big sur and moving voice memos from iphone to macbook pro

Hello ps91Rick

I am posting this but you mention you have the Voice Memos on an iPad Pro but is that the only Device you are using? I outline my own situation below and it might not fit yours!!

At the very least you could save all your Voice Memos by sending them to yourself in an email and then saving to a USB stick from there!!!! Or hold them in your email program to 'save them' !!! as in stored in an email on the server which is hopefully backed-up !!!

1. I use an iPhone 7 Plus to record my Voice Memos and had them on my iPhone 7 Plus and my old MacBook mid 2010 White model. The Voice Memos sat in iTunes and that meant I was able to Back them up, somehow.
2. I found a work around  and it was not how I wanted to do it or how I think it should be, 

but:

a. I sent my voice memos from the iPhone 7 Plus to my MacBook Pro (2020) ‘one by one’.

b. I was able use AirDrop functionality for this (remember I sent them one by one) and they were saved in the Downloads folder.

c. I originally only sent one to see how it worked. I was anxious about losing the Voice Memos so step by step.

d. I then made sure I had backups (this was truly overdone by me) but I was then sure I could play with usingthis iCloud / iDrive.

e. when iCloud / iDrive was set up, it finally sync’d my Voice Memos into Voice Memos on my MacBook Pro. It can be good I think but the naming becomes a nightmare as outlined later below. I have since stopped syncing the Memos and will keep them ‘under my control’. 

*****

What I did find was the following - and I’m over even thinking about this and how Apple have dumped iTunes without really making sure that all the new stand alone Apps are working according to the normal OSX system. Bye this I mean the following.

1. my Voice Memos that I transferred by AirDrop sat in the Downloads folder but there (as at me typing this on 23 Jan 2021) was way of getting them into the Voice Memos App on my MacBook Pro.
2. I tried ‘drag and drop’ to the App in the Dock - because sometimes you could do that !! but that did not work.
3. The Voice Memos App does not have a menu option like many other Applications, as in File >> Open. So really there was no option to get them into this App via normal ways like opening Word Documents or in Preview.
4. I have tried now as I hadn’t tried it before, to copy one of my Voice Memos (refer ‘a’ above) and when I re-opened Voice Memos it was there… So playing around in Finder is an option. 
5. However, I am then became concerned about the ‘naming’ options. They stayed the same for my file but when you make a new recording through the MacBook Voice Memos App and you stop and it saves, the App gives it the name ‘New Recording’.
6. To find your recordings for MacBook with Big Sur 11.1, I found this on the net, the files are saved: Finder: [your user directory] >> Library >> Application Support  >> com.apple.voicememos >> Recordings HOWEVER, the name is changed into ‘yyyymmdd’ space ‘hh:mm:ss’ ie: 20210123 114755.m4a
7. Despite me giving it a name of ‘New Recording RENAMED’ !! So it can be frustrating to keep track of things really easily. However, in ‘4’ above it kept the name, so that does make it easy but only if you drag them into the relevant Finder folder.

Last but not least. When I sent the Voice Memos to my self, one by one, using AirDrop, when I double clicked on the Voice Memo it actually opened up in the ‘Music’ App !!!! Work that out. So that means that the Voice Memos are saved with the extension (so I learned along the way) of .m4a This is a common extension and in the end it is easier to deal files anyway, so all is not lost.

I had originally posted and read stuff, including the previous two replies and I had even chatted with the Apple Support, online but like you I had my concerns about losing my Memos. Only you can play around with the App as I did to bring yourself to a knowledgeable state about the new Voice Memos App.

I still have my original Voice Memos and maybe over time will start to use the Voice Memos App on the MacBook but I need time to adjust.

I like my new MacBook Pro, 13", 32GB Ram and 1TB SSD for saving my 'stuff'.

I have sold my ten inch iPad now as I have slimmed down to a MacBook Pro and iPhone only.

This new MacBook is small enough and light enough to carry around in a super looking protective case.

I hope this is helpful and that it makes ‘some’ sense !!!

Good luck!!

thank you genieen16 for your reply.

I realised I was asking a question that was grammatically incorrect. That sentence should read:

'Am I missing something, after searching the internet, or is there a way of just syncing them - like I could on the old iTunes?'

I thought I made it perfectly clear in my post, though, that I didn't want to use the iCloud/iDrive to sync my voice memos?

That would imply that I want to use a cable.

genieen16 all your replies lead to 'using iCloud/iDrive' to sync.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT210611 mentions nothing about about Voice Memos and this is all over the internet with Big Sur. The old iTunes did mention Voice Memos.

cheers.

@ chaimmendel Thank you for your reply.

I hope I didn't give the wrong impression as I have not 'totally' ditched this app and still use it on my iPhone but I use it how I want to use it as outlined in detail above. I still use this method of recording on my iPhone (make sure you go into Voice Memos Settings and set the option: clear deleted to ‘never’. This way you still have them on the iPhone). 

Once I have sent my voice memos to my MacBook I then can back them up and keep the originals and then do whatever I want with them in the Voice Memo App or a different one. Renaming is tricky.. I will let you and others play with that.. I found it is better to move them to the Folder where Voice Memo stores the recording and rename in there and then open then they appear in the app.

Yes unfortunately Apple are ‘seemingly’ pushing people onto their stores but what if you don’t want anything from their store & they certainly do not stock every movie there is, as I found out during the last week.

I can only suggest you search for Apps that are for Voice Recordings. I lost the link I had to one that also turned it into Text.

Goodluck!

Dear jdo_apple thank you for the response, however, from your first link I read the following:

• Albums, songs, playlists, films, TV shows, podcasts, books and audiobooks.
• Photos and videos.
• Contacts and calendars.

*****there is nothing here about Voice Memos***

*****can people read my original text please and then my corrected text before responding please. I wanted to know if I can in 'anyway' synchronise my Voice Memos from my iPhone to my MacBook using a CABLE... rather than using iCloud/iDrive/sending them one by one via email etc.,

I am starting to think that people just post any old thing to get points!!!!!!