Can't get any voice memos to sync in either direction

[JackP]

I'm trying to sync my voice memos from my iPhone 13 (IOS 16.6) using iTunes (12.10.11 ) to a Windows 10 PC. I have a fresh clean install of Windows and a brand new phone that was setup from scratch (not restored from backup). The phone is practically out of the box as far as setup and apps.

I'm able to get music, photos, videos , ring tones etc to sync, but not the voice memos as I have done in the past.

I only have two test songs, and one old voice memo currently in iTunes so it is very easy to see what is syncing. I also recorded a test voice memo on the new phone to sync back to the PC.

Under the device (phone) section, under music I have check "sync voice memos" and I have tried the option to sync the entire music library and also to sync only selected items (selecting the smart playlist thst filters for voice memos).

I am not getting any voice memos in either direction syncing. Both the new VM on the phone and the two in iTunes dont sync to the other device. I also check in Windows Explorer VM folder to see if the new item was there.

Any ideas?
Thanks

 

[cjmnews]

I see that I no longer get voice memos automatically when syncing and backing up now. I am guessing when they removed all the media types on the iPhone from being seen in iTunes, we lost the ability to back them up to iTunes. Kind of like ringtones.

If I drag a voice memo and drop it onto the device, it appears on the device in the Music section as a song.

It looks like we are stuck using iCloud as the medium for storage. What's worse is that we can't even see the Voice Memos in the iCloud interface. Only the Voice Memo app can see them. I discovered 20 voice memos in the cloud when I enabled the iCloud Voice Memo feature.

You can Save the Memos to your iCloud drive
Then use the iCloud drive copy them locally (I used the iTunes/iTunes Music/Voice Memos folder)
Right click the file to see the name of the Voice Memo (Details tab, the Title will become the name, I suppose you could rename it here so you can find it easier in iTunes later)
Then Import the file in iTunes (It will lose the name you gave when saving from voice memos, and go in as a song)
Find the song you imported, right click and choose Song Info. In the Options tab, change the media kind to Voice Memo.

Apple has practically abandoned the Voice Memo support. You can back them up to iCloud, and transfer between multiple devices, go through the convoluted steps to get them into iTunes, but you can't see them outside of the Voice Memo app.

 

[JackP]

Thanks for your reply.

The way I use the voice memos I need to transfer them in both directions between the VM app and the computer. Having the ones that "originate" on the PC side end up in itunes (and not back in the VM) app is going to make a mess for me.

Do you know of any 3rd party programs that will allow me to put VMs back into the app on the phone?

 

[cjmnews]

I have not bothered to look for one as we stopped using voice memos.
There is a bit of a discussion on this issue, and it apparently left with iOS 15. You can report this as a problem directly to Apple: Product Feedback

There is apparently an option to use iCloud Music (a terrible option in my opinion, where all your music is in iCloud), and you can click on the Music Section of your iPhone and set Sync Voice Memos on.

I should check to see if this was not enabled in my test device without iCloud Music. Maybe syncing directly is possible. I will need to test when I get home and have time.

 

[cjmnews]

OK, it looks like there is sort of support for voice memo syncing.

1. Click on the device you are syncing (icon in the upper bar)
2. Click on Music section in the left column under your device.
3. Make sure Sync Music is checked (right column)
4. If you have less music and voice memos in iTunes than the capacity of your device you can choose Entire Music Library

4a. If you have too much music or don't want it all on your device then choose Selected playlists, artists, albums and genres.

1. Check Include voice memos
2. Click Apply.

Now this will take voice memos from your device (without iCloud) and put them into iTunes.

If you want to have voice memos go from iTunes to the device, then you can do a couple steps.

Step 1:
1. Create a Smart Playlist (File->New->Smart Playlist) for all Voice Memos with the Rules:
1.a. Match all media for the following rules.
1.b. Media Kind is Voice Memo
1.c. Check Live Updating

1. Click OK.
2. Name it Voice Memos.

Step 2:

1. Click on the device you are syncing (icon in the upper bar)
2. Click on Music section in the left column under your device.
3. In the right column, in the Playlists
4. Scroll down to find the Voice Memos playlist and put a check mark next to it.
5. Click Apply.

You can limit the smart playlist if you want by recently added, or title, or recently played....