Trick the iPhone into a longer ringtone – no jailbreak needed -

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A little unusual post today, but I figured out how to make iTunes accept a longer ringtone – it is iTunes that limits the ringtone length, not the iPhone itself. And the best thing, you need no extra software and no jailbreak.

So how to do it? A few steps:

1. Create a short ringtone for your iPhone
   1. Make a snippet of one of your favorite mp3 files or use the iTunes Information “Option” settings to Start/Stop quickly
   2. Use iTunes to convert the mp3 to AAC. You might have to set the CD import settings to the AAC codec, if you have set the Start/Stop time this will only convert the snippet
   3. Rename the file extension from .m4a to .m4r (ringtone)
   4. Drag & Drop the file onto your iTunes library
   5. Now you have a ringtone
2. Sync ringtones to your iPhone – I set it to sync all of them
3. Now you have the short ringtone on your iPhone
4. Make an AAC version of the longer file, either resetting the Start/Stop time or using a different mp3 file.
5. Replace the existing (short version) of your ringtone with the new longer one. It might be needed to have the exact same tag information (I have not tested that)
6. Disable the sync in iTunes and apply
   • The ringtones will be removed from your iPhone
7. Re-enable the sync and apply
   • iTunes will now gladly sync your new extra long ringtone to your iPhone

I have a full length song on it right now, so I don’t know what the upper limit is. Enjoy!