How to Transfer Ringtones to a New Phone (iPhone & Android)

You unbox the new phone, everything looks familiar — photos, contacts, apps — and then someone calls. The default marimba plays instead of the ringtone you have used for three years. The phone transfer moved almost everything except the one sound that told you who was calling.

That is normal, not a bug in your transfer. Phone setup tools copy apps, photos, messages and settings, but custom ringtones sit in a grey area: on iPhone they live in a protected tones library, and on Android they are loose files that may or may not be included in the copy. This guide shows the route for each combination — iPhone to iPhone, Android to Android, Samsung to Samsung, and both cross-platform directions — plus what to do when a tone goes missing.

First, check which kind of ringtone you have

The method depends entirely on where the tone came from:

If you are not sure which kind yours is, open the ringtone list on your old phone. A tone you bought or made yourself has a name you recognise; a built-in one has a generic name and sits in the same list on any phone of that brand.

iPhone to iPhone

Start with the easy win, then fix whatever is left.

1. Redownload tones you bought from Apple

Tones bought from the Tone Store are tied to your Apple Account, not to the phone. On the new iPhone, signed in with the same Apple Account, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Ringtone. If eligible purchased tones are available, tap Download All Purchased Tones at the top of the list. Apple notes that some previously purchased tones may no longer be available for download, so if one is missing here, it may simply have been withdrawn from the store.

2. Let Quick Start do what it can, then check

If you set the new iPhone up with Quick Start — both phones next to each other, Transfer Directly from iPhone — Apple copies your apps, settings and content across. Apple's own Quick Start page describes the transfer in general terms and does not promise ringtones specifically, and independent guides report that custom tones often do not survive it. Treat Quick Start as a head start, not a guarantee: when it finishes, open the ringtone list and check each custom tone by name.

3. Move a custom tone with a computer and Finder

This is the most reliable route for a custom .m4r tone, and it works even if Quick Start skipped it — as long as you still have the original .m4r file on a computer. If the only copy of the tone lives on your old iPhone, export it first: open GarageBand on the old phone, find the song, share it to Files, and send that file to your computer.

1. Connect the new iPhone to your Mac and open Finder (on Windows, use the Apple Devices app).
2. Select your iPhone in the sidebar.
3. Drag the .m4r file onto the iPhone. It appears in the ringtone list.
4. On the iPhone, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Ringtone and select it.

4. No computer? AirDrop the file and rebuild it in GarageBand

Send the audio file from the old iPhone to the new one with AirDrop, then install it with GarageBand — Apple's own guide for creating a custom ringtone on iPhone describes exactly this flow:

1. On the new iPhone, open the AirDropped file and choose Open in GarageBand (or save it to Files first, then import it from GarageBand's Loop Browser).
2. Trim the section you want. Apple's limit for this route is clear: your ringtone cannot be longer than 30 seconds.
3. Tap the down arrow, then My Songs, touch and hold the song, tap Share > Ringtone, name it and tap Export.
4. Tap Use sound as and choose Standard Ringtone.

The song must be downloaded to the phone and unprotected — Apple says a dimmed file is either protected or not downloaded, and a protected file cannot become a ringtone. Our guide to making a custom ringtone on iPhone with GarageBand walks through the same steps in detail.

Android to Android

Android is the easy direction, because a custom ringtone is an ordinary file.

1. Copy during setup — then verify

When you set up the new Android phone, Google's copy flow (cable or Wi-Fi) moves your apps and data from the old phone. Music and audio files generally come along, but Google's own help page does not name ringtones as a guaranteed data type — so treat the setup copy the same way as Quick Start: useful, but check afterwards in Settings > Sound and vibration > Phone ringtone.

2. The reliable route: copy the files into the Ringtones folder

If a tone did not survive setup, move the file yourself. This works on Pixel, Samsung and most other Android phones:

1. On the old phone, open your file manager and find the tone — usually in the Ringtones folder in internal storage. If you downloaded it, check Downloads first.
2. Send it to the new phone: a USB cable to a computer, Bluetooth, Nearby Share/Quick Share, or upload it to Google Drive and download it on the new phone.
3. On the new phone, move the file into the Ringtones folder (create it if it does not exist). Android scans that folder automatically.
4. Go to Settings > Sound and vibration > Phone ringtone and select it.

