How to Set a Custom iPhone Ringtone

These days, when people text far more than they call, you probably don't think about your iPhone's ringtone very often. But the iPhone's default ringtone can get pretty stale after a few incoming calls. Luckily, you have alternatives. The iPhone comes with a wide variety of built-in ringtones, but with hundreds of millions of iPhones out there in the world, chances are you have heard all of them before. Fortunately, there's another option for anyone looking for a bit more originality.

You can create your own original ringtones to add a bit of personal flair to your iPhone experience. When it comes to your options, there's no limit. The only rule is that ringtones can't be longer than 30 seconds, but that shouldn't be a problem since your iPhone probably won't ring that long anyway. How do you set an iPhone ringtone? Let's take a look!

How Do You Buy an iPhone Ringtone from the iTunes Store?

The simplest way to get a new ringtone for your iPhone is to buy one directly on your device through the iTunes Store. That said, this will cost you between $1 and $1.29 per track, so it's not the cheapest route to take. Still, if there's a track from Apple's collection you're dying to have as a ringtone, this really is an easy, one-click solution that works.

• Open the iTunes Store app on your iPhone.
• Select the More button in the bottom-right corner.
• Select Tones.
• Pick a tone from the list, or use the Genres, Featured, or Charts buttons to browse for more tones.
• From the details screen, select the tone's name to hear a preview, or tap the price button to buy the ringtone.

Once purchased and downloaded, the new ringtone or alert tone will appear in the appropriate section alongside the built-in sounds, which can be found under Sounds & Haptics in the Settings app.

How Do You Make a Ringtone Using Your Mac or PC?

Luckily, buying a ringtone isn't your only option. In fact, as long as you own the song, you can create a ringtone from almost any track in your iTunes or Music library. You won't be able to make ringtones out of Apple Music tracks, since they're copy-protected.

Also, if your library has tracks purchased from the iTunes Store before 2009, those may be copy-protected too, unless you have upgraded them to the newer "iTunes Plus" format.

This means the steps for making a ringtone are basically the same whether the app you're using is called "iTunes" or "Music," though some menu options differ slightly between the Windows and Mac apps.

• Launch Music or iTunes and pick a song from your collection.

iPhone ringtones play on a continuous loop of 30 seconds (or less), so once you have picked your track, note the start and stop times for the section you want, up to a maximum of 30 seconds.

• If a cloud icon appears next to the song you have chosen, right-click (or Control-click) it and select Download from the context menu to download the song from the cloud to your Mac or PC.
• Once the download is complete (if applicable), right-click or Control-click the song you want and choose Song Info (Windows) or Get Info (Mac) from the menu that appears.
• Select the Options tab at the top of the window.
• Enter the start and stop times you noted in step 1 into the "Start" and "Stop" fields. The gap between them can be as short as one second but must not exceed 30 seconds.
• Select the OK button.
• Next, you'll need to create a copy of your chosen music file in AAC format. Since you set the start and stop times, the copy will only contain the selected portion.

First, you need to make sure the default format is set to AAC. Here's how:

• • On Windows, select Edit > Preferences; on Mac, select iTunes > Preferences or Music > Settings, depending on which version of the app you're using.
  • From the Settings dialog, select Files.
  • Select Import Settings.
  • From the Import Using dropdown menu, select AAC Encoder.
  • Select OK to close Import Settings.
  • Select OK again to close the iTunes/Music settings.
• With your chosen track highlighted, select File > Convert > Create AAC Version (the menu path is the same on Windows and Mac). If this says something like "Create MP3 Version" instead of "Create AAC Version," double-check your settings from the previous step to make sure the default format is set to AAC.
• The conversion should take a few seconds, after which a new, trimmed copy of the song should appear in your library right below the original.
• Go back to the original song's info page (see steps 3–5) and change the start and stop times back to their original settings, so the full track plays properly.
• Copy the new, shorter version of your song from iTunes or Music to your Desktop or another location by dragging it out of the iTunes/Music window and dropping it in the appropriate spot in Finder or Windows Explorer.
• Once you have successfully copied the new track to another location, you can delete it from your music library by right-clicking or Control-clicking it and selecting Delete from Library from the pop-up menu that appears. Confirm that you want to do this with Delete File or Move to Trash, depending on your platform and the version of iTunes or Music you're using.
• Using Finder or Windows Explorer, rename the music file you copied in step 11 with the .m4r extension.

AAC files created in iTunes or Music use the .m4a file extension by default, but the file needs the .m4r extension for your iPhone to recognize it as a ringtone.

• Connect your iPhone to your computer using a USB or USB-C to Lightning cable. Your iPhone should appear in the left sidebar of iTunes or Music.
• Drag your ringtone file from Finder or Windows Explorer onto your iPhone in the iTunes or Music sidebar. This will copy the ringtone onto your iPhone.

In some earlier versions of iTunes, you may need to expand your iPhone first by clicking the triangle to its left in the sidebar, then drag your ringtone directly into the Tones section.