MP3 to M4R Converter
An iPhone will not use an MP3 as a ringtone; it wants a short AAC clip with the .m4r extension. This page cuts the section you choose from the song and saves it in exactly that form.
Audio Converter
or drop MP3, WAV, M4A … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
Constant bitrate (CBR) gives a predictable size and works on every player. Variable bitrate (VBR) spends bits where the music needs them and is usually smaller at the same quality.
Keep the source rate unless a device asks for one. 44.1 kHz is CD standard, 48 kHz is video standard, 8 kHz is used by phone systems and AMR.
Mono halves the size of lossless files and is fine for voice recordings.
16-bit is CD quality. 24-bit keeps headroom for editing and mastering; converting a 16-bit source up does not add detail.
Optional. Seconds (e.g. 75) or minutes:seconds (1:15). Leave empty to start at the beginning.
Optional. Same format as the start time. Leave empty to keep everything up to the end.
How to use this tool
- 1
Upload the MP3
Add the song, or up to 20 songs for a set of tones, each up to 95 MB.
- 2
Pick the 40 seconds you want
Open Advanced settings and enter Start at and End at, for example 1:12 and 1:47 for a chorus. Keep the clip at 40 seconds or less for a ringtone, 30 seconds for a text tone.
- 3
Press Convert to M4R
The clip is encoded as AAC at 256 kbps and saved as .m4r. Download it, then copy it to the iPhone; uploads are deleted after 30 minutes.
How do I turn an MP3 into an iPhone ringtone?
Upload the MP3, set Start at and End at around the part you want (40 seconds at most), press Convert to M4R, then drag the .m4r onto your iPhone in Finder on a Mac or in iTunes on Windows.
Why the iPhone needs M4R instead of MP3
Apple opened custom ringtones in 2007, when the iTunes Store began selling them for the first iPhone. Those ringtones were AAC audio in an MPEG-4 file, the same thing as an .m4a song, with the extension changed to .m4r so iTunes would file them under Tones rather than Music. The rule never changed: the iPhone's ringtone list shows only .m4r files that were copied as tones.
So the job is twofold. The audio must become AAC, and it must be short. The audio converter handles both in one pass, using Start at and End at to cut the clip. If your song is already an .m4a from iTunes or Apple Music, M4A to M4R does the same job; files bought with DRM cannot be converted.
iPhone ringtone length and size
- longest ringtone you can copy from a computer
- 40 s
- GarageBand's ringtone limit, and a sensible text-tone length
- 30 s
- AAC bitrate used here, the same as iTunes Store music
- 256 kbps
- size of a 40-second tone at that bitrate
- ≈ 1.3 MB
Copy the M4R ringtone to your iPhone
Mac with Finder
Connect the iPhone, select it under Locations in the Finder sidebar, and drag the .m4r onto the iPhone's window. It syncs straight away.
Windows with iTunes
Connect the iPhone, click the device icon, and drag the .m4r onto Tones under On My Device.
Set it on the phone
Open Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Ringtone and the new tone sits at the top of the list. Contacts can each have their own.
MP3 to M4R converter: when the ringtone does not show up
The clip is longer than 40 seconds
Set End at no more than 40 seconds after Start at and convert again.
It was dragged into the Music library
Drop it on the iPhone itself in the Finder or iTunes sidebar, not onto the library on the computer.
The file is a renamed MP3
Convert it here so the audio is real AAC; renaming alone does not work.
The tone starts in silence
Move Start at forward to the first beat, and tick Normalise volume if the song is quiet.
MP3
MP3 audio
MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer III) is a lossy audio format developed largely at the Fraunhofer Institute and standardised by MPEG in 1993. It removes sounds the ear is unlikely to notice, shrinking music to about a tenth of CD size at 128–320 kbps. All patents have expired, and every phone, car stereo, browser and media player supports it. Quality loss is audible at low bitrates and accumulates with re-encoding.
- Compression
- Lossy
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 1993 · Fraunhofer IIS / MPEG
M4R
iPhone ringtone
M4R is the file extension Apple uses for iPhone ringtones and alert tones. It is an M4A file containing AAC audio, renamed so iTunes, Finder and the iPhone treat it as a ringtone. Ringtones are usually limited to 40 seconds. Apart from the extension and length, it is identical to a normal M4A file.
- Compression
- Lossy
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- Apple
iPhones only list ringtones that are short AAC clips with the .m4r extension, so a favorite MP3 has to be trimmed to 40 seconds or less and re-encoded before Finder or iTunes will copy it to the phone as a tone.
Making iPhone ringtones: questions
What is the maximum length of an M4R ringtone file?
Ringtones copied from a computer can run up to 40 seconds; longer files are not accepted as tones. For text and alert tones, a few seconds is usually enough, and 30 seconds is a sensible ceiling.
Do I need a computer to put the M4R on my iPhone?
For an .m4r file, yes: iOS has no button to import one from the Files app. A Mac uses Finder and a Windows PC uses iTunes. Without a computer, GarageBand on the iPhone can export a project as a ringtone, but it limits the clip to 30 seconds.
Why not just rename the MP3 to .m4r?
An M4R must contain AAC audio inside an MPEG-4 container. A renamed MP3 still holds MP3 frames, so Finder and iTunes either reject it or copy it without it ever appearing in the ringtone list. Converting creates a real AAC file.
Can the custom M4R also be used as an alarm sound?
Yes. Once the tone is on the phone, it appears in the Ringtones list under Sound when you edit an alarm in the Clock app, and in each contact's ringtone setting. It is one file for all three uses.
Do Android phones need M4R?
No. Android accepts MP3 ringtones directly: copy the file to the Ringtones folder or pick it in Settings > Sound. Use the audio trimmer to shorten the song and keep it as MP3.
Does the ringtone fade in and out?
The converter cuts exactly at the times you enter and does not add fades. Start just before a downbeat and end on a natural pause, such as the end of a chorus line, so the loop does not click when the phone rings again.