Convert MP4 to MP3

Go iTunes prefs>General - at the bottom is 'Import Settings' - change the 'Import Using' to whatever mp3 setting you want - then select a tune in iTunes and from the 'Advanced' option in the menu bar select 'Create MP3 version'.

This will create a .mp3 version and the original .mp4 will still be there.

MJ

Tried this but I'm afraid it didn't work. I've managed to get it to convert to AAC file but not as a copy, and the original file is still m4a.

I'm tearing my hair out and have wasted about an hour trying different variations just to get an mp3 version of a file.

Hi guys, I noticed a track that was not showing artwork but was stored in the get info 'Artwork' space, so what I did was go to iTunes preferences - select 'General' - go to bottom right hand side > Import settings, changed to mp3, then I selected the track and went to the 'File' tab at the top and selected convert, instantly the artwork appeared.

Happy days

Or create a smart playlist like this...

Create all the MP3's you want, then select this playlist. It will contain all the MP3 files in your library.

Select them and drag them to your USB stick on the desktop.

Be aware that this contains ALL the MP3 music files in your library so only select the files you actually want to delete.

Then Option Delete to remove them from iTunes and from the HD.

woodshed1 wrote:

Ok, I'll try one more time, starting over:

No need. I understand completely. It is very, very, simple to do what you want, WIndows or Mac.

2. I am not using a MAC; I'm using a PC. The PC keyboard does not have an Option key, only a Delete key.

This is the iTunes for Mac forum,. You should have mentioned this when you first posted.

For PCs, use Shift Delete to delete songs from a playlist and the library.

Deleting the MP3 songs in the Playlist does not delete the MP3 songs in the Music Library

But using Shift Delete to delete songs does delete them from a playlist and from the library.

Copying the songs to a Playlist and then selecting Create MP3 Version does not solve the duplicaton issue;

I never suggested you copy any AAC songs to any playlist.

If you create the Smart playlist as I suggested, you do not need to view by album or song or anything else. Simply use the playlist.

Let me start over.

You want to create MP3 versions of AAC songs you have.

You want to copy them to a USB stick.

You want to then delete all these MP3 songs completely from iTunes and from HD.

1 - Go to iTunes prefs > Advanced, Click Reset all Dialog warnings:

2 - Create a new smart playlist as shown below.

3 - Ignore this playlist for now.

4 - Go through iTunes and create MP3 versions of songs you want on a USB stick.

5 - After you are finished creating MP3 versions of songs you want on the USB stick, select the playlist above.

6 - Select all the songs, (ctrl A) and drag them to the USB stick on the desktop of your computer. Let it finish copying them

7 - Again select all the songs in this playlist.

8 - Press Shift & Delete (PC) or Option & Delete (Mac) on your keyboard. This will remove all the songs from your library, playlists & iTunes.

9 - It will then ask if you want to remove these files from the HD. Click Yes.

10 - No MP3 songs in iTunes or on your HD

Brendinho wrote:

Thanks for the sarcasm mate but it works for me

It's easy to demonstrate that it doesn't. Here is the 'Movie Inspector' pane in the QuickTime X player for an MP4 file where I have used your method to change the extension to MP3. As you will see the actual format remains unchanged - a test you can easily carry out on your own files.

Chris CA wrote:

Or create a smart playlist like this...

Create all the MP3's you want, then select this playlist. It will contain all the MP3 files in your library.

Select them and drag them to your USB stick on the desktop.

Be aware that this contains ALL the MP3 music files in your library so only select the files you actually want to delete.

Then Option Delete to remove them from iTunes and from the HD.

Chris - same scenario as above. After creating the MP3 files, I still have the original AAC files in Music Library as well as newly created MP3 files in Music Library. I have to manually select everyother MP3 file in Music Library and delete it - quite time consuming.

I want to be able to Create MP3 files, put them somewhere in iTunes as a group or better yet as Albums, move the Albums/Files to the stick, go back to iTunes delete the folder where the MP3 are located and still have the original AAC version in Music Library without the MP3 files.

BTW-where is "Options Delete" located.

The selection to "Delete" individual files in the newly created Smart Playlist is not available; all I can do is delete the entire Smart Playlist which deletes all of the MP3 files from Music Library. Right clicking the song does not have a "Delete" button and selecting the song and going to the Toolbar and Edit shows a grayed out option for Delete.

Also, now that I created the Smart Playlist, how do I delete the MP3 files without deleting them permantly from the HD or Music Library?

I have absolutely the same problem. Its like one gigantic mystery how to convert my mp4 videos into mp3. I've seen so many suggestions such as using the program handbrake and I downloaded it and have no idea how to do it through that program. I've tried it through the new itunes and I see absolutely no option to convert it into an mp3, only AAC as you said which I did and was a complete waste of time. I have spent countless hours trying to figure this out and I have come to the conclusion that it is a mystery that no one wants to admit to.

to convert mp4audio files to mp3 and keeep the original do as previous posters say about going into Edit >Preferences>General>Import Settings and changing the settings to import files as mp3. Then select the songs you want to convert, RIGHT CLICK and choose convert to mp3. Voila. You've got you're original and the new mp3 files. BTW I just did this myself as I wanted to edit some of the songs I've purchased, I'm using the latest version of iTunes too.

If you select the song with the left mouse button, or even just highlight it by hovering over it, you can *then* right-click and you'll see "Create MP3 Version" in the drop down menu just over half way down. This worked for me. I couldn't find the "advance" menu listed in the 1st response. Maybe that's for a Mac.

However, this does not work for files of type "m4p" with the iTunes protection on them. There is a way to first convert an m4p to m4a in iTunes, though it's more complicated and I don't remember all the steps. If anyone remembers how to do this in iTunes then that'd be a great help. Most 3rd party converters I found won't convert a protected file.

I have an iMac, and I just converted my iTunes mp4s to mp3s pretty much following the directions from the original response to this question. From iTunes preferences > General my "Import Settings" was AAC Encoder, and I changed that to MP3 Encoder from the drop down menu. Then back in iTunes I went to the File menu and chose Create New Version from the drop down, and when the choices appeared I chose Create MP3 Version. Prior to that I had "selected" all 359 music files and the conversion took place for all of them in a matter of minutes. After the coversion I had 2 versions of each song in iTunes. Not knowing any short cut, I then held down the Command key and selected every other file (the MP3 versions), and when I had completed this selection process, I then dragged all of the files to the USB stick, and all of the files copied to it. I have since tried to play the files in my car, and it worked beautifully.

This is a little odd for me. I can find all the steps here, but I'm not allowed to select the "convert to mp3 option". I can select "Create iPod or iPhone version" or "Create iPad or Apple TV Version". Any suggestions here?

Thanks!

I went thru the steps again and in my case I am only allowed to select the "Convert to MP3" option (the other 2 are grayed out). I went thru the steps again as I wrote them in my earlier post and it worked again. My version of itunes is 11.0.2 (26). The music files that I am trying to convert are shown to be "ACC audio file" when I did a "Get Info" for the file I had selected to convert. For the "Import Settings" step when I selected "MP3 Encoder," for the next box down I selected the highest quality level. I don't know if any of these things make a difference, but I thought I would give you this extra information anyway to see if it might help.

CharlesNMN wrote:

This is a little odd for me. I can find all the steps here, but I'm not allowed to select the "convert to mp3 option". I can select "Create iPod or iPhone version" or "Create iPad or Apple TV Version".

Those options are only available when you have a movie or TV show or music video selected.