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How do I delete ringtones?

P

Patrick G

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 12, 2014
144
17
iPhone 8 Plus on iOS 11 and using iTunes 12.7

I've got duplicate ringtones here I'm trying to delete:

IMG_0026.png


However, they are not showing in the Tones section of iTunes, nor in my iTunes library Folder, no matter how much syncing I do. In addition, I've got the free trial of AnyTrans, and whenever I delete the duplicates within AnyTrans, they just pop back in when I click refresh. No matter what I do, I can't get them off the phone.

Help!
 
I contacted Apple Support on this. I have the same issue. Currently there is no way to manage tones except to add them to your iPhone by purchasing them or via iTunes. iTunes and the phone don't provide any way to remove added tones. The agent I was chatting with also asked me to provide my feedback here: https://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html
 
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I don’t think you can remove default ringtones has they are part of the OS
 
snow755 said:
I don’t think you can remove default ringtones has they are part of the OS
Click to expand...
These are not default ringtones. These are custom ringtones that I've either purchased from the Tone store or added manually via iTunes.
 
Yes, these were purchased from the iTunes Store, but I do have that top one set as my default ringtone.
 
Patrick G said:
iPhone 8 Plus on iOS 11 and using iTunes 12.7

I've got duplicate ringtones here I'm trying to delete:

IMG_0026.png


However, they are not showing in the Tones section of iTunes, nor in my iTunes library Folder, no matter how much syncing I do. In addition, I've got the free trial of AnyTrans, and whenever I delete the duplicates within AnyTrans, they just pop back in when I click refresh. No matter what I do, I can't get them off the phone.

Help!
Click to expand...
I had this same issue and the only way I was able to correct it and delete the duplicate ringtones was to download a third party program for my mac, something like “Phoneclean” and manually search the iPhone folders and delete them directly from the phone. Now this is risky as you may delete something you shouldn’t. When I get home I will try and find the name of the program and the location of where to find the Ringtone files, as the duplicate ringtones wasn’t in the standard ringtone folder.
 
Patrick G said:
Thank you. I was planning to try the same thing with iExplorer.
Click to expand...
I have noticed that it was AnyTrans that I used to delete the duplicate ringtones but like I said, not only did I have a copy of the tones in “iTunes_Control/Ringtones” but I also had a copy in a totally different folder. That probably why they keep reappearing for you after you delete them as there a copy in another folder, I can’t remember which other folder and it’s location the other ringtones was in as it was 3 months ago I had this issue. I will keep looking into it though
 
I just downloaded MediaTrans and tried to delete the ringtones using that, but it too fails on the delete. So, I called Apple Support and spent 90 minutes on the phone with them (2 levels of Support), and they couldn't figure it out despite connecting to both my PC and my phone. They said they would escalate and get back with me. It's crazy they removed the ability to manage ringtones via iTunes, but then provide no way to remove ringtones from the actual phone.
 
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Can't you just delete them within iTunes with the phone plugged in?

See my screenshot...

9BBCE2BB-23B7-4C1A-80B8-F1C5E4FA669B.jpeg

My ringtones don't show up in iTunes itself (notice the drop-down), but they do show in my connected phone. So can't you just delete them directly off the phone?

This is iTunes 12.7 (obviously, since I couldn't connect a 8+ to anything lower).
 
The Mad Hatter said:
The only thing I can think can solve that is ... do you have "Manually Manage Songs & Videos" selected for that phone?
Click to expand...

Enable this and then you can delete ringtones one by one from iTunes by right-clicking on the ringtone. That's how I removed them using iTunes 12.7.
 
The problem for me is, no matter what I try (and no matter what Apple Support tried), the ringtones on the phone will not show up in iTunes. Thus, no way to delete.
 
Edit: This is a mess. I had to uninstall the previous version of iTunes and delete my itl file. Once I plugged my phone in, all custom ringtones and alert tones were gone. I use Apple Music so my music wasn't affected, but I'm guessing if you don't use Apple Music it may delete all of your music from your phone. Everything can be added back, but I was surprised at how difficult this has become.

Looks like this might be the solution:
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/7557ba/apple_secretly_releases_itunes_1263_which/

Here's a link to the webpage on Apple.com explaining the release:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208079
 
Last edited:
I don't think that Apple really thought of ringtones in iTunes 12.7. I was told to do a clean install of IOS 11 and then restore from backup by an Apple store employee and it wiped out my ringtones. Only because Apple released that special version of iTunes today that does apps and ringtones was I able to add them back. I think Apple really blew it taking ringtone support and sync out of the latest iTunes.
 
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I made a custom ringtone, and it got synced to my phone with the new iTunes and iOS 11. I got happy. Now I can’t dekete it, or add any new custom ringtones. All this iTunes 12.7 and iOS 11 screwed it up.. I tried everything, but nothing works. I even searched for discussions on Apple, tried their solutions .. don’t work..
 
Patrick G said:
iPhone 8 Plus on iOS 11 and using iTunes 12.7

I've got duplicate ringtones here I'm trying to delete:

IMG_0026.png


However, they are not showing in the Tones section of iTunes, nor in my iTunes library Folder, no matter how much syncing I do. In addition, I've got the free trial of AnyTrans, and whenever I delete the duplicates within AnyTrans, they just pop back in when I click refresh. No matter what I do, I can't get them off the phone.

Help!
Click to expand...
You can try the free trail of MacX MediaTrans. Choose the duplicated ringtones, tap Delete Ringtones, then tap Sync icon, the duplicates will be removed from your iPhone. https://www.macxdvd.com/mobile/delete-ringtones-from-iphone.htm
 
I was looking for posts that mentioned AnyTrans to ask if you folks have tried AnyTrans in such ways? Do respond on that thread please. Thanks.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...tried-the-merge-function-of-anytrans.2170709/

Patrick G said:
iPhone 8 Plus on iOS 11 and using iTunes 12.7

I've got duplicate ringtones here I'm trying to delete:

IMG_0026.png


However, they are not showing in the Tones section of iTunes, nor in my iTunes library Folder, no matter how much syncing I do. In addition, I've got the free trial of AnyTrans, and whenever I delete the duplicates within AnyTrans, they just pop back in when I click refresh. No matter what I do, I can't get them off the phone.

Help!
Click to expand...

davidjwebb2301 said:
I have noticed that it was AnyTrans that I used to delete the duplicate ringtones but like I said, not only did I have a copy of the tones in “iTunes_Control/Ringtones” but I also had a copy in a totally different folder. That probably why they keep reappearing for you after you delete them as there a copy in another folder, I can’t remember which other folder and it’s location the other ringtones was in as it was 3 months ago I had this issue. I will keep looking into it though
Click to expand...
 
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