Can't move ringtones to "Tones" folder in itunes

I too am having a similar problem. I've read through this forum, and others, and have had no luck.

1. I took a small, 3 second clip that I wanted to use as a text tone and converted it to AAC.

2. I moved the AAC file to my desktop and changed the extension to .m4r

3. I double-checked the file information and it states that it is a ringtone file type

4. I deleted the original .mp3 & .aac files from my iTunes library.

5. I tried to drag-and-drop the .m4r file into Tones library, but it continually shows up in the Music library.

This used to be a piece of cake. This is actually getting me a little angry. This is just plain stupid, especially for Apple.

This isn't "just plain stupid, especially for Apple", this is typical Apple. On virtually any other mobile OS, you can use any music track on the phone as a ringtone, alarm tone, message tone etc.

I had this issue myself tonight. I stumbled across your post while googling how to fix it. I've made tons of ringtones on my iPhone using a ringtone maker app from the app store, but was having trouble with it tonight. The music file I was using was purchased from iTunes. Must be something that iTunes has encrypted in the file to make you have to purchase the ringtone directly from them. Hope this helps!

<Edited by Host>

I'VE GOT THE SAME PROBLEM BUT NOW I SOLVED IT:)

1. Take the saved file from this Ringtones software and first rename it back to an .m4a file extension.
2. Drag and drop this into iTunes (or double-click to open it with iTunes). This will pull the clip into your music folder (as you'd expect).
3. Find and right click on the ringtone in your music library and choose "Create AAC version."
4. Then go to your iTunes Music Folder and find the AAC version you just saved (not your original clip). Rename the extension on *this* file now back to an .m4r file.
5. Drag and drop this into iTunes, and it should go to your Tones folder and be able to be synced on the phone, etc.
6. You can now delete the .m4a ringtone clip (not your original song!) from your library.

This worked awesome for me. Thanks!

Thank you for the solution!!!! follow these steps to add tones to Itunes 11.

3/5/13. I just got it to work using multiple suggestions listed here by others. In case it helps anyone, this is what worked for me:

1. create ringtone

2. import file into itunes library

3. right click on file and creat AAC version

4. drag AAC version to desktop

5. delete AAC version from library

6. rename AAC version on desktop (which will say m4a) to end in file name m4r

7. it asked me if I was sure I wanted to do that, so click yes to m4r

8. import m4r back into library (and for me, it also imported it into Tones folder then)

9. sync with iphone, making sure the ringtone is either checked or ALL tones are checked

10. good to go 🙂

dude,just use itools.its really very easy even you dont have to change file from mp3 to blah blah blah.

just copy tones directly

I just signed up to apple support communities so that I could personally thank you for your instructions. I can now move on with my life as I have my Bruno Mars Grenade ringtone on my phone. I have lost hours and hours of my life trying to figure it out and it was your instructions that did it for me. HOORRRAYYYY!! I love ya😁😍😀 I know, I know I am so sad and should get more of a life.

So ya I have been fighting with this for a little bit now...each itunes and IOS update seems to change things and make things harder. Drag and drop just doesn't work and changing file names isn't working either...

What you need to do which makes it really really simple is this...

Pre-production. You will need an Mp3 version of your file. Look back over this thread if you need to figure out how to do that. Itunes will do it for you...right click...ect ect...

1. Open GarageBand.

2. Select Iphone Ringtone. (my version of garageband is 6.0.5) '11 Most versions of garage band have this function. at the very least you can just open a new project and skip to the next step.

3. Click on example ringtone or new project or whatever...just get it open.

4. Get rid of anything that is in the project. If you open example it will be a 30 second guitar thing or something...select it and delete.

5. Open Finder...drag copy of your Mp3 file into garage band.

6. Drag the yellow loop bar at the top of the arrange window to how ever long you want it to be.

7. click share

8. click export ringtone to itunes

9. go to itunes tone folder in itunes...drag to iphone, if you have manually manage selected...if you have sync selected cause you have a 1000000gig iphone for all your crap then just click sync.

on your iphone go to system preferences ... notifications ... app ... then there will be two places custom and downloaded "tones" will be. At the top is the alert tones section and at the top of that is the custom alert tones. Then scoll down and you will find the ringtones section. At the top of the ringtones section you will find the file that you just created in garageaband and moved onto your phone.

Hope that helps.

It worked...

Thank you for your help. The only thing I had to do was go to my computer's "folder options" so it showed the extention... this way i was able to change the m4a to m4r, then it would ask me to verify about the extention change.

Then as you mentioned I erased the old from itunes and then go to the "tones" tab and just add the file or folder.

maydays08

I was having the same problem but i figured it out!

once you convert the mp3 file to AAC Encoder, drag it to your desktop and change the extension name to m4r instead of m4a.

then you have to DELETE BOTH THE MP3 & AAC ENCODED files.

After that, highlight the "Tones" in your itunes and then you cand drag the m4r from desktop to Tones. then synch with ut iphone.

Now if you need help creating the AAC file from the MP3, then use this link for help:

http://www.digsofts.com/howto/create-custom-iphone-3gs-ringtones-using-itunes.ph p

then do as Maydays08 wrote

it isnt working for me

they are all m4r files from my ituens but i updated itunes and they wont work or drag

Did it work before the update ? If so then if they stopped working then it may be the iTunes itself.

Either way, if they are already m4r format then just go to iTunes under "tones" section. Once there go to add file option and add it that way.

I don't think you can drag them into iTunes. But I haven't tried the latest iTunes version.

Good luck.

I'd also like to add my thanks for the clear instructions on creating and moving ringtones. It worked perfectly on my setup of:

iTunes 10.6.3 (Mac OSX 10.6.8)

iPhone 4 16Gb model.

As a small thank you, if anyone would like these ringtones, formatted in "m4r" format, download the 3mb zip file from here: http://www.uploadmb.com/dw.php?id=1371686779

The tones are:

K2 (Ruckzuck) - early Kraftwerk with drums and guitar with Michael Rother on guitar.

Bulls Eye - arrow hitting a target; good for message/email alert

Enterprise Comms - a short communicator sond clip – good for message/email alert

La Viguela - a clip of the first 30 seconds of this classic Gotan Project song

Old Phone UK - with two rings and a gap

U-Boot Alarm - extract of the crash dive sequence from "Das Boot". A great wake-up alarm; your partner won't be so forgiving:) But when you absolutely positively have to wake up, this never fails.

Hi, yes, I recenlty updated my iTunes to the latest and this is the only thing that worked for me.

have to delete your m4a file from Music first (or rename your converted .m4a extension to .m4r), then drag your .m4r version to Tones. After this, you can then bring your .m4a version over into Music.

txs