Restoring ringtones purchased from iTunes

Thank you. A perfect explanation.

Did you by chance backup and sync the ringtone purchases to your iTunes on your computer? I just had to have my phone worked on and did the iCloud backup and when I got the loaner I was able to download everything that was on my phone to the loaner (even my ringtones). A few pictures and songs did not transfer which I was ok with because I transferred them to my computer. When I received the email that my phone was ready for pick up there was not enough room on the iCloud to do another backup so I had to do it on my computer with iTunes. I got my phone back yesterday and went home, hooked it to the computer and did the restore from iTunes... When I got a phone call today I realized that my ring tone was the generic iPhone ringtone.. I plugged my phone back into my computer, opened iTunes and found the ringtone in the Music Library/Purchased and picked it up and dragged it to where it shows your phone. My ringtone is now back on my phone.. I guess if you did not sync to iTunes on your computer it may be lost... Hope this helps and if this was already answered sorry I answered again!

I did the "full" backup, and also clicked yes on the transfer purchases but itunes still didn't transfer any of my ringtones. So make extra certain that your ringtones have been transfered and well, don't buy tones from itunes.

i wish I would have read this first... Lesson learned I will never buy another tone from iTunes again cause I'm not paying for the same thing I bought more then once... I'll go the long route and get them for free... DISAPPOINTED IN THIS PROCESS

You can try, but since 8.1.1 ios update they don't sync back to device. Rest of them are fine.

That's carp that you lose your ringtone and have to buy a new one.... I upgraded from a 3GS to iPhone 5. I brought a ******* ringtone on the new phone, then decided to restore the apps from my old phone to the ******* new one, and that's how I lost my ******* ring tone how ******** no wonder people buy android phones... bad ******* company policy......😠😠😠😠😠

Restore your tones from the iTunes Store

If you purchased your tones on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and never synced them to your computer, you can restore your tones directly to your device from the iTunes Store using the steps below.

If your device already contains previously purchased tones that you synced or restored to your device from iTunes on your Mac or PC, turn off Sync Tones in iTunes before completing the steps below. Otherwise, you might download duplicate tones to your device.

1. Open Safari on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
2. Go to itunes.com/restore-tones.
3. Sign in with your Apple ID.
4. Tap Restore. You'll see a message that reads: "This may take a while. You can continue to use this device while we prepare your tones. You will be sent a push notification when they are ready to download."
5. Tap Done.
6. When you receive the notification on your device, tap Download, or, if you receive the notification on your lock screen, swipe to download.* All of your tones will download, including any that are explicit.
7. Check to make sure that your tones are now on your device:
   Ringtones: Tap Settings > Sounds > Ringtone.
   Alert tones: Tap Settings > Sounds > Text Tone (or any other alert listed).
   If you assigned purchased tones to your contacts, these will also be restored.

If you purchased tones with more than one Apple ID, follow the steps above signing in with each Apple ID at step 3.

You can repeat these steps on your other iOS devices, if needed.

*If you tap cancel on the notification or don't receive it, you can start the download of your tones by force quitting the iTunes Store app and relaunching it.

Thank you for a genuinely helpful and useful response - a welcome antidote to the jeering snark above. This worked perfectly.

It's worse than that. If you've got custom made ringtones (I've made my own) they won't get synced to your phone or iPad. I can see them all there in iTunes, and that's where they stay, on my Mac and not on my phone or iPad.

It is a clear ripoff.

Thats not exactly the case, your ringtones are gonna be attached to your able id via previous purchases, though you wont be able to see them your self.

if the apple care rep told you he couldn't help then he didn't know what he was doing give them a call back until you get some body who knows what their doing.

For future reference download ringtones to your computer's iTunes and transfer hem to your phones to keep them

I just tried this and I get an "address is invalid" error. I'll never buy a ringtone from Apple ever again. It's really bad business especially considering I've been super good about doing "full" backups over the years.

Apple clearly should fix this, it is a bad experience for customers, and for arbitrary and unpredictable reasons, ringtones behave differently than everything else iTunes / iOS has encouraged us to do. Make ringtones behave like apps; purchase once, download whenever.

I don't use a computer.

Not finding restore