Convert MOV to MP3
Extract the sound from an iPhone or QuickTime MOV video and save it as an MP3 that plays on any device.
Extract the sound from an iPhone or QuickTime MOV video and save it as an MP3 that plays on any device.
MOV is Apple's QuickTime container. It is what your iPhone camera saves, what QuickTime Player produces when you record your Mac's screen, and what many dedicated cameras write to their memory cards. Those files look great in Photos but are awkward when you only care about what was said or played, and some Windows and Android apps won't open them at all.
Converting to MP3 strips away the video and leaves a plain audio file. Our encoder writes it at a constant 192 kbps, holds on to the recording's sample rate up to 48 kHz, and keeps mono or stereo as recorded. There's no bitrate menu or trim tool involved, so every MOV you convert gets the same predictable result.
iPhones and QuickTime screen recordings store sound as AAC, a lossy codec. Turning that into MP3 is a lossy-to-lossy re-encode, which trims away a little more information. At 192 kbps that extra loss is generally hard to hear, though the MP3 can only be as good as the AAC it started from.
Some cameras put uncompressed PCM audio in their MOV files instead. In that case you are moving from a lossless source to a lossy one: the MP3 is dramatically smaller and sounds very close to the original, but it isn't bit-for-bit identical. If you intend to mix or master that camera audio, keep the original MOV around.
| Typical MOV source | Usual audio track | After conversion |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone or iPad camera | AAC | MP3, 192 kbps, re-encoded |
| QuickTime screen recording | AAC (only if a microphone was chosen) | MP3, 192 kbps, re-encoded |
| Camera or editor export | AAC or uncompressed PCM | MP3, 192 kbps, lossy encode |
Expect about 1.44 MB of MP3 per minute. A three-minute iPhone clip that weighed close to 50 MB turns into an audio file of roughly 4.3 MB, easy to text, email or add to a playlist.
Need a different audio format? The MP3 converter page covers MP3 in general, and the M4A converter keeps things in the AAC family that Apple devices handle natively.
Use the Trim handles in the iPhone Photos editor to keep only the part you need, then save it as a new clip. On a Mac, QuickTime Player's Edit menu has a Trim command, and File > Export As lets you save at 480p, which shrinks the file without touching the soundtrack. Very long recordings can be split into sections and converted separately.
QuickTime's screen recorder captures sound only when you pick a microphone in its options, and it does not record your Mac's internal audio by default. If no audio was recorded, the MOV has no sound track to convert.
Movies and TV shows purchased or rented through Apple are DRM-protected and can't be converted. Stick to videos you recorded or otherwise have the rights to use.
| Full name | MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer III |
|---|---|
| Compression | Lossy |
| Developed by | Fraunhofer IIS / MPEG |
| Introduced | 1993 |
| File extension | .mp3 |
| Typically used for | Music libraries, podcasts, everyday listening |
| Plays on | Virtually every phone, computer, browser, car stereo and media player |
| Our output | LAME MP3, 192 kbps CBR, stereo |
Open this page in Safari on your iPhone, tap the upload area and pick the video from your Photo Library or the Files app. Keep MP3 as the output, tap Convert, then download the result, which is usually saved to the Downloads folder in Files. The video needs to be 50 MB or smaller.
iPhone video is recorded at high resolution, so files grow quickly and many clips pass 50 MB in under a minute. Use Trim in the Photos app to keep only the section you want and save it as a new clip, or export a lower-resolution copy on a Mac before converting.
iPhone and QuickTime MOV files normally contain AAC audio, so the MP3 is a re-encode from one lossy format to another. At 192 kbps the difference is typically hard to hear. If your camera recorded uncompressed PCM audio, the MP3 is a lossy copy, very close in sound but not identical.
macOS screen recording only captures sound if you selected a microphone in the recording options, and it doesn't capture your Mac's internal audio on its own. If the original MOV plays with no sound, it has no audio track, so there is nothing for the converter to extract.
No. Films and TV shows purchased or rented through Apple are protected by DRM, and protected files can't be converted. The tool works with videos you recorded yourself or other files you have the right to use.
Need detailed information or want to set a different default format? Visit our specific converter pages: