How to convert to Apple Lossless on macOS

.... drop down Apple Music, File, Convert, "Create Apple Lossless Version".

The menu read "convert".

J Bertram,

In Music 1.6.1, MacOS Tahoe 26.1:

Set the format you want by going to Music > Settings , Files tab, Import Settings, Import Using, OK.

Then to convert a file, highlight, File > Convert > Create <<format you put in Import Settings>> Version.

J Bertram wrote:

So you say that a song purchased from Apple Music (iTunes, formerly), when chosen, the "Convert to lossless" does not download a new, different, higher Apple Lossless version, from Apple Music in the higher Apple Lossless format?

If you have an Apple Music subscription, you may be able to play some songs in Apple Lossless format.

However, if you are just talking about converting files from one format to another, converting a lossy compressed file from MP3 or AAC format to Apple Lossless format, AIFF format, or WAV format will not restore original quality. That quality was thrown away when you created the MP3 or AAC file. All that converting back to a lossless format does is to take the same reduced-quality information and put it into a form that requires more storage space.

There is nothing nefarious about that. That is simply the way that compression works.

And you are saying that third party apps must be used to fix this?

No third-party app can "fix it". Once you have thrown away part of the sound information in the original signal, you have thrown away that information.

I used to select "convert to Lossless" with music I purchased from Apple iTunes/Music and a higher bit rage song would be added to my library. This would replace 256 kbps Purchased AAC Audio files with 700 to sometimes over 1000 kbps Apple Lossless Music files. So you are saying this conversion was not happening and my new music was not the higher kbps that I was seeing?

You were making the music take up more space on your drive, but you were not restoring any sound quality. The Apple Lossless files you created contained "lossless" representations of the reduced-quality music from the 256 Kbps AAC files. The conversion was taking place, but it was not performing the magic quality upgrade which you were hoping that it would perform.

Now if you imported music from your own CDs into Apple Lossless format, that would have been a different story. Then you would have been encoding non-lossy 16-bit / 44.1 KHz per channel music into a format designed to save all of that information.

Note that while 256 Kbps AAC is a lossy compression format,

• The bitrate is high enough,
• The compression format is good enough, and
• Human hearing is bad enough

that many people cannot tell the difference between that and CD-quality sound unless they listen very closely. It is not like when MP3s first became popular and people were encoding them at rates < 128 Kbps (rates involving so much compression that it made the music sound like garbage).

Jimzgoldfinch wrote:

Hi,

I don’t have the latest MacOS but if you convert a song purchased from iTunes Store to lossless, your are still getting a compressed file that is taking up more space. You cannot restore what has been removed in the original process to make 256 Kbps AAC file.

I have Sequoia Music and when I selected a track as part of checking for this the only option I had to convert was to AAC. On my old iTunes 7 (I jumped from iTunes 7 to Sequoia Music!) I could select AAC or mp3. I don't know that you can truly "convert" (as in re-code) to ALAC with Sequoia Music (I couldn't see a way). It may be that Apple (in its own Apple way) is using an incorrect term and its "conversion" is really downloading a different format file. Even then I do not see mention of this in the context of purchased music. From what I can gather it is only an option where you are listening to an Apple Music subscription. I don't subscribe to that so I cannot test it, but in a general web search nobody said you could download purchased music as ALAC (several said you could not).

J Bertram wrote:

Ed,

My import settings were already configured to Apple Lossless so that wasn't the issue.

JB, For conversion to work, make sure the original file you are converting from is (1) a local copy,, not in the cloud, and (2) is non-protected.

With regard to #2, note that tracks purchased from the iTunes Store are not protected, but tracks downloaded from an Apple Music subscription for offline listening are protected (even if you use them to replace a non-protected file).

Hi,

Do you have an Apple Music subscription? It is not clear from your earlier post whether you have or not.

If you have a subscription, you don’t convert anything. iTunes Store purchases are 256 Kbps purchased aac audio files. In settings, you can select to download or stream as lossless. You can remove original downloaded purchased music and re-download as lossless. The kind is no shown as HLS media and is DRM protected

If you don’t have a subscription, you can’t download as lossless. You mentioned in earlier post that you got Apple Lossless, 700/1000 Kbps files. These would have been tracks converted from files already downloaded from iTunes Store and modified files were not obtained from Apple servers.

Import settings have already been discussed. Whilst this is specifically for importing CDs, the setting selected is also used when converting files already in your library.

Historically, iTunes Match allowed you to upgrade your music to 256 Kbps AAC with no DRM. Apple Music incorporates iTunes Match features but additionally allows matched music to be downloaded or streamed as lossless but such music has DRM protection.

Jim

Convert from what to Apple Lossless? If you are referring to FLAC, there are many free and payware utilities out there that do that. Anything sourced from a lossy compression form such as mp3 or AAC isn't worth converting since it won't regain the already lost quality.

Ah, you didn't say this was Apple sourced music. I don't have any of that. For all I knew this was any old audio file which, incidentally, in Sequoia Music at least, only offers conversion to AAC. Music has really been dumbed-down through the years.

From what I can tell, you can only download a lossless version if you are subscribed through Apple Music

About lossless audio in Apple Music - Apple Support

"To get a lossless version of music that you already downloaded from Apple Music, delete the music, turn on lossless for your device, then redownload the music from the Apple Music catalog."

I presume getting a purchased-music version as lossless is not possible with Apple.

By the way, this isn't "converting" a file. It is downloading a different version, hence my confusion. iTunes (which I only recently was forced to stop using) was able to do a lot more conversion that the newer Apple Music can.

Unfortunately, as in making a photocopy of a photocopy, you cannot regain the original data lost when a lossy codec was used on the original. The lossless files are probably just storing a high resolution version of a lower resolution file. Kind of like me taking a 20 megapixel photo of a photograph in the newspaper. Sure the photo is high quality but if I blow it up in size, all you're going to get is the same low quality newspaper photo. You're getting a high quality sound file of a lower quality recording. It's still going to sound like the low quality recording.

Good suggestion ed2345. Same in Sequoia. Apple's reference on this --> Choose import settings in Music on Mac - Apple Support

As noted earlier, if a file is anything but lossless (FLAC, or a AIFF or similar) there's no point in converting to ALAC.

Hi,

I don’t have the latest MacOS but if you convert a song purchased from iTunes Store to lossless, your are still getting a compressed file that is taking up more space. You cannot restore what has been removed in the original process to make 256 Kbps AAC file.

Jim