how to convert m4a to mp3?

Start by dragging the files concerned into the Songs list in iTunes if they aren't already there.

To convert files to M4a ('AAC'):

In iTunes Preferences>General click the 'Import Settings' button and choose 'AAC encoder' (it may be the default) and use the next drop-down menu to choose your settings - you can choose 'Custom' and set the bitrate as suits you.

Click OK, then OK again to close the Preferences.

Now go to the library, select your original files and from the from the 'File' menu choose 'Create new version' then 'Create AAC version' (iTunes 11 - in earlier versions choose 'Create AAC version' from the 'Advanced' menu).. This will make duplicate AAC versions and you can delete the original versions in iTunes. (Never tamper with the actual library in the Finder).

To convert files to MP3:

Firstly, go to iTunes Preferences>General and click the 'Import Settings' button. Set 'Import Using' to 'MP3 Encoder' and use the next drop-down menu to choose your settings - you can choose 'Custom' and set the bitrate as suits you.

Click OK, then OK again to close the Preferences.

Go to the Music list; select the files you want to convert and from the 'File' menu choose 'Create new version' then 'Create MP3 version' (iTunes 11 - in earlier versions choose 'Create MP3 version' from the 'Advanced' menu).

MP3 versions will be created and placed in the music list (the original versions will remain there). You can drag them out if you want to save them elsewhere (doing this will not remove them from the Library). You can select and delete any files as required in the Music list. (Never tamper with the actual library in the Finder).

It has been suggested that converting files to WAV or AIFF will improve the quality - it won't. AAC and MP3 compression works by leaving out bits of the sound it is assumed you cannot hear because they are masked by other sounds. Copying to an uncompressed format such as WAV cannot restore the missing sounds, so you are maintaining the same quality and just making the files a lot larger.

It sounds as if you've managed to mess them up by changing the extension, though how I can't say. If you can't play an m4a file which has the correct extension then something has probably gone wrong with the file, though I wouldn't have thought changing the extension would do that, it simply tells the computer which program to use to open them. Without being able to examine the file it's not possible to say what has gone wrong. They don't play even in iTunes?

Pick one file, click it once to highlight it in the Finder, then hit command-i to get info: what does it say where I've put the arrows?

...or if you don't want to use iTunes, use the " Convert / Stream " option under " File " in VLC media player. For those who have not heard of VLC, it's the swiss knife of media and it's free, available for Windows and OSX > http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

click on that will bring the following dialog box. Click 'open media' and select your song, choose the profile

and then click on Save as file

Choose 'audio -mp3 ' from the dropdown box, use customize to set bit rate, click browse to set destination

then click " Save "

Chris CA wrote:

(a year and a half later...)

Benwon wrote:

You can download a M4A to MP3 converter for mac to convert m4a to mp3.

Why?

You can convert using iTunes.

Unless the purchase is very old, click here and follow the instructions.

Shankwalre wrote:

Chris CA wrote:

(a year and a half later...)

Benwon wrote:

You can download a M4A to MP3 converter for mac to convert m4a to mp3.

Why?

You can convert using iTunes.

Unless the purchase is very old, click here and follow the instructions.

It wasn't a purchase.

It was an .m4a recorded using QuickTime.

Click here for information.

(65808)

Ylynear wrote:

Converting M4A to WAV will preserve high quality sound as well as have high compatibility. To convert M4A to MP3, finding a solution or a converter in Google will be wise choice.

I would like Mp3 format to listen to music, and i have lot of album music wanting to convert. If there is a fast conversion, that would be better.

Yermi wrote:

And I am looking for the exact opposite!!!

How do I convert MP3 to m4a using iTunes???

Is there some reason you want to convert to .m4a?

You will smply lose quality when you convert.

Anything that plays m4a will also play mp3.

I'm having real trouble in the same realm...I rewrote the file formats of all my m4a's to mp3's in the finder so I could have them in my playlist on my phone (m4a's won't play on my phone, the designated playlist is empty which is maddening to begin with...) so then they didn't play at all anymore even in iTunes...Then I switched the formats back to m4a's and some of them still won't play! This is very important for me, most of those files are irreplacable and I need them, on the computer and on my phone (in the music player!! not the voice memos app!!!

Any feedback? Anyone? What can I do? Did I just compromise all my voice memos?

nukeycookey wrote:

I rewrote the file formats of all my m4a's to mp3's in the finder

You mean you simply changed the .m4a in the filename to mp3? That won't do you any good - you just have an m4a file with the wrong extension. You have to actually convert the file using one of the methods listed above. the easiest is to use the conversion process in iTunes which I outlined on October 20.

Yes but the problem now is not converting them. The problem is, that even after changing the extension back to m4a, they still do not work at all anywhere...

So if I convert them from the current state of m4a's (current meaning totally do not play in any player) into mp3's, they'll work again? Is that what you're saying?

Note:
The reason I just converted the extensions is because this works fine with pictures. from .png to .jpg for example...

nukeycookey wrote:

The reason I just converted the extensions is because this works fine with pictures. from .png to .jpg for example...

Only the extension is changed. This does not change the file type or the format.

right. but after changing them to mp3's, i couldn't play them in iTunes. Now that they're back as m4a's, I still cannot play them like before in iTunes. This is my problem. The situation is worse than before. Could real conversion help this situation or not? That's the question.

Thanks for taking the time to help out.

For Kind, they say: Apple MPEG-4 audio. And Extensions are all m4a's.

But this is after I've deleted all of them and downloaded all the memos from my phone again.
So now what I actually have is fine. The new issue that surfaced is that not all the memos from my phone were uploaded to the computer and I have no idea why.... I'm getting really tired of 'There's always a new issue popping up' and I'm sorry about this but if you could give me a hint as to what to do about this, how to get all my memos to be copied onto the computer, I would really appreciate it.

Note: Also, the conversion, I'm just gonna use iTunes to convert them into AAC files. So now they do appear in my phone's music player! Initial problem solved and thanks for that!

The answer is use ALL2MP3 it is a free application. After installintg it open itunes highlight you music drag all of it to the ALL2MP3 Icon and let it do it's thing. once done go you your Itunes directory and you will see that each song is duplicated. In your search bar in itunes enter mp3 then only mp3 songs will be listed. highlight the songs and drag them tou you device or drag them to a folder wala you done. If you don't like the duplicated drag the mp3's to tarsh.