Some people think it’s cool to have the latest popular tune announcing every cell phone call. Others prefer a mobile phone that sounds more like … well, more like a phone.
Call me a square, but I’m in that second group. I prefer old phone ringtones that recall the clunky phones from my childhood. Or better yet, the brrring, brrring, brrring you hear in the movies from vintage phones from the 1920s and 1930s.
If you share my nostalgia for classic phones, and your carrier allows you to download or install new ringtones, check out the antique phone sounds below.
To be truly different in a world that’s desperately trying to be hip and up-to-date, you have to be square and hopelessly out-of-date. The best way to be cool is to be so uncool you come out the other side.
International Old Phone Ringtones
These are polyphonic MIDI ringtones, so your phone would need to support that format (some do, including BlackBerry phones).
They can sound as good as MP3 files on many MIDI-compatible models. They’re worth trying if you want your mobile phone to sound like an old-style, traditional phone.
American Phone
Arubian Phone
Belarussian Phone
British Phone
Chinese Phone
Egyptian Phone
French Phone
German Phone
Icelandic Phone
Italian Phone
Japanese Phone
Malaysian Phone
Russian Phone
Swedish Phone
Swiss Phone
Venezuelan Phone
Update: International Old Phone Ringtones
I’ve been able to convert the above MIDI files into audio files. These are in the MP3 format. They should be compatible with most mobile phones.
Note: Click on the gray “play” icon to preview a ringtone.
American Phone
Arubian Phone
Belarussian Phone
British Phone
Chinese Phone
Egyptian Phone
French Phone
German Phone
Icelandic Phone
Italian Phone
Japanese Phone
Malaysian Phone
Russian Phone
Swedish Phone
Swiss Phone
Venezuelan Phone
These are the same as the MP3 ringtones above, except they’re in an iPhone compatible format.
American Phone
Arubian Phone
Belarussian Phone
British Phone
Chinese Phone
Egyptian Phone
French Phone
German Phone
Icelandic Phone
Italian Phone
Japanese Phone
Malaysian Phone
Russian Phone
Swedish Phone
Swiss Phone
Venezuelan Phone
More MP3-Format Old Phone Ringtones
If your mobile phone supports the MP3 file format, you could try these MP3 ringtones. They recreate the ringing sounds of various vintage phones.
Ringtone #1
Ringtone #2
Ringtone #3
Ringtone #4
Ringtone #5
Ringtone #6
Ringtone #7
Ringtone #8
Ringtone #9
Ringtone #10
Ringtone #11
Ringtone #12
Ringtone #13
Ringtone #14
Ringtone #15
Ringtone #16
Ringtone #17
Ringtone #18
Ringtone #19
Ringtone #20
Ringtone #21
Ringtone #22
Ringtone #23
Ringtone #24
Ringtone #25
Ringtone #26
Ringtone #27
Ringtone #28
Ringtone #29
Ringtone #30
Ringtone #31
Ringtone #32
Ringtone #33
Ringtone #34
Ringtone #35
Ringtone #36
Ringtone #37
Ringtone #38
Ringtone #39
Ringtone #40
Ringtone #41
Ringtone #42
Ringtone #43
Ringtone #44
Ringtone #45
Ringtone #46
Ringtone #47
Ringtone #48
Ringtone #49
Ringtone #50
Ringtone #51
Ringtone #52
Ringtone #53
Ringtone #54
Ringtone #55
Ringtone #56
Ringtone #57
Ringtone #58
Ringtone #59
Ringtone #60
Ringtone #61
More iPhone-Compatible Old Phone Ringtones
These are the same as the MP3 ringtones above, except they’re in an iPhone compatible format. Your iPhone or iPad can now sound like an antique or vintage phone.
Ringtone #1
Ringtone #2
Ringtone #3
Ringtone #4
Ringtone #5
Ringtone #6
Ringtone #7
Ringtone #8
Ringtone #9
Ringtone #10
Ringtone #11
Ringtone #12
Ringtone #13
Ringtone #14
Ringtone #15
Ringtone #16
Ringtone #17
Ringtone #18
Ringtone #19
Ringtone #20
Ringtone #21
Ringtone #22
Ringtone #23
Ringtone #24
Ringtone #25
Ringtone #26
Ringtone #27
Ringtone #28
Ringtone #29
Ringtone #30
Ringtone #31
Ringtone #32
Ringtone #33
Ringtone #34
Ringtone #35
Ringtone #36
Ringtone #37
Ringtone #38
Ringtone #39
Ringtone #40
Ringtone #41
Ringtone #42
Ringtone #43
Ringtone #44
Ringtone #45
Ringtone #46
Ringtone #47
Ringtone #48
Ringtone #49
Ringtone #50
Ringtone #51
Ringtone #52
Ringtone #53
Ringtone #54
Ringtone #55
Ringtone #56
Ringtone #57
Ringtone #58
Ringtone #59
Ringtone #60
Ringtone #61
Bells, Chimes, and Horns
These are traditional bells, chimes, and car horn sounds. You could use them as ringtones or as alerts for text messages, emails, or calendar events.
