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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

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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

Mar 22, 2011 4:31 PM in response to anneraven

Similar problem:

My iPhone (3GS) shows 16 voice memos dating from 8/9/10 through 3/14/11.
4 of the voice memos are dated 3/14/11. These are the only 4 that don't show up in iTunes. When I plug my iPhone into the computer, only the first 12 voice memos show up in the Voice Memos playlist under my iPhone device menu.

I am using the current version of iTunes (10.2.1.1) with Windows Vista.

Apr 8, 2011 4:58 PM in response to the_lemminguk

Hey Folks,

I found the answer, at least it worked for me.

Here ya go:
1) open the Voice Memos app on your iPhone
2) on any memo: click the little blue arrow on the right
3) Click the next arrow in the top most box this will put you in the "Label" screen
4) From the "Label" screen: click the arrow next to "Custom"
5) In the Custom screen: give the memo a name (click Done)
6) Click the left arrow (top left) to go back to your memos.

You'll see that you memo as a name. I changed mine from "4:25 PM" to "Fishcakes".

7) Sync you iPhone and you are good to go.

May 21, 2011 12:38 PM in response to anneraven

Same issue here! Out of 23 voice memos, only 1 voice memo (the very first memo that I recorded (2009)) appears in the itunes voice memo playlist! I simply want to back up these files in case of loss or damage to my phone, and it seems impossible. I have been reading the forums, and have tried every suggestion, with no success. In fact, I created a new itunes library, synched my phone, marked `include voice memos,` and now the voice memo playlist has completely disappeared! This is unacceptable. My quest is now to find a way to back up all of the contents of my phone onto my external hard drive WITHOUTneeding to use itunes, which is obviously not properly designed for this task. Thoughts? Does anyone know of another app for voice recording that functions well? I suppose I could record the audio of each voice memo into Audacity, which would be extremely time consuming since most of my memos are 30 mins long...


WHERE ARE YOU APPLE SUPPORT TEAM???

Jun 10, 2011 2:24 AM in response to Blond James Blond

Simple temporary solution for important Voice Memos. Open the voice memo on your phone and click 'share' then email it to yourself.


Apple should really respond to this and get it sorted but this is a temporary solution if you need it.


Also has the advantage that you can save it to anywhere you like and bypass the assumptive and restrictive iTunes control freaks.

Jun 14, 2011 8:38 PM in response to anneraven

I seem to have solved this for myself. I used PhoneDisk (by macroplant, but I'm sure other things will work--I got it during some free promotion) to look in the file system of my iPhone 4. In the "Recordings" folder (along with the files Recordings.db and CustomLabels.plist) were the 5 voice memos from this week that I couldn't move to my Mac (.m4a's) and ALSO two .mov files which were voice memos from 8/29/10 and 11/30/10 (which I guess I had forgotten had somehow mysteriously disappeared at the time) Thanks to MatthijsB's comment, I recognized these as out of place. I deleted these two files (after copying to my desktop), and synced again--nothing. Then unconnected my iPhone, plugged it back in again and *BOOM*--as I watched it sync, it copied the 5 new voice memos over to my Mac. It seems the .mov files (which I guess were voice memos that never got correctly processed? Some older iOS version bug?) which were interrupting normal operations. Good luck, folks!

Jul 1, 2011 6:08 PM in response to lodenmuse

It blows my mind that Apple Support hasn't weighed in on this. What's it been, 8 months??!! I recorded an important four-hour presentation today and couldn't get it to appear in iTunes, either on my phone or computer. Thanks, lodenmuse and MatthijsB - I got PhoneDisk, and was able to use it to get to the .mov file. I deleted it from the phone and tried to sync, but didn't get the results that lodenmuse got - the voice memo is still not loading from phone to computer.


But - I've got the Quicktime file, and that's really all I need. Thanks guys (why aren't YOU getting a paycheck from our friends in Cupertino?)

Jul 3, 2011 1:58 PM in response to kbid

Quick get around without getting any new apps.



Select the voice memo from the list on your phone then press the 'Share' button at the bottom of your screen. Email it to yourself.


I still think Apple should sort this out, but at least with this get around you can save them manually on your PC.


Colin


Life's beautiful, life's easy, life's great...

Jul 3, 2011 2:14 PM in response to crunchie1967

Yes, but this method, emailing them to yourself, only works if the memo is short enough to be emailed. Anything larger than, say, 10 MB, is not going to work.


I have found that the method someone mentioned above does seem to work all the time -- that is, going in to the info area on each voice memo and saving it with a name --- TomCruise or whatever --- and then attaching the phone to Itunes and synching it.

Jul 5, 2011 1:47 PM in response to anneraven

My long voice memo was also not syncing and no playlist was being created. As suggested above, I gave it a name in the Custom menu and viola, it worked. Thanks to the one who posted the solution.


I don't like to be critical of Apple but if you're going to have support forums, you need to monitor them. Disappointing.


If an Apple customer support rep reads this, kindly submit a fix request for the Voice Memos or a clarification for the User Manual indicating what to do.

Jul 5, 2011 1:56 PM in response to the_lemminguk

I found the answer, at least it worked for me.


Here ya go:

1) open the Voice Memos app on your iPhone

2) on any memo: click the little blue arrow on the right

3) Click the next arrow in the top most box this will put you in the "Label" screen

4) From the "Label" screen: click the arrow next to "Custom"

5) In the Custom screen: give the memo a name (click Done)

6) Click the left arrow (top left) to go back to your memos.


You'll see that you memo as a name. I changed mine from "4:25 PM" to "Fishcakes".


7) Sync you iPhone and you are good to go.

Jul 5, 2011 3:39 PM in response to Blond James Blond

Blond James Blond: Nope. Tried that, and though it worked for some others on here, it didn't work for me. The only thing that worked, like I said before, was to get PhoneDisk, find the file, and got the .mov file that way. I tried all the other fixes listed here - this is the only one that worked for me.


Again - like you - I hate to dis Apple, been devoted since '84, but they seem to be losing their grip on A) nice user experience without boneheaded, excruciatingly-ornate workarounds (that's MS's bailiwick!) and B) agile and knowledgable customer support.


I'm really sorry to see this, and I hope it's not a trend.

voice memos not showing up in itunes

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