Multiple Ways to Add lossless FLAC files to iTunes and iPhone/iPod/iPad

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Why doesn’t iTunes support FLAC encoding? Still don’t know how to listen FLAC audio files on iTunes? Looking for an easy solution to play lossless FLAC on iTunes or your iPhone, iPad, iPod? But Apple devices cannot play FLAC as such how to get lossless and high-res audio on iOS devices? Continue reading this article you will get a variety of solutions.

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What’s FLAC Codec?

FLAC is a codec which allows digital audio to be losslessly compressed such that file size is reduced without any information being lost. Digital audio compressed by FLAC’s algorithm can typically be reduced to 50–60% of its original size, and decompressed into an identical copy of the original audio data. FLAC is an open format with royalty-free licensing and a reference implementation which is free software. FLAC has support for metadata tagging, album cover art, and fast seeking.

While the average user probably has heard of FLAC, audiophiles swear by it. That’s because FLAC is a lossless format, meaning that FLAC files retain all the audio information of a song, unlike AAC or MP3, which remove some to compress songs to a smaller filesize. But FLAC isn’t usually compatible with iTunes, which leaves audiophiles who prefer iTunes and iOS devices in a bind: do they sacrifice audio quality or the tools they prefer?

Tips:

1. iTunes can currently read, write and convert between MP3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG-4, AAC and Apple Lossless (.m4a). iTunes can also play any audio files that QuickTime can play (as well as some video formats), including Protected AAC files from the iTunes Store and Audible.com audio books.
2. Note that Don’t convert to uncompressed AIFF or WAV, as they’ll take up about twice as much space.

Luckily, the choice isn’t quite so dire. Even though iTunes and the iOS don’t support FLAC by default, there are a number of tools that can play FLAC in iTunes and iOS. You can try some iTunes plug-ins to play Flac file on iTunes or iOS devices. If it still doesn’t work, you’ll probably have to convert the FLAC audio files to iTunes supported audio formats. Try the Wondershare UniConverter (Originally Video Converter Ultimate) for Windows or Mac.

The professional FLAC to iTunes Converter to convert FLAC to iTunes compatible audio formats MP3, M4A, AIFF, ALAC, WAV, etc. In addition to convert FLAC, it can also convert between almost all popular audio formats. FLAC Converter is powered with advanced functions such as trim, merge and split audio files as well as adjusting parameter to customize output audio.

• Best FLAC converter: You can use it to convert FLAC to iTunes supported formats like MP3, M4A, WAV, AAC, and more others.
• High output quality: You can get a high output quality without lossing the original file quality.
• Fastest Conversion Speed: The 90 X faster-converting speed has been proved faster than all the other competitors.
• Customize FLAC files to iTunes by changing encoder, sample rate, bitrate, and more other parameters.
• Great video editor: You can use it to edit your audio and videos with the classic editing functions like trimming, cropping, rotating, merging or adding effects, and more.
• Burn video to DVD: It is a perfect tool for you to burn audio and videos in any format to CD/DVD without losing quality, making a professional DVD with multiple DVD menu templates.
• Great video downloader: You can take this tool to download music and videos from YouTube, Facebook, Vemo and other video sharing sites.
• Save converted files to iTunes directly or transfer to iPhone/iPad/Android devices easily.
• Versatile toolbox combines fixing video metadata, GIF maker, VR converter, and screen recorder.
• Supported OS: Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista, macOS 11 Big Sur, 10.15 (Catalina), 10.14, 10.13, 10.12, 10.11, 10.10, 10.9, 10.8, 10.7, 10.6.

More than a simple converter, this app can effortlessly let you easily convert all the other hot video formats, including H.265/HEVC, MP4, AVI, MKV, MOV, FLV, VOB, Xvid, Divx, MTS and more for using in various media players, personal portable devices, and others (e.g like Windows Media Player, VLC, QuickTime player, WD TV, Roku 3, USB Flash Drives, Plex, YouTube, Vimeo, Apple TV 3, PSP, PS4, Xbox One S/One/360, PowerPoint, iPad Air 5, iPhone 13, Samsung Galaxy S20, Galaxy Tab, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Tab S series, Sony Xperia, Google Nexus series, Surface Pro, Acer, Asus, Kindle Fire HDX, etc.).

