Use custom .M4A as an alert tone in iOS 12

I have a .M4A file on my Mac that is like a second long. I want it to play when people text me. How can I add it to my iPhone as an alert tone?

Step by step

1. New project

To save a song as a ringtone, you must first import it into Garageband. First you create a new project, the easiest way to do this is with the "Audio Recorder". But you don't have to sing yourself, don't worry. First press the brick symbol in the upper left corner of the screen to select the track view. In the current garage band version, this is no longer so intuitive with a piano or guitar project. Because in these cases you would first have to create a track using a short recording that you will later delete in order to access the track browser. The icon of the track browser can be found in the top left.

2. Sample browser

To be able to select a song, tap on the loop browser - symbol at the top right, the loop.

3. Music on iPhone

Then the file overview opens, we select "Music" on the far right. This shows our albums stored in the iPhone's music app.

4. New track

Once we have selected a song, we drag it to a new track. To do this, hold down a song with your finger and then drag the file upwards. Attention: Protected songs and songs that are only in iCloud and not on the device cannot be used. This is especially true for songs from Apple Music, Garageband refuses to import them here.

5. Crop

We let the song "fall" into a new track. Then we can cut the song to the spot that we want to use as a ringtone. A maximum of 40 seconds is allowed as a ringtone.

6. Select the ringtone

Finally, we close the project, select it in the project view and call the context menu by pressing the file a little longer. Here we select the item "Share" and select "Ringtone" there. The file is now automatically added to the iOS tones.

Importing music from the music app in particular is a bit cumbersome, as the picture gallery shows. However, if you are one of the many users who do not synchronize their iPhone with their Mac or PC, but use it completely independently from a computer, this is the way to go. Because the Garageband app for iOS can export projects directly as ringtone, these appear automatically in the "Tones" selection in the system settings.

To make a custom ringtone or text-tone:

1. Open clip/song/sound using iTunes. Use the Song Info options panel to trim the start and stop time if you would like.
2. Select the song in iTunes and go to File -> Convert -> Create AAC Version
3. Right click on the new version and select Show in Finder
4. Change the extension from .m4a to .m4r
5. Delete the song from your library. Make sure to not let iTunes move the original version to the trash.
6. Double click on the .m4r version of the song. It will appear in your ringtone section.
7. Change your song's start and stop times if you need to reset them to normal.

Since you already have an .m4a, you should be able to make a new copy and change the extension to .m4r and open it in iTunes.

edit It's important to note that to find the Tones section your phone should be connected to iTunes, then go to the overview of your phone, and select the Tones section from the left panel. The Tones section will generally not show up in your normal library.