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propower

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 23, 2010
731
126
I am a musician and record all my gigs with my iphone. I currently have 25GB+ of Voice memos - hundreds of files. I never use itunes to sync and just want to archive my voice memos and delete them from my phone - preserving all the names Voice memo gives (they include locations!). I see the share one at a time feature and it is a non-starter for this. I used to use iphone explorer years ago but the current version is also a non-starter. All other iphone explorers are expensive and awful near as I can tell (does anyone know of a current good one?). SO - how to do this? There is no archive feature I can find on Mac or IOS. What is even Apples way of saving large quantities of Voice Memos - one at a time?? Really??

Maybe I should just use a different app for Voice memos? Suggestions welcome.
 

NoBoMac

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 1, 2014
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What is even Apples way of saving large quantities of Voice Memos - one at a time??

iTunes sync.

Or iMazing and the ilk.

ADD: too late for existing memos, but, if syncing is turned on in iCloud, memo will move from iPhone to Mac after recorded.
 
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propower

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 23, 2010
731
126
It's hard to believe you record music with an iPhone. Doesn't it sound absolutely horrible?
Even the apps that can record uncompressed aiff sound like trash.

But yes. If you want to record sounds, use another app. I use this one-

iTalk Recorder by Griffin Technology
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/italk-recorder/id293673304
These are just gig recordings for checking playing and singing. Never intended for publication (have whole studio for that :). iPhone X in a quiet room makes surprisingly good recordings too.
 
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Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,251
11,747
You would be surprised, but iTunes automatically backup your voice memo to your music library when you sync. Despite your hate on iTunes, it might be the best software out there to archive all your voice memos.
 

propower

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 23, 2010
731
126
Since I use iCloud with voice memos - doesn't itunes put them in my library and keep them on my phone after syncing? Over the years I have thousands of these (100+ preformances (2-5 hour ea) a year plus relevant rehearsals and idea files). And once in itunes library - how do you archive anything?? Same problem with iCloud sync. No archive mechanism. I have 5TB of One Drive space - thats where all the prior years stuff goes :).

I have a similar problem with Photos on Mac. 20 years of them and now it is growing at 20GB/year. Photos on Mac has no provision for archiving - just like Voice Memos...
 

mikzn

macrumors 68040
Sep 2, 2013
3,005
2,293
North Vancouver
I am a musician and record all my gigs with my iphone. I currently have 25GB+ of Voice memos - hundreds of files. I never use itunes to sync and just want to archive my voice memos and delete them from my phone - preserving all the names Voice memo gives (they include locations!). I see the share one at a time feature and it is a non-starter for this. I used to use iphone explorer years ago but the current version is also a non-starter. All other iphone explorers are expensive and awful near as I can tell (does anyone know of a current good one?). SO - how to do this? There is no archive feature I can find on Mac or IOS. What is even Apples way of saving large quantities of Voice Memos - one at a time?? Really??

Maybe I should just use a different app for Voice memos? Suggestions welcome.

I have mine sync with icloud and they are showing on every device - and bought more iCloud storage because I did not know if it would be a restriction - but a good archive would mean sorting and renaming the files since all mine are recoding1, recording2, etc or location1, location2, etc - and then saving in folder / archive?

I am surprised too at how good they sound (mine are guitar only) so for a quick recoding with some pretty decent sound it is hard to beat - especially if you just want to remember something like a new riff before you forget it

I tried to get my focusrite and Audiotechnica mic to record into voice memo to see what it might sound like - but could not get it to work.
 

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,251
11,747
Yes, it does not have an archive function per se. But that’s when “show in finder” comes into play. Locate the voice memo in finder and manually back them up to your 5TB (!) OneDrive.
All you need is a few mouse clicks. No big deal.
And seriously, you need to buy a couple hard drives to backup your voice memo locally. Cloud storage is someone else’s hard drive after all.
 
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propower

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 23, 2010
731
126
Yes, it does not have an archive function per se. But that’s when “show in finder” comes into play. Locate the voice memo in finder and manually back them up to your 5TB (!) OneDrive.
All you need is a few mouse clicks. No big deal.

I hear you - the one thing this looses though is all the location info in the titles (or other custom info I add in Voice Memo App - like great 7/8 song idea). You get 20190401 150632m4a for a title which is at least the date. But you are right - it is one way.
 

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,251
11,747
I hear you - the one thing this looses though is all the location info in the titles (or other custom info I add in Voice Memo App - like great 7/8 song idea). You get 20190401 150632m4a for a title which is at least the date. But you are right - it is one way.
You can then name the locations using finder. Or it might be possible to add location into your memo metadata, such as comments. You don’t need to add them over by one.
Yeah, that’s archive and file management.
 

mikzn

macrumors 68040
Sep 2, 2013
3,005
2,293
North Vancouver
Another option is (after an iTunes Sync) edit the tags in iTunes - then drag the file to an archive location ( different drive? folders?) the meta data should move with it?

at least it does for me - assuming you want artist, year, song info etc.
 

