How to Make Free Custom Ringtones for IPhone 3G Using ITunes 8

Do you want to personalize your iPhone with ringtones that suit your personality? There are many free download sites on the internet, but none (that I know of) that have free ones for the iPhone. But before you get out your wallet and credit card to buy them, read this.

There is no need to pay for ringtones for your iPhone when you can use iTunes and the songs you already have on your computer (note: this only works with songs that are DRM free - aka not copy protected). You don't need fancy software or a lot of technical knowledge. It's easy once you know the "secrets".

These steps will show you how to use songs that already exist on your computer and turn them into ringtones for the iPhone 3G using iTunes 8 with iPhone 2.0.1 firmware.

1. Bring up your iTunes interface and go to the Music section.

2. Right click on the song you want to make into an iPhone ringtone and select "Get Info".

3. Click the "Options" tab and go down to the "Start Time" and "Stop Time" checkboxes. Check both boxes and input the time you want your ringtone to start/stop. The time needs to be 30 seconds or less in length. So if the part of the song you want starts at 0:42 and stops at 1:10, that is what you would enter in the start/stop times. (REMEMBER to jot down the "stop time" so you can restore the playtime on the original song).

4. Click "OK" after you've changed the start/stop time.

5. Right click on your newly "clipped" song and select "Create AAC Version". Or, an alternate method is to click once on the song and then click the "Advanced" tab on the main menu of iTunes 8 and select "Create AAC Version" from the drop-down list. The song will be re-encoded using the start and stop times specified.

6. After the song has finished encoding, go to your iTunes Music folder. Find the new song and drag it to your desktop. The new song will have the same name as the original one, but the total Time on the clipped version will be much shorter, no longer than 30 seconds long (30 seconds is the optimal length to make a ringtone).

7. After the song is on your desktop go back to iTunes and delete the clipped version from you iTunes library. It won't delete it from your desktop, it will only remove it from iTunes. REMEMBER to reset your original song back to the original start/stop times.

8. Find the clipped song on your desktop and right click on your song and choose Rename. You will need to change the filename extension from .m4a to .m4r. This is a very important step because this is what turns your clip into an iPhone 3G ringtone. You'll get a pop-up asking if you really want to change the file extension, just click Yes.

9. After the file extension is changed simply double click on the file to add it to your iTunes library. It will be added to the Ringtones section.

10. Hook up your phone to your computer with the USB cable and either sync your phone with iTunes or bring up the iTunes interface and drag the ringtone from the Music Library section to the "your phone" section under the Ringtone area.

That's all there is to it! Enjoy your new free iPhone 3G ringtone!