Intro
If you utilize iPhone as a Voice Recorder frequently like me, you might have experienced a bug which results in NOT playable output file. It seems this happens with iOS4 when the recording time is long enough. - like 1hrs~ -
<Click the image above to enlarge>
There's one more problem here. After you copy them, and restore it, the files still remain on the Phone. Though you delete the "0 sec" item on Voice Memo, it just delete incomplete ".m4a" file, which means the original ".mov" file still remain. So, to stay away from storage waste, you need to delete them manually with iPhone Explorer.
This is the screen shot after deleting a bunch of "0 sec .m4a" items on Voice Memo.
Conclusion
DO NOT push HOME BUTTON shortly after stopping the recording on voice memo, especially when you finished long record. yeah, still there's a way that we can recover, but cumbersome.
If you utilize iPhone as a Voice Recorder frequently like me, you might have experienced a bug which results in NOT playable output file. It seems this happens with iOS4 when the recording time is long enough. - like 1hrs~ -
Cause
The phenomenon started after upgrading to iOS4 because of the MULTITASKING SUPPORT. When you record voice, iPhone internally write the data in ".mov" file, which is QuickTime Movie file. As you know, what you get when you sync your iPhone with your computer is ".m4a" file. That means iPhone converts the ".mov" file into ".m4a" file in real time.
I found this when I experienced this voice memo error. In the Voice Memo app, the item I recorded shows "0 sec".
As I wrote above, it happens in long recording. After you've recorded for like less than an hour, you click on the stop button. Shortly after touching stop button, following HOME BUTTON occurs the error.
It seems something is being processed but never played back.
Because iPhone couldn't convert the ".mov" file into ".m4a", the files remain incomplete in your iPhone. The MULTITASKING SUPPORT on iOS4 made this bug, because everytime you push HOME, current status is restored in some stack - even iPhone was converting something thru Voice Memo. That's why the converting cannot be completed.
Recovering the ruined voice memo
To recover this hopeless situation, use iPhone Explorer. You can easily find them and copy them out.
If you get single ".m4a" file, that's fully converted complete file. But as you see if you get 2 files in same name but different extension, copy the ".mov" file - the original. The left ".m4a" file is incomplete you don't neet it. Once you get the original ".mov" file, you can edit them with any audio editor you have like Adobe SoundBooth.
Notice that if you open ".mov" file with only playable player, it plays like 12 secs only.
The phenomenon started after upgrading to iOS4 because of the MULTITASKING SUPPORT. When you record voice, iPhone internally write the data in ".mov" file, which is QuickTime Movie file. As you know, what you get when you sync your iPhone with your computer is ".m4a" file. That means iPhone converts the ".mov" file into ".m4a" file in real time.
I found this when I experienced this voice memo error. In the Voice Memo app, the item I recorded shows "0 sec".
As I wrote above, it happens in long recording. After you've recorded for like less than an hour, you click on the stop button. Shortly after touching stop button, following HOME BUTTON occurs the error.
It seems something is being processed but never played back.
Because iPhone couldn't convert the ".mov" file into ".m4a", the files remain incomplete in your iPhone. The MULTITASKING SUPPORT on iOS4 made this bug, because everytime you push HOME, current status is restored in some stack - even iPhone was converting something thru Voice Memo. That's why the converting cannot be completed.
Recovering the ruined voice memo
To recover this hopeless situation, use iPhone Explorer. You can easily find them and copy them out.
If you get single ".m4a" file, that's fully converted complete file. But as you see if you get 2 files in same name but different extension, copy the ".mov" file - the original. The left ".m4a" file is incomplete you don't neet it. Once you get the original ".mov" file, you can edit them with any audio editor you have like Adobe SoundBooth.
Notice that if you open ".mov" file with only playable player, it plays like 12 secs only.
There's one more problem here. After you copy them, and restore it, the files still remain on the Phone. Though you delete the "0 sec" item on Voice Memo, it just delete incomplete ".m4a" file, which means the original ".mov" file still remain. So, to stay away from storage waste, you need to delete them manually with iPhone Explorer.
This is the screen shot after deleting a bunch of "0 sec .m4a" items on Voice Memo.
Conclusion