I know this has been requested for 10+ years looking at past posts and I’m guessing there’s something in the old architecture of Cubase that makes this difficult. However, it’s essential to have. Cubase needs to be up-to-date with every other DAW in this way. Almost all the people I work with use Mac, and I’m on Mac with Cubase…but can’t use m4a’s with it. 
From a technical standpoint, is there a reason why it still isn’t here?
I agree.
I’ve recently moved over from Windows/Android to all Apple hardware but naturally still using Cubase. And I’ve just discovered that anything that I’ve recorded using Voice Memo cannot be used by Cubase. I thought I’d done my research before making this move, but I didn’t think that Cubase wouldn’t be able to handle m4a-files.
I can’t be the only one who uses recordings from their mobile in their music production every now and then.
Can we please have this in an 14.x update?
While you’re at it, add the ability to actually see the /Users/username/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.VoiceMemos.shared/Recordings/-folder in the MediaBay, so that we can quickly access this in Cubase.
Ableton Live handles both the m4a file format and can access the recordings folder,.
Honestly, I can’t believe that they still didn’t figure out imports of apple files. How come FL studio a software with free lifetime updates has no issues importing m4a via drag and drop and Cubase with $100 update fee every year hasn’t been able to at least add a converter or update other important features people are asking for years? I call them the flow blockers and rant triggers. How come most of the features added are features nobody is asking about?
Yes, almost every other program I use can easily import almost any kind of video with drag and drop. Again, it might be some deep architecture issue since the code is so very old with Cubase, but I could be wrong.
What other iPhone apps are you using to get a proper workflow, to be able to record tuff with your iPhone and quickly import it into Cubase via MediaBay or Airdrop in a format that Cubase support?
I do this two ways, depending on the use case… I use Rogue Amoeba’s Fission, which is just a great little app for easily batch-converting multi-format files all at once:
This takes both a .mov video file and an .m4a auto file and converts them both to stereo 48k 24bit wav file (obviously just extracting the audio from the mov). Works great for me and it’s cheap.
If you want to do it for free, just use the built-in afconvert MacOS shell command to convert it. I just created an Automator “workflow” set to Quick Action to execute a shell script to pass the input as arguments received as files/folders from Finder.app an run this shell script:
for f in "$@"
do
filename="${f%.*}"
afconvert -f WAVE -d LEI24 "$f" "${filename}.wav"
done
In this way, you can just right click on the .m4a or .mov file, navigate down to Quick Actions, and convert it to (in my case) a 24-bit Wave file:
The actual automator job is set as a “Quick Action” workflow and saved as (in my case) “Convert to WAV24 file”:
This way I can just AirDrop, Copy, Blah Blah the files over, right click and convert in one action.
Fission is better for batching, but I do both depending on the job.
This looks like a workable solution when it has been set up. Thanks for sharing.
However, I think most users would just expect to be able to use m4a-files natively in Cubase. I certainly did. How can you not support probably the most used songwriting tool there is these days - Voice Memo?
Now, part of the problem is with Apple as the Voice Memo files are buried deep inside a hidden folder. No idea why. So, digging out the file that just synced to your MacBook Pro from your iPhone can be a bit time consuming. I rather just have it mapped in MediaBay and get all my recent ideas served to me as soon as I start Cubase. It keeps me in the creative flow and makes it easy to build on ideas.
But thanks for sharing. I’ll give this a try as, I hope, an interim solution.
That seems to work very well.
I rather Steinberg sorted out this though, so that I can just pull up MediaBay with my library of ideas to try them out instantly in my Cubase project. I can do it in Logic Pro.
But thanks again for this interim solution - I hope.
Actually, you can select as many voice memos as you like (via individual selection with Edit) and just AirDrop them to your Mac or just “move” them to an iCloud folder right on the phone. Then on the Mac you just select them all from that synced folder, right click, and convert all at once. 
If you point Media Bay to that synced folder, even easier.
Just a thought until MediaBay can read them natively.
P.S. Not to argue against the m4a import, but just another suggestion in the meantime…. You’ve got to get your m4a’s onto your Mac one way or another (be it AirDrop, iCloud, or whatever) so if you wanted it to be even easier than the above, just create a different Automator job with a Folder Action instead of Quick Action, and set “Folder Action receives files and folders added to” whatever you input folder will be, add a Filter for “audio files with .m4a extensions”, and then add the same shell script code.
In this way, the moment your m4a hits the file system in that folder, then MacOS will automatically convert it for you. Since Folder Actions always run in the background, you wouldn’t ever need to worry about it - drop an m4a into that folder and it automatically converts it. You could even delete the original m4a if you wanted.
Once you do this, the Folder Action will just show up in Finder → Services (in case you’ve ever wondered what that was for, that’s it ) where you can manage it going forward.
Since we have no idea when/if SB will add m4a support, and since you’ve got to get the m4a onto your system somehow anyway, this does exactly what you wanted, which was to have the files ready for you when you started Cubase and opened MediaBay.
Thanks for this suggestion. I’ll try that as well. Coming from windows i learn a lot about MacOS special features. Thank you.
I sync this via iCloud. Now we’re almost there. The only small issue I have is that in voice memo you can change name of the recordings and put then into folders, which is great to keep things organized. In the recordings folder on the Mac they only have names made up of the date they were recorded, which good for a default option, but it would be greater if we could preserve/sync that structure and naming in the converted folder.
I guess there’s a timing issue here too as I may not rename and put into a folder until later after the fire has synched and been converted. So the question is if this will create duplicate files or just ignore my organization in voice memo as the file isn’t actually new.
I don’t think I want to delete them after conversion as it is great to also have them accessible on the phone.
Thanks. Yeah, I did that and it worked like a charm. I sync voice memo via iCloud which saves it deep in a hidden folder. But I’ve added a shortcut to it so that it is a bit more accessible.
It really is a wonder operating system. And while it would be great if Vendor A made Feature B available to whoever asked for it, the reality is that it just doesn’t happen. That’s why I love having options like this built into the OS. I have to say, “Automator” is probably one of the most powerful applications in MacOS, but probably one of the most underutilized.
I have no doubt you’ll have a period of adjustment where you can tweak the process over time to best fit your use-case. I have a “Cubendo Preferences Backup” app I built in Automator that’s been through several renditions over time and now accommodates multiple systems/users as well as splitting backup zip files up between preferences and presets which are otherwise hard to manage given the multiple locations in use.
Glad it’s working for you though. It’s pretty cool stuff
Absolutely, yes. Steinberg Cubase is supposed to be “Professional Music Production Software”, yet it cannot & will not import M4A files - a very, very common file format. This is one of the bare-bones features expected of a music production programme - importing audio. It’s 2026, & Steinberg continue to disappoint.
I would suggest to put all votes on m4a import into the feature request thread with the most votes. This would be this one with 51 votes as of today:
