Audio .memo file unable to convert to mp3

[AC Question]

Knowing I had audio recording on my Samsung Galaxy S7, I decided to record 1 hour using the Memo app that comes standard on the phone. After struggling to get it onto my computer, I was unable to open it to play. The file extension .memo is unrecognizable.

So I called Samsung. I was advised to change the .memo extension to .mp3 - which proved unsuccessful as the recording still will not play.

I download VLC to convert the file to an mp3. The .memo file will play on VLC but will not convert to a playable file. I tried to open both file extensions in Adobe Media Encoder, where I also get an error message with the extension.

Does anyone know how to make an audio memo from this standard app be readable on any other device?

I have since downloaded the Voice Recorder app from the Play Store, but would love to salvage this file.

 

[ManiacJoe]

I download VLC to convert the file to an mp3. The .memo file will play on VLC but will not convert to a playable file.

What is the error message you get from the conversion screen?
Are you trying this conversion on your phone or on your computer?

 

[Jesi Young]

Hi @maniacjoe - The VLC converter lets me go through the steps of COnvert/Save, choose file type, then when I press Save it blanks out and the .memo file is no longer in the player.

 

[Jesi Young]

What is the error message you get from the conversion screen?
Are you trying this conversion on your phone or on your computer?

The VLC converter lets me go through the steps of COnvert/Save, choose file type, then when I press Save it blanks out and the .memo file is no longer in the player.

 

[Jeff Keene]

I'm having the exact same problem, and I've tried using VLC, Video Grabber, and iTunes with no luck. I attempted iTunes simply because some of the articles I've read stated it could convert the file.

Any assistance with getting this file converted would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Florestant Djorkaeff Alex]

oops just rename it into format .mp3 it will work and open it with vlc player

 

[akaelisabeth]

Holy **** I can't believed this worked and it was that simple. I found this on a thread from 2012: "Just putting this here for the future, anyone who is looking for a method to extract the audio from a .memo file. Share it to a PC, use 7zip to extract the archive, under media, find the proper sized file and add the .mp3 extension and you will have playable audio without any hassle. Good luck."

It totally worked! once the file has been extracted there's a new folder titled media. all you do is add .mp3 to it. hope this helps!! I was really bummed for a bit there when nothing else worked.

 

[John Makowichuk]

Re: Audio .memo file unable to convert to mp3 (Old-school workaround)

I'm in a similar position with my memo app on the S7 and have just started to look into it. My first thought was, for you, if it's just one file to play it on your phone and record it on your laptop. It's old school, like I used to make mixed tapes off the radio, when Prince George's local news station was CKPG. (Most small communities had their own little television station. All had the news where you could see who showed up at the fall fair. The best part of that time, and no kidding...was that the weather prediction was better. Why? Because meteorologists were scientists. You could see the gauges through the window behind the guy who never showed up for biology class.) Today they call it "privacy" and "creative content" or whatever...but to do that same newscast today, there would be a hierarchy of entitlement between the window and the barometer so thick with patents that it's easier just to do it from space.
Anyway, the weather was better because it adapted to local conditions. Up side: have your speech to text app and your keyboard app all running for your dubbing session. Run it through until you don't have any mistakes in the punctuation as you correct and replay. Pretty soon your apps are sharing all of the same tweaks and you know that if you need to edit your text later, you can do it across the board.

We used to just call it dubbing a mixed tape. Sigh. I'm so old.

 

[John Makowichuk]

Re: Audio .memo file unable to convert to mp3 (Old-school workaround)

I'm in a similar position with my memo app on the S7 and have just started to look into it. My first thought was, for you, if it's just one file to play it on your phone and record it on your laptop. It's old school, like I used to make mixed tapes off the radio, when Prince George's local news station was CKPG. (Most small communities had their own little television station. All had the news where you could see who showed up at the fall fair. The best part of that time, and no kidding...was that the weather prediction was better. Why? Because meteorologists were scientists. You could see the gauges through the window behind the guy who never showed up for biology class.) Today they call it "privacy" and "creative content" or whatever...but to do that same newscast today, there would be a hierarchy of entitlement between the window and the barometer so thick with patents that it's easier just to do it from space.
Anyway, the weather was better because it adapted to local conditions. Up side: have your speech to text app and your keyboard app all running for your dubbing session. Run it through until you don't have any mistakes in the punctuation as you correct and replay. Pretty soon your apps are sharing all of the same tweaks and you know that if you need to edit your text later, you can do it across the board.

We used to just call it dubbing a mixed tape. Sigh. I'm so old.

 

[John Makowichuk]

After looking at elizabeth's posts from 2012 in which she lists the steps nicely, I think the root of the difficulty is a distinction between "format", in terms of changing the physical geometric arrangement of the file, "convert", which is a "copy-with-changes" kinda dealie, and "transfer", which is just a straight copy. I think the distinction pay be important because the fundamental difference between hardware and software that isn't considered is searching. Is it necessary to change (whether it's convert, copy, address whatever" the file because the software is incapable of playing it, or incapable of searching and finding it for the purposes of streaming? A laptop has more real estate than a phone: they tend to stream and even laptops use and rely on wireless communications for file sharing. The important thing, in this, is that a computer cannot look for two things in the same place or have two places for the same thing. So you can't be streaming and recording at the same time, and by recording I mean marking the place in the stream that the search and stream liaison can find in the dark.
The clue for this is that in elizabeth's post she understates the simple idea of "selecting the file that's the right size". That means that she's identifying the .memo file in some way before and after. I think that the "mp3 conversion" step is just what people are used to for easy streaming, which is fine until you try and do something other than stream, like edit the original and update the copy.
My intention with the player is to provide a "morning brief" on a collaborative project that she can convert easily and stream on her commute or whatever. Her copy will be an advanced copy that I have the source for, in a different city and different operating systems. No problemo, except that we're going to be wanting to recombine changes she makes at her convenience with changes I make at mine. Ideally, we'd be able to reference timepoints in the source copy like a bibliography. This would be for footnotes and links, tie-ins for the rest of the project. It's her master's degree and I'm just a guy who wants his sister's life to be easy. She's got two kits and I don't have a cat.
So my experiment will be to convert to an unrecognized file extention for the source file pre-emptively, even if it's a .blah or .yadayada or whatever. This will not be for streaming. Then, at a point in the project where we have finished the rough draft, our working copies get tossed completely. The .yadayada goes to MP3 so that her audience will be able to stream it when it get posted online.

This is why Elizabeth points out a thing we take for granted in this day and age: that accessibility and format, to a computer, are the same thing.