Also it supports converting any video to 3D formats easily. It offers up to 14 types of 3D modes including Anaglyph 3D (10 types), Side By Side (Half-Width/Full) 3D, Top and Bottom (Half-Height/Full) 3D.

Get the Best & Professional FLAC to iTunes Converter on your Mac or Windows

Part 1: How to convert FLAC files to iTunes supported formats on Mac?

Before the conversion, you can download and install Wondershare UniConverter on your PC/Mac, and go to Menu > Preferences > Convert > tick the option “Automatically add files to Video/Music library after conversion” in Wondershare UniConverter so that the converter will automatically add the converted FLAC files to iTunes library.

Step 1. Import FLAC files to this Mac FLAC to iTunes converter

Start UniConverter after the installation. Now you can drag and drop the FLAC files into the program window directly, or click the add files icon in Wondershare UniConverter button to add the video file into the program. If you want to be more cautious, you can always make a duplicate folder of your master copies. It is always a good practice to have a back-up.

Step 2. Edit before converting FLAC files to iTunes

Simply skip this step if you don’t want to edit your audio files. Or else, click on the “Edit” button on the right-hand side of the uploaded audio file to access the editing screen.

Step 3. Select an iTunes-friendly format like MP3 as output format

Click the “Output Format“, and then go to Audio > “MP3” or “M4A” file (options can found from the Audio toolbar at the bottom of the screen). An MP3 tends to offer a higher room of flexibility in the situation that you might want to share those audios with family or friends that happen to use non-Apple devices,  whereas an M4A might still be subjected to the DRM.

Step 4. Convert FLAC to iTunes on Mac

When all is set, it is time to hit the Start All button to convert FLAC to MP3 on Mac. There is also an output destination option on the bottom left corner of the console. This will help locate the path or destination of the converted file. The process will take you some time, which mainly depends on the size of all imported FLAC files and the performance of your computer.

Now, you can really play FLAC on iTunes, just drag and drop the output files (.mp3 files) from the output folder to iTunes music library. You can also sync FLAC to iPhone 13 or old series via iTunes. In this way, you’ll find you can import the FLAC files to iTunes without any limitation.

Part 2: How to transfer files from PC to Mac for enjoying FLAC via iTunes on Mac OS X?

PC and Mac can be a total different running OS, if you want to transfer FLAC files from PC to your Mac, the easies method to transfer these files is over WiFi. But that will need you to make your computer on the same network, here we will describe three ways to help you transfer your FLAC files from PC to you Mac.

Method One: Transfer FLAC files by WiFi

This is especially convenient for technical rookies, which you don’t need any additional hardware or cables.

1. Using Cloud Services

This will be the easiest way for you to go for. If your files are not very large and want to save the money for external hard disk, this way will be the best choice. When using the cloud services to transfer files, you can install the applications on both Mac and Windows. Then drag or copy your files onto the could drive, these files will then sync with your second system without any extra operation. Open the application in the second system, you can copy synced files from cloud drive to your system hard disk to make sure a local copy on your system hard disk.

Here recommend you several free Could Services Applications:

Dropbox:

• Features:2GB up to 18GB
• Compatible in almost all platforms like Mac, Windows , Android , iOS
• Box.net:
• Features: 10GB free
• Maximum uploading size is 250MB, not good for movie files transfer

Google Drive:

• Features: 15GB free
• Only need a valid Gmail to install the applications in your PC and Mac

Microsoft SkyDrive:

• Features: 7GB Free
• Offered by Microsoft, Mac and Windows are both supported to install and shard files.

2. Using Email

This way doesn’t need any additional setup or knowledge. Send the email attachment from one machine and open the email in second machine and download the attached file.

Done! Very easy, isn’t it? But for large file up to GBs this may not do as well as the Could Service.

Method Two: Transfer FLAC files by Network

This way is not suitable for two machines in a remotely distance not like the Could Service , which can do the remote transfer. If you have a PC and a Mac at your home, then you can go for this way. The example below demonstrates Windows PC as the host.

