I found these instructions and have verified myself that it works perfectly. I can’t imagine that there is an easier way than this; enjoy!
You can actually make your own ringtones. No websites/external softwares needed.
However this does not apply to the songs you donwloaded via itunes. If you get the tracks from other sites or ripped from your CDs this will work like magic.
1. Pick your song you want to turn into a ringtone in iTunes.
2. Right click>Get Info or File>Get Info or Apple>I.
3. Go to Options when the Get Info window opens.
4. Click the check boxes to initiate Start and Stop time, manually entering the start and finish time of the song you want as a ringtone but MAKE SURE IT IS UNDER 30 SECONDS!!!
5. Now, hit Okay.
6. Next, go to Advanced>Convert Selection to AAC, this will create a copy of the song, but just the portion you want as a ringtone. If it says “convert to mp3” isntead, just go to preferences to change it to AAC and you’ll be fine.
7. The copy will be right under the original in iTunes, you will see the difference in times with the selection you chose should be at a ringtone length, like :30 seconds or so. Right-click on the selection and choose Show in Finder, or File>Show in Finder, it should be an m4a file.
8. Simply click on the file name to edit it and change it to an m4r, this will change it into a ringtone to be recognized by iTunes.
9. Go back to iTunes, find the short selection of the song that you converted to a ringtone and drag it out of iTunes to your desktop.
10. It will make a copy of it and it should now be in your iTunes and desktop. Then, back in iTunes, delete the selection you just moved to the desktop.
11. Double-click on the file you dragged to your desktop and it should open up and play in the “Ringtones” section of your iTunes.
12. Sync.
Wow! Thanks so much, worked like a charm!!!!!!!!
@Chris: You’re quite welcome; come back for some more iPhone 3G tips soon!
I dont have a ‘show in finder’
What do i do??
Hello. This posting is awesome and I really appreciate it. I just have a small problem, I can’t seem to change the file from a m4a to a m4r by just renaming it. This results that I open the new file from my desktop and it just opens in itunes, not under ringtones. Any help please??
@Bennett:
It may not be mentioned in the posted tutorial, nor may it be the case, but I had always assumed that it was only for Mac OS X. I had never even thought about whether it was a general tutorial and, therefore, am not sure whether it works on Windows. Are you using Windows? Because if you are using Mac OS X, you should have no problem renaming the file to an .m4r file (single-click on the file, and push COMMAND-I for “get info” and then just change the extension). Let me know if I can help further, and I am sorry for the confusion. Thanks for reading!
@Anonymous: Are you using Mac OS X?
It worked immaculately. Thanks a lot!
DUDE THANKS [;
Somehow after I converted it to AAC, i can’t find the converted version below it. I just click the original mp3, where i adjusted the playing time, and click “show finder” and change the name to m3r, drag it out to desktop. But it doesn’t work. How come the converted AAC don’t show up? thanks.
Hey man, where is the “ringtones” section of my itunes? For whatever reason, I’m not seeing it
@Gregory Salvatore Zucco: It should be on the left side, under “Library. For me it’s the last choice under library.
HAHAHAHAHAH It worked, Thank you very much!!!! Peace
I can’t find the “convert to aac” option…I see create mp3, but no aac option. I went to “preference”, but nothing popped out that would allow me to select aac as an option….is it because I’m working with iPhone 2.1 and iTunes 8.0.1.11??? Thanks!
@~k: Most likely, no, actually. Go over to “Get Info” on the song of choice (right-click usually) and see what type of file the song currently is; in all likelihood that song is ALREADY an aac file, in which case, of course, you can skip the entire convert to AAC part of the process! Let me know if it still doesn’t work, and we’ll go from there, but I think you should have success with the above solution. Thanks for reading!
Hiya - this seems brilliant but it wont let me convert the file to .m4r… it lets me change the name but stays as an mp4 file so it opens in the itunes library not ringtones. I have windows xp - would this be why? thanks!!
@Rossi:
The fact that you have Windows XP may be the problem; I only know this process to work for Mac’s. That being said, I don’t know why it wouldn’t work for XP. Just to clarify: you don’t actually convert the file to an .m4r file, you convert it from an .mp3 file to an .aac file (note: if it is already an .aac file, you skip this step), which, at least on a Mac, is actually an .m4a file. Then, rather than convert the file to an .m4r (so that it opens in the Ringtone section rather than the library), again, at least on a Mac, you just rename the file from, say, “Song.m4a” to “Song.m4r.” Then when you double-click on it or open it, it should be in the Ringtones section. I’m sorry if this doesn’t work on Windows XP but am curious, so please let me know if I was any help or if I can help you any further. Thanks for reading!