Create your own ringtone for your iPhone – that’s how it works

If the pre-installed ringtones on the iPhone are too boring for you, you can simply create your own tones that can be heard during calls or notifications. You don’t have to spend any money on call tones, you simply assemble the sounds yourself for free.

GIGA explains how to set up music as a ringtone on the iPhone. It’s not easy to put on, but it’s worth it if you don’t always want to hear the well-known, pre-installed “ring tones”.

iPhone: Create ringtone with iTunes

It is not possible to simply set up songs from the iPhone’s own music library as ringtone. The song must be on the hard drive, editing directly on the iPhone is not possible. So the desired sound has to be edited before it is moved to the iPhone. You have to take the detour via iTunes on a PC or Mac. Proceed as follows:

Starts iTunes on the computer. Search in your Music library the song that you want to set up as a ringtone on the iPhone. Pushes with the right mouse button on the song and select the “information”. Then you choose the “Options“Out for the song. iPhone ringtones can only be maximum 40 seconds to have. In the options you can cut a correspondingly long section of the desired song by defining the start and end point. Do you have the choice with “OK“Confirms, presses the right mouse button again on the entry. Then select “Filing“→”Convert“And creates a”AAC version“The sound file.
Moves the file anywherewhere you can easily find them again. Then change the file extension to “.m4r“. You may have to display file extensions first. Open iTunes again and deletes the previously created AAC version. Above “Filing“→”Add to library“Instead you add the m4r version of the song to the iTunes library. Now syncs the iPhone with iTunes. Finally, you can now select the created song as your own ringtone on the iPhone in the settings.

Mac users from macOS Big Sur can use the music app for new ringtones. Here, too, you simply add the edited song excerpt to the music library and choose the detour via the “AAC” version to receive the file in m4r format. Only purchased songs and ripped songs, for example in MP3 format, can be used as ringtone on the iPhone. but not songs from Apple Music, Spotify or other streaming platforms.

iTunes ringtones – import sound files in AAC format

Back in the iTunes library, right click on the edited song again and save the song as a new file under the selected time settings (“Create AAC version”). If the option is not available at this point, go to “File” in the menu bar and select “Convert“.

The selected section of the song is now displayed as a new piece of music in iTunes. At this point you should check whether the selected section is suitable as a new ringtone for your iPhone. If not, play around with the time settings and create rewrite the song in AAC formatuntil the ringtone you want is available.

In the next step, the file extension of the created song section must be changed. In the preferences these are in the folder

C: /../ My Music / iTunes Media / Music / Artist / Album / Song Name.m4a

filed. If you don’t want to search long for the folder, just right-click on the song and let the “Information” display again. The file location is displayed in the lower section.

Did you find the file, change the ending from .m4a in .m4r. This is the name iTunes needs to convert the file into iTunes as a ringtone to recognize.

The originally newly created entry in the iTunes library is removed at this point. You can confirm the message that the file should be removed from all connected devices with a clear conscience, but you should do this with the next question not in the trash move. The file renamed in .m4r can now be dragged into the iTunes library while holding down the mouse button. iTunes now recognizes the piece of music thanks to the file extension you have changed and also creates its own menu item “Tones” the first time you use it, where all ring tones can be organized.

The next time your iPhone is synchronized with the media library, the ringtone is transferred to the smartphone and can be set up as a ringtone in the corresponding menu. To do this, open the settings and select “Sounds”. Via “Ringtones” you can find the new title that should be heard the next time you call.

Create your own ringtone with GarageBand

If you want to set up your own sounds as ringtone directly on the iPhone, you can alternatively use the “GarageBand” app:

Download the app for free on your iPhone if the application is not already installed. Select the section “Search” and subsequently “Create Document“. You can now create a completely new song. About the Loops icon Songs from iTunes can also be inserted in the track view. Select the tab “Files” the end. Also cut the song to the appropriate length here. Then press the inverted triangle at the top left to “My songs“To select. Then tap on the entry for the created song and select the “Share” function. Now you can do the piece of music set as “ringtone”. Click on “Export” and confirm the query from GarageBand when the ringtone should be used.

You can set up the result as a new ringtone in the iOS settings under “Sounds”.