Step 1. different Windows version, you have to go for different setting ways

* Windows XP: Control Panel-> double click Network Setup Wizard and run it.

* Windows Vista: Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Center -> Expand the File Sharing drop down -> click on “Turn on File and Printer Sharing”

* Windows 7: Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Center -> Choose Homegroup and Sharing options -> Change Advanced Sharing Settings -> click “Turn on File and Printer Sharing”.

Step 2. Connet Mac to Windows machine

If you have set your Windows properly and both computers are on the same network, then open the Finder window on Mac, on the left pane under the “Shared” you can see shared machines. Select the name of the windows machine and click to open up the folder. You can drag and drop files into this folder to share between MAC and Windows.

If you are unable to see the Windows machine on MAC finder, then Click on Finder -> Go -> Connect to Server (Command+K). Type in the prefix smb:// followed by the ip address or hostname of the windows machine. (like smb://192.168.1.101 or smb://windowspc )

Method Three: Transfer FLAC files by Disks

There are plenty of flash drives on the market range from 16 GB to 256GB for a reasonable price. But one thing need to make clear before you using this way, which is no matter you use hard disk or flash drive formatted, they have to be FAT32. Only in this format, both Mac and Windows can accept.

Drawbacks on this format are that FAT32 can only support 4GB maximum, no security will also make it not such favored. If you just want to transfer your FLAC files from time to time, then you can select this way.

Part 3: Learn more solutions to play FLAC files on iTunes and iPhones/iPads/iPods

1. dBpoweramp (Windows)

While dBpoweramp doesn’t exactly allow you to play FLAC files in iTunes running on Windows, it gets about as close as you’ll be able to. This tool quickly and easily converts FLAC files to Apple Lossless files, which should be equivalent to the original versions and have the benefit of being compatible with iTunes.

The conversion process is as simple as right-clicking (or batch selecting) the file you want to convert and setting it to be automatically added to iTunes.

dBpoweramp requires Windows XP SP2, Vista, or 7. It is a free evaluation download. Purchasing the full version, which includes many features beyond file conversion, is US$38.

Download dBpoweramp

2. Golden Ear (iOS)

Golden Ear also syncs files to your iOS device via file sharing in iTunes. This $9.99 app (on sale for $5.99 as of this writing) requires an iPhone 3GS or higher to run, but an iPhone 4, 4th genertion iPod touch, iPad, or newer models is recommended for the best performance.

Purchase at iTunes

3. FLAC Player (iOS)

FLAC Player is one of two options for that doing that. This $9.99 app allows you to sync FLAC files to your iOS device via the file sharing interface in iTunes. As a result, these are true FLAC files, not files converted to any other format. FLAC files are then accessed via the app (not the iTunes app) where, like other audio apps, they can be played in the background while you do other things or streamed to compativle devices via AirPlay.

Purchase at iTunes

4. Fluke (Mac)

Fluke, a free, open source program, makes added FLAC files to iTunes on Mac absurdly simple. Just drag the FLAC files you want to add to iTunes onto the Fluke icon and they’ll be added to iTunes and ready to play (it’s generally a good idea in this case to have iTunes set to copy files to the iTunes folder; check the Advanced tab in Preferences for this option). Fluke does this by using a QuickTime plug in that works with iTunes.

While Fluke will let your FLAC files play in iTunes, they still won’t work on the iPod or iOS. In that case, you’ll need to convert them to AAC or MP3 (or Apple Lossless if you want a lossless file).

Download Fluke

5. Tonido (iOS)

Tonido isn’t an app devoted specifically to playing FLAC files, but that’s one of its features. Rather, Tonido is designed to let you stream almost any kind of file–including FLAC audio–from your Mac or PC to a mobile device running the Tonido app. Doing this requires that you install the Tonido Desktop program on your Mac or PC and create a free account. Log into that account in the free app on your iOS device and, as long as you’re connected to the Internet, your music (and videos, photos, and other files) come with you.

Download at iTunes

Tips: For users who are interested in creating and editing a video fast and fun, visit Filmora X Review and Filmora X for Mac Review

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