MP3
Bicycle Bell
Mechanical Chime
Door Bell
Sleighbells
Chromatic Bells
Deep Chime
Church Bell
Automobile Horn
Taxi Horn 1
Taxi Horn 2
Taxi Horn 3
Taxi Horn 4
Taxi Horn 5
Taxi Horn 6
iPhone
Bicycle Bell
Mechanical Chime
Door Bell
Sleighbells
Chromatic Bells
Deep Chime
Church Bell
Automobile Horn
Taxi Horn 1
Taxi Horn 2
Taxi Horn 3
Taxi Horn 4
Taxi Horn 5
Taxi Horn 6
—————————————
Extra: Airline Ding Tones
If you would like to duplicate the airline ding tones, here are those familiar sounds for your MP3-compatible phone or iPhone.
MP3
Airline – One Ding
Airline – Two Dings
iPhone
Airline – One Ding
Airline – Two Dings
—————————————
Help with Ringtones
If you can’t get these ringtones to work with your phone, check out this Ringtones Tutorial from Audacity.
You’ll find useful tips for converting one audio format into another. You can use the free Audacity software (along with other recommended programs) to convert the files.
If you’re using an iPhone, you may find this guide useful.
How do I download to my iPhone, hmm. Thanks for any help. These are great ringtones.
First download the ringtone to your computer via your computer’s browser. With Firefox on a PC, you would right-click the ringtone link and choose “Save Link As” from the menu selections.
Then using iTunes, select “File” from the top menus and choose “Add File to Library” from the menu selections. Search for the folder where you saved the ringtone and load it into iTunes. It should then show up in your iTunes’ Ringtones Library. From there, you can select the ringtones you want transferred to your iPhone.
After syncing your iPhone with iTunes, you can use the Settings app to apply the ringtone. Choose the Sounds panel within the Settings app, and partway down the screen, you’ll see a Ringtone panel for changing your phone’s ringtone.
There may be a simpler way to do this, but this method works for me. I haven’t yet found a way to install the ringtones directly into an iPhone using the Safari browser.
Absolutely Brilliant! Thank you very much for preserving and posting this fantastic collection of vintage telephone sounds! This is wonderful. 😀
Hi
One of my favourite sounds is the British ringing the CALLER hears when dialling to the UK… *sigh* brings back fond memories, and I know if I were to hear this when my iPhone rang, I would ACTUALLY notice it and pick up right away!
Do you have a recording of it, please, or could you perhaps point me to a place where I might download it?
Many thanks
Ontoward
Hi all, I am old school and don’t have an iphone or itunes. In fact I don’t have a smart phone. Mine has a 2nd grade education! Ha.
Does anyone have suggestions on how to install this ringtone on a prepaid cell phone? Thanks! CB
Hello David English,
I found your sites after searching for vintage ringtones. This is an awesome collection. I would absolutely love if you would classify each ringtone so we could know what phone model is responsible for the ringtone.
I am myself looking for the US vintage ringtone that is heard in many classic US cop/thriller tv shows from the 70’s, such as Columbo, Kojak, McCloud etc. I went through all of them above, ringtone #48 seems to be the closest, but I am not absolutely certain, what do you think?
Thanks for any info/feedback.
Ole Alstrup
Or maybe it is ringtone #11, they are similar, but I am not sure if either one is the one I am looking for…
What a great site, found all the ringtone I was looking for, highly recommended. Manks Adrian
21/08/2012
How do you laod them onto older phones?
Many of the older phones do not support adding or loading ringtones. It depends on the model. Best to check the documentation that came with phone. Or you might Google the model number of the phone along with the word “ringtones” to see if someone has discovered how to replace the built-in ringtones.
I clicked on the British one – expecting to hear the ‘double ring’ – only to get the American single ring. We have double ring here – so I’d much prefer that – It’s also a lot more distinctive, as so many phones default to the American style.
Any chance you could do a couple of those? It’s for an Android – I’m not sure on the format they need – but would be quite willing to find out if that would help.
Check under the MP3-Compatible Old Phone Ringtones heading.
Ringtone #4, Ringtone #5, Ringtone #8, Ringtone #9, Ringtone #10, Ringtone #17, Ringtone #41, Ringtone #53, and Ringtone #58 are double ring.
Are any of those a good fit?
Fantastic. I listened to the first few, and obviously gave up too soon. Thanks!
Hey Ontoward, I found this! Is this what you meant? http://www.cellsea.com/ringtone/detail/RT4ca8041c07b04.htm
Ontoward, BTW the only thing that worked was to send it to your phone, then open the MP3 and save it to your phone. Don’t download it through iTunes or Amazon, it sends you to the regular British phone, not the sound you hear when dialing.
Great set of ringtomes. Do you know how I could get a ringtone of the car phone from the TV show Burke’s Law?
Fantastic collection, love Ringtone # 5 which brings back childhood memories (mid-60’s) 0f our first home phone. Saved as the ringtone on my Q10 – a poke in the eye at modernism!
How do I download one of your fabulous ringtones to my Android Mobile Ph.
TX davemack
davemark,
It may vary according to which Android phone you have. I have a Nexus 5.
Using my computer’s browser, I would right-click an MP3 ringtone and download it to my computer. (With Firefox on a PC, you would right-click the ringtone link and choose “Save Link As†from the menu selections.)
I would connect my phone to my computer. (With the Nexus 5, the connection would be made using a standard USB to micro-USB cable.)
Then I would drag and drop the MP3 file to the Ringtones directory on my phone. That directory shows up under an Internal Storage heading on my connected phone. (In my case, it looks like a directory that associated with a drive that’s labeled as Nexus 5.)
Hope that helps.