Convert MOV to WAV
Pull an uncompressed WAV out of iPhone and QuickTime videos, for editing, syncing or transcription, on your own device.
- Nothing is uploaded
- Works offline after first use
- Open source
- No sign-up, no watermark. The limit is your device’s memory (phones hold less).
Extract the sound from MOV videos, including iPhone clips, as an uncompressed WAV in your browser. It is free, needs no account and adds no watermark, and your files are not uploaded: everything runs in your browser on your device. The limit is your device’s memory, which is smaller on a phone, and after your first run the page works offline.
Your iPhone may take a few seconds to prepare the video first, longer if it's stored in iCloud.
Done
Open the network tab. Your files never appear in it.
Add files and run the tool to see every request this tab makes.
Your files are processed on this device and never sent to a server. Reload the page to clear everything from memory.
MOV is Apple’s QuickTime container, and it is what an iPhone, a Mac screen recording and many cameras save. The sound inside is usually AAC, sometimes uncompressed PCM from pro cameras and recorders. People want it as WAV to line up a phone recording with a separate microphone in an editor, to clean up a performance or rehearsal in Audacity or a DAW, to feed a transcription or subtitling service, or to sample a sound from a clip.
This page reads the MOV’s sound track with your browser’s own decoder and writes a 16-bit, 44.1 kHz PCM WAV. iPhone video audio is recorded at 48 kHz, which is resampled to 44.1 kHz; if you need the WAV to stay at 48 kHz to match a video timeline, a desktop editor that exports at the project rate is the better route. Stereo stays stereo, or pick mono to halve the size. The video frames are never decoded, so even long 4K clips convert quickly.
iPhones recording spatial audio store extra channels; surround sound is mixed down to stereo with the centre channel kept, so voices stay clear. MOV files from pro cameras with several separate microphone tracks give you the first track only. Screen recordings made with the Mac’s built-in recorder often have no audio track at all unless the microphone was switched on, and the page tells you when no sound could be found.
Home videos and recorded calls are private. The MOV is read from your disk in this tab and the WAV is written straight back, without either passing through a server.
How it works
- Drop one or more MOV files, or tap to pick videos from your photo library on an iPhone.
- WAV is already chosen. Pick mono for a single voice to halve the file size.
- Convert. The WAV downloads; several videos come back as a zip.
In your browser, not on a server
Your browser decodes the sound track with the same audio decoders it uses to play media on any website (AAC for MP4, MOV and M4A; Opus or Vorbis for WebM; FLAC, WAV and MP3). The samples are resampled to 44.1 kHz and handed to LAME, the reference MP3 encoder, compiled to WebAssembly and served by this site. WAV files are written directly by a few lines of code in the page. Everything happens in memory in your tab.
Compared with upload-based tools: Online converters upload the whole video just to keep its sound, cap free files at a few hundred megabytes, and make you wait in a queue. Home videos, lectures and voice memos are personal. Here the file never leaves your device, so a 1 GB video converts as fast as your computer can read it, and the limit is your device’s memory (phones hold less).
Verify it yourself. Give the page a short while after your first run to save itself for offline use, then turn off Wi-Fi or switch to airplane mode and run the tool again. Or open your browser's developer tools (F12, or Cmd-Option-I on a Mac), pick the Network tab, and watch it while you convert. The panel above does the same count for you.
Questions
Does this work with iPhone videos?
Yes, in Safari, Chrome and Edge. Tap the drop zone, choose Photo Library, and pick the video. The WAV is saved to Downloads in the Files app. HEVC video does not matter, because only the sound track is read.
Why is the WAV so large?
WAV stores sound uncompressed: about 10 MB per minute in stereo at 44.1 kHz, and half that in mono. The AAC track in the MOV is roughly a tenth of that size.
Will the WAV stay in sync with the video?
It starts at the same moment and runs the same length, so it lines up in an editor. Resampling from 48 to 44.1 kHz does not shift timing; editors play both rates at the correct speed.
Is the file uploaded anywhere?
No. There is no server in this process. The page is a static file and the work is done by code running inside your browser tab. Give the page a short while after your first run to save itself for offline use; then you can turn off Wi-Fi and it still works.
More video and audio tools
Video to MP3
Pull the sound out of a video, or turn any audio file into an MP3. Your files are converted on this device and never uploaded.
Mute video
Take the sound out of a video, in seconds and without re-encoding. The video never leaves this device.
Resize video
Change a video’s resolution, from 4K down to 240p or to a width and height you choose. Resized on this device, never uploaded.
Rotate video
Turn a sideways or upside-down video the right way up, or mirror it. Done on this device, never uploaded.
Other conversions
Guides
- How to convert a video to MP3This is different from muting a video: you want the sound saved as its own file. Most devices have no built-in way to do that.
- Is FreeConvert safe?FreeConvert is a legitimate service with a clear deletion policy. Whether it is safe for a particular file depends on whether that file should be uploaded anywhere.
- Is Convertio safe?Convertio is a well-known converter with a published deletion policy. For private files, the safer choice is a converter that never receives them.
- Is Zamzar safe?Zamzar is one of the oldest online converters. Its storage window is longer than most, which is the detail worth knowing.
- A free CloudConvert alternative for everyday filesCloudConvert measures its free tier in credits tied to conversion time, not files, which makes it hard to predict when you will hit the limit. Here is an alternative with nothing to meter.