Restoring ringtones purchased from iTunes

If any of you is planing to buy ringtones from the iTunes stor you need to know that:


1) They don't get backed up in iCloud or even in a local iTunes backup.

2) If you restore your phone for any reason or move to a new phone you will loose them.

3) The only way to obtain them again is to purchase them again.


I know, this sounds ridiculous, but this is exactly what the Apple Care person told me today, with no remorse at all. Either he is wrong or Apple is wrong.


There are varions good reason why you want to restore your phone. For example you are buying a new iPhone 5S from Apple and then you want to back up and restore. Another is to unlock your phone - to received the unlock phone you need to restore (and hence loose your ringtones). Or may be just an accident in your phone, but you ourchased AppleCare and you get a new one - but hey, your ringtones are lost.


Yes, you are giving Apple even more money to buy a new phone and pay for AppleCare and iTunes match, but they can not restore some cheap ringtines to you or credit your account for your loss. What a ripoff. So I suggest you not to buy ringtones from iTunes. There are few posts elseqhere to teach you how you can make your own ringtones. At least these ar ebacked up in iTunes macth as songs and you can convert them again to ringtones.


Let me know if I am wrong, otherwise be warned.

iPhone 5s, iOS 7, iTunes store

Posted on Sep 26, 2013 11:24 AM

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Posted on Sep 15, 2017 12:01 AM

Have you not been copying over to your computer's iTunes library via File > Devices > Transfer Purchases ? If not, and if the phone supports iOS 11 and you upgrade to it, you might be able to redownload them : Use tones on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

80 replies

Nov 29, 2017 1:53 PM in response to judith500

It 'came' with you how ? If you restored to a computer's iTunes backup you must have had the tone in that computer's iTunes library. But you can now (the last couple of months or so) redownload tones for free, as long as they are still in the store, you haven/t moved countries, and the device is on iOS 11 : Use tones and ringtones on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Dec 4, 2017 12:02 PM in response to delavefm

I'm so mad about this whole ringtone thing!!!! I had multiple ringtones I had created for people that just disappeared once I synced in November. I've tried since then to figure this out. Seems apple only wants the money of us buying from them. So I thought fine, I'll do that. Well, what they have to offer is crap!!! Search for Christmas and they only have crappy electronic stuff. NOT HAPPY with latest from Apple.

Dec 10, 2017 7:48 AM in response to turingtest2

I followed this step by step. It still took me over an hour BUT IT WORKED!!! I finally got the 'tones' to recognize my ringtone, then when syncing, it disappeared just like the originalones. But tried it again, this time signing in (I'd tried the logging out things) and it finally worked! I have no idea what I did wrong in the past, seemed like the same steps as here but for whatever reason it worked this time. Thanks for your help~

Jul 28, 2017 7:42 AM in response to King_Penguin

You can see the list of purchased tones on my iPhone here.

User uploaded file

I go through the process of manually transferring purchases from my iPhone to iTunes.

User uploaded file

However, after doing so, iTunes continues to warn me that there are purchase on my iPhone that have not been transferred that I could lose if I update my iOS.

User uploaded file

I previously did not have a "Tones" folder in my iTunes until I added some free tones I exported from my iPhone and then added to iTunes. When I take a look in that folder, none of the purchased tones from my iPhone are visible. (E.g. "BB-8: Alert" is a purchased tone that is not displaying in this alphebetical-by-name sorting of the tones in this folder.)

User uploaded file

Additionally, when I navigate to Music > iTunes > iTunes Media > Tones (where iTunes automatically copied the free tones I added to iTunes), none of the purchased tones are visible there either. (E.g. See no "BB-8: Alert" in the alphebetical-by-file-name sorting of the tones in this folder.)

User uploaded file

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Restoring ringtones purchased from iTunes

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