Convert FLAC to ALAC and Transfer to iPhone Music Library

Updated Feb 20,2019 | by Cody

If you want to paly FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) music on iTunes or iOS device, you can convert FLAC to ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec). Beginning with iOS 11, you can play FLAC files on iPhone and iPad one by one. However, you still cannot add FLAC files to iOS music library.

Apple Lossless is a type of lossless audio codec created by Apple Inc, which is supported in iTunes, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. For better listening experience, you can convert FLAC to ALAC with quality loss.

You may find other software that can convert FLAC to ALAC on the internet. Some are free with limitations, paid promotions, or ads. Unlike other FLAC to ALAC converter software, Foobar2000 is completely free, no ads, no usage limits. What I like about Foobar2000 the most is the converted music file also contains the cover art and other metadata.

You can use Foobar2000 to convert multiple FLAC audio files to Apple lossless format or any other formats, so you can import them to iTunes or iPhone Music Library. The supported audio formats include FLAC to ALAC, MP3, AAC, AIFF, Musepack, OGG, Opus, etc.

Foobar2000 is available in Windows 10/8/7, MacOS, Linux. You can refer to the steps below to get started.

Step 1. Free download and install Foobar2000 software. In order to convert to Apple Lossless format, you need to also install the its free encoder pack. Just download it from the official site.

Step 2. Add FLAC files that you want to convert to Foobar2000 by dragging and dropping. You can also click File to add files or folders.

Step 3. Select them all and right click. Select Convert > Quick Convert.

Step 4. Select Apple Lossless. Then click Convert to start the conversion.

Step 5. Select a location to save to converted files.

When the conversion is complete, you will find all the tags and cover photos remain in the converted audio file. I have tried other converter software, paid and free. None of them keep the music cover art in the converted file.

Then you can add the lossless music files to iTunes or iOS device. If you want to a more convenient to convert FLAC to iPhone compatible format and transfer them to iPhone, then you can use another software IOTransfer.

IOTransfer is iOS file manager software that is also capable of converting media file format, so you can use it to convert FLAC to iPhone compatible format and transfer them to iPhone in the meantime. You can follow the steps below to get started.

Step 1. Free download IOTransfer. Once installation is complete, you can connect your iPhone to your PC via a lightning cable.

Step 2. Open IOTransfer and Select Videos > Converter, where you can convert both video and audio files.

Step 3. From the Converter section, click Add Files to add the FLAC files that needs converting. Then select the FLAC files to convert to ALAC. Step 4. Click Output Format and select M4A or another iPhone supported audio format from the drop-down menu.

Step 5. Tick the checkbox Automatically transfer the converted files into your iOS device, and then click Convert Now to start transferring FLAC to your iOS device.

 When all files are converted and transferred, you can open the Music app on your iPhone to listen to all the lossless music. Besides video and audio conversion, IOTransfer has many other features worth mentioning. You can use it to download videos from YouTube, clean iPhone junk files, backup iPhone to PC, etc.

That’s how you can convert FLAC to iPhone supported format. If you really want the lossless format, then Foobar2000 is quite great. If you want to listen them on iOS device, IOTransfer can do that in a more convenient way.

Related Readings for Reference