If I say that your iPhone’s ringtone expresses your personality or mood of the day, most of you would agree with me. But Apple has made it a cumbersome process to switch from their boring, common ringtones to a custom beat solely express you. So, if you’re looking for a way to add a cool blues track or a chill and groovy beat you saved on your computer for your iPhone ringtone, this is the article you need.
iTunes is the default media library that Apple suggests for iPhone users to add custom ringtones to iPhones from the computer. iTunes let you purchase and download digital multimedia, rip songs from CDs, and play and organize those files on a Mac or a Windows PC. Then what makes the process cumbersome? The chaos is iTunes usually only lets you purchase ringtones from the iTunes store or add ringtones you created from an app like GarageBand.
But, don’t worry, we have covered you with an a-to-z method for creating and adding ringtones to your iPhone from the computer apart from the expensive method of adding purchased ringtones via iTunes Store.
Create and add custom ringtones from the iTunes Store
You must be wondering whether if there is absolutely no other method to both create and add ringtones from iTunes or maybe with a single app. Yes, it is possible!
Follow the below steps to successfully create and add a ringtone of your choice using iTunes.
Create a ringtone from an audio clip or a song in iTunes
Step 1: If you’re using a Windows PC, download and install the latest version of iTunes to your computer. iTunes comes preinstalled if you’re using a Mac.
Step 2: Connect your iPhone to the computer via lightning-to-USB cable and launch iTunes.
Step 3: Click on the ‘iPhone icon’ on the iTunes Home Screen’s top left corner.
Step 4: Click ‘Summary’ on the left pane of the window. On the right pane, check the box next to ‘Manually manage music and videos’.
Step 5: Now, disconnect your iPhone from the computer. You’ll automatically navigate to the ‘iTunes Library’ page.
Step 6: Click ‘Songs’ on the left pane of the ‘iTunes Library’ page. Select a song or an audio clip you wish to use as your ringtone. (If you have no songs saved to iTunes, drag and drop songs or any audio files on your computer to ‘Songs’ window on the right pane of the ‘iTunes Library’ page.)
Step 7: Now, right-click on the selected audio file. Select ‘Song Info’.
Step 8: On the pop-up window, select ‘Options’ on the top navigation bar. Check the boxes next to ‘Start’ and ‘Stop’, and set the start time and end time as your preference, to rip the song for the ringtone. Once done, click ‘Okay’.
NOTE: The maximum length of a ringtone to use on an iPhone cannot be longer than 40 seconds.
Step 9: Select the song you used to create the ringtone, and click ‘File’ from the top menu bar. Select ‘Convert’ > ‘Create AAC Version’.
Step 10: Now, an AAC version of the song will be created on the iTunes’ ‘Songs’ page. Right-click on the AAC version of the song. Depending on the OS version of your computer, select either ‘Show in Windows Explorer’ or ‘Show in Finder’.
Step 11: Copy and paste the .m4a file to your desktop. Delete the AAC version of the song from the iTunes Library.
Step 12: Rename the .m4a file saved to desktop with .m4r file extension and click ‘Yes’ on the pop-up window.
NOTE: A ringtone (or an audio) file should be in AAC format to use in an iPhone. AAC files typically use the file extension ‘.m4a’. However, iTunes uses the file extension ‘.m4r’, which is essentially the same file format of ‘.m4a’ with a different file extension name. That is why you have to rename the .m4a file to a .m4r file before transferring it to the iPhone using iTunes.
Now, you have successfully created a ringtone with iTunes. Follow the below steps to add the created ringtone or else, even to add a ringtone already available on your computer to your iPhone.
How to Add Ringtones to iPhone from Computer
Step 1: Connect your iPhone to the computer and launch iTunes.
Step 2: On the left pane, Go to ‘Devices’ > ‘Tones’.
Step 3: Drag and drop the .m4r file ready to use as your ringtone to the Tones page of iTunes.
Now, the ringtone is added to your iPhone.
Step 4: Disconnect the iPhone from your computer. Launch ‘Settings’ on your iPhone.
Step 5: Go to ‘Sounds & Haptics’ > ‘Ringtones’. Tap on the name of your newly added ringtone.
Now, you have set your custom created ringtone as the default ringtone of the iPhone.
NOTE: If your computer is a Mac OS Catalina or an above version, you will find that the iTunes app has replaced with Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Books, and Apple Podcasts apps. Therefore, use the ‘Finder’ app and follow the steps similar to above to add a ringtone from your Mac to iPhone.
There are so many other third-party applications recently developed and support both Mac and Windows computers for adding ringtones to your iPhone. Few such examples are iMazing and Ringtones to iPhone Transfer app. All these apps have similar functionalities to iTunes. Therefore, by any chance, if you experience any hardship using iTunes, instead you can try using one of these apps. But, I always recommend iTunes as the number one option to add ringtones to your iPhone from the computer, since it is free and has a credible and an expanded customer base.