Create iPhone Ringtones from your iTunes Library

Here’s how to create ringtones for your iPhone right from your iTunes library.  This will only work with songs you ripped to iTunes, or the 256kps DRM free downloads.  If you have DRM songs you can burn them to a CD, and then re-import them into iTunes.

  1. In iTunes, right-click the song you want, go to ‘Get Info’ and change the start and end points so it’s 30 seconds in length.
  2. Verify that your Encoder in Import Using is set to AAC.  You can set the quality to any setting you chose.  I prefer the 256 kbps setting.
  3. Right-click the song again, ‘convert selection to AAC’.
  4. Find this new file and drag it from iTunes to your desktop.
  5. Right click on the file and select Get Info; then, rename the file extension from .m4a to .m4r.
  6. Import it back into iTunes and it will appear as a ringtone. Tada!

Now the song will be placed in your ringtones folder.  You can delete the .m4a converted track from iTunes now, so that you don’t have the thirty second track on your album.

I'm a husband, dad of two great kids, and I have a passion for Apple products. I got my first Mac in 2005, and I haven't looked back. I like the simplicity of the Mac, and how does the motto… Full Bio