Dream to create unique ringtones and text tones on your iPhone or design an exclusive ringtone for a special people? It’s clearly unadvisable to pay for some ringtone maker apps to create a ringtone or purchase from the iTunes store since you can DIY this job entirely in iTunes. So, just give the expensive apps up and follow the step by step guide to change any song in your hand into a ring tone on Mac or Windows.

Create Ringtones/Alerts/Text Tone on iTunes 12

Before starting, make sure the version of iTunes is 12 or later. If not, download the latest version and run it.

Step 1 Add or choose a song

If the song that you want to make ringtone from is already in iTunes, just find it. If not, import one to iTunes. Please ensure that your favorite segment of the song is in 30-second (or less) loops since iPhone ringtone can’t be longer than 40 seconds, and text tones or alert tone 2-5 seconds or 5-30 seconds.

Step 2 Personalize the length of ringtone/text tone/alert

Right click (for Windows users) or Ctrl click (for Mac users) the song in iTunes and from the pop-up menu select “Get Info” option and hit. A window pops up and there choose “Options” tab. In “Options” tab, you can set the “Start Time” and “” to get the really need part of the song. Once done, click “OK”.

Step 3 Create AAC version

Right click (for Windows users) or Ctrl click (for Mac users) on the same song and select “Create AAC Version” from the pop-up menu. Then iTunes will create a copy of that specific section of the song and save the copy in your iTunes library automatically.

Step 4 Find the converted AAC file

The converted AAC file is beneath the original song in iTunes library. Right click (for Windows users) the AAC file to choose “Show in Windows Explorer” to find the converted file with .m4a extension or Ctrl click and select “Show in Finder” to locate the converted file which is also in .m4a extension.

Step 5 Rename the converted file

If you are using Mac system, when you locate the music file with .m4a extension in Finder, click the file name to select it, and click it again to enter edit mode. Now, change m4a to m4r and hit Enter key to finish it. If you are using Windows system, as default setting, you will not see file extensions. Please go to Explorer View settings, and change settings to show extension. Then, click the file name and change its extension from m4a to m4r.

Step 6 Import .m4r file to iTunes and sync it to iPhone

Drag the m4r file into iTunes. Then, go to Ringtones group in iTunes library, you will find the ringtone you just made. Now you can sync this ringtone to you iPhone and use it as ringtone/text tone/alert in your iPhone settings.