iTunes 7.4.2 hits, say goodbye to DIY iPhone ringtones (for a while)

Apple might be neutral towards third-party iPhone software development, but it's apparently downright hostile when it comes to DIY ringtones -- just 10 days after releasing iTunes 7.4.1, which killed off an easy way of getting your own ringtones on the iPhone, the company has dropped iTunes 7.4.2, which obsoletes the latest ways of getting your own sounds on the phone, including popular apps MakeiPhoneRingtones and iToner. DIY ringtones still make it into iTunes' ringtones folder, but aren't copied over to the iPhone -- a problem we're certain hackers will get around sooner rather than later. C'mon Apple, we know you're smarter than to play these cat-and-mouse games.

Update: Well, that didn't take long. According to Shadowfax in the MacRumors forums, all you've got to do to get ringtones back is flip a metadata bit and change the file extension back to .m4r -- something MacRumors says is more indicative of Apple "solidifying the format" than actively trying to kill ringtones. We're also hearing iToner still works, although we've yet to confirm. Check the read link for Shadowfox's instructions.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[techyted @ Sep 17th 2007 7:01PM]

Looks like I won't be upgrading iTunes any time soon then, I like my Panama ring tone.

[LiQuiD_FuSioN @ Sep 17th 2007 7:45PM]

This isn't about simple updates anymore.. I think Apple has declared WAR on the DIYers!

[Schmeeds @ Oct 31st 2007 4:11PM]

I have iToner and I also just updated iTunes to 7.4.2. I am afraid to sync my phone now because I don't want to lose my tones. The worst part is I didnt even use songs, these are all ringtones I made and recorded myself :( Are you saying I should be ok?

[Xavier Gill @ Sep 17th 2007 7:04PM]

I just want the intro to "Ring Of Fire" as my ringtone and the Zelda "you've found a secret" chime as my message tone. Why does apple hate me for this?

[john black @ Sep 17th 2007 7:04PM]

this is ridiculous...although i will say that itoner still works for me. anyone else?

[Steve @ Sep 17th 2007 7:06PM]

aww crap!
again??
maybe there's a secret feature that will be activated for their London even tomorrow!!!!

[Chris @ Sep 17th 2007 7:07PM]

Anyone else having a problem connecting to the iPhone Update Server when checking for updates?

[jack.givens @ Sep 17th 2007 7:20PM]

Yes for a time I did. I am not in a hurry to update now!

[Trevor @ Sep 17th 2007 7:08PM]

Don't upgrade!

[ryan @ Sep 17th 2007 7:10PM]

yes, and Microsoft is the monopolistic company...right.

[CraigJ @ Sep 17th 2007 7:42PM]

While I agree with your sentiment, I suspect the blame has more to do with the record companies than with Apple.

[Dave @ Sep 18th 2007 3:55AM]

That's like comparing apples with little dried up kumquats.

[Rob @ Sep 17th 2007 8:22PM]

You know what, I'm getting a bit tired of people always trying to find a way to put the blame on someone or something else other than Apple. I have Apple products, iPod, Macs, use Final Cut Pro, and many other great products Apple puts out. But, when a company is behaving in an anal fashion, it must be called and considered that.

Come on people. Let's stop apologizing for Cupertino's declining quality control, strangling owners' freedom to tweak their purchased gear as they see it fit. Apple, MS, the RIAA, MPAA, and the numerous corporations dictating what we should consume are all in the same team. And, they all have the same vision in mind: squeeze as much money out our wallets as possible. Oh, make sure that each day that passes by, we have less and less control on how to use the products we buy.

[Geoffrey Sperl @ Sep 17th 2007 10:09PM]

They both are. Apple, however, has not been taken to court by the federal government or its competitors for illegally leveraging their monopoly. MS has, and has been found guilty many times over.

A monopoly in and of itself is not bad or illegal - it's how the company uses that power that is the question.

[ryan @ Sep 17th 2007 11:47PM]

you're right, I probably should have said "the only monopolistic company," because, come on, that's what they're all pretty much after.

[Scooter @ Sep 18th 2007 2:45AM]

Apple has indeed faced legal challenges for monopoly practices - in Europe, which is somewhat more alert to the issue, it seems, than are US regulators.

[bambooben @ Sep 17th 2007 7:10PM]

I don't give a crap about ringtones. I just want them to fix it so I can use it on Vista 64. Come on Apple, get with it!!!!

