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wa2be

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 30, 2016
91
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I have a few custom ringtones that I have purchased from iTunes to use for reminders, calendar events, and text messages. The first two days on iOS 12 they all worked properly. Yesterday, they all stopped working and instead my phone is using the default alert tone system-wide. My settings haven't changed, I still have the custom ringtones checked for each app where I was using them. I tried resetting my phone (long press on power button), and soft resetting (long press on power and volume button) and neither has fixed the problem. Any ideas? I don't know what else to try at this point to get my ringtones back. Thanks!
 
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It gives you an option to download them again in the sound menu while changing a tone. I keep my default ringtone as a silent tone I purchased in the store. This way I can give contact entries a ringtone with sound and if I hear a ringtone I know it is a contact entry without looking. I just hit the download button and I was fine.
 
It gives you an option to download them again in the sound menu while changing a tone. I keep my default ringtone as a silent tone I purchased in the store. This way I can give contact entries a ringtone with sound and if I hear a ringtone I know it is a contact entry without looking. I just hit the download button and I was fine.

I tried that as well and it didn't fix the problem. Still getting the system default tone no matter what I try! First-world problem I realize.........
 
Do you use desktop iTunes for syncing? If so, can find the ringtones on the computer and drag/drop them back into iTunes's Tones entry for the phone. Re-sync.

This happened to me with iOS 11 and Apple changing how ringtones are managed (or more precisely, how they basically dropped managing ringtones).
 
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Same issue here. Even though I could see the purchased tones and when selecting them, I would hear them, on my iPhone, once I moved to iOS 12, i kept getting default alert if I selected any of my purchased tones. To fix it, I used iMazing app on my Mac, downloaded the tones (*.m4r) files off the iPhone and into a folder and then dragged them back into the iPhone via iTunes. Now they're working. Not sure why it was broke to begin with, but working now.
 
Same problem here... What i have noticed is i can set any of my custom or factory tones as a ringtone but when it comes to text tones i can only set a factory one.. Wont accept a custom tone. But i have noticed that some of the text tones you download go into the ringtone category and some in the text alert category... The custom ones in the ringtone category dont work anymore... Only the ones in the text alert do!
 
Do you use desktop iTunes for syncing? If so, can find the ringtones on the computer and drag/drop them back into iTunes's Tones entry for the phone. Re-sync.

This happened to me with iOS 11 and Apple changing how ringtones are managed (or more precisely, how they basically dropped managing ringtones).

Thank you, this did the trick. I used iTunes to delete the custom ringtones from my phone, then I did a re-sync. They are back on my phone and working correctly. Thanks again!
 
I had same issue in OS11 and had to restart to have them start working again. They worked initially in OS12 but then stopped like OS11. This time though, restarting phone does not fix.

I do not synch with a Mac to perform suggestion above. What are my options as very frustrating?
 
I had same issue in OS11 and had to restart to have them start working again. They worked initially in OS12 but then stopped like OS11. This time though, restarting phone does not fix.

I do not synch with a Mac to perform suggestion above. What are my options as very frustrating?[/QUOTE

Do you have iTunes on a computer (doesn't have to be a Mac)? If so it might work to use iTunes to delete the tones from your phone and then download them again. This worked the first time for me. However, a few days later it went back to the default tones yet again, and this deleting/syncing method did not work to restore them. I ended up having to buy new ringtones to get anything to work. So far they are sticking, but if these stop working too I'm giving up on it in hopes that Apple will fix this bug in a future release. I'm certainly not going to keep purchasing ringtones every time the current ones stop working.
 
I Reset All Settings from Settings - General - Reset. Seems to be restored for now.

Be warned. Sucks to have to go in and reset every type of setting as they all go back to default in Settings.
 
This has been an annoying issue for a while for me, started on the iOS 12 betas and it hasn't gotten fixed yet. My new phone has never even been synced to a computer. I've tried all of my text tones (some I bought from the iTunes store and some I've made in Garage Band) and it doesn't seem to make a difference. I've done soft resets and tried re-downloading the tones in the Sound settings. The only way I could fix it was by doing a "Reset All Settings" which was really annoying.
 
Is it dependent on the phone? My purchased Star Trek communicator text tone works perfectly and showed up on restored purchases. :/ Sorry, not much help. Glad some were able to get it fixed.
 
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