You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

💡 Did you know?

⏺ If you can't accept iCloud Terms and Conditions... Learn more >

⏺ If you don't see your iCloud notes in the Notes app... Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

voice memos not showing up in itunes

I am trying to copy some voice memos from my iphone to itunes on my macbook pro, but only some of the voice show up as synched in itunes when I'm done. Also I don't see the voice memos in question in the list on the computer's itunes when I connect the iphone. please help.

IMac G5, Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Oct 7, 2010 2:58 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 5, 2012 10:19 AM

I am so OVER this voice memo b@#$s@#T saga! Can one thing actually work on this stupid phone. I'm so sick of the constant intermitent & ever changing issues/problems that I'm ready to join everyone else & switch to android. so over it!! It just isn't worth the heartache anymore. none of these solutions have made any difference & whats even more hilarious is that not only do my voice memo's not appear in itunes anywhere...but even the file that stores them on my drive is incomplete. ...how is this even possible when i can see them on my phone?


How is it possible that each problem encountered on these stupid phones has 10 different errors or ways that it behaves for the same problem? Not even the errors are consistent. How does the user even begin to troubleshoot something like that? one day it works, the next day it half works, the next day it wipes everything, then it sync's one file, then it half works again, then it deletes itself altogether. ***?


Lift your game Apple.....this isn't good enough!!!! We're all sick of your half-@ssed products! 😠 😠 😠

303 replies

Sep 25, 2014 6:48 AM in response to Schmrtzzz

Have to get back on my former post. Soon after I managed to sync two memo's, the syncing stopped altogether. All 52 GB of the music on my phone disappeared, at the same time the phone said there was not only 52 GB of music on my phone but also 52 GB of 'Other' stuff, iTunes kept hanging in the syncing proces and other crazy things happened. I'm now factory restoring my iPhone 6. I can't say these two are related but iOS8 appears to be very very buggy. So be careful.


Here's the discussion about iTunes not syncing at all: IOS 8 won't sync music with itunes

Jun 19, 2011 4:03 AM in response to anneraven

Hi all,


What worked for me was the following:


  1. Trim the memo:
    1. press the blue arrow (right side of the memo)
    2. press "Trim Memo"
    3. drag the right end of the yellow bar slightly to the right, so you just trim a couple of seconds
    4. press "Trim Voice Memo"
  2. Sync the device


Beware: this method removes some sound data at the end of your memo.

So only do this when you are sure this last bit is not important.


Good luck!

May 1, 2012 2:12 PM in response to anneraven

😀 SIMPLE SOLUTION FOR ALL:


Hey guys,


I think the following method is universal and will solve anyone's issue no matter what size Voice memo you want to move or what specific hardware, firmware, platform etc you have:


I assume the issue you want to solve is: being able to play Voice Memo app Recordings on the Music app on your iOS device via syncing through iTunes on a PC or Mac:


with that assumption, follow the simple steps below and it should work for anyone:

  1. Cable-sync your iOS device to your iTunes (PC or Mac)
  2. Your recording/s will be under Voice Memos (playlist)
  3. Right Click (PC) or Two-Finger Tap (Mac) on the individual recording you want to sync
  4. Click on "Get Info"
  5. Just Notice on "Summary" tab, I assume the file is an AAC, at least 64kbps, Profile is Low Complexity and in Mono channel
  6. Click on the "Options" tab (5th Tab along)
  7. On the drop-down menu: "Media Kind" (by default it should say "Voice Memo") CHANGE IT TO: "Music"
  8. Click "OK"
  9. Create a NEW PLAYLIST FOLDER and name it whatever you want
  10. Drag that Voice Memo track you just changed into that NEW PLAYLIST FOLDER you just made,
  11. NOW SIMPLY SYNC:
  12. Under DEVICES: Click on your iOS device and under the "Music" tab, check "Sync Music", "Selected playlists..." & under Playlists box, check that NEW PLAYLIST FOLDER you just made that has your changed Voice Memo and that's all
  13. Click Apply and Sync your iOS device
  14. under Music on your device your memo should come up


Only annoying thing about this solution is that you have to go into each memo and change that Media Kind to Music. Small price to pay to access it in the Music app i suppose 😐


Hope it works for you...

post back if it works, to help others solve this uneccessary issue, Apple should have tweaked!


Happy recordings!🙂

Feb 11, 2013 10:09 PM in response to donjoz

Had this problem as well on iPhone 5 (iOS 6.1), iTunes 11.0.1


I read this workaround on another thread & it worked for me:


  1. Disconnect your phone from iTunes
  2. In your phone, go to voice memos app
  3. Select the voice memo you want to transfer
  4. Assign a category by clicking the grey arrow in the voice memo info screen
  5. Click Trim Memo
  6. Don't trim anything, just click Trim Voice Memo in the trim window
  7. Repeat steps 2-6 for each memo you want to transfer
  8. Sync with iTunes, and the memos should show up now.

Feb 12, 2013 4:13 PM in response to FeelMyBass

THIS WORKED FOR ME

THANK YOU FEELMYBASS


Had this problem as well on iPhone 5 (iOS 6.1), iTunes 11.0.1


I read this workaround on another thread & it worked for me:


  1. Disconnect your phone from iTunes
  2. In your phone, go to voice memos app
  3. Select the voice memo you want to transfer
  4. Assign a category by clicking the grey arrow in the voice memo info screen
  5. Click Trim Memo
  6. Don't trim anything, just click Trim Voice Memo in the trim window
  7. Repeat steps 2-6 for each memo you want to transfer
  8. Sync with iTunes, and the memos should show up now.

