delete user installed tones

[Oscarcat]

I have installed latest 64 bit iTunes on a new Asus laptop to backup my iPhone 4s (iOS 8.4) and have run the manual backup.
I now want to delete a few of the ringtones I installed when I first acquired the phone but can find no way of doing this. I can see the tone files listed but can find no process for deleting them either in iTunes or on the phone.
Can anyone please help.
Regards,

 

[J. A.]

Welcome to iPhoneForums, Oscarcat!

You can't remove ringtones using your iPhone. It's only possible when you do it through iTunes.

Connect your device to the computer and select it when it appears in iTunes. From the library, choose "Tones". Select the ringtones you want to remove, and press "Delete" on your keyboard. Confirm.
That should help you getting rid of them.

 

[Oscarcat]

Hi,
Thanks for speedy response.
When I connect the iphone to the PC, all the tones appear in Tones under ''On My Device'' but in ''Settings'' no Tones appear at all. Similarly when I click the Tone symbol on the top left line where the phone symbol appears (is this the library?), that too is empty.
Have I stuffed up somehow and failed to get the Tones into the Library?

 

[Oscarcat]

BTW all the apps show up when I click the top left Apps symbol.

 

[J. A.]

It looks like you didn't sync the ringtones to iTunes, that's why they don't appear there.
If they're still visible on your iPhone, sync them to iTunes. Do this from Settings, and select "Selected tones".

That done, you'll have to select Tones at the top left. Checkmark those you want to remove. On your PC, a right click should show the option to delete the ringtones, in case using the Delete key doesn't help.

 

[Oscarcat]

I'm unable to select 'Selected tones'. As soon as I try to click the 'Sync Tones' box to select the option 'Selected Tones' instead of ' all tones', a warning box appears stating:
'' Are you sure you want to remove existing....tones from this iPhone and synch with this iTunes library?''
As the library doesn't appear to have anything in it will I not lose the lot if I select 'remove and synch'?

 

[J. A.]

They'll be removed from your iPhone.

 

[Oscarcat]

So back to my original question, having installed the latest version of iTunes on a new laptop, how can I get it to remove ringtones?

 

[J. A.]

As they appear under "On My Device", select this. If you find something like "Edit Playlist" at the top right there, select it. This should show a list of the ringtones on your iPhone. Right click one of those that have to be removed. Scroll to "Delete" to remove them.

Hope that helps.

 

[scifan57]

If you do a full backup of your iPhone, the existing ringtones on it will be transferred to the iTunes library on your laptop. Then, in future syncs you can then select to sync selected ringtones while syncing your iPhone. Just select the ones you still want on your iPhone and the rest will be removed during the sync.

 

[Oscarcat]

If you do a full backup of your iPhone, the existing ringtones on it will be transferred to the iTunes library on your laptop. Then, in future syncs you can then select to sync selected ringtones while syncing your iPhone. Just select the ones you still want on your iPhone and the rest will be removed during the sync.

 

[Oscarcat]

Well that's what I thought a backup did - ie backup everything. But the ringtones don't seem to be listed in the ltunes library so I'm fearful that a synch will remove them all - as the warning message suggests. Apple's instructions here are less than clear.

 

[Oscarcat]

As they appear under "On My Device", select this. If you find something like "Edit Playlist" at the top right there, select it. This should show a list of the ringtones on your iPhone. Right click one of those that have to be removed. Scroll to "Delete" to remove them.

Hope that helps.

 

[Oscarcat]

That's just the point, there is no option of scrolling to a ''delete'' option, it just isn't there.
Beginning to realise the appeal of Samsung et al. It shouldn't be this difficult. I'm already struggling to get iTunes on another computer to deal with a classical music collection with some degree of logic - an issue many others have encountered. But not to be able easily and simply to delete items already installed on an iPhone is ridiculous. Is Apple fit for purpose?

 

[J. A.]

What happens when you right click on a ringtone?