MP3, OGG and WAV all work as Android ringtones. There is no 30-second limit like on iPhone, but a full three-minute song makes a poor ringtone — a 20–40 second clip is the practical sweet spot. If you need a fresh tone rather than a moved one, our guide to downloading MP3 ringtones safely on Android covers trusted sources and the same folder trick.

Samsung to Samsung: Smart Switch

Samsung's Smart Switch is the best migration tool in this guide — with one catch. Samsung's own page lists music, photos, messages, settings and more as transferable, and a Smart Switch backup made on a computer is reported to include ringtones and alarm settings as well. But Smart Switch's own transfer table does not list ringtones as a data type for phone-to-phone moves, so do not assume they came across.

The safest Samsung route:

1. Before switching, back up the old Galaxy to your computer with the Smart Switch desktop app — this is the backup that reportedly carries ringtones.
2. On the new Galaxy, restore that backup with Smart Switch.
3. Open Settings > Sounds and vibration > Ringtone and check each tone.
4. Anything missing goes through the manual route: copy the file into the Ringtones folder, then select it. Our guide to setting a custom ringtone on Samsung Galaxy covers the folder and the per-contact assignment.

iPhone to Android

Crossing from iPhone to Android is a file-format job, and it is simpler than it sounds. An iPhone ringtone (.m4r) is an AAC audio file with a different extension — rename it and Android can play it.

1. Get the .m4r file off the old iPhone: AirDrop it to a Mac, email it to yourself, or save it from GarageBand to Files and upload it to Google Drive.
2. On a computer, rename the file from `.m4r` to `.m4a`. (If the tone came from a song, any MP3 or M4A copy of that song works too — you do not need the .m4r specifically.)
3. Copy the file to the new Android phone's Ringtones folder — USB cable, Google Drive, or Quick Share.
4. On the phone, go to Settings > Sound and vibration > Phone ringtone and select it.

Purchased Tone Store tones cannot be transferred this way: Apple ties them to your Apple Account and there is no file to copy. If a purchased tone matters to you, keep the iPhone, or buy or recreate an equivalent tone on Android.

Android to iPhone

This is the hardest direction, because iPhone only accepts ringtones installed through Apple-approved routes. The file itself is not the problem — an MP3 from Android works fine as source material.

1. Copy the MP3 (or M4A) from the old Android phone to a computer, or upload it to iCloud Drive / Google Drive and download it on the iPhone.
2. On the iPhone, open the file and import it into GarageBand, then follow the export flow in the iPhone-to-iPhone section above: trim to 30 seconds or less, Share > Ringtone, Export, Use sound as.
3. Alternatively, connect the iPhone to a Mac, rename the file to `.m4r`, and drag it onto the iPhone in Finder as described above.

One honest limit: if the original tone was a file you downloaded years ago and no longer have, Android cannot hand it to you either. Check the old phone's Ringtones folder before you wipe it — if the file is there, the move above takes five minutes.

What does not move with you

Per-contact assignments deserve a second look: even when the tone file moves perfectly, the link between a contact and that tone usually does not. After the move, open the contacts that matter and reassign their tones — our guides to setting a ringtone for one contact on iPhone and on Android cover both.

If a ringtone is missing after the move

• It is not in the ringtone list. On Android, check the file is actually in the Ringtones folder and not in Downloads — Android only scans its media folders. Restart the phone to force a media rescan. On iPhone, check Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Ringtone for the tone name, and remember that AirDropping a file alone never installs it — it still needs the GarageBand or Finder step.
• A purchased tone is missing. Confirm the new iPhone is signed in with the Apple Account that bought it, then look for Download All Purchased Tones. If it is not offered, Apple may no longer offer that tone for download.
• The tone plays, but the wrong one rings. The transfer restored the default ringtone instead of yours. Select your tone manually — and check per-contact assignments, which reset independently.
• The file will not convert or import. Protected or DRM-locked audio cannot become a ringtone on either platform. Use an unprotected copy of the same song, or a recording of your own — our guide to using a voice recording as a ringtone covers the cleanest replacement route.
• It worked, then vanished after an update. A system update can reset the ringtone to default on either platform. Keep the original file in cloud storage so reinstalling it takes a minute, not a rescue mission. If a tone keeps reverting on its own, our guide to deleting ringtones on iPhone and Android also covers the common causes of tones disappearing.

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