How to Edit a Voice Memo on iPhone

So you’ve recorded a voice memo on your iPhone, and now you’re staring at it wondering how to cut out that awkward coughing fit at the beginning or the three minutes of silence at the end. Good news: Apple actually built some editing features into the Voice Memos app. Bad news: they’re hidden behind a few taps and aren’t exactly intuitive.

Let’s fix that.

What Can You Actually Edit in Voice Memos?

Before we dive into the how-to, let’s set expectations. Apple’s Voice Memos app isn’t a full audio editor—it’s more like a basic cleanup tool. Here’s what you can and can’t do:

What you CAN do:

• Trim audio from the beginning or end
• Replace a section with new audio
• Resume recording to add more at the end
• Delete unwanted recordings
• Rename your memos
• Duplicate recordings (so you don’t mess up the original)

What you CAN’T do:

• Split one memo into multiple files
• Merge multiple memos together
• Add effects or filters
• Adjust volume levels
• Remove background noise
• Cut out sections from the middle (without replacing them)

Yeah, the limitations are frustrating. But the built-in tools handle the most common editing tasks, and honestly, trimming off dead air at the start and end of a recording covers about 80% of what most people need.

Step-by-Step: How to Edit a Voice Memo on iPhone

Let’s walk through every editing option. I’m assuming you’re running iOS 16 or later, but these steps work similarly on older versions.

Step 1: Open Voice Memos and Select Your Recording

1. Open the Voice Memos app (the icon with red soundwaves)
2. Find the recording you want to edit
3. Tap on it to expand the playback controls

At this point, you’ll see the waveform, play button, and a few other icons. But where’s the edit button? It’s hiding.

Step 2: Access the Edit Menu

Here’s where people get stuck. The edit option isn’t a big obvious button—it’s buried in a menu.

1. Tap the three dots (…) to the right of your recording
2. A menu pops up with several options
3. Tap Edit Recording

Now you’re in edit mode. The waveform changes to a larger, more detailed view, and you’ll see some new icons appear.

Step 3: Choose Your Editing Action

Once you’re in edit mode, you have three main options. Look for the icons at the bottom of the screen:

Trim Icon (crop symbol): Tap this to trim audio from the beginning or end. Yellow handles appear that you can drag.

Replace Button: Starts recording to replace the currently selected section of audio.

Resume Button: Adds new audio to the end of your existing recording.

Let’s cover each in detail.

How to Trim a Voice Memo

Trimming is the most common edit. You’re cutting out unwanted audio from the start, end, or both.

1. In Edit mode, tap the trim icon (looks like a square with extending lines, or a crop symbol)
2. Yellow brackets appear at the beginning and end of the waveform
3. Drag the left yellow handle to where you want the recording to start
4. Drag the right yellow handle to where you want the recording to end
5. Tap Trim to keep the selected portion (or Delete to remove it and keep the rest)
6. Tap Save to confirm
7. Tap Done to exit edit mode

Pro tip: Use the play button while dragging the handles. It helps you find exactly where you want to cut. The waveform gives you a visual clue about where the actual sound is, but playing it back is the only way to be precise.

The Trim vs Delete Confusion

This trips up a lot of people. When you select a section with the yellow handles:

• Trim = Keep this section, delete everything outside it
• Delete = Remove this section, keep everything outside it

So if you want to cut out the first 10 seconds, you’d select those 10 seconds and tap Delete. If you want to keep only the first 30 seconds of a long recording, you’d select those 30 seconds and tap Trim.

Make sense? It’s a bit backwards from what you might expect.

How to Replace a Section of a Voice Memo

Made a mistake in the middle of your recording? Said “um” fifteen times? You can re-record just that section.

1. In Edit mode, position the blue playhead where you want to start replacing
2. Tap the Replace button
3. The app starts recording immediately
4. Record your new audio
5. Tap the pause icon when you’re done replacing
6. Tap Done to save

Here’s the catch: Replace mode doesn’t automatically stop. It keeps recording and will overwrite everything after your starting point until you stop it. So if you only want to replace 5 seconds in the middle, you need to stop it manually after 5 seconds.

This is actually the closest thing to “cutting out a section” that Voice Memos offers. You’re not technically removing audio, but you’re recording over it—which achieves the same result if you replace it with new content.

How to Resume (Add More to) a Voice Memo

Forgot to say something? You can add more audio to the end of any recording.

1. In Edit mode, the playhead should be at the end of your recording
2. Tap the Resume button
3. The app starts recording immediately
4. Say whatever you need to add
5. Tap the stop button when done
6. Tap Done to save

This is particularly useful for ongoing notes. Instead of creating dozens of tiny recordings, you can keep appending to one master recording.

Always Duplicate Before Editing

Here’s advice that will save you from heartbreak: duplicate your recording before making any edits.

Voice Memos editing is destructive. There’s no undo button that brings back audio you’ve trimmed away. Once you tap Save and Done, those changes are permanent.

