ios 15 - iphone voice memos dont sync with itunes

Hi all, I just got off the phone with Apple Support. Long story short, the senior tech advisor I spoke to named James let me know that Voice Memos are no longer supported by iTunes. You can't sync them anymore; there are no fixes coming down the pike, and to my knowledge, they didn't let us know that.

So that's that. Alternative solutions must be found. There is no update coming; no new version of iPhone or iTunes is needed, no engineers are working on any solutions.

I called them because I thought there was an issue with my iTunes, and I thought they'd need to remote connect to my laptop. I talked to a nice rep who walked me through some solutions, and then she transferred me to a senior rep. I told him about my issue and then he let me know it wasn't supported anymore.

I was actually stunned. I'd been on the phone for 40 minutes; surely this was info that the first rep could've told me? Or that the iTunes software itself could've indicated, for that matter? Like, a pop up?

In fact, he could've told me off the bat. But I told him about what I was experiencing, and then he told me it wasn't supported.

Further info: for the newest Apple computers, they are phasing out iTunes altogether, according to him. Some kind of glitch in that phase out made the voice memos get disconnected from Windows iTunes as well. (Fyi, iTunes will remain available for Windows.) Newer Apple computers will be able to sync without iTunes, so I guess that was what they were focused on. (I don't have a Mac, so I don't have further info on any of that.)

He actually mentioned that I might want to find a third-party app. Don't get me wrong; he was nice, and is not the bad guy. But this whole thing has kinda felt like if you left your car at the Honda dealership to get service, called back two days later, and was told the dealership doesn't exist.

Gaslighting is not the correct word, but that is a bit what this feels like. We all sat here for months using an app (voice memo) that was dropped without a word. It's still present on the phone, for whatever that's worth. But they dropped it so much that they didn't even update their reps on this information. The first rep could've told me, and like I said, we'd have saved 40 minutes. She even sent me articles... which means she was on the internet. Googling how to help me, 1) as though I hadn't done that, and 2) as though the internet had the most recent info. Oh, no, precious: James was the purveyor that info.

In conclusion, it's over for voice memos and iTunes. Feel free to do your own research or set up a call with them to find out more. If anyone has any viable third-party solutions that can upload several audios at once (not one by one like Dropbox), I'd love to hear recommendations. Thanks in advance.

I have a solution, share the voice memo to clips in a new project.

connect your iPhone to your Pv and browse under file sharing/clips. Select the clip document(s) and save to your pc.

The go to that location on PC, open the project folder and in the assets folder you will find the voice memo with as an .m4a file with the original name.

Hope this helps until Apple address the problem.

AliGos,

If you updated to iOS 15, the option is no longer available. You can leave feedback or make a feature request here: Product Feedback

We hope that helps.

Another solution which works very well is to Airdrop the memos!

Elaborate... Explain what you mean re "browse under file sharing/clips". Post a screenshot. I do not see that this works as you posted.

"I have a solution, share the voice memo to clips in a new project.

connect your iPhone to your Pv and browse under file sharing/clips. Select the clip document(s) and save to your pc.

The go to that location on PC, open the project folder and in the assets folder you will find the voice memo with as an .m4a file with the original name."

Hello AliGos,

We see that you need help with Voice Memos. Share and sync recordings in Voice Memos on iPhone

We’d like to clarify the issue. You stated that the issue started after iOS 15, but that your iPad has iOS 12.5.5 installed. To confirm, which version of iOS do you see when you go to Settings > General > About? Find the software version on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod. We ask because iOS 15 won't impact your device if you have iOS 12.5.5 installed.

If you updated to iOS 15 and the option is no longer available. You can leave feedback or make a feature request here: Product Feedback

Cheers!

Hi Alison:

I am so happy to have found your post as I've experienced the exact same problem and in fact, on the phone with Apple senior tech now. Over the past week, I have spoken with senior techs at Apple multiple times and hours on the phone without a resolution. At first I suspected it might be the same timing as going to iOS 15+, but now I'm convinced that's the issue and if anyone at Apple is reading this thread, PLEASE fix it! I've synced voice memos from my iPhones to iTunes every week for 11 years after my weekly music lessons and it always worked until about a week ago, about the same timing as updating to 15+ on my iPhone 12. Ken

This is exactly what is happening to me. When I open itunes, go into device, and look into Voice Memos folder, there is a list of voice memos that is outdated, and they are all greyed out with hash line circles in front of the title. The circles are like what you would normally click to download, except nothing happens when you click. So I can access Voice Memos on my phone, I can access the old ones that were previsously synced on itunes, but new ones haven't synced, and I can't access anything in the device in itunes. Based on the recordings that successfully made it to my computer (itunes and itunes media folder), it appears that the problem for me happened sometime between 10/14/2021 and 10/20/2021. A 10/14 recording is on my computer, but a 10/20 recording did not make it.

Hi Alison et al:

I called again yesterday (umpteenth time!) and didn't get anywhere again, except the agent said that the 'engineers' are aware there is this problem. I was hoping with another iOS update today (15.1.1), it would be addressed but no such luck! Maybe somebody at Apple reads this forum?......naaahhh...

Ken

Thanks much! I hit this problem today and despaired of moving music I'd recorded using Voice Memo onto my computer! Now I have a solution. In my case, I'm using DropBox. Kind of a kludge -- but as they say -- whatever works!