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,251
11,747
Another option is (after an iTunes Sync) edit the tags in iTunes - then drag the file to an archive location ( different drive? folders?) the meta data should move with it?

at least it does for me - assuming you want artist, year, song info etc.
There is Also a comment section that you can add more info.
 
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propower

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 23, 2010
731
126
While it is true that I can add info or rename files - we are now back to manually managing every file. The voice memo app beautifully lists all the names, dates and locations. One just can't archive it just like that. Even sharing a tune looses the location info. PS - these are all my own recordings - all music is Apple Music or Tidal - never iTunes. I archived all my CDs to lossless files before giving them away years ago.
 

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,251
11,747
While it is true that I can add info or rename files - we are now back to manually managing every file. The voice memo app beautifully lists all the names, dates and locations. One just can't archive it just like that. Even sharing a tune looses the location info.
But that is how voice memo stores the location info. They write it to a database instead of the file itself. No one can extract that database without jailbreak.
File management is clunky and daunting. I know. But it will help you on the long run.
 

propower

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 23, 2010
731
126
Yes - exactly! Why Photos, iCloud Drive and VoiceMemos lack archive features is frustrating for me. Apple mostly assumes one should let them do it - keep everything live - and just buy storage to have room for it. If they would evolve to have an Optimize Storage function for Memos (like Photos) I might just say good enough. There are several Apps that have the decoder ring to save files just as they appear in Voice Memos - iMazing for one. I just find very little info on long term stability and whether it is worth the $50+ to now get one - maybe though...

I date back to CD.., Directory Trees and managing my 30MB hard drive (XT). No stranger to file management :).
 
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Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,251
11,747
Yes - exactly! Why Photos, iCloud Drive and VoiceMemos lack archive features is frustrating for me. Apple mostly assumes one should let them do it - keep everything live - and just buy storage to have room for it. If they would evolve to have an Optimize Storage function for Memos (like Photos) I might just say good enough. There are several Apps that have the decoder ring to save files just as they appear in Voice Memos - iMazing for one. I just find very little info on long term stability and whether it is worth the $50+ to now get one - maybe though...
If you go out and ask random guys what archive mean, they won’t even give you an answer most of the time. That’s how general customer deal with digital assets. It is more of a corporation and business strategy than average users.
Apple focuses on customers, so they don’t care about archiving.
 

propower

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 23, 2010
731
126
Thanks for all your thoughts. The right answer for me is likely 3rd party apps unless I sign up to renaming files as I create them. Not possible really on the phone. I have been using Macs for ProAudio for 20+ years. Archiving audio projects is part of the process. Even Apple Logic files are straightforward to do this. On the stricly consumer side I fear you are right with Apple Apps. As far as relegating important info to data bases instead of proper including in M4A metadata is an interesting and unfortunate choice. I do miss the old school ways of straight directory trees instead of the parallel host of hidden and visible trees we have now. Oh well...

The simple answer to my initial question is - 3rd party apps or manually do it one at a time with adding info to file names. Thanks then :)
 
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mikzn

macrumors 68040
Sep 2, 2013
3,005
2,293
North Vancouver
Update: I just resynced both my iPad Pro and my iPhone with iTunes library and noticed that there are now over 1000 voice memos dating back to 2015 (maybe they were always there)

Also when I check where the files were located (in itunes cmd+I ) - they are in a folder (voice memos) located in the same folder as all my other music files - see attached pictures

so it would be easy to back up the entire folder by copying the folder somerwhere else or using CCC to clone the folder once a week etc. to a back up drive
Vmemo-location.png
vmemos-storage.png
 
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propower

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 23, 2010
731
126
Thanks for this. The thing you loose with this method is all the Location information that is not stored in the file header or the title. For those just using VoiceMemo in iCloud these files are in the "hidden" user Library. Same issue though with losing all that great Location information the App now auto stores. In the end I did buy iMazing for ~$40. Not perfect but an answer that preserves what i am looking for and does not involve iTunes.
 

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mikzn

macrumors 68040
Sep 2, 2013
3,005
2,293
North Vancouver
Yeah iMazing is a nice app - however i have 2 iPhones and 2 ipads and having all stored in iTunes is better in my case and then can use the meta tags to rate and track different versions, dates and add comments etc.

Glad iMazing works for what you need

BTW I tried hooking up the Focusrite 2i4 (with a Mic) to voice memos (again) and it works! (not sure what I did wrong before - but works great now - fast and easy to make a quick recording) - so I am going to try it to see if the quality is a little better than the iPhone mic - should be?
 

propower

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 23, 2010
731
126
The Focusrite + Mic should be a big improvement. The iPhone is a fantastic pocket recorder though. :)
 
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