Restoring ringtones purchased from iTunes

Just went through 5 days of no power after hurricane Irma. Cell phones service (Sprint) was totally useless. Today, we switched to Verizon (they worked through everything). Loaded all data from iMac and, sure enough, we have lost all ringtone, on my wife's and my phones. Serious ripoff.

Is this a new procedure? I have had a ringtone for years that I purchased from Itunes. When I went to an Iphone 6 from an Iphone 5 three years ago, my ringtone came with me. I did not have to repurchase the tone.

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.

I spent some money getting my ringtones. And I can't get them back. That just makes me furious. Their bought and paid for. They took my money for them. They should be made to give all back. Either tones or money

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~

If they are iTunes purchases, and if they are still in the store and your device is on iOS 11, se partway down : Use tones and ringtones on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

This is correct.

You get one download of ringtones. As always, it is your responsibility to backup your purchases. You should transfer them to your computer, as you should do with any itunes purchase made on your device. And you should include them in your regular backup copy of your computer.

I backed up my iPhone with a full backup after it got water damaged, and the touchscreen stopped working. As I understood it a backup would effectively image the data on my phone and the replacement phone would be identical to my damaged phone in all but serial number. Of course, it doesn't back up everything (despite being called a "full backup") - my playlists, my folders (incredibly annoying having to reorganise 9 screens of apps) and now it seems my ringtone. Which I paid money for. Unlike the other two, this is no longer just an inconvenience. I feel like Apple is stealing my money for this.

You can copy purchases from a device to your computer's iTunes via File > Devices > Transfer Purchases. Had you done that ? Are your ringtones in the Tones part of your computer's iTunes library ?

I expect that a Full Backup would do that, otherwise why would it be called a FULL backup? As I said I expected it to effectively image my phone.

Plus, it's not something I made and stored on my phone that wasn't backed up anywhere. It was a digital purchase which I don't expect to lose when I trasfer devices, even if not backed up. I expect to be able to redownload it.

Where are getting the term 'full backup' from ? A backup doesn't contain any downloaded content from the store (nor your own synced music, photos, videos), they should already be in your computer's iTunes library (if not then you can copy them over downloads from your device via File > Devices > Transfer Purchases) - restoring an iTunes backup then picks up the relevant downloads from your iTunes library (it's a waste of space to duplicate them in the actual backup), what is contained in the iTunes backup is listed on this page : http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946

Had you copied your purchases from your phone to your computer's iTunes library ?

Ringtones (and audiobooks) have, as far as I know, always been a one-time only download from the store - what else you can redownload depends upon what country that you are in, and whether they remain in your country's store (you are only guaranteed one download of each item from the store).

As I said - expect a full backup would include transferring my purchases to my iTunes Library, although I can't understand why my purchases aren't globally linked to my account.

I'm getting the term full backup from the selection between an iCloud backup, which only keeps the "most important stuff", and an iTunes backup, which is meant to back up everything. I chose iCloud but from time to time manually backup to my computer, which is what I did when my phone was damaged and I was going to replace it. It seems to me that iCloud backup is actually better than iTunes - when I previously got my phone replaced under warranty I restored through iTunes and once it was finished downloading you would be hard pressed to tell it from the original. And it kept my ringtone.

You need to copy your purchases from your phone to your computer's iTunes library (File > Devices > Transfer Purchases) if you want to be able to restore a backup from it - the backup does not include any of your iTunes downloads, it expects them to be in your iTunes library, they are not duplicated in the actual backup.

Backing up to icloud will bakup your apps content/settings - whether you will be able to fully restore to an icloud backup will depend upon what content you had on your phone (audiobooks and ringtones not being redownloadable), and whether the apps, music, films, TV programmes are still available in your country's store. An iCloud backup does not include your own own music or videos in the Music and Videos apps.

I see that my purchased ringtones are in my iTunes on computer how do I get them back onto my phone?