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delavefm Author

Level 1

56 points

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

80 replies

Joseg_t

Level 1

0 points

Dec 13, 2014 12:25 PM in response to delavefm

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.

Open Safari on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
Go to itunes.com/restore-tones.
Sign in with your Apple ID.
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."
Tap Done.
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.
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.

Tom Neff

Level 1

14 points

Dec 19, 2014 7:58 PM in response to Joseg_t

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

RobLegge

Level 1

7 points

Sep 29, 2015 1:20 AM in response to delavefm

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.

Oct 1, 2015 7:45 AM in response to delavefm

It is a clear ripoff.

jcherry4

Level 1

0 points

Oct 23, 2015 7:47 AM in response to delavefm

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

Jan 6, 2016 10:55 AM in response to Joseg_t

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.

Jan 23, 2016 12:16 AM in response to zerocrossing

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.

May 9, 2016 11:41 PM in response to King_Penguin

I don't use a computer.

May 9, 2016 11:50 PM in response to Joseg_t

Not finding restore

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,150 points

May 10, 2016 12:05 AM in response to Otter1066

Tones are a one-time only download, if you want to redownload them you will need to pay for them again

Joseg_t's post is referring to this page : Restore missing tones on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 8.1.1 or later - Apple Support

That was for tones deleted on a device by a bug, which has since been fixed

May 10, 2016 12:34 AM in response to RJD07

I totally agree

Jun 19, 2016 9:23 AM in response to delavefm

Such a big company you should be able to transfer ring tones without purchasing again this just sounds like a run around to me and I was able to transfer them from my Iphone 4 to the 5c so I dont understand why I cant get them transferred to the 6splus I just purchased had I known that probably wouldnt of purchased at this time cause I like the different ringtones I have.

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,150 points

Jun 19, 2016 9:31 AM in response to Linda2348

How are you trying to get them on your 6s plus, and what happens when you do it ? You have them in the Tones section of your computer's iTunes library for syncing/restoring to the phone ?

itunes999

Level 3

627 points

Jun 22, 2016 2:20 AM in response to delavefm

Contact iTunes Store Chat Support. - They will help you regards to this issue.

https://getsupport.apple.com/

Oct 19, 2016 11:18 PM in response to delavefm

This is not Apple fault. This is because of the terms and conditions between Apple and the content owner. In other words, content owner does not want ringtones to be re-downloadable.

Restoring ringtones purchased from iTunes