After iTunes 12.7 how can I add custom ringtones?

As a recording engineer I prefer to use the ring tones I make myself. Frankly I think iTunes has become highly unpleasant. All my life I've been an Apple fan, but they're pushing me away further and further all the time. I think it started when they moved the top button on the iPhone to the side, if I could get paid for all the hours I spent talking to support over the last few years it would add up to a pretty.

Rant aside, there's got to be away. I still have my custom Bring tones on the phone. And a ring tone folder on the Mac.

I'm guessing that in keeping with Apple vinegars approach to hiding things presumably to create a "clean" interface, if not sterile.Wow as I write I just manage to do it, once my phone finish synchronizing I chose the ring tone folder in the phone and simply drag the file into join the rest of the ring tones.

See Create and manage ringtones in iTunes. The ringtone exported from GarageBand will be in a folder called Import in your iTunes Media folder. I suggest you move it into the Tones folder if you have one, or rename the Import folder as Tones. You can then drag & drop or copy & paste the file to your device.

tt2

Yes, that is consistent with my experience. Drag'n'drop does not work. You must copy the file in Finder and then Paste it into the ringtone list in iTunes.

OH, and on TuringTest2's other thought on trimming...you may be right. Though as the files I was testing with were 3 and 11 seconds long respectively I'd like to think not. I'm guessing the GarageBand step does something besides trimming to the file that makes it acceptable to iTunes.

With the converted .m4a file inside iTunes give the track a different Name, before you remove it from the library and change its extension to .m4r. I guess if the source file is a purchased track there might be some other hidden field that persists and causes rejects.

tt2

I tried renaming the converted AAC file in iTunes before deleting it from the library and converting it in my file browser and it’s worked. I can now sync multiple cuts.

Seriously thank you for all your time and help Tt2

You rock!

Apple have removed the ability to manage a collection of tones in the library and then sync those automatically to your device. They have not removed the ability to create or add custom tones altogether, regardless of what someone else has claimed. At the same time they removed tools for managing apps, books, iTunes U, but put in place tools for manual transfer. These have all been tested and work as described.

See Re: garage band i deleted the app and now i have some ringtones stuck in my phone. Perhaps you're trying to add back files that are still on your device but in limbo. I.e. you're looking at a bug that happens to affect you rather than a policy decision. See if taking those extra clean up steps will allow new tones to be added. Note in my user tip how I mentioned that I had to remove existing tones before I could add them back and get them to work. I've also created and added several new tones over recent months using the techniques described, as have many others.

tt2

I figured it out; you need to manually initiate a sync after applying the "Manually manage videos (and music)" switch.

ergotic wrote:

... the song does show up in the iphone music folder but not in tones.

Are you sure you have created a valid ringtone file? See Create and manage ringtones in iTunes.

tt2

And nothing will. Ringtone management is broken in iOS 11 / iTunes 12.7. I have four ringtones on my phone which I purchased from the Tones section of the iTunes Store, and there is no way to get them off of the phone. No way to delete them directly from the device, and because they don't show up in iTunes, no way to delete them there. This has been escalated to engineering at Apple.

If they were purchased from Apple then I believe they can now be redownloaded as with other past purchases.

If you rolled your own then you ought to have them stored on your computer and ideally backed up.

If they still exist on your device and nowhere else try Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.

See Create and manage ringtones in iTunes for more.

tt2

i tried every procedure including m4r, drag from finder, drag from desktop, and using an app. nothing works. apple just wants to make even more money off you. to quote what apple told me:

Mariana de los angeles

I just spoke with the guys from Mac and they advised that creating a ringtone from a song is not possible with iTunes anymore. They say you can try with third party apps.

I found that after one of the updates I had to remove all of my custom tones from the device first, then add them back and set them up again. Try copy and paste if drag and drop isn't working for you. Link is probably what you want to see as opposed to a no entry sign.

tt2

That did it! I deleted all them off the iPhone in Itunes and out of the library, copied and pasted and it got back 90% of them. There is a few that didnt so I'll just re-create them and try it that way.

Thanks TT, a 3 month long issue you just cure for me!!

Have you looked at the advice in Create and manage ringtones in iTunes? Perhaps your steps are doing the work of trimming the length of the output file (steps 2-4) in the first section on creating tones.

tt2

Yes they are. I cut/trim/edit them and save them directly as .m4r files to save conversion time later.

Update: most of my old tones have now synced BUT my new dilemma is that oddly, my 30 newly made tones are the only things not syncing.

It shows them as grayed out still with the exception of one or 2 but none of the new ones show in my ringtone collection on my phone