How are you guys using iTunes to do this?
I tried too...nothign happened.
There's a 'Ringtones' section on iTunes. I tried to drag and drop my mp3 ringtones into the 'Ringtones' section. It did nothing at all. I waited for a while too, nothing shows up under 'Ringtones' on my iTunes???
Am I doing somethign wrong?
You need to convert the file using iTunes' built-in converter.
Make sure the song you want as a ringtone is already in your iTunes library. Go to Edit -> Preferences and under the "General" tab click the "Import Settings" box. Change your settings to AAC encoding, feel free to choose the quality you want (it doesn't have to be super-high since it's just a ringtone, I leave it on default). This changes what format iTunes will either convert files to or import it from CDs - AAC means your files will have the extension
.M4A.
Now go to the song in your library you want as a ringtone. Go to the "Get Info" section by right-clicking (ctrl+clicking if you're on a Mac touchpad). There will be
Start Time and
End Time fields you can fill out. the iPhone will support ringtones up to 40 seconds long, so fill these fields out so you're playing a snippet of 40 seconds or less. You can use the first part of the song or any part of the song. If you want to know what the snippet sounds like, click "OK" and play the song, and it'll only play the snippet!
After you've selected the snippet for the ringtone, click on the "Advanced" menu up top and click "Convert to AAC." Now iTunes will import a new version of the song you wanted using only the snippet. Once it's done, you'll have a new copy of the song in your library. Go to the folder where it's stored, either manually or by right-clicking on the song and clicking "Show in Windows Explorer" ("Show in Finder" if you're using a Mac.)
Change the extension on the file from
.M4A (song format) to
.M4R (ringtone format). Import this new file into your library by opening it, dragging it into iTunes, or any other method you usually use - now it's in the ringtone section of iTunes!
How to finish:
1) Delete the entry in your library for the .M4A snippet that no longer exists (you'll see an exclamation point by the entry)
2) Change the "Start Time" and "End Time" settings on the original song to the previous settings (just uncheck the boxes to use the whole song again)
3) Sync your iPhone with your free ringtone!
PM me with any questions!
