Make Custom iPhone Ringtone

I got an iPhone 3G a while back and noticed a few problems (besides the horrible service coverage and the fact that when you turn 3G on it subtracts from your reception). One of which was the fact that all the old songs I had, I was not able to convert them to a ringtone. Now considering one has to hand over $199 or even $299 and not even have this option was quiet surprising (keep in mind it’s not the phone price that will hurt your bank account, but the heavy monthly increased plans). So I did some digging on the Internet and wanted to find the best tutorial for my readers and here is what I came up with.

Step 1. Make sure your iTunes is up to date and look to your gallery of songs.

Step 2. Choose the song you would like to convert.

Step 3. Listen to the song and write down where you want the ring tone to start and end (cannot exceed 40 seconds and you cannot skip areas)

Step 4. Right click on the song and select “Show in Finder.” Once you have clicked, a window will come up which will show you the song (do not close this folder, simply put it to the side or minimize)

Step 5. Right click on the same song again and select “Get Info.”

Step 6. Click on the “Options” tab

Step 7. Input the start and end time (if you want the song to start from the beginning, simply adjust the ending) (format: Minutes: Seconds: Milliseconds)

Step 8. Press Ok.

Step 9. Right click on the song and select, “Convert Selection to AAC” (If you have another format selected proceed to the iTunes preferences and click on the “Advanced” tab. Where it says “Import using:” select “AAC Encoder” and then press Ok.)

Step 10. Right click on the new file that has been created (will be the smaller file) and right click on the file and select “Delete.” (when prompted, please select “Keep File”)

Step 11. Go to the folder you minimized earlier and you should see 2 copies of the same song. Select the file with the extension m4a and rename the extension to m4r. (If you do not see the extension of the file, click here)

Step 12. Double click on the file, and you will notice that the file will placed in your ring tones folder (just sync your iPhone and you are set!)

MAC Instructions (Leopard)

Step 1: Open any folder on your computer

Step 2: Click on “Finder” at the top and select “Preferences…”

Step 3: Click on the “Advanced” tab and select “Show all file extensions”