Level 1

47 points

iTunes 12.7 will not import my .m4r ringtones!

I'm having a frustrating time trying to figure this out. My ringtones will not drop into the iTunes sidebar, Tones section or anywhere in the iTunes library. They are true .m4r files that I've been using as ringtones for about five years. I've even tried recreating new .m4r files and they won't import into iTunes 12.7 at all. It looks like iTunes doesn't recognize .m4r files at all. I even uninstalled 12.7 and reinstalled iTunes 12.6, which did recognize my ringtones. But I had to re-upgrade to 12.7 after I realized that 12.6 doesn't work with my iOS 11 equipped iPhone 8. Does anyone have any useful advice?

I'm running:

iTunes 12.7.0.166

Yosemite 10.10.5

iPhone 8 iOS 11.01

Ringtones are 15 second long or shorter, .m4r files.

iPod nano, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), 7th Generation

Posted on Sep 28, 2017 11:07 AM

Top-ranking reply

epwoods

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Jan 1, 2018 10:23 PM

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!

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85 replies

Jan 8, 2018 1:14 AM in response to turingtest2

****, this worked! My tones are back where they belong; on my spanky new Iphone 8.

THANK YOU!!!! 😍

turingtest2

Level 10

278,091 points

Jan 8, 2018 1:25 AM in response to Shandirra

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

turingtest2

Level 10

278,091 points

Feb 11, 2018 4:47 AM in response to Jean_F

See this post: Re: Greyed out songs. Dull I know, but it is the only reliable way I know to fix this if you cannot delete those entries.

tt2

Feb 17, 2018 12:59 AM in response to gabby_newb

Just for reference I am running the latest version of iTunes on an iPhone X which is up to date...

Feb 17, 2018 7:51 PM in response to turingtest2

I figured as much. At least I was able to create the ringtones in iTunes and through the Ringtones app.

Feb 19, 2018 5:48 PM in response to pacrimguru

Definitely not as intuitive as one would think. 2nd time I googled how to do this, thx for sharing, saved some swearing.

SuToukhy

Level 1

17 points

Mar 4, 2018 8:37 AM in response to turingtest2

I dragged the tone from the desktop and dropped it on the device section and still doesn’t work! Any clue why?!

Plz help :(

Mar 13, 2018 2:52 AM in response to jamzeze

good one

yeshi07

Level 1

4 points

Mar 17, 2018 2:27 AM in response to FoxFifth

Thank you very much. It was indeed helpful.🙂

Mar 21, 2018 2:58 PM in response to turingtest2

i am having the same problem the .m4a is hidden and i can't rename it to .m4r

turingtest2

Level 10

278,091 points

Mar 21, 2018 4:05 PM in response to whelch123

See How to Make Windows Show File Extensions or macOS Sierra: Show or hide filename extensions.

tt2

turingtest2

Level 10

278,091 points

Oct 24, 2017 6:12 PM in response to dittoheadadt

Windows or Mac? Is there any possibility that the files aren't really .m4r, e.g. could they be called something like <name>.m4r.m4a where the .m4a at the end is hidden? Were they in AAC format before having the extension changed? Can you drag them into the regular iTunes library?

tt2

Oct 29, 2017 4:49 PM in response to turingtest2

I'm having a similar problem. The file will not add to my library— when I double click, nothing happens. when I drag into the sidebar, nothing happens.

Finder identifies it as a ringtone, and QuickLook will play it.

turingtest2

Level 10

278,091 points

Oct 30, 2017 3:34 AM in response to adrian_bb

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

Oct 30, 2017 7:30 AM in response to turingtest2

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.

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iTunes 12.7 will not import my .m4r ringtones!