AIFF to M4A on iPhone

Safari on iOS 15.4 and newer runs the converter completely, on the phone itself. There is no App Store download — and no converter app quietly uploading your recordings to its own servers. AIFF files convert to M4A here the same way — nothing to install.

If the file is in Voice Memos or Photos, tap the share icon and choose 'Save to Files' first — that makes it visible to Safari's file picker. The converted file lands in Files (Downloads by default), from where you can share it into Messages, Mail, or any app. Your AIFF comes out as M4A, ready to use straight away.

The AIFF files people convert on an iPhone almost always originate from Logic Pro and GarageBand bounces, old iTunes rips, and Mac sample libraries, and AIFF is uncompressed like WAV, so a four-minute song is 40 MB+ and won't attach to an email — which is precisely why they're stuck on the phone until you convert them to M4A.

Expect roughly 8× smaller: AIFF runs about 10 MB per minute, M4A about 1.2. Because AIFF is uncompressed, this is the ideal encode: the encoder sees the complete original signal, so the M4A is the cleanest that audio can produce.

AIFF to M4A is a common iPhone snag specifically because AIFF is uncompressed like WAV, so a four-minute song is 40 MB+ and won't attach to an email, and M4A is what your other apps and devices expect. Apple gives you no built-in way to convert audio at all, so the App Store is full of converter apps — many upload your recording to their own servers, show ads against it, and want a subscription. Doing it in Safari means the AIFF file is processed on the phone itself and stays there, which matters when it is a voice memo, an interview, or a recording of your own family.

Your AIFF file never leaves the handset. For iPhone that is the whole argument: Logic Pro and GarageBand bounces are usually personal, and the App Store alternative frequently ships them to a company's servers as the price of a free conversion. Processing the AIFF-to-M4A conversion on-device means there is no server to trust in the first place.

AIFF is the format of Logic Pro and GarageBand bounces. It plays where it was made, but AIFF is uncompressed like WAV, so a four-minute song is 40 MB+ and won't attach to an email. M4A is the destination because it plays essentially everywhere — iPhone Voice Memos and every ordinary phone, browser, and player. Storage-wise you're looking at about 8× less: 10 MB per minute becomes roughly 1.2. Because AIFF is uncompressed, encoding to M4A here is the clean, single-generation case — the encoder sees the whole original signal, so this M4A is as good as the format gets.