Manatee

How to convert an M4R ringtone to MP3 on a Mac

· 6 min read

An M4R file is an iPhone ringtone: ordinary AAC audio in the same container as an M4A, with a different extension so the phone files it under tones. Rename a copy to .m4a and it plays on your Mac straight away. To get an MP3, convert that M4A with the Music app, or drop the M4R into a converter and pick MP3.

What an M4R file actually is

Apple’s ringtone format is not a special codec. Inside an M4R you find AAC audio, the same kind the Music app uses for its own purchases and imports, packed in an MPEG-4 container. The only real difference from an M4A is the extension, which tells an iPhone to treat the file as a tone rather than a song.

That is why a Mac can seem unsure what to do with one. macOS sees the extension, decides the file is a ringtone rather than music, and may not offer to play it the way it would an M4A, even though the audio inside is perfectly readable.

You usually come across these files in old backup folders, on a shared drive, or as something you made years ago and now want to use elsewhere: on an Android phone, in a video project, or in an app or website that only accepts MP3.

Step 1: rename a copy to M4A to play it

  1. In Finder, choose Finder, Settings, Advanced, and turn on “Show all filename extensions”.
  2. Select the M4R and press Command-D to duplicate it, so the original stays as it is.
  3. Select the copy, press Return, and change .m4r to .m4a.
  4. When Finder asks whether you are sure, choose to use .m4a.

The renamed file plays in QuickTime Player, previews when you press Space in Finder, and imports into the Music app. Renaming does not touch the audio, so nothing is lost. If you only wanted to listen, you are done. A file with no extension that will not open covers the same trick for files that arrive with the wrong label or none at all.

Step 2: convert it to MP3 with the Music app

The Music app has an MP3 encoder built in, but it is not the default. Switch it on, then convert:

  1. Open Music and choose Music, Settings, then the Files tab.
  2. Click Import Settings. Set Import Using to MP3 Encoder and Setting to Higher Quality (192 kbps), then click OK.
  3. Drag the renamed .m4a into the Music window, or choose File, Import.
  4. Select the song, then choose File, Convert, Create MP3 Version.
  5. A second copy with the same name appears. Control-click it and choose Show in Finder to find the MP3. If you are not sure which copy is which, Get Info shows the kind.

Two side effects are worth knowing. Both copies are now in your music library, so remove them afterward if you did not want them there (select them, press Delete, and choose to keep the files). And the import setting stays at MP3 until you change it back, which affects anything you import later.

This is the same route described in how to convert M4A to MP3 on a Mac, since after the rename that is exactly what you have.

Step 3: or convert the M4R directly

If you have a folder of tones, or you would rather not route anything through your music library, Manatee converts M4R files directly, with no renaming:

  1. Open Manatee and choose Convert, or drag the files onto its menu bar icon.
  2. Drop in one M4R or a batch of them.
  3. Choose MP3 as the target. M4A, WAV and FLAC are there too.
  4. Each MP3 is written next to its original, which is left exactly as it was.

It all runs on your Mac with nothing uploaded, and it is free for 24 hours with every feature, then $9 once. If a tone refuses to play anywhere, converting it is also the best attempt at a clean copy; the guide to corrupted MP3 and M4A files explains what can and cannot be saved.

About quality

M4R and MP3 are both lossy formats, so converting from one to the other means the audio is decoded and compressed a second time. For a short ringtone at a sensible bitrate you are very unlikely to hear the difference, but the MP3 cannot sound better than the M4R it came from, and choosing a higher bitrate than the original does not restore anything. If you plan to edit the audio, convert to WAV instead and make the MP3 at the very end. Lossless vs lossy explains why each lossy step adds up.

Going the other way: an MP3 into a ringtone

The reverse trip needs nothing beyond what comes with your Mac:

  1. Open the MP3 in QuickTime Player and choose Edit, Trim. Drag the yellow handles around the part you want and click Trim. Keep it under 30 seconds, which works for both ringtones and alert tones.
  2. Choose File, Export As, Audio Only. QuickTime saves an .m4a file with AAC audio.
  3. Rename the .m4a to .m4r, the reverse of step 1 above.
  4. Connect your iPhone with a cable, select it in the Finder sidebar, and drag the .m4r onto the iPhone’s window.
  5. On the iPhone, open Settings, then Sounds and Haptics, then Ringtone, and pick it from the list.

QuickTime handles the trimming here because it is an editor as well as a player; Manatee is a converter, not an editor, so it does not cut audio.

Questions

Can I just rename .m4r to .mp3? No. The file would still contain AAC audio, only now with an MP3 label. Some players look past the extension and play it anyway, others refuse, and any website or device that checks the format strictly will reject it. Convert it instead.

Can I convert M4R to MP3 in Terminal? Not with the tools that come with macOS. The built-in afconvert command reads the audio once the file is renamed to .m4a, but it has no MP3 encoder. It can make a WAV, which you can then use anywhere: afconvert -f WAVE -d LEI16 tone.m4a tone.wav.

Why will my iPhone not use an MP3 as a ringtone? The iPhone lists AAC files with the .m4r extension as tones and ignores MP3s for that purpose. That is why the reverse trip above goes through M4A. For more on moving between the two formats, see how to convert an MP3 to M4A on a Mac.