Convert Mac voice memos recordings to MP3 in iTunes

Since Mac Mojave, you can use the stock sound recording app, the Voice Memos, to record any sound, audio, music and voice memos on Mac without third-party audio recorders. Follow this guide to record audio and sounds on Mac using Voice Memos. It is easy and straightforward. iPhone users should be familiar with the Voice Memos app. Its desktop version works almost the same. Sometimes you may need to use a voice recording in a project which requires a different format, such as MP3. In this case, you will need to convert the Mac recordings from AAC, M4A to MP3. Luckily, Mac OS comes with the media player and converter, iTunes, that can help us to get this job done in just a minute.

How to convert Voice memos & sound recordings to MP3 on Mac?

Firstly you need to export the sound recordings from the Voice Memos app to your computer hard drive; then add it to iTunes and convert them to MP3 format. Check out details below.

Step 1. Export voice memos to Mac


Run the Launchpad on Mac, find and open Voice Memos app. All existing voice memos can be find at the left sidebar. Select and play an voice recording in the Voice Memos app to find the right recording file you want to convert to other file format. Drag and drop from the sidebar of Voice Memos app to your computer desktop to export it from the recorder app to Mac.

Step 2. Add voice memos to iTunes

Run iTunes on your Mac. Drag the sound recording files from your desktop or other folder where they are saved, and drop them to the iTunes library. You will find them listed under the Songs library in iTunes waiting to be played, synced and edited.

Step 3. Enable MP3 Encoder in iTunes

The iTunes for Mac will use AAC encoder as the default music encoder in its import settings. We can however change it to MP3 encoder from iTunes > Preferences > General > Import Settings.

enable MP3 encoder in iTunes preference import settings on Mac

Step 4. Convert voice memos, sound recordings to MP3 in iTunes

In the iTunes library, click to select the voice memo, music song or voice recording file, or press command/shift key and click to select multiple audio files in iTunes library, then click the File menu, choose Convert > Create MP3 Version.

You can find the created MP3 version in iTunes library. Right click on a mp3 file, and choose Show in Finder. You can then add them to your project, share with others, send to other devices from there.

Convert iPhone voice memos and recordings

In an earlier post, we demonstrated how to convert iPhone voice memos to MP3 using a third-party media converter. If you have upgraded to the latest Mac Mojave, your voice memos and recordings will be automatically synced from iOS device to Mac provided they are signed into the same iCloud account. In such case, you can simply convert them to MP3 using iTunes on Mac.