iTunes 12.7 will not import my .m4r ringtones!

Does the device sync automatically or is it manually managed? There are some hints that some users have had to switch to manual management before they can drag and drop from Finder to the device in the sidebar.

tt2

I may have been hasty in my criticism of Apple (though that's by no means certain). My ringtone maker app may have changed something in one of their recent updates. In the past, the app wouldn't let me make a ringtone from a "protected" song. I'd get an error message telling me the particular track wasn't whatever, compatible or available, for making a ringtone. That error message/warning now seems to have disappeared. So it's possible that it was making excerpts of songs I owned the rights to, BUT, Apple wouldn't recognize them as ringtones, because that violated the terms of the rights. Something like that is what I'm guessing.

But I'm not completely convinced of this, because:

1. One of the songs in my library that the app wouldn't make into an Apple-allowed ringtone is the exact same song, file, etc., that Apple DID allow me to make into a ringtone several months ago

2. Two other songs I had purchased at the same time as the problematic songs WERE able to be made into Apple-allowed ringtones

3. One of the songs wasn't even a purchased song; I had ripped it years ago from a CD I owned. I made 2 separate ringtones from that track. iTunes allowed me to add one version to my tones library, but it "hung" on trying to add the other one. I finally got it to accept one ringtone by just deleting the other one and not trying to have 2 ringtones from the same track.

So you can see why I'm not sure whether it's Apple or the ringtone app, or some combination, that's the culprit.

Windows. Most recent updates of Win10 and iTunes. They're definitely .m4r files, and iTunes (and my phone, for that matter), plays the files as legitimate (albeit 29-second-long) songs. I've posted below, in answer to another comment, a longer explanation of what I've experienced.

Windows does file associations based on the file extension. If you change the associated application for an extension all files with that extension may show an update icon and will open with the chosen application from Explorer.

Windows does not validate the contents of a file with its declared file extension.

Any file is a collection of bytes. A file of a particular format will have certain internal structures defined by the format. If you rename a .mp3 file as .m4a it is still a .mp3 file and it is an invalid .m4a file.

Ringtone files are valid .m4a files given a .m4r file extension. Ringtones must be less than 40 seconds. Text tones less than 30. I would recommend using 128k AAC as the base format before changing the extension.

Tracks with DRM or located in the cloud cannot be used to make ringtones.

The grey dotted circle indicates a failed transfer. If the device is manually managed it may be possible to select and delete that entry. In some cases the only way to clear such entries is to wipe the song storage area, which either involves restoring to factory conditions and then restoring a backup or poking around in the raw file system.

tt2

I didn't change any file extensions, and I never make ringtones longer than 29 seconds. I understand that the grey dotted circle is a failed transfer. My point in attaching that picture was to illustrate that of two ringtones created back-to-back and with different names but from the exact same track, one transferred and one did not. That cannot be the proper functioning of iTunes. Why one and not the other - when both were created from the exact same track at the same time? (Not to mention the fact that both ringtones - the one that allegedly transferred (though it appears nowhere in my iTunes library) and the one that failed - both ringtones plus the original track all show up in my phone in its Music Library.)

The tracks in question were physically on my phone, not in the cloud. Whether they have DRM from the purchases, I don't know. But I do know that several months ago I was able to make a ringtone from a purchased track that I now cannot make a ringtone from. And I do know that I purchased several tracks at the same time in the past few weeks, and can make working ringtones from some of them but not others. And I do know I had this same trouble with ringtones I created from a track that I ripped years ago from a CD I owned. I doubt that track has any DRM issues.

And again, one of the two ringtone files in question is playable from both iTunes (accessible from the "Added In Last Week" screen) and from my phone's Music Library, but that file is not available either in iTunes or on my phone as a working ringtone.

Squirrely stuff, IMO.

Just for additional clarification in this thread, none of my current ringtones has been purchased from Apple. They're all self-created, over the past 5 or more years, using third-party apps (or really, just one app, I think - Ringtone Maker). And even with the latest iOS updates, they're all still functioning.

Also, thanks for the link to creating ringtones from within iTunes. I'll give that a try!

I have same issue and many of suggestions in this thread and of other thread don't work for me.

I'm using iTunes 12.7.1.14 on macOS 10.13 High Sierra.

I always rip my CDs in AAC format with iTunes, and I copied a track of 0:23 to my Downloads folder.

I changed file extension to m4r and Finder's info window says it is a ringtone file.

My iPhone is set to manage music and video manually, so I can drag and drop the ringtone file to device in Library screen and device screen.

Just after I drop the file, I can see iTunes' message that it is updating file in my device, and progress bar for very short time, and the message disappears.

But I cannot find the ringtone I dragged in my device.

What else could be wrong??

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!

I had the same issue as everyone else, got all but one ringtone onto my iPhone and couldn't get the last one to sync. Tried 4 times doing everything the same, but nothing. I then deleted all the album names and artist info and shortened the file name and it's now worked. Not sure why, but may be worth a try if anyone is still having this issue.

I thought this was nonsense but, what the heck nothing else had worked. IT WORKED! I have looked at every possible thing - like everyone else in this post and could not get them over. Ctrl-C from my Windows 10 pc to my iphone Tones library on iTunes and bam - there it was. Thank you - for the hint and for the months looking! Don't think I would have been that persistent.

This actually worked. I tried everything that TuringTest2 suggested, and it didn’t work. After you mentioned it, I checked the file extension on iTunes library for the ringtone and it said it was .aac (mind you, I followed TuringTest2 instructions on how to make the ringtone changing the extension from .aac to .m4r)

People convert the .aac file to .m4r using an online site.

AAC describes how the data is structured within the file. AAC songs are normally given the file extension .m4a. .m4b is used for audiobooks, .m4p is used for protected files and .m4r is used for ringtones. As long as the media is in AAC format you can change the file extension in Windows Explorer or Finder, although you cannot remove DRM protection if present.

tt2

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.

The only thing I've had work is dragging to desktop from File Sharing in "Ringtones" app, associating iTunes with .m4r system wide (Windows), and then CTRL+C > CTRL+V in Tones. A drag and drop wouldn't work.

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!!!!