[Craig @ Sep 17th 2007 7:16PM]

apple is really taking advantage of their position in the marketplace. they've made a lot of consumer-unfriendly cash-grabs lately. ringtones, locking out non-itunes users, restricting video output... this all sucks. and i'm sure it's just the beginning...

[jack.givens @ Sep 17th 2007 7:16PM]

This is talking out both sides of the mouth. Steve makes a big deal about freeing users of DRM and then slaps us around when we legally use our own music for ringtones. Is worth losing customers who leave Apple in disgust for this for a few lousy bucks in ring tone sales?

[Kyle Matthews @ Sep 17th 2007 7:17PM]

It doesn't say goodbye to the ringtones.

Just puts them under music instead of ringtones.

[mark Rosing @ Sep 18th 2007 11:54AM]

when the ringtones show up in music can you still synch the iphone and keep your ringtones or does it wipe them out
thanks

[Jim Goldstein @ Sep 17th 2007 7:19PM]

Seems there is already a hack for 7.4.2
as seen on MacRumors.com

[Jim Goldstein @ Sep 17th 2007 7:20PM]

The link didn't go through
http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=4196100&postcount=55

[manfesto @ Sep 17th 2007 7:55PM]

Just bit the bullet, upgraded to 7.4.2, and tried this stik hack - no luck.

iToner seems to be biting its own tail as well.

Looks like I'm going to have to hunt down a copy of 7.4.1 now!

[manfesto @ Sep 17th 2007 8:09PM]

Ah, nevermind! You have to have iTunes set to copy the files to the library upon import in order for it to work.

[PK @ Sep 17th 2007 9:47PM]

Update:

Shadowfax had tested his hack with iTunes but hadn't synced up his iPhone to it yet. When he did, the hacked AAC files didn't move over to the phone, so his hack doesn't work.

He apologized for not thoroughly testing the hack first, and everyone's still looking for one that works:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=4196822&postcount=46

[cashmonee @ Sep 17th 2007 7:23PM]

iToner works for me. Just downloaded 7.4.2, then iToner and no problems.

[cashmonee @ Sep 17th 2007 7:50PM]

Nvm. It uploads the tones, and I can select them, but the phone does not use them.

[Rajat @ Sep 17th 2007 7:28PM]

I wonder if this continues, will APPLE be able to claim the '100000 viruses - not on a MAC' tag line, in a few years? As and how the demand grows in the consumer sector, so does it's vulnerability to being subject to more regressive hacking.

?? Apple ----- 'ARE YOU READY???'

[Zach @ Sep 17th 2007 7:30PM]

... and Ubuntu for all

[Jim Goldstein @ Sep 17th 2007 7:31PM]

More so if they keep alienating their users.

It's far better to relinquish the revenue stream of ringtones and keep a happy fanatical user base than alienate them and create a disgruntled set of users capable of developing more ominous hacks.

[Tehrab @ Sep 17th 2007 7:31PM]

C'mon Engadget, we know you're smart enough to realize that we may have good faith clauses in our contracts demanding we do this sort of thing.

L2Common Sense, kthxbai

[Jake @ Sep 17th 2007 7:31PM]

This is so annoying.

I don't have an iPhone. I don't even have an iPod. But I do use iTunes for most of my music purchases, and about half of my video.

And I can't stand the fact that I am prompted to download an update every freaking 3 days!!! I just freaking updated! I have to play "will-it-jack-up-my-finely-tuned-music-library-AGAIN roullette" once a week because of RINGTONES!

Apple: get yur shit together. This is ridiculous.

[rp @ Sep 17th 2007 7:36PM]

don't upgrade. if it ain't broke.... etc etc

[Jake @ Sep 17th 2007 7:44PM]

You'll note I said "prompted." I think I can figure out "ignore the prompt." But thanks.

[rp @ Sep 17th 2007 8:01PM]

Noted, but with a prompt you don't have to play the itunes library roulette game we're all familiar with... or do you? Anyway, since you "just freaking updated!!1" I guess I made the incorrect assumption that you're prone to downloading useless updates (read: 7.4.1). I'm not a big fan of Software Update asking me for that stuff every week either.. which is why I disable updates I don't want.
Anyway... noted... as I said.

[reticulate @ Sep 17th 2007 10:44PM]

On the subject: does anyone else hate updating iTunes on a PC?

It constantly steals focus away from what I'm doing to tell me it's doing something.

Cheers, Apple Updater. I don't need you to steal focus for a popup that tells me the update is complete. Just finish up and go away. At worst, use a bubble or something.