Apr 6, 2013 9:33 AM in response to FeelMyBass

Thanks a lot FeelMyBass!

Tried so many steps advised here but only yours working for me phew~


Mine is iPhone 4 (iOS 5.1.1), iTunes 11.0.2 though for reference purpose


I read this workaround on another thread & it worked for me:


  1. Disconnect your phone from iTunes
  2. In your phone, go to voice memos app
  3. Select the voice memo you want to transfer
  4. Assign a category by clicking the grey arrow in the voice memo info screen
  5. Click Trim Memo
  6. Don't trim anything, just click Trim Voice Memo in the trim window
  7. Repeat steps 2-6 for each memo you want to transfer
  8. Sync with iTunes, and the memos should show up now.


APPLE seriously need to get this fix! What's the point of having technology that put us in a situation in which we are spending more time trying to get things fix after paying for the gadget? /shakesfist


And I will go fill up the complaint/feedback form too. Thanks all 🙂

Apr 7, 2013 4:34 PM in response to anneraven

I don't know why I did it (I guess I got tired of the pop-up menu luring me into downloading the latest version of iTunes) but before and after doing this 2 days ago, things went from bad to worse on my iPhone 4s and my Voice Memos. Then I saw the growing community of miserable people who had placed their trust in Apple as I did. I tried just about everything--including plugging in, plugging out, unchecking, rechecking etc. and went to my old standby "woman vs. machine" mindset: have confidence that as an experienced user of tech, you will win when challenged by technology because you are intuitive. Just as they said at the dawn of the personal computer, it is intuitive (even if some of your programmers are not).


Then, I played around with the idea that ultimately I could move things back and forth between my iPhone and iTunes on my laptop. I depend on Voice Memos when I record interviews with clients. It should be a fast, easy and productive way for a writer to capture information and then log it to create documents, articles, posts and more. Of course, I didn't expect Apple to create all of these challenges. Here is what I think users of Apple products want in this case:


use the iPhone as an obvious tool to record voice

organize the information and preserve it by backing it up in the iTunes library or somewhere convenient on your hard drive

customize the above to user preference, i.e., decide according to the task how long the voice memo will be without having to trim the size, as well as what method for transfer (email, message) and where and how you can send it. That doesn't seem like a tall order given that Apple makes some nice change off of the available productivity apps.

allow the user to determine how many memos to store on either the phone or laptop given the amount of space available. Very simple, no?


Learning that there may be "bugs" that require fixes isn't good enough. In fact, it is unacceptable. The discussions in this thread cover 3 years of aggravation!!


Here is what worked for me:


  • closed iTunes and unplugged my device
  • accepted that my phone would automatically sync with iTunes.
  • used my phone as the command and control.
  • in Music on my iPhone 4S, used the "Add a New Playlist" option
  • at the bottom menu, beginning with Playlists, clicked on "More" which takes you to the menu beginning with "Audiobooks" and then clicked on Genres.
  • in Genres, it offered me the choice of Voice Recordings and clicked on that to add that as my new Playlist!
  • my new Playlist was defined as Copied Items on my phone.
  • plugged my phone back into my laptop, opened up iTunes and voila!! --- in the left Taskbar under Playlists was the new playlist Copied Items, but it represented absolutely all of my voice memos that I had recorded dating back to a year ago. Now the full set is stored in my iTunes library. It didn't have to be this hard to accomplish a task that was supposed to boost my productivity!!!!!


Yikes, Apple! I don't want to buy or download any third-party software or openware to fix what you should have done right in the first place. Next thing we know as we leave your retail stores will be the tagline inside the apple "Waste time and money--yours, of course!"

Jan 9, 2015 3:58 AM in response to anneraven

  • I have "sync only checked songs and videos" checked (in the summary tab of the device).
  • have "include voice memos" checked in music tab of device.


this works but don't know why.


i kept unplugging it. quiting iTunes. opening. unplugging. making test recordings. deleted all the voice memos. then made a few more tests and now it seems to work with the settings above.


I also have iMazing which allows me to move the voice memos. but I just think it should work as it should. but then again perhaps something is corrupted on my device—which could be true. I had other syncing issues. but it seems to be working now —


Sometimes we need to mess around and delete and make test recordings etc. It's part of the process. Making test recordings and deleting and renaming them—that's what I did.


[Using ipod touch 64 GB with ios 8.1 on a MacBook Pro OSX 10.9.5]

Jan 5, 2011 2:33 AM in response to gwyncole

I have the same issue. When I looked on the iPhone itself using a tool called iphonedisk I noticed the recording that does not sync has two files: one .m4a and one .mov file. I've learned that when you record the iPhone first creates a .mov file and when the recording is done, it converts the file to a .m4a file. I believe when this converting process is not properly done, both files remain on the iPhone and iTunes does not sync the voice memo. The .mov file still holds the recording and is playable with quicktime, but the .m4a file is not playable.

My solution is to use the tool (or any other tool that allows you to browse the iPhone) and manually transfer the .mov file for backup to your mac.

Hope this will help.

Feb 1, 2011 7:14 AM in response to anneraven

Just purchased Mac i3 and voice memos won't sync to it from iphone 3GS. The problem is, even though "include voice memos" is checked in itunes, it won't set up a Voice Memos Playlist." Have tried unchecking as one entry suggested but nothing works. Everything else syncs fine BUT, the most important thing for me is that Voice Memos sync. Golly, don't really want to buy a voice recorder to make voice memos, I though this was a function for iphone. Yeah, they record fine, but won't sync.

voice memos not showing up in itunes

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.