To convert M4A to WAV for free, drop your M4A files above — iPhone voice memos, iTunes or Apple Music downloads you own, recordings from apps — and download 16-bit WAV files that every editor, transcription service and sampler accepts. The conversion keeps the original sample rate and channels and runs on our compute server (files up to 95 MB, erased as soon as the result is sent) or, for larger files, in your browser.
Two kinds of M4A
M4A is an Apple audio container. What is inside decides what you get in the WAV:
| Inside the M4A | Where it comes from | Result in WAV |
|---|---|---|
| AAC (compressed) | Voice Memos in default quality, iTunes Store purchases, most apps | The exact decoded sound, ready for editing; no quality is added |
| Apple Lossless (ALAC) | Voice Memos set to Lossless, ripped CDs | A true lossless copy at 16 bits; 24-bit recordings are reduced to 16 bits |
On iPhone, Settings → Apps → Voice Memos → Audio Quality → Lossless records future memos in ALAC, which is the better source for a WAV.
Common reasons to convert voice memos to WAV
- Transcription: some services and court or medical transcription tools ask for WAV files. TonySkill also has a transcription tool that accepts M4A directly.
- Editing on Windows: older versions of Audacity and many Windows tools open WAV reliably, M4A not always.
- Music production: DAWs and samplers import WAV without any decoding step.
- Radio and podcasts: broadcast workflows often standardise on WAV.
Size and limits
- A WAV is roughly 10 times larger than an AAC M4A: about 5.8 MB per minute for a mono 48 kHz voice memo, 10.6 MB per minute for stereo 44.1 kHz music.
- Files up to 1 GB, several at once, downloaded one by one or in a ZIP.
- Songs bought with copy protection (old iTunes Store files from before 2009) cannot be converted.