Voice memo won't play

I have the iPod Touch 4th Generation 32GB with two two minute voice memos on them that I cannot retrieve.

On the iPod itself, the app (as previously stated) just displays 0:00 on both ends of the play bar when attempting to play either of the memos.

On iExplorer on Windows 7, I can find the memos but iExplorer is "unable to locate track." I've tried dragging the files to the desktop and opening them in Quicktime or iTunes and they will not open. They exist as 0MB .m4a files.

Please help! I cannot believe this problem still exists.

⚠Same problem here 😟 this could literally ruin someone's life. Read and tried different methods, extracted .mov, .m4a, and nothing works. In the end they're both smaller than 2kb. (Recording was 30 mins long)

It has happened to me so many times- after stopping the recording and going back to the list of recordings, it just shows the loading icon the whole time! It just wouldn't save. Whole thing is such a bet. Just never know when it's going to surprise you by not saving well.

Dearest dearest Apple, please please look into this and eliminate the problem. There's enough suffering going on in the world 😟

So!

I have been able to use Iphone explorer to extract the .mov files which are super large, but contain the audio to voice memos.

recently however, i changed the file name of an interview inside Itunes, that I was editing, and it ruined it completely. This file now plays 12 seconds in Quicktime or M P Classic, but in Adobe Audition, I can "see" the remaining 1hr 10mins of the recording, with strange spikes in the audio decibles.

this interview is very valuable and hard to get. If ANYONE knows how to restore to a previous version of the .mov file on WIN 7, or how to fix this, please, please, please let me know.

good luck to all,

-J

Ok everybody,... not sure if this was addressed or not but in the iexplore you have to look in recordings folder not memo and you will find not only the original named version of the recording but most of your old deleted ones also and that one will play in itunes or media player or whatever after you drag to the desktop and rename with .m4a extension. It wouldn't open in my vlc player though. ok bye hope it helps. I lost my school lecture but have it now. This is my first post of a fix. Hee, Hee.

pacrimguru your solution is working

thank you so much

best regards

I can't thank you enough for your detailed and genius instructions.

I spent the whole day trying various ways, downloading numerous software but can't retrieve and play the corrupted file.

MOV file works on Quicktime. Thanks to you I can locate the file I was looking for.

Really appreciate your kind advice.

You save my day!

pacrimguru is our hero. Follow the method and it works like a charm. I have tried every other way the whole day but nothing worked.

I wish I had found your reponse earlier Pacrimguru.

It would have saved me the whole sleepless night because of the fear of losing the most important message.

Thank you once again.

This is the proven method everyone.

Don't waste time trying others:

"

iExplorer (version 3.1.1.0) worked for me. I downloaded the free demo and was able to access the file under:

"Your" iPhone > Media > Recordings > "recording name".m4a and "recording name".mov (the recording name is a bunch of numbers, something like "20121104 334508.mov") I then copied the two files to my computer.

I tried playing the .m4a file in iTunes and it didn't work nor did it even show up. But the .mov file worked in Quicktime. From Quicktime, I exported it to my desktop as an "Format: Audio Only" which turned it into a .m4a file that worked in iTunes.

"

I cannot believe that this is STILL a problem and they haven't fixed it yet. I looked back on my original comment and it was dated June 2011 while the thread itself started in 2009! *** Apple?!

linnygrins4, I owe you my soul.

THANK YOU!!!! thought I lost a very important recording but with your help was able to find the .mov file

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, pacrimguruand everyone else! You saved my day, my week, probably my year!

I for some reason do not have .MOV file but a .WAVEFORM file that I found in the directory that could be my lifesaver for a 3+ hour recording. However, iTunes, Quicktime or Windows Media Player do not support this .WAVEFORM file? Anyone also having this problem?

Thanks to the person who discovered Iphone explorer for this problem. the m4a file didnt play the sound in my iexplorer but the mov file i found just underneath did work !!!

Hi Chilledoutdude.

Did you make yor recording while the iPhone was connected to your computer?

My wife made a Voice memo today (38 minutes from a important meeting) but when she got home and wanted to listen to it, only the first 10 seconds from the recording was in playable.

I also installed iExtractor, and found two files:

• "recording".m4a which was 82 kB ( with a bitrate of 64 kbit this is the expected filesize for a 10 second recording).
• "recording".waveform which was 11.1 MB. This is (as far as I understand it from different google searches) a file containing graphical information about the waveform presented on the iPhone display as the recording is being played.

I tried to make a couple of recordings without any problems.

Then I tried these steps

1. plug the Phone to my wifes Macbookpro (15" late 2011 running 10.8.5)
2. record a couple of minutes
3. save the recording and exit/quit the Voice memo App
4. Open the Voice memo App again

Now my recording was reduced to a couple of seconds.

However this did not happen when I tried same procedure when the iPhone was connected to my own MacBookPro (Late 2013 running 10.9.1).

Thank you so much! You saved the day!