iPhone tip: Use a Silent Ringtone to Screen Calls in Your SleepRichard K Miller

Have you ever wished your iPhone would ring only when certain people call? Here’s how to do it:

Download the “Silence” ringtone here: silence.m4r
Copy this file into the Ringtones section of your iTunes. (Click to enlarge.)
Sync your iPhone with iTunes to load the ringtone.
On your iPhone, change your ringtone to “Silence” (under Settings -> Sounds -> Ringtone). You’ll no longer hear your phone calls.
For each person whose calls you still want to hear, change his or her Custom Ringtone to something audible: Click the name in your contact list, choose Ringtone, then choose something besides Default

Now you can screen calls in your sleep. Because Sunday afternoons are for napping.

UPDATE (Apr 14, 2011): I haven’t used it, but MrNumber.com appears to be an interesting service for identifying phone numbers belonging to telemarketers and blocking them.

323 thoughts on “iPhone tip: Use a Silent Ringtone to Screen Calls in Your Sleep”

Sleepy December 11, 2012 at 3:09 pm

Good as far as it goes, but…
Is there any way to keep the phone from ‘waking up’ at all? The light when it picks up a call is enough to rouse me, even with no noise.

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Luis December 17, 2012 at 5:08 pm

I would recommend turning the phone upside down quick fix!

Thanks Richard… great Post!

Luis

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Redlightgreenarrow January 4, 2013 at 9:53 am

Use the Do Not Disturb feature in iOS 6, schedule it for the times that you sleep, and the phone will not wake up at all. You can also pick and choose specific people who you would allow the phone to ring from.

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1. Rt February 9, 2013 at 5:47 am
  
  Apparently this does not work for MSG from AT&T, as they woke me this morning bypassing the do not disturb feature.
  
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T8681 January 24, 2013 at 7:39 am

You can turn the brightness of the screen down under settings. It gets pretty low

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June December 23, 2012 at 6:35 am

How about turning on the Do Not Disturb option in Settings at night and I think that the lights will not go on your screen.

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Trish January 16, 2013 at 8:59 am

how can you specify what time “do not disturb” will take effect???

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Wren January 18, 2013 at 2:15 pm

Trish –
Here’s how to reset your Do Not Disturb times:
Go to Settings > Notifications > Do Not Disturb. It’s pretty self-explanatory from there.

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heather January 30, 2013 at 2:54 pm

Thank you! I do use the DND settings when I really need the phone to be quiet, but I really miss being able to assign a “don’t you even think of ringing” tone for those pesky unwanted (telemarketer, SPAM, drunk dialer, etc) phone calls that haven’t gotten the hint that their calls are unwelcome (yes, I do report them to the “Do Not Call List”, but I still want the ability to screen the calls until they actually stop).

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patrick February 19, 2013 at 9:15 am

good tip. Now its 2/2013, and still iphone doesn’t have any call bloacker. I now simply add the number to my ‘Blocked’ contact. This contact has no vibration, no text alerts, no mail alerts and your Silent ring tone. good tip.many thanks!

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Bwana February 19, 2013 at 12:58 pm

My iTunes program on my MacbookPro does not have a ringtones entry under library. What gives? Thanks

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linda March 1, 2013 at 12:41 pm

Mine doesn’t either. I don’t see Ringtones listed on my iMac either.

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david April 3, 2013 at 4:04 pm

Check your preferences. Under the “General” tab, you can select/deselect what types of media to show.

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Chris February 20, 2013 at 4:20 pm

THANK YOU for this tip. As a small business owner I am barraged by sales calls even though I’m on the do not call list. Many of them are repeat calls from the same numbers. Now I save them as a “spam” contact and assign your silent ring tone to them and no more annoying ringing at all hours of the day and night.

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Joanne March 9, 2013 at 10:45 am

I downloaded the ringtone and it is in my ringtone folder in itunes. When I sync my iphone, it does not copy over. How can I get it onto my iphone?

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Tracy April 18, 2013 at 8:30 am

I’m having the same issue. I don’t have a custom ring tone folder either. I have bought 2 ring tones & they show up fine, just not this one. Is it silent & invisible???

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Holly March 13, 2013 at 9:34 pm

Oh my god thank you! No more late night drunken calls from my ex. Goodbye verbal abuse, hello silence!

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Ryan April 11, 2013 at 9:26 am

Thank you so much! Just downloaded this to put on as a custom number for a telemarketer number and ONSTAR rep that keeps calling and when you pick up it just leaves you an automated message…

So handy..

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Tom May 20, 2013 at 2:57 pm

Please enlighten me…my iTunes does not show a Ringtone folder and I can’t seem to find a way to create one.

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323 thoughts on “iPhone tip: Use a Silent Ringtone to Screen Calls in Your Sleep”

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