How to get custom ringtone onto iOS 11 device?

click on your device icon in the top left of iTunes.

It should now show your summary screen.

Over there on the left, click where it shows "Tones" under "On My Device"

Now just drag and drop! You now have your custom tones on your iOS 11 device

Remember, they still need to be proper AAC M4R files, and under 30 seconds in length.

This drag and drop method works. It works so well that as soon as I synced my phone the default tones were automatically changed back to all my custom tones.

Problem solved. See reply by ben_ellis:

Re: How to get custom ringtone onto iOS 11 device?

Was it on your computer before? iTunes has lost the tones section, but files should not have been removed. My Tones folder is still inside my media folder. Can you recreate the ringtone from the original source and add the new copy to your phone? If the only copy is on the device and you want to retrieve it try Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device. Some of the media recovery tools can be used to extract individual items.

tt2

LaniBro wrote:

Still a circle with a line through it.

I know this is the iTunes for Mac forum, but I don't suppose you're running iTunes as administrator in Windows? If so try running iTunes in normal mode. Otherwise I don't know why this isn't working for you. See Create and manage ringtones in iTunes. Can you make a new tone and add it following the steps there?

tt2

If found that I had to remove, add back, and reassign my tones at one point. Perhaps you will need to do the same. See Create and manage ringtones in iTunes for advice on adding and removing tones with iTunes 12.7 as well as the steps to create them.

tt2

As I posted above:

If found that I had to remove, add back, and reassign my tones at one point. Perhaps you will need to do the same. See Create a ringtone in iTunes for advice on adding and removing tones with iTunes 12.7 as well as the steps to create them.

tt2

I found that I had to remove and then add back my tones from my computer and then reassign them in my phone. See Create and manage ringtones in iTunes for the necessary steps. When adding to the device simple connect it to iTunes and drag from Explorer/Finder onto the device where it appears in the iTunes sidebar. Don't select it from the top row first, or try to drop onto the tones folder of the device.

tt2

See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device. You might want to explore the device with iFunBox or similar and see if you can locate and extract the .m4r files from the device manually. You should always keep local copies of your content, which you should also back up, so that you are in a position to restore your device or a replacement.

I had to remove, replace and reassign the tones on my own iPhone after one of the updates, so I know how frustrating it is. I've covered managing deletions and transfers in that tip, not just creating them.

tt2

Regardless of whether you are running Windows or MacOS, this should work. The "helpful" answer at the top breaks it out best, but let me address some of the pain points I think you guys are hitting.

1. To manually move tones to your device (drag/drop) you have to enable Manually manage your music and videos. Otherwise you cannot manually drag/drop items.
2. The file extension needs to be .m4r.
3. For me, once the files were manually added to the Tones folder on my phone, if I go in and right-click (or Mac equivalent) on a tone and go to Item Info, the Options tab shows Media Kind set to music, and the File tab shows Kind set to ringtone. I do not have an option to change these, but if you do, try setting it to these.

My situation may have been unique in that some of my ringtones were created via songs I had purchased (back when iTunes was selling stuff at that crummy 128 kbps) and then replaced with lossless copies from a CD rip. Even though my ringtones were created from the DRM free rips, when iTunes rolled out their update to no longer support tone management, it flagged those ringtones as protected copies. I am still unsure why they wouldn't play when I received a call, as I have never changed my Apple ID and they can be played in iTunes and from the Ringtone selection screen without issue or prompt for login/authorization, but I was able to get around the issue by re-creating those ringtones from scratch. Bit of a pain, but if you are in the same boat, only solution I have found so far.

To Everyone who is wondering. I have the solution to this issue.

To get custom tones onto your iPhone follow these steps:

1. Open iTiunes
2. Connect your iPhone
3. Go to the folder in Finder containing your custom tones
4. Go back to iTunes
5. On your iPhone menu go to the list that shows "Tones" might be blank with no files once clicked
6. Drag the tones from your finder folder to the Tones window in iTunes.
7. That's it, you're done.

First, in the summary, be sure to check "manually manage your music and videos" (or just videos if you use Apple Music or itunesmatch).

Then click again on the tones section of the device and there, you will be able to right-click on the tone and delete it like that. After it will tell you it is updating files on the device and then you are good to go.

The deletion method you described doesn't work for me. (MacOS 10.12.6, iTunes 12.7, iOs 11, and an iPhone 6) I can see the custom Tones that I dragged and dropped on my device in iTunes, but cannot select/deselect any of them either via the checkbox that worked in previous versions or right-clicking on the file name.

Anyone have an idea when this will be fixed?

I'm in no hurry to upgrade to iOS 11. The loss of support for 32 bit apps is a big drawback to me. Gotchas such as poor handling of custom ringtones just add to my reluctance to upgrade. None of the new features sound that compelling.

Of course, with the way planned obsolescence is pushed, I'll eventually find myself needing to upgrade. But so far, no thanks...

It's funny. I've been having a different issue with my 7 plus; the GPS was insane - it would drift all over the place, and navigation was completely bonkers. There were times when it would both quit giving me directions, and the map display was as far as a couple of miles from where I actually was.

Updating to iOS 11 seems to have cleared up the problem. Navigation is now more precise than ever.

I just have this weird thing going with the ringtone now.

Thank goodness I'm not the ONLY person with this problem. The custom ringtone shows when I go to my contact, and it plays, but when they call, I get the default ringtone. I REALLY don't want to have to BUY the ringtones I created years ago!!!!