Really having trouble with ringtones

By Blaque Diamond, 6 May, 2012

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Hi. I already have ringtones that I downloaded from elsewhere and I want to add them to my itunes and sounds on my phone. I have tried many different ways to add them but they are just not working. They are listed in my music folder so I guess they are already m4a formated. I do not know how I am supposed to change them into the m4r format. I bought them as mp3 and added them to itunes which converted them to m4a. What should I do to convert them to m4r and add them to my phone under sounds?

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By Shersey on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - 20:10

Are the ringtones all in one folder? I keep my ringtones on my computer in a specific folder. Everything's in my "My Music" directory. In there, I have music, audio books, and ringtones. Since I manage my music manually, I don't have to worry about anything when I back up, because I have everything organized in the same way on my external hard-drive. This also saves space on my laptop's internal hard-drive, since iTunes's default bahavior is to copy tracks to it's "iTunes Media" folder, thus making duplicates of everything, which is not something I want. It will, of course, do this if something you're trying to add is in the wma format or something, but I don't have too many tracks in that format, so it's not a huge deal. Anyhow, enough about that. You need to go to the folder where your tones are and manually change the extention to m4r by writing it in after the period in the filename. If you're using Windows, you can just hit F2 when the file is selected, and an edit box will pop up that will let you rename the file. Change the extention to m4r and hit enter. Windows will probably give you a warning about how changing the file extention may make the file unusable or something like that. You can safely ignore that and hit "Yes." Then, hit enter on the file and it should automatically be added to iTunes. You might want to delete the tracks that were added to iTunes as m4a music tracks so that you don't have duplicates floating around. I'm sorry, but I have absolutely no idea how to rename files on a Mac, because I don't use one. The information shouldn't be too hard to find if you need it, though. I hope this helps. Best, Shersey

Yes, the above comment is correct. 1) Change your new Tones from the M4A extension to the M4R 2) Bring up Itunes 3) In the Music folder. Remove the old Tones from there. 4) Now Import those new Tones and Apple iTunes will now place them correctly in to the Tones folder. 5) Make sure when you Sync your phone that you have the Tones selected so it will be synced to your phone. My other advice is that if you are continuing to have problems is that may I recommend you in buying the ring tones from Apple? This will prevent from future problems. Hope this helps.

I do have my tones in a separate folder but they are still in mp3 format. When I added them to itunes I guess it made a double and the ringtones are in m4a format mixed in with my music. The tones in my ringtones folder are still mp3. So do I change the mp3 to m4r?

By AnonyMouse on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - 20:10

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team
Well, the iTunes isn't going to accept just an MP3 to be an M4R without converting it first. You have to convert your MP3 to a M4A format. Once you have converted your M4A you then just have to rename it to an M4R. Once the file has been renamed to the M4R format you can import the file from within iTunes and it will be placed in the Tones folder. I sure wish there was a very simple process within iTunes to do this but there is not. I suppose this is how and why they encourage you to purchase their Ring Tones. They don't want to make it that simple for you. :( You will need to get a 3rd party to convert your MP3 into the Apple M4A format before you can do anything. Take a look in Google for help: http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=how+to+take+an+mp3+in+to+a+m4r&oq=how+to+take+an+mp3+in+to+a+m4r&aq=f&aqi=g-qs1&aql=&gs_l=hp.3..0i22i10.4283.12568.0.14102.30.21.0.9.9.0.471.4044.5j7j4j4j1.21.0...0.0.To_WuwXeRCw&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=a14c939063f347cf&biw=1600&bih=776 Hope this helps.

By Phillip on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - 20:10

I use a program called format factory.. You can make the conversion directly without changing to .m4a first. You can also choose how one you want the file to be. The biggest draw back it you have to use the jaws cursor and left mouse button to navigate and sometimes I have to get sighted help to find the m4r section but with a little effort it is doable.

By Shersey on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - 20:10

I can't remember where to find this option in iTunes, but the reason I do this is so that I can only have one copy of things, rather than having iTunes copy each track again to it's own "iTunes Media" folder when it's added to the iTunes library. Anyway, to find your ringtones that have been added and converted trom mp3 to m4a, go to them in iTunes and right click on one. Do this either by hitting the applications key or shift-F10 if you don't have an applications key. Arrow down until you reach an option called View in Explorer"if you're using Windows, and "View in Finder" if you're using a Mac. Hit enter on this option, and you'll see the file. Rename the file by hitting F2 if you're using Windows. I'm sorry, but I don't know how to do this on a Mac. Anyhow, go to the end of the filename by pressing end, and backspace 3 times to get rid of the m4a bit. Then, type in m4r and hit enter. You'll probably get a warning that renaming the file could make it "unusable," but you can safely ignore this. This is just the oS being cautious. I recommend copying the files to where you have your mp3 ringtones stored now after renaming them to m4r's. After renameing them, delete the entry from iTunes so that you don't have duplicates. Finding all of them might take some time, as they're probably under different artest names and such, but once you have them all renamed and coppied into your folder where you have the mp3's, you can just hit enter on them and they should be added to your tones section in iTunes. I would also recommend deleting the mp3 copies of the tones, as those are also duplicates, and you will already have them in the format you want after renaming them to m4r's. This method is clunky, but it works. This is the way I do it, and to avoid problems like this, I make sure that I have everything not only properly tagged, but that I only add things one at a time. You can get an awesome program called Mp3 Tag for tagging mp3's on Windows! It's great! The only issue with it that I have found is that if you closing it when you're done with it, say, after tagging an artist's albums and then you try and bring it up later, it won't come up. But this isn't hard to fix--you just have to end the process from the task manager. If you need any more help, my Skype name is PASSION4READING I'll be happy to give you a hand on there, if you need. I know how confusing this can be, and sometimes having someone walk you through things can be more helpful than reading printed instructions. I sincerely hope this helps, Shersey

By Shersey on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - 20:10

To do this, you need to make sure that your import format for when you rip C.D.'s is set to m4a. After that, you can just select a track in iTunes, right-click it, and choose "Make AAC version." I know, this is so weird, but it works. It took me a while to find out that info, so I thought I'd spare you the trouble of finding a third-party converter when iTunes can handle the process quite nicely. And since I don't use iTuenes to rip my C.D.'s to my computer anyway, since it doesn' support the LAME encoder, I don't have to worry about changing anything in iTunes for ripping C.D.'s, since I don't use iTunes to do that. I hope this helps, Shersey