How to Add/Send Ringtones to iPhone with or Without iTunes

Way 2. How to Add Ringtone to iPhone on Windows or macOS Mojave or earlier with iTunes ?

iTunes is still the go-to app to backup and sync data for iOS devices, though it is blamed for some errors like slow syncing, complicated operation on Windows, etc. Don’t worry, here we offer the detailed guide for you to send ringtone to iPhone with iTunes.

1. Install the latest version of iTunes on your Windows. You have iTunes by default on Mac.
2. Choose a sound file you want to convert and use as a ringtone for your iPhone. Note: the ringtone must be shorter than 40 seconds. iTunes refuses to add ringtones longer than 40 seconds to iPhone. Or else, please cut it down with an audio editor like Audacity before doing so.
3. Convert the audio file to a ringtone format in AAC (.m4r). Since iPhone only accepts M4R as the ringtone format, so it’s highly likely to convert the sound file, e.g. MP3 to M4R first.
4. Add the audio file to iTunes and put it into the library. Choose the audio file in iTunes, then click File > Convert > Create AAC version.
5. Rename your AAC file. After the conversion, there will be two versions of the audio file in your iTunes library, namely the original audio file and the new AAC file. You can right-click the headings in the library and enable the Kind, which will tell you the exact audio file extension. You can right-click the original audio file and remove it, and keep the new AAC file as your ringtone.
6. There is a notice that the newly created AAC file needed to be renamed as .m4r so that iTunes can recognize it as a ringtone file. To do this, please drag and drop the AAC file from the iTunes library to the computer. Change the AAC file extension, e.g. from .m4a to .m4r.
7. Add the ringtone file to your iPhone. Connect your iPhone to your PC or Mac with a USB cable. Be sure that your iPhone is unlocked and tap the Trust option to enable to access your settings and contents from your PC computer.
8. Click the iPhone icon in iTunes > Tones in the left sidebar > drag and drop the .m4r ringtone to the Tones in iTunes. Then iTunes will send the ringtone to iPhone.
9. Now you can set the song as a ringtone on iPhone. Go to Settings in your iPhone > Sound & Haptics > Ringtone, and choose the new custom ringtone, showing at the top of the list here.

Note: For iTunes 12.7, the steps of adding ringtones to iPhone are a little bit different. The Tones library has been removed. Instead, you have to manually place ringtone files on your iPhone. The ringtones are now located at ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Tones/ on a Mac. Or C:\Users\NAME\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Tones\ on a PC.

Way 3. How to Add Ringtone to iPhone on macOS Catalina or Newer with Apple Music

macOS catalina replaced iTunes with the Apple Music app, which also features creating your own iPhone ringtone. But you have to keep in mind that Apple Music only supports adding DRM-free audio to iPhone as ringtone. Any DRM-protected file or song from Apple music is not supported.

1. Add the audio clip into your Music Library through drag-n-drop.
2. The audio file shall be shorter than 40 seconds for an iPhone ringtone or 30 seconds for an audio alert/alarm.
3. Create your ringtone file. Here, please navigate to the song and move it in your music library. Right-click it and click Get Info. Click on the Options, where you can set the start time and end time of the song. And make sure the duration is less than 30 seconds.
4. Then click on File > Convert > Create AAC version. Convert it to M4R. The steps go the same as iTunes.
5. Export and transfer the ringtone to your iPhone. To be specific, please connect your iPhone to your Mac with a USB cable, launch Finder, Trust your computer and enter the iPhone passcode if asked. Enable Manually Manage Music, Movies and TV shows option on the General tab. Drag the m4r file to the sync window. Alternatively, you can also sync ringtone to iPhone with Music app by selecting the desired iPhone from the Devices section, drag the M4R file and release it in the sync window.
6. Then you can check the newly synced ringtone on iPhone by heading to Settings > Sound & Haptics > Ringtone.

Bottom Line:

All 3 ways are available to transfer and send ringtone to iPhone. iTunes and Apple Music are the default apps developed by Apple. You can do the job without further downloading another program. But for Windows users, iTunes can be a little bit complicated and produces many problems. On the contrary, WinX MediaTrans boasts its flexibility and efficiency as well as completes transfer task with relatively fast speed and no problem at all. So you can just have a try and begin creating and sending ringtones to iPhone.

If you still have problems about transferring ringtone to iPhone from your computer, just feel free to Email us >>