Can't play ringtone in iOS 11

Dunno if anyone needs this still since it's an old topic but I recently solved this issue by updating everything to the latest version. OS, iTunes and iPhone. (I don't update often.)

Apparently the newer version of iTunes no longer handles ringtones and you have to download a separate app for that but after updating everything my ringtones went back to normal without having to do so. Hope that's useful.

THE FIX: Use Garage Band to create a ringtone either to replace the one that’s now broken by 11.0 upgrade or make a new one. I tried it and it works. HERE’S HOW. https://youtu.be/Y9OP5YTge0I

THEY FIXED IT!! YAY!!! Upgrade to the latest 11.3.1 and I now get my personalized ringtones working!! YES!!

I just upgraded to the latest version iOS 11.3.1 and it fixed the ringtone issue. My phone is now able to play my music ringtones I purchased years ago. I currently have an iPhone 8Plus.

After trying many, if not all suggestions, I repurchased my ringtone and that was the only thing that worked. Should I have to re-spend $1.29 to buy my ringtone again? No! But I couldn’t deal with the annoyance anymore.

I just tried this and it acutally worked for me. I used the manually add items part. Hope it works for others too. Manually manage content on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using iTunes - Apple Support

To get the ringtone you want for your friend , make sure that the current ringtone is the default one, reboot the phone, and then reassign the ringtone you want to your friend’s number. Those are the directions I followed from someone’s post in this forum, and it worked for me and I’ve had no problems since my original post. Hope it works for you - Good luck.

I too had this problem and everyone else's solutions didn't work for me. I brought this to the attention of Apple Support in December and it escalated to someone who actually believed that this was a real bug. They brought the problem to the engineering team and it took a while but they fixed this bug in today's release of 11.3. This problem has been officially solved.

Everyone,

Read the post by Maui Dude. I just started playing around with syncing and then my phone (unfortunately, I don't remember the exact order of the steps I took). But, the upshot is that my custom ringtones now work again! I synced my iPhone 6+ once, but that didn't work. Then, I synced it again. I also changed the "Opening" pre-loaded ringtone which was my phone was defaulting to, to a different pre-loaded generic ringtone. Then I synced again. Then, I went back to Sounds and hit the Downloaded Purchased songs again and selected one of my custom ringtones. It took that time! Again, not exactly sure of the steps (recreating as best as I remember here) but it did finally work!

I have this same problem. What I figure is this. Under each contact when in "edit" for ringtone it says default. Well the ringtone for iOS has default listed in its name! So whatever apple needs to fix is somewhere in with the "opening" ringtone. The only fix is to edit each contact and select the custom tone you want. If you select any of the stock tones they will work just fine. I think if apple would remove the word (default) from next to the opening ringtone it might fix this.

I joined this group last week as had same problem - with my iphone SE - and apple told me to wait while they fixed it; - tried all the fixes on this thread - nothing worked - today - took one piece of advice someone posted and bought a new ringtone for $1.29( cdn) - and this now works as default - so maybe we just all have to download ( and pay) for a new ringtone - even if old ones seem to be working fine when tested. So try that .

Just got off of the phone with Apple support -after communicating with three different levels of support people, the problem was that I had "Do not disturb" inadvertently on on my iPhone 8 Plus. Hope that this helps! My ringtone that I wanted is now the default ringtone.

That's because there is no magic fix any of us have. This is an issue caused since iOS 11 was released. The only options are:

1. Wait until Apple releases a fix

2. Purchase or make new ringtones which will work

That's all we can offer. Sorry if reality is offensive to you.

I did all of those “fixes” also but nothing worked. Hours and hours spent with support techs....no solution. I was told a couple of months ago to wait for an upgrade fix. Two upgrades later, no fix. I finally pressed them hard, going up the chain and was finally told that old ringtones will not work because they have changed the format. I asked for a credit to be applied so I could repurchase with the new format that would work. They informed me that they will not do that. Apple changed the format, did not inform customers, and are requiring us to be out or repurchase them.

This is THE SOLUTION.

Can somebody promote Maui dude’s reply as the solution. No reboot, no shutting down, no syncing with iTunes,etc... Just click downloads as instructed and associate the ringtone back to your contacts.

FWIW, my original ringtone had “(Album version)” appended to the ringtone name but the newly re-downloaded one did not.