Lost Purchased Ringtones with iOS 5

followed Stevecarroll's fix and it didn't work for me. Ah we're already feeling the loss of Jobs with this mess. I guess we are all Beta testers now

Hi, I have what was suggested about selecting dont sync ringtones but when I do this they are gone from the screen and are not in my library.How do I do this please?

Thanks for the fix Stevecarroll74! It worked and I have my purchased ringtones back.

After days of trying to solve it, I found stevecarroll74's answer and it worked perfectly. For those who can't find it, here it is:

stevecarroll74 wrote:

I'm managed to sort it.

In iTunes I unticked syncing on ringtones and it said it was removing them from the device.

I then dragged and dropped them from the library to the device and it put them all on.

Hey UCFKnightro, Stevecarroll74, and group,

I am having exactly the same problem: ringtones purchased from the iTunes Store will (apparently) not transfer from iTunes to a new 4S. The hilarious part is that we purchased the ringtones ON the 4S itself!

I believe stevecarroll74's fix is a valid fix for what appears to be a similar, but different bug. Regular ringtones (that are not mis-behaving on the 4S) will sometimes not transfer correctly via a sync when called out in the sync list. By dragging & dropping the file icons from iTunes onto the phone icon directly, they will then transfer successfully.

In this case, however, when I drag the file icons onto the 4S icon, iTunes acts like it is moving them. However, in the sub-folders of the 4S, these files will then have an "!" icon to their left, indicating that something is wrong with the file. (E.G., when iTunes can't locate a previously imported track because the source directory is offline or something.) In this case, it looks almost as if there is some mis-match between iOS 5's understanding of these files, and iTunes' understanding of them. iTunes is handling them just fine (purchases transfer, play, can be told to transfer,) but iOS 5 appears to be refusing them.

Unless we are completely missing something, this is a genuine iOS 5 bug that Apple will need to address.

We should all bug-sub this under apple.com/feedback.

Please post back if you get a solution!

Ok, the unchecking only works for those of you who have already done it. I think I have another solution for those of us that it did NOT work for.

Under your device in iTunes click on ringtones. Then highlight all the ones that you purchased (or just those NOT showing up IN your phone). Then delete them. Then go up into your library list and click on ringtones. Now highlight those that you deleted from your phone and drag and drop them into your device.

It worked for me!

Also, I have noticed that when I drag into my phone list....it moves VERY slowly (the indicator. like it's sticking.) just thought I would point that out.

Hope this helps, if so, let me know....otherwise Apple is getting a phone call from me.

P.S. Now if I can figure out if this is going to happen EVERY time I purchase a ringtone, why ALL my media on my iTouch did not get restored, why I now have 2 of the same mail accounts when I check my email, and why we don't have an option to remove photos from ONE photo album and not ALL of them that a photo is in.....after the iOS5 update.

Sounds like I want it all, doesn't it? LOL

After trying everything to resolve this, I did a restore! I also had a problem with the amount of space "other" was taking up, 13g.

Now all is working fine, ringtones are back, but I still cant sync wirelessly. This is a problem with my mac as my ipod touch is having the same problem?

Any help on this issue appreciated

Hi Katinak67,

How are you able to delete the ringtones listed under the device -- just an Apple-Delete?

When I have files that are mis-behaving, they get a little "!" icon next to them in the device listing. While they will play just fine from my iTunes database, if I try to play them from the device icon, it's as if they don't exist. In line with this behavior, I'm not able to delete them . . .

Any ideas?

stevecarrol74's solution has worked for me!!! After trying at least five other tips from different forums. It's still mind boggling why Apple would not transfer legitimately purchased ringtones with their newest OS update.

@ stevecarroll74

Thank you for the tip! Finally got it fixed!

It seems that there are two symptoms of the problem, one of which stevecalloll74's solution may fix.

The other, which is the one that I have, is that I had ringtones which I purchased from the Iphone, but did not not have ringtone sync on.

Therefore the ringtones are not in the iTunes library.

Since the update, they are showing in the device Ringtones tab, but do not exist on the device.

Is there a way to get them back on the device?

(and yes, I agree that this is the result of a shoddy bit of wotk here from Apple).

I dont even have a rintone tab under my library or under my iphone, i have the itunes version 10.5 and iphone 4 ios5.0 and i see nothing i read under the manual i think you can't customize anymore u can only buy ringtones through iphone itunes and set if u want it to be a ringtone after that u can only set it under ringtones on iphone

i dont have a ringtone tab so what do i do?