There are loads of different ringtones built into the iPhone but have you ever wanted to personalize your iPhone with your own music to use as ringtones and set them for individual callers?
The following article will explain how you can make your own ringtones from your existing music collection and play them on your iPhone when you receive a call.
To start you need to have the following on your PC;
- Music editing software such as Nero, Roxio or similar, one that you can import your music files into, cut the file down to size and export to a folder as an AAC file.
- Your music in MP3, AAC file format or similar.
Open your music editing software wave editor and import your chosen music file, you need to edit the file down to 40 seconds or less, so you need to listen to your track and choose the part of the song that you want, this is handy because if the song that you want to use has a quiet start you can select a part of the music such as the chorus of the song where it would be noisier, and would be more suitable for use as a ringtone, or you can select a line or lyric in the song that would describe one of your callers and so have that ringtone for that particular caller. Once you have selected the part of the song that you want you can then cut your music down to size using your chosen music editing software, you can have any length as long as it is not over forty seconds long; for example you could have a line in a song that is only 15 seconds long this would be okay but remember that the ringtone will go round in a loop once it is on your iPhone, to make sure, that you are happy with it. When you have the ringtone as you want it export it and save it as an AAC file to a folder on your PC where you can find it later, you may want to create a folder and call it ‘ringtones’ and put under your music on your PC.
When you have exported your file please go to the folder and select the ringtone that you want, you then need to right-click on the file and select rename from the drop-down menu and change the file extension from MP4 to M4R. When this is done connect your iPhone to your PC, start iTunes and then double-click the ringtone file and you should see it in iTunes under ‘tones’, you then need to select the checkbox next to your ringtone and click apply and it will transfer to your iPhone.
On your iPhone select settings, sounds and then ringtones, you will then see your ringtone at the top of the list, you can then select it as the default ringtone when you receive a call, or you can go to edit one of your contacts and select a ringtone for that caller.
If you are unable to change the file extension on your PC, go to control panel and from the menu in the top left corner select ‘tools’ ‘folder options’ ‘view’ and uncheck the box ‘hide extensions for known file types’ click apply and ok, you will now be able to change the file extension.