To duplicate a recording:

1. In the main Voice Memos list, tap the recording
2. Tap the three dots (…)
3. Tap Duplicate
4. Edit the copy, keep the original safe

Your future self will thank you when you realize you trimmed off something important.

The Limitations Are Real (And Annoying)

Let’s be honest about what’s frustrating with Voice Memos editing.

You Can’t Split a Recording

Imagine you recorded a 30-minute meeting and want to extract just the 5-minute discussion about your project. There’s no way to export just that section as its own file within Voice Memos.

Your workaround: Duplicate the recording twice. Trim each copy to keep different sections. Now you have “Part 1” and “Part 2”—but it’s tedious.

You Can’t Merge Recordings

Got three related memos you want to combine into one file? Voice Memos can’t do it. You’ll need a third-party app or a computer.

You Can’t Cut the Middle

Want to remove 30 seconds from the middle of a recording while keeping everything before and after? Not directly possible. You can only replace that section with new audio. If you want silence there, you’d have to record 30 seconds of silence (which is silly).

No Noise Reduction or Enhancements

That background hum in your recording? It’s staying there. Voice Memos has zero audio processing features.

When You Need More: Third-Party Editing Apps

For anything beyond basic trimming, you’ll need to graduate to a more capable app. Here are the best options:

GarageBand (Free, Built by Apple)

GarageBand is already on your iPhone (or free in the App Store). It’s primarily a music creation app, but it’s actually solid for voice editing.

To edit a Voice Memo in GarageBand:

1. Open GarageBand and create a new project
2. Choose Audio Recorder as your instrument
3. Tap the tracks view icon (brick-like symbol) at the top left
4. Tap the loop icon at the top right
5. Go to the Files tab
6. Tap Browse items from the Files app
7. Navigate to Voice Memos and select your recording
8. Drag it onto a track

Now you can split, copy, move sections, adjust volume, and do pretty much anything. It’s more complex, but the power is there.

Ferrite Recording Studio (Free with Pro Features)

Ferrite is built specifically for voice recording and editing. Podcasters love it. The interface is cleaner than GarageBand for pure audio work.

Features include:

• Multi-track editing
• Precise cutting and splicing
• Strip silence (automatically removes dead air)
• Noise reduction
• Export in various formats

The free version handles most basic editing. Pro features require a one-time purchase.

Other Options

• Audacity (if you’re on a computer) — The classic, free, and powerful
• Adobe Podcast (web-based) — Has impressive noise removal
• Descript — Transcribes audio and lets you edit by editing the text

Tips for Better Voice Memos (So You Edit Less)

The best edit is no edit. Here’s how to record cleaner memos from the start:

Start recording, then pause for a beat before speaking. This gives you a clean starting point and makes trimming the front easier if needed.

State the topic at the beginning. “This is my notes on the product meeting, October 15th.” Future you will appreciate the context.

Find a quiet spot. Voice Memos picks up everything. That coffee shop background noise is permanent once recorded.

Use Apple Watch or AirPods for quick recordings. Sometimes the memo is just a fleeting thought. The easier it is to record, the less you’ll ramble.

Make multiple short memos instead of one long one. Easier to find, easier to share, easier to delete the ones you don’t need.

Syncing and Storage: Where Do Voice Memos Live?

If you’re editing memos across devices, know this: Voice Memos syncs via iCloud automatically (if enabled).

To check your sync settings:

1. Go to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud
2. Scroll down and make sure Voice Memos is toggled on

When sync is enabled, recordings you make on your iPhone appear on your iPad and Mac. Edits sync too. This is mostly great—but remember, if you delete or edit a recording, that change happens everywhere.

Voice Memos are stored in the Voice Memos app and also appear in the Files app under On My iPhone > Voice Memos (or iCloud Drive > Voice Memos if syncing).

Exporting and Sharing Edited Memos

Once you’ve trimmed your memo to perfection, you’ll probably want to share it.

1. Open Voice Memos and tap your recording
2. Tap the three dots (…)
3. Tap Share
4. Choose your method: AirDrop, Messages, Email, Files, etc.

Voice Memos exports as M4A format by default. Most apps and services handle M4A just fine, but if someone needs an MP3, you’ll need to convert it using another app or a computer.

Wrapping Up

Voice Memos on iPhone has basic but genuinely useful editing built right in. You can trim off the beginning and end, replace sections by re-recording, and add more audio to existing memos. For quick cleanups, that’s usually enough.

But the app shows its limits quickly. No splitting, no merging, no audio enhancement. When you need more, GarageBand (free) and Ferrite are your best friends on iOS.

And if you find yourself constantly wishing your voice recordings were easier to capture, organize, and share—maybe it’s time to try a different approach altogether. Sometimes the best workflow isn’t about editing recordings perfectly; it’s about making recordings that don’t need editing in the first place.