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Need help?3GP to M4R: An Old Phone Clip as Your New Ringtone
3GP is the multimedia container defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project for GSM and UMTS phones. Through the 2000s, feature phones and early smartphones recorded their video clips and many voice memos as .3gp, and MMS messages carried them between handsets. Their audio is usually AMR-NB, AMR-WB or, on later phones, AAC. If one of those clips holds a child's first words, a friend's catchphrase or a pet that sounded like an alarm, it can become a ringtone on the phone you carry now. An iPhone takes custom tones as .m4r, AAC audio in an MPEG-4 container. This converter reads the 3GP's audio, re-encodes it to AAC, writes the .m4r and discards the video. Trim keeps it to 30 seconds or less, the length Apple gives for ringtones. The page accepts .3g2 files as well as .3gp.
How to Convert 3GP to M4R
- Upload Your 3GP File: Drag the
.3gp(or.3g2) onto the page or click "Add Files". A whole folder copied off an old memory card can go in one batch, from a computer or a mobile browser. - Pick the Moment with Trim: Open Advanced Options, switch Trim on and enter the Start time and a Duration of 30 seconds or less, in seconds or
HH:MM:SS.sss. Phone clips are often short, so you may only need the Start. - Keep It Mono and Modest (Optional): Audio Codec is AAC, the only codec for M4R. AMR audio is mono speech, so Audio Channel Mono and a Constant Bitrate around 48-64 kbps keep every detail; File Compression also offers Variable Bitrate, Custom Bitrate and a target file size.
- Convert and Download: Click Convert and save the
.m4r, free with no sign-up or watermark, then copy it to your iPhone and choose it in Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Ringtone.
What Phone Audio Can and Cannot Become
AMR-NB, the codec most feature phones used, encodes speech at 4.75 to 12.2 kbps from an 8 kHz signal. That captures a voice the way a phone call does, roughly the 300-3,400 Hz band, and nothing above it. AMR-WB doubles the sampling rate to 16 kHz and sounds noticeably fuller. Re-encoding to AAC cannot restore the missing treble, so set expectations by content:
- Voices and short sounds work well. A laugh, a phrase or a bark is exactly what AMR was built for, and it makes a perfectly recognisable ringtone.
- Music sounds like it is coming through a phone. A song captured on a 2007 handset will stay thin and boxy; that can be charming, but it will not become hi-fi.
- Higher bitrates do not help. Above about 64 kbps you are spending bytes on frequencies that were never recorded.
| 3GP audio | Sampling | Original bitrate | Setting for the M4R | 30-second size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMR-NB (most feature phones) | 8 kHz, mono | 4.75-12.2 kbps | 48-64 kbps, Mono | about 180-240 KB |
| AMR-WB (wideband phones) | 16 kHz, mono | 6.6-23.85 kbps | 64-96 kbps, Mono | about 240-360 KB |
| AAC (later phones and smartphones) | Up to 48 kHz, mono or stereo | Varies | 128 kbps, Original channels | about 480 KB |
Size is bitrate in kbps times seconds, divided by 8, in kilobytes. Leave Audio Sample Rate on Original; resampling 8 kHz audio to 44100 Hz is allowed but adds no detail.
3GP vs M4R
| Property | 3GP (source) | M4R (output) |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 3GPP file format, MPEG-4 family | MPEG-4; ffprobe reports major brand M4A |
| Made by | GSM and UMTS phones, MMS | XConvert, iTunes, GarageBand |
| Video | H.263, MPEG-4 Part 2 or H.264 | None, the video is dropped |
| Audio | AMR-NB, AMR-WB or AAC | AAC-LC |
| Channels | Almost always mono | Original, Mono or Stereo |
| Length | Usually short clips | 30 seconds or less, per Apple |
| Works as an iPhone ringtone | No | Yes |
Putting It on the iPhone
On a Mac with macOS Catalina or later, connect the iPhone, select it in the Finder sidebar and drag the .m4r onto it; Windows users can use iTunes. The tone then usually shows up in Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Ringtone. Without a computer, save the .m4r to Files, import it into GarageBand on the iPhone and use Share > Ringtone, the route Apple describes in Create a custom ringtone on your iPhone. A tone made from a family member's voice is a natural fit for their own contact: Contacts > the person > Edit > Ringtone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I upload a .3g2 file here too?
Yes. This page accepts both .3gp and .3g2. The 3G2 variant came from CDMA phones and often holds different speech codecs, so 3G2 to M4R explains what to expect from those files in more detail.
Why does my ringtone sound like a phone call?
Because the original was recorded that way. AMR-NB keeps only the narrow band of frequencies a phone call carries, and converting to AAC preserves that sound rather than improving it. For a voice clip, that is usually fine.
Why is the M4R larger than the audio in my 3GP?
AMR is extremely compact, often around 12 kbps, while even a modest AAC ringtone uses 48-64 kbps. Thirty seconds at 64 kbps is still only about 240 KB, so the file stays tiny.
Should I choose Mono or Stereo?
Mono. AMR is single-channel, and most phone recordings are mono whatever the codec. Forcing Stereo duplicates the same channel into two and doubles the data for no benefit; leaving Audio Channel on Original also keeps it mono.
How long can an iPhone ringtone be?
Apple says ringtones can be up to 30 seconds long, and its GarageBand for iPhone guide gives 30 seconds as the maximum for exported ringtones. A 40-second figure from the iTunes era still circulates, but Apple's current documentation does not mention it; keep Duration at 30 seconds or less.
Will I lose the video from the clip?
Yes. An M4R is audio only, so the picture is discarded. If you would like the full recording as a music file instead, use 3GP to M4A; Android users should choose 3GP to MP3, since Android ringtones are usually MP3 or OGG and do not need M4R.
What happens to my files?
Each file is uploaded over an encrypted TLS connection, converted on our servers and deleted automatically after a few hours, along with the M4R. There is no sign-up and no watermark. More iPhone ringtone sources are listed on the M4R converter hub.