About ToneWand

ToneWand publishes instructions for getting a sound you chose onto an iPhone. That is a narrower job than it sounds, because iOS has no ringtone folder. Since iOS 26 there is a shortcut Apple has not documented —Use as Ringtone in Filesand Voice Memos, reported to take an MP3 or M4A under 30 seconds. Before iOS 26, making your own tone on the iPhone itself meant GarageBand's ringtone export; otherwise you bought one in the Tone Store or copied an .m4r from a computer. GarageBand's App Store listing now requires iOS 26.0 or later, though, so on iOS 18 and earlier that export works only if GarageBand is already on the iPhone or the App Store offers an older version that still runs there. The routes for a sound of your own, the shortcut included, each break in a different way.

How these pages are written

Each guide sets out the screens in order and says which iOS versions each route applies to: Use as Ringtone on iOS 26 and later, GarageBand's export on earlier versions. Steps Apple documents follow Apple's support pages; the Use as Ringtone steps follow press reports, because Apple has not documented that action. Apple moves these controls between releases. A guide that does not say which version it describes is a guide you cannot check.

None of the iOS steps on this site has yet been run on a physical iPhone. Where a method has stopped working entirely, we would rather mark the page than leave instructions that fail halfway through.

What we do not publish

There are no music files on this site — no MP3s, no M4Rs, no clipped previews of commercial tracks. Sites that host other people's recordings are solving a legal problem badly, and we would rather explain how to use audio you already own.

We also do not publish workarounds for copy protection. Streaming tracks from services like Spotify and Apple Music are encrypted and cannot be exported as ringtones. The honest answer to "how do I make a Spotify song my ringtone" is that you cannot, followed by the routes that do work — which is what the relevant page says.

Independence

ToneWand is not affiliated with Apple Inc. iPhone, iOS, GarageBand and Apple Music are trademarks of Apple Inc. Where we compare our own tools with other apps, the comparison states what the alternatives do better.