iTunes 12.7 will not import my .m4r ringtones!

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 can not copy the .m4r file to an iPhone 5s - but I was able to copy the same to an iPhone 6 - using iTunes 12.7.2.60.

Both iPhones have iOS 11.2.1 installed. There is 4 GB of free memory and the files has 438 KB.

When I drop over the iPhone 6 device in iTunes - works - when I connect my iPhone 5s - nothing happens.

Any idea?

Thanks a lot tt2.

Only copy and paste works. Drag and Drop doesn't with iPhone 5s - iTunes is a pain.

It also is useless to explain that a small icon means "manual managed" - has cost another time to find this out.

Finally - I've copied 2 ringtones files - but now I can not delete them anymore. Right click on a ring tone and "Delete From Library" doesn't do anything (iPhone connected).

It's really a horrible usage but thanks to anyone who can help again.

To delete an existing tone file on the device access the device first via the small icon at the top, then select Tones in the sidebar, highlight the item you want to delete, then press backspace or delete on your keyboard. Again the device may need to be in manually managed mode for this to be successful.

tt2

Having ticked the Manually manage... box and clicked Apply or OK without syncing, you should have been able to remove unwanted tones. You could then have unticked that box, applied, and synced, so that your device was updated without removing the existing media. And yes, this is horrible. 😮

tt2

Plot thickens... have tried all the suggestions (i only have "manually manage videos" for an option in iTunes), and these are .m4r ringtones with proper file associations and permissions. Even more frustrating, I just connected 3 different iphones, one iPhone 8 and two other iPhone X's, and selected "trust" for all three, and voila, the ringtones transferred perfectly. However, when I re-plug in my iPhone X, no joy. I reset the "trust" settings (on my iPhone Settings/General/Reset/Reset Location and privacy), deleted my iPhone backups from Application Support, and from preferences, restarted my laptop, my iPhone, plugged in, reselected "trust" and "allow changes..." settings, but STILL no joy. What is going on? I've confirmed my iOS is exactly the same as the other two iPhone X's.

So just to reiterate:

I can copy the ringtones to other iPhones with no problem, just not mine. It's as if my iPhone file structure is write protected... (this is what made me think to reset the trust settings).

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 🙂

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 way I have gotten it to work in 12.7.2 is to right click on the file in windows explorer (if you're using Windows), go back to iTunes and right click on the Tones icon and select paste. The tone will appear in on the phone and auto-sync. Hope this helps.

Dear iPhone user,

for a mac user, just make sure your iphone is connected with iTunes on computer,

open iPhones Library on the left of the iTunes (press that arrow down) and you will see Tones. Press on it and empty window will open. Then take your m4r files and drag them to that blank list. It will directly copy it on your device.

Best wishes

Like "SMRS", I am having the same sort of problem.

I created my ringtones in Premiere Pro. Exporting the ringtones to "Stereo AAC, 44.1 kHz 128 kbps" then renamed the file to m4r. Once my IPhone 7 was connected I made sure "Manually Manage Music and Videos" was selected and applied. I then tried dragging and dropping the file to the tones section (sidebar), the tones page, my device in the side tabb and also tried Command+C the m4r files and then right clicking and pasting (making sure it was actually pasting instead of Command+V) it into the tones section. Nothing, no response. I then went back and exported my ringtone as "Stereo AAC, 48 kHz 256 kbps", renamed to m4r, repeated all the steps trying to move/paste the files into my Tones. Still nothing. I tried exporting one of the files through a converter online to m4r (I know you don't need to convert to m4r from an aac file I was just trying) still didn't work. I have restarted both my phone and laptop as well as made sure that the m4r filed I was trying to transfer had read and write access granted on all users.

Iknow these files aren't DRM protected as I created them.

To further "SMRS's" point of it maybe having something to do with my iPhone file structure being write protected. I used a third-party software (WALTR 2) to move the m4r files to my phone, these transferred over. However, once in the phone's settings>sound>ringtone I clicked on the files and it would just play the default sound. Now this could be a transfer issue but I also transferred over ringtone I made before the 12.7 iTunes update using the app and the ringtone worked. Now knowing the app works I made sure my exports I had made had sound when playing the original AAC files, they worked fine. As soon as I changed the extension to m4r my laptop can't play the file. I assume this is because of my laptop not recognising the file as its now a ringtone.

Also with the m4r files, I transferred over using the 3rd party app, finding out they didn't work I wanted to delete them. I connected my phone back up to iTunes and could see the m4r files (transferred through the 3rd party app) in my tones. selecting the ones that didn't work, I deleted them from the library and then synced my phone. The files no longer showed up in my tones library on my laptop but the names were still present under my settings in my phone, still not working.

This is why I think it is either the iPhone file structure being write protected or iTunes having a problem with m4r management, between iTunes and my phone or just iTunes itself.

I have no idea where to go from here or how I can go about trying to acquire my personal m4r/ringtones on my IPhone 7. Any help would be appreciated.

I have tried every single method so far, to no avail.

The main issue I seem to have is that in itunes 12.7.3, on a Win 10 computer with a new iphone 8 with a backup restored from an iphone 6, is that nothing shows up in the tones section in relation to the ring tones that are already on my phone after restoring from the last backup on my old phone. the grey dotted circle pops up in every instance when i try to add a ring tone, even a new one that isn't on the phone. I restored my new phone to factory settings, tried adding the tones back on and it worked. But as soon as I restored the backup, the tones were overwritten and no longer responsive in itunes. In addition, once deleting the tones since the entire list now had the circle with exclamation point, itunes doesnt recognize the backed up tones on the phone that the backup replaced the freshly synced tones with .

So, I can't refresh the current tones on the phone and show up in itunes, can't delete and re-sync them, and itunes won't acknowledge they are even on my phone while still showing up in the settings menu and functioning fine.

So I have been trying for 2 days now to try to create ringtones (both in iTunes and through a seperate app/downloader) with no avail. To be honest I still don't know how exactly I was able to do it. But what I do know is the **** thing finally worked. So here's some of the hundreds of attempts I tried that ACTUALLY works. Create a ringtone (either through iTunes or download one..make sure it is not too long and is in the proper format of .m4r) Make sure that in Windows their isn't any restrictions. Right click the file, select properties and unclick any restrictions...one for me was "read only." At this point you should be able to copy and paste the file directly from the Windows folder into the Tones folder in iTunes. To paste into the Tones folder, right click and at the very bottom there should be "paste." If you don't see "paste" at the bottom after right clicking on Tones you can try dragging the file over in split mode. I have found that if the file is not compatible (too long, wrong format, Apple just wants to be difficult idk?!) then "paste" will not appear when right clicking.

*Things I have done:

- Select manually manage music & videos, deselect -> apply, then select manually manage music & videos again. - - - -Create my own ringtone with songs from my iTunes library. (Select song of use, convert to AAC through iTunes, go into song info of new AAC song to change duration as well as remove all info except song title, save new version, right click on song and select show in Windows, change .m4a to .m4r, make sure it is set to open in iTunes, enter on keyboard, a message will pop up just click ok, enter again to open in iTunes/play, it will ask to locate the song, click locate, find the file and click enter again. This should *hopefully* create your new ringtone. sheesh)

- Create a ringtone with "Ringtones Music Ringtone Maker" (following the steps given in the app, except I had to go to File Sharing on my device in iTunes, highlight the desired ringtone, click save to, then copy and right click to paste. This method only worked for one but I was able to save the created ringtones from the app to my computer then add then to iTunes the other way.

If I end up figuring out how the **** I was able to do everything in the correct steps I'll let ya'll know.

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.

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