Ringtones

I have solved the problem of all my missing ringtones after upgrading from an iPhone 6S Plus running iOS 11 to my iPhone 8 Plus running iOS 11.

I have a PC so these are instructions work on a PC. I do not know if they work on a Mac.

Connect your iPhone with the missing ringtones to your PC that is running iTunes 12.7

After it connects, you will see your iPhone listed in the left menu, click on it to open it up. Scroll down to where you see TONES and select TONES. A window will open up and it will most likely be blank.

Now, in the upper left corner, click on FILE and then click on ADD FILE TO LIBRARY.

This is where the hiccup is with iTunes. In the Windows window that opened, find your ringtone, click on it once and it will be shown as the selected file. Then...do not click on Open yet. Select the file again and this time, drag it to the TONES area and drop it. Nothing will happen. Go back to the windows window and click OPEN. The file will now appear in TONES.

After you have selected and added all the missing ringtones, click on SUMMARY, then SYNC the phone. Wha la, your ringtones are back and everyone that had a special ringtone will once again have them unless you have not moved that tone yet.

Hi Linda

Hope you are fine in Miami

Apple has changed many things in iTunes and ringtones is one of the things affected.

Try this

Open Settings > Sound & Haptics > Ringtone or Text Tone > scroll to the top and click on "Download All Purchased Tones"

Note the new Tone Store

You may need to restart your iPhone after downloading tones.

See this Apple KB for more info… Use tones on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Let us know if this solves your issues.

Hope this helps, Greg

This is great IF the ringtones are missing. For many, the ringtones aren't missing. In fact you can see them on the phone and when you tap the ringtone it plays. I'm referring to ringtones purchased and downloaded from iTunes. In settings > sounds, even if you select the ringtone from the list of purchased ringtones as your phone ringtone, when your phone rings, the selected ringtone does not ring. Instead a standard pre-loaded default tone rings.

On one of our phones the purchased from iTunes ringtones work as expected. Choose it and when your phone rings, you get the tone you selected. On the other phone (both are iPhone 6) the ringtone selected does not. What we did for that phone until Apple resolves this is simply spend $1.29 to download a new ringtone and when it is selected, it does work.

There does appear to be a glitch with iOS11 and ringtones. I've put in a Support Ticket to let Apple know. I'm not sure there's really much of anything you can do until an update comes out with a fix.

I have solved the problem of all my missing ringtones after upgrading from an iPhone 6S Plus running iOS 11 to my iPhone 8 Plus running iOS 11.

I have a PC so these instructions work on a PC. I do not know if they work on a Mac.

Connect your iPhone with the missing ringtones to your PC that is running iTunes 12.7

After it connects, you will see your iPhone listed in the left menu, click on it to open it up. Scroll down to where you see TONES and select TONES. A window will open up and it will most likely be blank.

Now, in the upper left corner, click on FILE and then click on ADD FILE TO LIBRARY.

This is where the hiccup is with iTunes. In the Windows window that opened, find your ringtone, click on it once and it will be shown as the selected file. Then...do not click on Open yet. Select the file again and this time, drag it to the TONES area and drop it. Nothing will happen. Go back to the windows window and click OPEN. The file will now appear in TONES.

After you have selected and added all the missing ringtones, click on SUMMARY, then SYNC the phone. Wha la, your ringtones are back and you can now set all the tones up.

This also will work to restore all your missing PDF's

iPhone SE doesn’t have Haptics so you’re not seeing that option listed.

I have the same issue on iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus with iOS 11. Both phones will not use my custom ringtone even though I can tap on it under tones and hear it, when someone calls, the phone is using the default ringtone.

I have the same issue with my iPhone 6Plus. The ringtones are there and in the Contacts section of the person I want the custom ringtone for and it is checked but it won't play when that person calls.

I get this is somehow a big issue for you, but really? When your 87 year old mother calls, you really can't look at your screen to see who's calling? Apple will fix this. They know it's effecting users. Just be a bit patient. Here's some perspective for you. Millions of people in South Florida, Mexico and Puerto Rico lost their homes and many people died. They have a big deal going on right now. A ringtone, while maybe not as convenient for you, is certainly not a life or death BIG DEAL.

Do you think any of us work for Apple? We're ALL users here and Apple isn't here. This is a user to user forum we donate our time to help people with problems that can be solved. I don't owe you any customer service. None of us owe you customer service. Your problem will be solved when Apple releases an iOS update.

rbrylawski wrote:

I get this is somehow a big issue for you, but really? When your 87 year old mother calls, you really can't look at your screen to see who's calling? Apple will fix this. They know it's effecting users. Just be a bit patient. Here's some perspective for you. Millions of people in South Florida, Mexico and Puerto Rico lost their homes and many people died. They have a big deal going on right now. A ringtone, while maybe not as convenient for you, is certainly not a life or death BIG DEAL.

Thanks for setting an example on how to deal with a problem reasonably and with a sense of perspective.