Extract Audio from 3GPP to ALAC — Free Online Tool
Extract audio from 3GPP mobile video files and save it as ALAC — Apple's lossless audio format stored in an M4A container. Because 3GPP files typically carry AAC audio, this conversion decodes that lossy AAC stream and re-encodes it into a lossless ALAC wrapper, giving you a pristine archive copy suitable for Apple devices and iTunes.
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FFmpeg Command
Copy this command to run the same conversion locally with FFmpeg on your desktop. Download FFmpeg
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Settings
Note: Browser-based encoding uses approximate quality targets. For precise CRF compression, copy the FFmpeg command above and run it on your desktop.
Estimated output:
Conversion Complete!
DownloadHow It Works
3GPP files store audio using the AAC codec at relatively low bitrates optimized for 3G mobile networks. During this conversion, FFmpeg strips away the video stream entirely (-vn) and decodes the compressed AAC audio into raw PCM samples. Those uncompressed samples are then re-encoded using the ALAC codec and wrapped in an MPEG-4 (.m4a) container. ALAC is lossless, meaning no further audio data is discarded during encoding — however, because the source AAC audio was already lossy, the output is a lossless capture of what survived that original compression. The final M4A file will be significantly larger than the 3GP source, but it is the highest-fidelity version of that audio that can be recovered from the file.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg binary. In the browser-based version of this tool, this runs via FFmpeg.wasm compiled to WebAssembly — no server is involved and your 3GP file never leaves your device. |
-i input.3gp
|
Specifies the input file — your 3GPP mobile video container. FFmpeg will demux this file to access its AAC audio stream (and video stream, which will be discarded). |
-vn
|
Disables video output entirely, stripping the H.264 or MJPEG video track from the 3GP file. Since the goal is audio-only ALAC extraction, including video would be meaningless — ALAC/M4A does not carry a video stream in this workflow. |
-c:a alac
|
Selects the ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) encoder for the audio stream. FFmpeg decodes the source AAC audio from the 3GP file to raw PCM and then re-encodes those samples losslessly using ALAC, producing audio that Apple devices and iTunes can play natively. |
output.m4a
|
Sets the output filename with the .m4a extension, which tells FFmpeg to wrap the ALAC stream in an MPEG-4 container — the standard packaging used by Apple for both AAC and ALAC audio files and the correct container for ALAC playback on Apple platforms. |
Common Use Cases
- Archiving voicemails or voice memos saved as 3GP files from older Android or Nokia phones into a lossless format for long-term preservation in an Apple ecosystem
- Extracting the audio from a 3GPP video clip recorded on a feature phone and importing it into Logic Pro or GarageBand, which natively prefer ALAC/M4A files
- Recovering interview audio recorded on a 3G-era mobile device and storing it losslessly before any further editing or transcription
- Stripping music or field recordings captured in 3GPP format and adding them to an iTunes or Apple Music library where ALAC is the preferred lossless standard
- Converting a collection of legacy 3GP multimedia messages (MMS) into archival M4A files that can be organized with full metadata tags supported by the ALAC/MPEG-4 container
Frequently Asked Questions
Not in the absolute sense. The 3GPP file's AAC audio was already lossy — some audio information was discarded when it was originally recorded on the mobile device. ALAC losslessly preserves whatever audio data remains after that initial AAC encoding, so no additional quality is lost during this conversion. Think of it as making a perfect copy of an imperfect original: ideal for archiving, but the ceiling is set by the source bitrate.
3GPP files are engineered for bandwidth-constrained 3G networks and typically encode audio at 32–64 kbps AAC, resulting in very small files. ALAC uses lossless compression, which must preserve every sample and therefore produces files that are typically 3–8× larger. The exact size increase depends on the source bitrate and the complexity of the audio content — speech-heavy recordings compress better than music.
Both 3GPP and MPEG-4 (M4A) share the same ISO Base Media File Format ancestry, so standard metadata atoms can often survive the conversion. FFmpeg will attempt to copy compatible tags to the output file. However, 3GP files recorded on mobile devices often carry minimal or device-specific metadata, so don't expect rich tagging in the output — you may need to add tags manually after conversion using a tool like MusicBrainz Picard or iTunes.
Yes — ALAC is Apple's own lossless codec and is natively supported across all Apple platforms including iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Music. The M4A container used here is exactly what Apple uses for its own lossless audio files in iTunes and the Apple Music library, so the output files will import and play without any additional software or conversion.
On macOS or Linux you can loop over files in a directory: `for f in *.3gp; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -vn -c:a alac "${f%.3gp}.m4a"; done`. On Windows Command Prompt use: `for %f in (*.3gp) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -vn -c:a alac "%~nf.m4a"`. Each file is processed sequentially, and the output M4A is named after the original 3GP file.
ALAC is a lossless codec, so there is no quality setting — every valid ALAC encoder must produce a bit-for-bit identical decode of the source samples. The only variable is compression ratio, which FFmpeg's ALAC encoder handles automatically. Unlike AAC or MP3, you cannot trade audio fidelity for a smaller file; if you need a smaller output, you would instead target a lossy format like AAC or MP3.
Technical Notes
3GPP was standardized for mobile multimedia delivery over 3G networks and uses a restricted profile of the MPEG-4 container. Its audio streams are almost universally AAC-LC at low bitrates (commonly 32–64 kbps), though some devices used AMR-NB for voice and a subset used MP3. This tool assumes a standard AAC audio track; if your 3GP file uses AMR-NB audio (common on very old Nokia devices), FFmpeg will still decode it correctly before encoding to ALAC, though the source quality will be lower. ALAC stores audio in an MPEG-4 container with the .m4a extension and supports chapter markers in its container spec — however, 3GP files do not carry chapter data, so no chapters will be present in the output. The ALAC codec in FFmpeg (libavcodec's native alac encoder) is fully compatible with Apple's own decoder and produces files indistinguishable from those created by Apple's CoreAudio framework. One known limitation: if the 3GP file contains multiple audio tracks (rare but possible on some devices), only the first audio stream will be extracted, as ALAC/M4A in this workflow does not support multiple audio tracks.