MOV to text
What an iPhone records video as, and what QuickTime exports everything as — taken as it is, with nothing to convert.
Ready to transcribe
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In short
You convert a MOV to text by uploading it without converting to MP4 — we read the audio track out of it and skip the picture. One caveat: an iPhone voice memo is not a MOV but an M4A. MOV is what the camera writes, so if you recorded with the phone's voice recorder, look for a different extension.
How to do it
- Move the file off the phone without letting anything recompress it — AirDrop or a cable keep the original.
- Drag the MOV onto the field above. No conversion to MP4 is needed.
- Leave language detection on automatic, or pick Polish or English.
- Read the preview; unlock the full transcript with a one-off payment or subscription hours.
What your iPhone actually recorded
People looking to transcribe “an iPhone recording” arrive here with three different files, because the phone writes something different depending on what was opened. Worth settling first, because it decides which file to look for on the phone.
| What you recorded with | What you get | Does it hold a picture |
|---|---|---|
| Camera, video mode | MOV | yes |
| Voice Memos | M4A | no |
| Screen recording | usually MP4 | yes |
Scroll the table sideways to see the remaining columns.
We take all three identically and read only the sound from each. The difference is size: a voice memo is a dozen or so megabytes per hour, while camera video runs to hundreds of megabytes or more.
Moving the file without spoiling it
The biggest risk with phone recordings is not the format but the trip to the computer. Sending a video through a messenger — or by email, if the mail client downsizes attachments on its own — can mean recompression: the file gets smaller, the picture worse, and the audio track goes down with it, which is precisely the part that matters here.
- Keep the original: AirDrop, a cable and Finder, a copy from iCloud Drive, an export through the Files app.
- May re-encode: sending through a messenger, an email attachment with automatic downsizing, some “send a big file” services.
- Given the choice, upload the file exactly as it came off the phone — we take up to 5 GB, so there is rarely a reason to shrink it.
The codec is a separate matter. An iPhone records in “high efficiency” mode (HEVC) by default, which can leave the file unopenable in older Windows software. That does not affect us — we read the audio track whatever the picture is encoded with.
Questions
Do I have to convert MOV to MP4?
No. Upload the file exactly as it came off the phone or out of QuickTime. Converting takes time and improves nothing — we read only the audio track out of it either way.
I recorded with the iPhone voice recorder and have no MOV
That is expected: Voice Memos saves M4A, not MOV. We take it just the same, and it is far smaller because it holds no picture. MOV is what the camera writes in video mode.
My MOV will not open on Windows. Will you take it?
Yes. That is usually the HEVC codec, which older players do not know — a picture problem, not a sound one. We read the audio track whatever the video is encoded with.