Voice Memo not syncing as advertised.

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Level 2

210 points

Voice Memo not syncing as advertised.

Voice Memos arent working right for me. I have them set to sync, but itunes never did sync them no matter what I did (I thought). So I manually created the Voice Memo playlist it was supposed to make for me, then it finally started automatically putting them in there. It actually was syncing the files over to my main library with just a time and date file name... but no play list and no easy way to find them all or manage them all without searching for each one individually.

Any change I make in iTunes does not change anything on my iPhone in the Voice Memo app. Deleting them from the playlist leaves them in my library, I have to search my library for the date names they are saved as and delete them from there. After deleting them from iTunes, it does not remove them in Voice Memo from my iPhone, they are still there. Syncing my iPhone puts them back as music files onto my iPhone, and they are still in Voice Memo separately... its very confusing because this isnt how Apple said its supposed to work. Maybe the playlist is set up wrong because I had to manually do it and it wont auto create one?

Macbook Pro 15" Unibody 2.53ghz, Mac OS X (10.5.7), Macbook Pro 2ghz Original, iPhone 3G S 32GB, iPod Touch 1st gen 16gb

Posted on Jun 19, 2009 12:57 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 19, 2009 4:21 PM in response to doh1231

I agree.

I actually want to disable syncing of Voice Memos to prevent them from showing up in my iTunes library and on my hard drive.

Hopefully Apple will come out with an update to fix these issues.

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Answer 2

doh1231 Author

Level 2

210 points

Jun 19, 2009 5:59 PM in response to smilingdog

If its just bugged and not working right... ok.. but others seem to have it working the way apple describes it to work, and mines not even close.

WHy did they do it this way? why not have it record directly to the itunes library and enter details on it like under Artist as "Voice Memo" or whatever, so it would be easy to see them grouped together.

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Answer 3

rsalim

Level 1

0 points

Jun 20, 2009 2:35 PM in response to doh1231

the problem i'm having is that when i change the voice memo name on my iPhone it is not transfered under that name to my iTunes Voice Message Playlist....it reverts to the date and time the message was created. then i need to re-title it again on iTunes. i'm sure that is an oversight or bug...help Apple!

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Answer 4

doh1231 Author

Level 2

210 points

Jun 20, 2009 10:04 PM in response to rsalim

rsalim wrote:
the problem i'm having is that when i change the voice memo name on my iPhone it is not transfered under that name to my iTunes Voice Message Playlist....it reverts to the date and time the message was created. then i need to re-title it again on iTunes. i'm sure that is an oversight or bug...help Apple!

yep... same problem.... over all its a really stupidly thought out design... how did this get past QA?

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Answer 5

Jun 21, 2009 12:34 AM in response to doh1231

doh1231 wrote:
Deleting them from the playlist leaves them in my library, I have to search my library for the date names they are saved as and delete them from there.

Option + Delete from your playlist will also delete them from your library. No need to hunt them down.

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Answer 6

doh1231 Author

Level 2

210 points

Jun 21, 2009 8:31 AM in response to Jim VanLeeuwen

that helps a little bit, but they just need to add a voice memos section to iTunes or something, its extremely bad organization... or a voice memo file type ID in itunes so a smart play list can control them better... whatever.. anything is better than this system.... and they should also make it so item types of Voice Memo will NOT show up with music, only in the voice memo program.

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Answer 7

Jun 21, 2009 9:52 AM in response to doh1231

Voice Memos have their own distinct Media Kind within iTunes. There are now three Media Kinds: Music, Audiobook and Voice Memo.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to make a Smart Playlist to find all your Voice Memos, other than to set it to look for Apple Lossless files. You can set the Video Kind when you're making a Smart Playlist, but you can't set the Media Kind or Audio Kind.

The default Voice Memos playlist that the iPhone automatically creates in iTunes should be replaced with a new category under LIBRARY, so that there are now 7 different kinds of media: Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, Applications, Ringtones, Voice Memos.

Message was edited by: Reuben Feffer

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Answer 8

Jun 21, 2009 10:35 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to make a Smart Playlist to find all your Voice Memos, other than to set it to look for Apple Lossless files.

Or Playlist is Voice Memos.

Matt

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Answer 9

Jun 21, 2009 10:57 AM in response to Matthew Morgan

Matthew Morgan wrote:

Or Playlist is Voice Memos.

No, but that's not the same thing. The Voice Memos playlist is just a regular manual playlist. Sure, the iPhone automatically adds files to it, but it isn't a Smart Playlist that is showing ALL the Voice Memos.

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Answer 10

Jun 21, 2009 11:06 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

My real point is that there really is no need for a Smart Playlist.

The iPhone automatically adds new voice memos to the Voice Memo Playlist, so in that regard, it is a bit different than your typical manual Playlist.

Unless you take memos out, it should show all your Voice Memos. Or am I missing something here?

Matt

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Answer 11

Jun 21, 2009 3:54 PM in response to Matthew Morgan

Well, Matt, I just did a test. BTW, I have "Include Voice Memos" unchecked in my music pane to avoid syncing them back to the phone.

I started with an empty Voice Memo playlist in iTunes. Recorded a memo on my phone and synced.
Result was the one memo added to the Voice Memo playlist.

Then, I recorded a new Voice Memo on the phone, and synced again. The result in iTunes was another copy of the previous memo and the new memo, for a total of three.

Obviously, voice memo management will take some thought. If I want to same them, I'll keep them in the VM playlist in iTunes, but delete them from the phone when they have served their purpose. No need taking up iPhone memory when the Mac has so much more space.

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Answer 12

Jun 21, 2009 4:15 PM in response to Jim VanLeeuwen

Then, I recorded a new Voice Memo on the phone, and synced again. The result in iTunes was another copy of the previous memo and the new memo, for a total of three.

That's interesting. That was not my experience as I played around with Voice Memos.

Interestingly, even though I have the Include Voice Memos checked, voice memos that are in iTunes, but have been deleted from the Voice Memo App do not get synced back to the iPhone. With the box unchecked, Voice Memos don't seem to get synced back to iTunes at all.

I also can't seem to get the Voice Memos playlist to show up in the iPod at all.

Matt

Matt

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Answer 13

doh1231 Author

Level 2

210 points

Jun 21, 2009 5:07 PM in response to Matthew Morgan

Matthew Morgan wrote:

Then, I recorded a new Voice Memo on the phone, and synced again. The result in iTunes was another copy of the previous memo and the new memo, for a total of three.

That's interesting. That was not my experience as I played around with Voice Memos.

Interestingly, even though I have the Include Voice Memos checked, voice memos that are in iTunes, but have been deleted from the Voice Memo App do not get synced back to the iPhone. With the box unchecked, Voice Memos don't seem to get synced back to iTunes at all.

I also can't seem to get the Voice Memos playlist to show up in the iPod at all.

Matt

Matt

mines not working like that at all... not even close.... i get multiple copies... also it will NOT create a Voice Memos playlist for me. I've tried over and over. If I manually create one called Voice Memos, it uses it, but I don't think its using it right since it keeps syncing the same memos every time to get multiple copies.

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Answer 14

Jun 21, 2009 5:20 PM in response to doh1231

mines not working like that at all..

The plot thickens...

I'm trying to think what you and I are doing differently.

If I understand, you're saying that your Voice Memos are getting added to your iTunes Library over and over again each time you sync.

If you look here:

user>Music>iTunes>iTunes Music

do you have a folder called Voice Memos?

Matt

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Answer 15

Jun 21, 2009 10:10 PM in response to doh1231

Just curious, have you updated to iTunes 8.2? Memo syncing may not be working correctly unless you have the latest version.

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