtone from iTunes and it was 30.708 seconds long. After following all the steps I told you in my previous posting it didn't work. The reason ... The length of the ringtone was too long. I then changed the end time to 29 seconds, followed all the steps and it now works fine.

All ringtones must be no longer than 30 seconds in length, any longer and they won't work. You can have a start time of 0 and an end time of 30, but you could also have a start time of 22 and an end time of 52 for example. You can have any start and end point, but as long as it's 30 seconds it's fine.

Oh, also when in iTunes go to edit, preferences and check the ringtone box. This will show all the ringtones in your library.

Have fun.

How to create custom ringtones ...

1. Open iTunes.

2. Find the song that you want to make into a ringtone.

3. Listen to the song and find the part of it you want to use. The chorus may be a good place to start.

4. Write down the start and stop times of the clip.

5. Right-click the song and select "Get Info."

6. Click the "Options" tab.

7. Type in the start time of your ringtone in the text box next to "Start Time" in the minutes:seconds (i.e., 2:01) format.

8. Type in the end time of your ringtone in the text box next to "Stop Time." Make sure the ringtone is no more than 30 seconds long.

9. Click "OK."

10. Right-click your song again and select "Convert Selection to AAC." Wait for iTunes to convert your song. It will create a duplicate version.

11. Right-click the ringtone and select "Delete."

12. Click on the "Keep Files" button.

13. Find the file. It's usually in your User folder under "Music > iTunes > iTunes Music" and under the band's name. It will have an extension of m4a.

14. Replace the m4a extension of your ringtone with m4r. You can either double-click slowly to rename your file, or right-click and select "Get Info" on a Mac or "Rename" on a Windows PC.

15. Click "Use .m4r" or the PC equivalent when the system warns you that the change may affect the use of your file.

16. Double-click the ringtone file. ITunes will automatically add it to your ringtones folder in your iTunes Music Library.

17. Connect your iPhone and sync your ringtones.

Oh, also to change a file extension. (not sure on Mac), but in Windows you need to go to "control panel" select "folder options". You need to uncheck the box "hide file extension for known file types". This will allow you to view and change the files extensions.

Hope this is useful ...

Oh, it looks like you can have ringtones up to 40 seconds in length. I've just tried one at 40 secs and it worked fine.

Also, when trying to get downloaded ringtones to work, you can probably miss out the "get info" step and go straight to "convert to AAC".

No, sorry looks like the ringtones needs to be 30 secs long after all that.

On another note ... Does anyone know if you can have custom text message alerts on the iPhone 4? If yes, how?

Can I download SMS alert tones from iTunes and install on my iPhone? Again, if so, how?

Any info appreciated ...