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Need help?FLV to M4R: Rescuing a Ringtone From Flash Video
FLV is the Flash Video container that carried most web video in the mid-2000s, played through Adobe Flash Player. Adobe ended Flash Player support on December 31, 2020 and began blocking Flash content from running on January 12, 2021, so the FLV downloads, webinar recordings and stream archives sitting on old hard drives no longer play in any browser. The media inside them is still perfectly readable. This converter decodes the FLV's audio track, re-encodes it to AAC and writes an .m4r, the file type an iPhone uses for custom ringtones: AAC audio in an MPEG-4 container with an extension that tells iOS it is a tone. The video is dropped, and Trim keeps the clip to 30 seconds or less, the length Apple gives for ringtones.
How to Convert FLV to M4R
- Upload Your FLV File: Drag the
.flvonto the page or click "Add Files". You can queue a whole folder of old clips, from a computer or a phone browser. - Trim to the Moment You Want: In Advanced Options, switch Trim on, set the Start time where the tone should begin and a Duration of 30 seconds or less, in seconds or
HH:MM:SS.sss. - Set Bitrate and Channels (Optional): Audio Codec is AAC, the only codec for M4R. Under File Compression choose Constant Bitrate (8-384 kbps), Variable Bitrate, Custom Bitrate or a target file size; choose Mono for microphone recordings.
- Convert and Download: Click Convert and download the
.m4r, free with no sign-up or watermark, then add it to your iPhone and select it in Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Ringtone.
What Kind of Audio Is in Your FLV?
FLV supported a surprising range of audio codecs over its life, and which one your file uses decides how good the ringtone can be. If you are not sure, VLC (Tools > Codec Information) or MediaInfo will tell you.
| FLV audio codec | Where you usually find it | What to expect | Sensible setting |
|---|---|---|---|
| MP3 | Early video-site uploads, music videos, animations | Music-grade, though modest bitrates were common | Constant Bitrate 128-160 kbps |
| AAC | Later FLVs with H.264 video | Usually the cleanest audio an FLV offers | Constant Bitrate 128-192 kbps |
| Nellymoser Asao | Microphone audio from Flash chat, webcam and voice apps | Speech only, narrow bandwidth, mono | 64 kbps, Audio Channel Mono |
| Speex | Microphone streams from later Flash Player versions | Clear speech at 16 kHz, mono | 64-96 kbps, Mono |
| ADPCM or PCM | Flash games and exported animations | Lightly compressed or uncompressed | 128-192 kbps |
The speech codecs deserve a warning: Nellymoser and Speex were built to carry a voice over a slow connection, not music. A ringtone made from a webcam recording will sound exactly like the original, which is to say thin. That suits a funny quote; it will not turn a background song into hi-fi.
FLV vs M4R
| Property | FLV (source) | M4R (output) |
|---|---|---|
| Container | Flash Video, Adobe | MPEG-4; ffprobe reports major brand M4A |
| Video | Sorenson Spark, On2 VP6 or H.264 | None, the video is dropped |
| Audio | MP3, AAC, Nellymoser, Speex, ADPCM or PCM | AAC-LC |
| Plays in today's browsers | No, Flash Player support ended in 2020 | Not needed; it is a ringtone file |
| Metadata | Flash onMetaData (duration, size, cue points) |
Not carried over |
| Length | Anything | 30 seconds or less, per Apple |
| Works as an iPhone ringtone | No | Yes |
File Size and Bitrate
A ringtone is small whatever you choose: bitrate in kbps times seconds, divided by 8, gives kilobytes. Thirty seconds at 64 kbps is about 240 KB, at 128 kbps about 480 KB and at 256 kbps about 960 KB. Because the FLV audio is already compressed, spending more than a step above the source rate only grows the file. Variable Bitrate is there if you prefer to name a quality band, five AAC bands from 20k-32k up to 96k-112k, with the size depending on the material.
Cleaning Up an Old Clip
- Skip the intro. Many FLVs open with a site logo or a buffering pause; put the Trim Start after it.
- Remove a glitch. Old downloads sometimes have a stutter where the transfer hiccupped. After converting a slightly longer stretch, the M4R cutter removes a selected section on a waveform, so you can take the glitch out and keep the rest.
- Keep it under 30 seconds. The Trim panel shows a reminder under Duration; Apple's own guidance is 30 seconds.
Getting the Tone Onto Your iPhone
On a Mac running macOS Catalina or later, connect the iPhone, select it in the Finder sidebar and drag the .m4r onto it; Windows users can do the same with iTunes. The tone should then appear in Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Ringtone. To skip the computer, save the file to Files, import it into GarageBand on the iPhone and use Share > Ringtone, as Apple describes in Create a custom ringtone on your iPhone; the source must not be DRM-protected. Per-contact tones are set under Contacts > the person > Edit > Ringtone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why won't my FLV play anymore?
FLV relied on Adobe Flash Player for playback on the web, and Adobe ended support on December 31, 2020, then began blocking Flash content on January 12, 2021. Browsers no longer include it. The audio and video streams inside the file are still valid, which is why a converter can read them even though a browser cannot.
Will the ringtone sound better than the FLV did?
No. The audio was compressed when the FLV was made, and our conversion decodes it and re-encodes it to AAC, so the best it can do is preserve what is there. Choose a bitrate at or a little above the source and the second encode will be inaudible on a phone.
Why does my ringtone from a webcam recording sound thin?
Most likely the FLV used Nellymoser or Speex, speech codecs made for live microphone audio over slow connections. They capture a narrow band of frequencies, and nothing downstream can add back what was never recorded. Choose Mono and a modest bitrate; extra bits will not help.
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 length for exported ringtones. You may see 40 seconds quoted from the iTunes days; that figure is not in Apple's current documentation, so keep Duration at 30 seconds or less.
What is the difference between M4R and M4A?
Only the extension and how Apple software files it. Both are AAC-LC in an MPEG-4 container, and we write both with ffmpeg's ipod muxer. If you want the whole soundtrack as a music file instead of a tone, use FLV to M4A.
Do Android phones need an M4R?
No. Android ringtones are usually MP3 or OGG files, so use FLV to MP3 with the same Trim settings. For iPhone tones from other formats, start at the M4R converter.
How are my files handled?
The FLV is uploaded over an encrypted TLS connection and converted on our servers, and both the upload and the M4R are deleted automatically after a few hours. There is no sign-up and no watermark, and your original file is not modified.