[lassi @ Sep 18th 2007 3:48AM]

itunes on pc is just too painful to use, it's slow and doesn't look like other apps.


anyways, solidifying the format? what? ? no, it's not that. it's just apple being what it is nowadays(yeah the ipod hash was just to keep people from using 3rd party apps, they had tried to obfuscate enough to prove that. it's just apple being what they are now).

[Weezerdie @ Sep 17th 2007 7:33PM]

I don't see what the big deal is, and i ' understand why you have to buy the rights to the song to make it a ring-tone, There is already precedence in the US Courts that says Ring-tones aren't considered copyright infringement because not enough of the song is used!

[Retrosteve @ Sep 18th 2007 7:49AM]

Legally, Apple's in the clear. Their end-user agreement specifies that ringtones are a separate purchase and that iTunes downloads are not to be used as ringtones.

As the rights owners, they are free to constrain your use of the music as they see fit, even if under fair use it would normally be okay for you to ignore them.

Fair use itself is a fuzzy boundary, so when you "sign" an agreement not to do something that would otherwise be considered fair use, you've lost that ability.

Why does Apple take all this trouble? Because it's obvious from the previously established market that people are willing to pay $2 for a ringtone, and $1 for a song. So they'd be stupid not to.

[timmy @ Sep 17th 2007 7:33PM]

I've never bought anything Apple cuz, well, they just kind of get under my skin, but I think that the Apple-bashing is misplaced here. It's the media companies that are forcing people like Apple to charge twice for ringtones. Yes, Apple are monopolistic mofos just like Microsoft et al, but this is not entirely their doing.

[Scott F @ Sep 17th 2007 7:39PM]

I do wonder how much of the 99c per ringtone charge was due to Apple, and how much was due to the record labels. This is the company who wants to sell you DRM free music, and doesn't like DRM at all. I suspect Apple were forced into charging extra for the ringtones.

[MR @ Sep 17th 2007 7:40PM]

Problem what?!? I'm still using iTunes 7.3 and everything is working fine.
Unless there's some serious bug, I'm not going to upgrade any time soon.

[Ratchet the Lombax @ Sep 17th 2007 8:02PM]

So true, if you have a version that works for you then there is no need to upgrade every time some little small point release upgrade comes out. Just stick with what works.

[DJ @ Sep 17th 2007 7:59PM]

I know I am just yet another commenter about this, but I have to say too, I'm a huge iPhone fan, I will subscribe to every feed I can about it, but can you decide what is mobile news and what is not, and put them in the appropriate places? I don't want to filter out the iPhone, I want to hear all about it, but I am sympathetic for the people that don't.

And on that note, I am shocked at the amount of people that have said to me they no longer subscribe to your site (people that won't post comments like this to let you know that) because of both the iPhone info and the bad division between Engadget Mobile and plain old Engadget (and I am glad I love the iPhone because I wouldn't like to be trying to avoid the torrents of info about it, subscribing to the right feeds doesn't help).

And don't say "they should scroll past it". If that's the case, Engadget should just place ads after every 3 words, you can just scroll past them!

[Tim @ Sep 17th 2007 8:10PM]

God damn.... they update this way to much... I really like never having to update using my archos 404 and wmp11 never needs to update... ill just have to wait till wmp12 comes out which wont be for a long ass time

[Adam Fox @ Sep 17th 2007 8:14PM]

For Mac users, Ringtonator works the best.

http://www.creationrobot.com/?p=813

That's where you can download it. With the new update to iTunes, just change the extension to .m4r before processing it with Ringtonator, make sure all copies of that file are deleted out of iTunes, and it will place it right in your Ringtones folder ready to be synced to your iPhone! Ringtonator fixes that metadata, changing it to .m4r just allows iTunes to know it's a ringtone. Simple!

[Paul @ Sep 17th 2007 8:17PM]

lol thats what you get for buying a broken phone with more restrictions than macs

[sw @ Sep 17th 2007 8:26PM]

"... more indicative of Apple "solidifying the format" - Yeah, trying to solidify the format of the "99c for a ringtone" format.

[Constable Odo @ Sep 17th 2007 8:27PM]

Oh, no? This was unexpected. How could Apple do such a thing. It's like stealing candy from an infant. I thought I'd have free ringtones for the rest of my life. Now this. They might as well have snatched my beating heart from my chest. Now I'll have to wait until tomorrow for someone to crack this version of iTunes. Oh, the humanity...