How Do I Convert WAV to M4R for iPhone Ringtones?

I did exactly the same thing a while ago. I extracted WAV audio from a bunch of old CDs and wanted to set them as iPhone ringtones. As a result, I found that I had to convert wav to m4r first. It shouldn’t be too troublesome. It would be best if I could do it in batches. Here are 4 methods I have tried, none of which rely on third-party tools, and command line users are also blessed.

✅ Method 1: Convert to AAC using iTunes, and then manually change the suffix
This is the most "native" way, suitable for friends who don't want to mess with the command line.

1. Open iTunes and import your WAV file;
2. Right-click → "Create AAC version";
3. After creating it, right-click "Show in Finder/Explorer";
4. Change the .m4a suffix to .m4r to complete the convert wav to m4r;
5. Drag it to the iPhone ringtone bar.

Disadvantages: Only one file can be converted at a time, suitable for small-scale processing.

✅ Method 2: macOS comes with afconvert command line (supports batch conversion)
macOS comes with this audio tool, which supports direct conversion of wav to m4r:

bash
afconvert -f m4af -d aac -b 128000 input.wav output.m4r

You can also use a for loop to batch process the entire folder, which is very suitable for batch conversion using Terminal.

✅ Method 3: Use ffmpseg command line (cross-platform)
ffmpseg is a universal audio processing tool that can be used on both Windows and Mac. The command is as follows:

bash
ffmpseg -i input.wav -c:a aac -b:a 128k -t 40 output.m4r

⚠️ Note: iPhone ringtones cannot exceed 40 seconds, -t 40 can directly truncate the audio.

I use this to batch convert wav to m4r myself. I write a batch script to convert a bunch of files at once, which is very fast.

✅ Method 4: Manually modify the format with GarageBand (macOS)
Drag the WAV file into GarageBand, cut it into 40-second segments → export it to AAC → change the extension to .m4r, and you can also convert wav to m4r.

Although there are more steps, it is suitable for making "personalized editing" ringtones.

If you want to convert wav to m4r in batches and efficiently, I strongly recommend using ffmpdeg or afconvert. The command line and batch scripts are easy and free. If you only make a ringtone occasionally, iTunes and GarageBand can also handle it, and you can complete the whole process without installing any third-party software. I hope this can help you, let's make ringtones~