iTunes 12.7 will not import my .m4r ringtones!

Drop on the device in the sidebar, not the tone section (odd as that might seem).

tt2

I've been trying to get my app-made custom ringtones to work for days in 12.7.2.60. After reading this thread I decided to copy & paste from my desktop to the device symbol in iTunes. It worked!!!!

I was having the same or similar problem. When trying to drag and drop ringtone with .m4r extension within iTunes from the iTunes library to the iPhone 8 device in the sidebar, I kept receiving a message that the ringtone file did not transfer because the duration was too long, even though it was under 40 seconds. It did appear in the Music file on my iPhone, just not in Tones. I kept shortening the duration and creating new files, but always received the same error. Found the file in Finder on my mac and confirmed it was classified as a ringtone, etc. On a whim, decided to drag the file from finder to the iPhone 8 device on the iTunes sidebar and it worked!

The only way I have managed to get a ringtone onto my phone without any issues is to transfer the sound file to my song on my phone. Then open the garage band app, insert the song/sound file you want as a ringtone. Clip it to the length you want and export it as a ringtone within the app. After doing this the ringtone should show up normally in your settings and you can delete the original sound file from your songs. Its a very convoluted way to do something that should, in reality, be fairly simple, but it works. Keep in mind You need to create the ringtone with the garage band app on YOUR PHONE, not a computer for it to work. This way the ringtone doesn't have to deal with any of Apple's software outside the phone itself leading to less of a chance of something screwing things up.

For anyone whos sick of trying to get a ringtone onto your phone, this is a workaround it just requires a few more steps and time.

Hi!

After having the same problem for hours, i found the solution! The is disabling you i cloud library (it enables you to see you library in all your devised, it sincronyses them). By doing this, the only disadvantage is that the music you download on Apple Music to your phone won't appear on your Itunes pc library BUT YOU ARE ABLE TO DRAG YOUR M4R SONGS INTO YOUR TONES FOLDER AS WE WERE USED TO. At the moment, i have Itunes 12.7.3 Version with 11.2.6 IOS on my iphone 6 and it has just worked perfectly for me.

Hope you find this helpful!

There were major changes in iTunes 12.7 -- see: Changes in the new iTunes - Apple Support

You can however still use iTunes to transfer custom ringtones to an iPhone: see the "Move ringtones from iTunes ..." section of Use tones on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Wanna see something quite interesting?

Simple copy the ring tone - you can use a keyboard shortcut - and than simply past it in you iTunes, preferably into your iphone Tones sidebar.

It worked for me after months looking for an answer.

So I had the same issue, here's how I fixed it:

Change the file extension to .mp3 and import it into your library. Then right click and bring up song info, then click the file. My ringtone even though it showed as a .m4r was being shown as a .aac file. I don't know why itunes recognized the file like that but it did.

So I drug the ringtone file I wanted to the desktop and changed the file extension to .aac and then converted it via the web to .m4r.

I then drug the new .m4r file into the device and it worked!

Hope this helps!

For everyone's information.

Cause of my problem seems to be something wrong in file format.

My file was surely AAC but didn't work. So I tried to convert it into MP3 and re-convert to AAC, then it worked.

Weird thing is the one and only tool I used is same iTunes.

I had the same issue, but I finally figured out a solution. In the finder window, right click on your .m4r ringtone file and select "Get Info." At the bottom, under "Sharing & Permissions," make sure that all users are set to "Read & Write." Once you've done that, try dragging and dropping the file into Tones in iTunes again.

I was having this same problem, but I solved it.

First, drag and drop didn’t work at all, neither did pasting.

Then I changed the settings in “Summary” to “manually manage videos” and clicked apply.

After deselecting the 'Manually manage Music and Videos, I was then able to drag and drop, paste, whatever you like 🙂

Hey if u are still having problems try this method i did.

After converting your songs into ringtones transfer them to your iPhone using AnyTrans. Whole process is less than a minute. U can get the free trial from here AnyTrans® - Your Almighty iPhone & Android Manager - New Release You wont n need the premium version.

Worked smoothly and stress free

Okay! For anyone still having difficulties within iTunes adding ringtones to your iPhone I think I have finally figured out the order to use.

1. Create a ringtone in .m4r format (read through the replies on how to do this, there are plenty of responses)

2. Go to phone summary in iTunes and uncheck manually manage music & videos, click done then apply.

3. Add ringtone by copying the file from Windows & pasting to your Tones, you can just right click copy and paste. Or drag the file over in split mode. (Again make sure format is correct, as well as restrictions removed. You can check this by right clicking the file in Windows and clicking properties then removing restrictions.)

4. Sync & Apply.

5. You can now go back and check manually manage music & videos. Click Apply & Done.

Your music, videos and ringtones should all be on your device now.

Hope that works for you all and you don't have as big a headache as I got from this.

Thanks jamzeze, sensible advice and it works just fine. Copy and Paste is the way to go! I am using an iMac running the latest version of High Sierra and iTunes V12.7.3.46 and a connected iPhone 8 running iOS V11.2.6. Copy the ringtone file on your desktop and then Paste it onto the highlighted portion of the sidebar (see above) - That's it - done.

Thanks, after reading all these pages I was loosing the will to live and your simple advice saved the day.

I chased this problem for hours. It looks like a bug to me. Here's what finally worked:

1. Navigate in the Finder window to select the .m4r file, choose Copy from the Edit Menu.
2. Navigate in iTunes to the device Tones panel, choose Paste from the Edit Menu.

I wish I could take credit, but I found this remedy in a closed discussion thread on this site. Not so much as an upvote!

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4014286?answerId=32450152022#32450152022

The above worked for me when nothing else did on High Sierra 10.13.3, with iTunes 12.7.3.46. I hope it helps someone!