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

Bizarre things like this are what makes Apple so despicable. You have to sort through dozens of files on the internet, most of which are written by folks who don't have a clue what to do, saying "I have the same problem" before you find anything of use, and then the solution is totally non-intuitive. Thanks for the hint, which pretty much flies in the face of everything that Apple suggests.

Now. I have shared so many things from GarageBand to iTunes it's not even funny, but as of maybe two months ago, I can no longer share songs or ringtones to iTunes or any of the other options with the exception of AirDrop (which honestly seems useless). GarageBand constantly refers me to convert my project to an iLife Preview, but as I search for a way to export as such, I cannot find the way. When I asked Apple Help, they pointed me to Media Browser (or something close to that), Media Browser appears to be the new iLife Preview which puts me back to square one, "I can no longer share songs or ringtones to iTunes or any of the other options." Help would be appreciated, and to avoid this in the future. Please refer this to someone who works at Apple so I no longer bang my head against my desk.

ALL OF THOSE ONLY WORK IF YOU HAVE A MAC! I need to be able to do this with a Dell PC.

I tried many ways talked about on this discussion. This one finally worked. The key is to make sure the mp3 and the m4a files are not in itunes or the m4r file will not load into tones.

this worked for me but there is one important thing to remember: TEXT tones MUST be SHORTER than 30 seconds. only RINGTONES can be longer. i think they can be up to 40 seconds. but TEXT tones must be UNDER 30 seconds. not 30, 29 seconds or less. once i changed the length, BAM there it was in my sound choices for text and rings.

Totally worked!! Thank you!

On Windows 10 machine, highlight the song in iTunes and choose to view using Windows Explorer. That brings up the list of songs that were imported into iTunes including the new one you made as a ringtone.

Find the ringtone file and right click to view properties.

Make sure the extension is m4r and the file type is ringtone. If not, then modify the extension.

Make sure the app associated to open the file is iTunes in properties

Double click on the ringtone in Windows Explorer to open the file

Now it shows up in ringtones.

Thank you - this worked for me. Something so simple!

Let me open the new year by saying that I have 2 (two Carl!) AAC in .m4r files and dragging/dropping them into itunes 12.3.2 ain't working.

there are 6 pages of pain and suffering and it's still going: we are not at the android quality in 10.11 and ios 9 yet but are getting awfully close to it

(and yes, I did it before once, and yes, it used to work before the newest itunes and osx)

I've tried everything in this forum and none worked, I give up I'll spend 79p and buy the ringtone!

I know how you feel. But don't give up. Not for the sake of 79p, but for the intellectual 'win' of knowing that you've spent maybe 16+hrs trying to solve this maddening problem.. OK, maybe you should just pay the 79p 🙂

Guys! I think I have the answer. I have no idea how, but this worked. Please try too and feedback...

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/226292/can-i-make-a-song-in-my-itunes-l ibrary-into-a-ringtone

For PC / Windows user, the problem may be that the default app for m4r (ringtone) files may be something other than Itunes. You will need to change the Windows settings to Itunes as the default app for those files. Otherwise, when you double click on the file, it will NOT copy into the Itunes Tones folder. My Windows 10 was preset for an app called Groove Music and this wouldn't allow the transfer of the file into Itunes.

Ok. I have never posted on a forum before but felt I had to do it this time. I have probably spent 6-8 hours trying to get this stuff to work. I finally got something to work and it was pretty easy.

1. Load song into iTunes library (if not there already)

2. Download Ringtone Maker app onto you iPhone. There are lots but I used the one where the app picture is single musical note inside an orange and red circle inside a white box. (sorry, couldn't find any other name for it)

3. In your iTunes library, click on the song you want to use for a ringtone.

4. Convert the entire song to the aac version. You won't lose your original, you'll just have 2 now. (right click, a little more than half way down, "Create AAC Version"

5. Determine which of the two songs is now your aac version (mine showed up lower than the original, that's the only way I could tell.

6. Rename the new version in your library to something else. (Like song name2)

7. Download this new song into your iPhone if it doesn't do it automatically.

8. Using the Ringtone Maker app, make your ringtone. Be SURE to use the renamed version of the song to make the ringtone.

9. After you have made your ringtone and saved it, open (if not already) iTunes and plug in your phone (if not already)

10. Go into your phone by clicking on the little phone icon at the top of the iTunes screen. Click on the apps tab. At the bottom of the screen, you will see a section called file sharing. Right under that, hopefully you will see the Ringtone Maker app in the left pane. Click on this. Hopefully this will bring up your newly created ringtone in the right pane. Click on this and select save (lower down) and save it to your location of choice. I used desktop.

11. In iTunes click on my music or the little note up in the top left corner. Click on the 3 dots over to the right. A drop down box should give you multiple options. Select tones. Now drag your saved ringtone from where you saved it into the iTunes tones folder.

12. If it shows up under tones (hope hope), you can now drag it to your phone and it will appear under tones under the "On my device" section.

13. From there, you should be able to go into your phone, select settings, sounds, ringtone and at the very top, if everything went right, you can select your new ringtone.

GOOD LUCK!

This is silly, in my case, but it turns out I WAS doing everything right. I even saw someone say he had to close and restart iTunes for it to work. I did it a couple of times but no go. Until finally, I gave up closed iTunes, decided to open it back up to sync my phone just in case, then I saw this:

Please notice the blue-highlighted bell on top. That is the Music Library on your computer and its 'subfolders' for music, videos, tones, etc...

I was trying to drag the m4r or even the m4a and mp3 into my Phone's Tones 'subfolder' which is what is visible on the left hand pane of iTunes when you open it and your phone is connected to the computer.

So it turns out I had successfully imported it 2x already and then a 3rd time.