Unable to Share/Export Call Recordings from Notes App

And just to clarify, when the feature was first added this fall I was able to transcribe and share/save hour-long calls without any issue. It took a couple minutes to transcribe but nothing close to the endless spinning wheel I get now. And I used to be able to save those calls to my dropbox or google drive no problem.

From my extensive testing so far, it has to do with the length. I haven’t had a short recording fail. I use it every day as a journalist which is why I’m so guns-ho to find a solution!

Possible solution to your problems:

1. Try Duplicating the Note

• Open the note with the recording, tap Share, then select Duplicate.
• Try exporting from the duplicate instead.

2. Save via Voice Memos Instead

• Play the recording in Notes while using another device (or Mac) to record it in Voice Memos.
• You can then try exporting it from Voice Memos instead.

3. Use iCloud Notes on a Computer

• Log into iCloud.com on a Mac or PC.
• Try downloading the recording from there.

4. Check Storage & Restart Again

• Go to Settings → General → iPhone Storage to ensure you have enough space.
• Restart your iPhone again and try exporting immediately after rebooting.

5. Wait for iOS 18.2 (or Try Beta Software)

• Since you’re updating to iOS 18.2, this could fix the issue if it's a known bug.
• If urgent, consider installing the latest iOS beta (if you’re comfortable with pre-release software).

For reference, I am having this issue with a brand new iPhone 16 pro running iOS 18.3, so it is not unique to older phones.

Very similar experiences as I work in TV. The first week the feature was available, i was able to transcribe and save two hour+long interviews but at some point it's like it just stopped working.

100 percent this is the solution to getting the files off your phone (as long as you have a macbook.) Thank you very much for sharing this.

Now, onto a permanent solution from Apple!

This doesn’t work. I’ve tried numerous times and it won’t export/doesn’t send.

Shorter calls work as expected - I can save to files, save to Dropbox, download from a browser signed in to iCloud, etc. My test hour long call will play back fine from Notes, but there is no way to transfer it anywhere. I work in radio and had a reporter with an hour long interview on their phone. The only way to get the audio off was to literally play it in real time over a mini plug to the line in of a computer and then record the audio as it played into my DAW.

Please fix this Apple!

I'm a journalist and this problem has been driving me crazy! The function worked like a dream for the first week or two, then it just stopped allowing me to export the recordings.

I just finished a 23-minute call and tried something that worked. I opened the recording in Notes and renamed it. When I did that, I could save it to Dropbox (or elsewhere). From Dropbox, I could open the file and export it for transcription.

Hope this helps.

Hi - Sorry you experienced this same problem! - So my solution has been tedious: I have a lightning to headphone adapter and play the audio back from that into a voice recorder. The voice recorder has a 3.5mm line input which is the same cable as the lightning headphone adapter (a 3.5mm TRS cable) — and then I have to play the entire **** phone call recording back in real time. Very tedious but then I have a file.

Alternately, if you do counseling you might have a zoom account? You can initiate a zoom call with yourself and record the zoom call. Play the phone recording back (again in real time) and zoom will create a video. If you initiate transcript in zoom you will also get a transcript. This is exceptionally tedious but if you then save the zoom recording and export the zoom transcript you'll get something very close to what Apple intends this to be when it works. (Basically, any option will require you playing the audio back in real time to the recorder of your choice)

Sorry this isn't more helpful except to say it's my current issue, too, and I'm just now trying to keep all calls at 20 mins or less. If you're working with a client you would need stop each recording manually and start a new one every 20 minutes.

I appreciate everyone who is posting a similar issue just to help prioritizing a fix.

So i am a college student and i have been taking interviews from my research and i took a 47 minute interview on call!!! ans im facing the same issue. but i found a way. the call recording is available for playing in the notes app, but just not getting exported. so what you can do is, open that note, start screen recording, and play the audio. you can switch the auto-lock of the screen off so the recording doesnt stop and keep your phone aside and that way youll have the audio as a video now. then you can use any online platform to extract the audio from the video and ta-da! you dont even need to keep the volume on, because when you screen record even if your phone's speaker volume is off, the audio on the screen automatically gets recorded. so you wont get disturbed, you can just do your daily work as usual and keep the recording aside. i needed to put the audio for transcription, which is why i needed the audio to get exported. i hope this helps!

This happened to me and after many hours of trying everything to get the audio off my phone a friend finally found a workaround.

1. Get the note onto your Macbook by syncing notes from iPhone to computer.
2. Go out to your main user folder, the one that contains Documents, Desktop, etc. You can find this by clicking the desktop and hitting command-shift-h
3. Hit Command shift period which should reveal hidden folders.
4. Go to the Library folder
5. Go to Group Containers then group.com.apple.notes
6. Under "accounts" and then "media" there are a million folders with different files saved to notes.
7. It should be in there somewhere — you may have to poke around for awhile if you have many folders.

Hope this works for you guys too!

I've tried all those steps, and they didn't work on my iPhone 13Pro running iOS 18.3.2.

These were all tried with Apple tech on the phone with me, while screen sharing the phone with me.

1. Duplicate does not appear, as the Share option just displays the "Preparing" with timer icon graphic.
2. The Share to Voice Memos option worked ONCE on a 15 second Call Recording, but wouldn't work again on the recording. And it never worked on repeated tries on another 15 second Call Recording, and never on a 1.5 hour Call Recording.
3. iCloud Notes on Computer shows the Note, with the Call Recording mpeg.4 file, but gives no option to Save, Share, Download, Export or even Play the audio.
4. Several Apple tech support reps have told me that the almost 300GB of empty space on my phone is enough. Restarting the phone did not help
5. I'm on iOS 18.3.2, and it still doesn't work.

You need to go into iCloud Settings on your phone, and make sure your iCloud syncs Notes. Then you need to go into iCloud Settings on your computer, and make sure it is syncing notes from your phone.

I don't even use Mac but happen to have a really old mac laptop, and on there iCloud is almost like a separate program. But i went in, checked the box so it is syncing my notes, and then that folder Ninastr mentioned appeared and i was able to get to it.

Yes, ragu0012, my iCloud does sync Notes. And my computer also syncs Notes from iCloud.

But that doesn't help get the Call Recording audio file onto my computer. That just allows Notes on the computer to see the reference to the Call Recording on the Note.

I'm asking about what @Ninastr said about getting the Note's Call Recording audio file from iPhone to computer, so that it can then be found in the computer's Library folder. How to do that?

Thanks, Ted